Burn District 1 by Suzanne Jenkins Read Free Book Online

walk outside. I don’t trust this place.” She handed Laura a tissue and led her to the exit door. They were supposed to be working, but it wasn’t the kind of office where you’d get fired if you left for a breath of fresh air.
    It was a beautiful, sunny day, just a hint of leaf smoke in the air, the sky as blue as cornflowers. How could anything go wrong on a day like this? They entered a walking path installed for office workers who had to sit in front of computers all day. Kelly turned to Laura and took her by the arm again. “Okay, tell me what he said.” Laura repeated everything she could remember.
    “He said once he gave us the thumbs up, we’d have about two hours to gather our belongings and get at least twenty miles away. Twenty miles! And you know what I thought? I hope they wait until my tomato plants are finished. I want to get every tomato off those things. What a dumb thing to think of.”
    Distraught, Laura turned to Kelly. “You have to come with us.”
    Kelly lived at the edge of the township, five miles from Laura’s rural/suburban neighborhood. “My place would go first, too,” Kelly said. “Those units are packed in like sardines.”
    “Do you want to stay at our place? You’d have to move in with us now since we don’t know exactly when it will happen.” Laura offered. But Kelly shook her head.
    “No, thank you my friend, but no. I like my privacy. How will you notify me? Could we meet up somewhere?” For the first time in a long while, Kelly felt her lack of marital status was working against her. It would be so awful to flee alone. Maybe it would be better to just stay put and let nature take its course. She said as much to Laura.
    “Stop it. You’ll come with us. We have that big old van with plenty of room. My girls would love you to come along.”
    “What about Mike?” Kelly asked, bending over to pretend-tie her shoe.
    “Mike would be fine with it. You know how easy going he is. Pete said to start preparing now. I’m going to begin tonight. Every night after dinner, I’ll work as if we’re leaving tomorrow. We’re going to pack up the trailer, too. You need to prepare, too.”
    “Tell me what the plan is then?” Kelly felt growing anxiety, Laura’s despair contagious. Could she trust Laura to include her?
    “Well, as soon as we hear, my kids and I will run to Wal-Mart. They say Wal-Mart is never burned. Why is that I wonder? Mike will hook up the van, pick up his parents and meet us at Wal-Mart. We decided we had to get the kids out of the house right away. We can’t hang around for a second.”
    “You should hook the van up every night, just in case,” Kelly said.
    “That’s a great idea, Kel, but Mike would never agree to it. He’d have to unhook it every morning then, before work.”
    “Okay, then what?”
    “Then Mike will pick us up and we’ll head over to your house. It’s right on the way to the turnpike. We need to get to the turnpike fast. We are going to do a dry run, just to time it out. In the meantime, you need to let me know where you are going to be at all times. If Pete tells us to go, I can’t stop to call you, do you understand? We can’t even have our cell phones on.”
    “Do you really think that will make a difference?” Kelly asked.
    “I don’t know, but I’m not willing to take the risk.”
    Sighing, Kelly took Laura’s hand. “We better get back,” she said. “Thank you so much for including me. I know how lucky I am to have you in my life.” After that conversation, every night Kelly went home and started sorting through her belongings. Anything she simply couldn’t throw away, she was going to ship to her mother in San Diego, with the request that she keep it in storage because Kelly was selling her townhouse and going on a religious pilgrimage to Nepal. She also started sending money threatening her with estrangement if she didn’t cash the checks and set the money aside.
    “When I get back from Nepal I’ll need