Burn District 1 by Suzanne Jenkins Read Free Book Online Page A

that cash, mother. If you hoard the checks, they won’t be any good. Promise me you’ll cash them!” And so she did, the evidence in Kelly’s online bank statements.
    Active in the San Diego Voters for American Rights, even the mention of what was happening on the east coast sent her mother into a tizzy. Well-discussed at headquarters, she believed every single bit of brainwashing garbage the news spewed. “Kelly Ann, be sure to get your immunization against that hurricane virus! Our delegate to Washington has kept us informed about the horrible situation you people are going through.”
    “Yes, mother. I’m going to Nepal, remember? So there will be no need for immunization.”
    “But Nepal is so filthy, Kelly Ann. You’ll need tons of shots to go over there. Aren’t those people Hindus? What kind of religious retreat is this? A born-again Christian doesn’t need anything from the Hindus.”
    Conversations with her mother exhausted her, but there was a possibility she’d end up living with her some day so she always tried to placate her. Rolling over to look out the mini-window, the sky was clear and the stars shone brightly as they do only in the desert where there are no competing lights. Crawling over to the other window, she peeked out to see if the lights were on in the trailer. She thought she could see shadowy figures walk past the curtained windows; maybe the girls were watching television. As much as she hated to admit it, she was jealous of Laura. Even the oldest boy, the kid with Downs, even he made Laura’s life enviable.
    “You make it look so easy,” she once said to Laura, who’d invited her to Easter dinner the previous spring. Nursing a glass of wine at eleven in the morning, Kelly sat at the counter watching her hostess move effortlessly from one task to the next, putting the ham on, tending to tears when Ned fell off his skateboard, trying to comfort Junior who’d found a dead Cardinal. Carin came in with a magazine to show her mother a photo of a dress she liked, and Elise brought a male friend in to meet the parents. While all this chaos was taking place, Laura prepared a cake mix, made deviled eggs, peeled five pounds of potatoes.
    “Can’t I help you?” Kelly had asked, secretly hoping the answer would be no.
    “Oh no, I’m fine. Everything is under control. My mother-in-law will be here at noon and she likes to take over in the kitchen. I’ll be free to hit the wine at that time.” She laughed out loud, just as Mike walked in. Now it was the person of Mike, who moved Kelly’s modest envy of her friend over to green-eyed jealousy. Before she met Mike, Kelly wondered why Laura never spoke of him. Maybe he was a jerk.
    “You never mention your husband. What’s going on there?” They were at work. She watched Laura carefully after asking the question, and was sorry she had. It was so obvious they were in love. Laura flushed, red starting over her chest and moving up her neck, little spots of red dotting her face until it finally stopped at her cheeks. It made her look ten years younger.
    “My marriage is private, that’s all. ‘Don’t brag your man around town.’ It’s an old saying.”
    “So, you’re saying its okay?”
    “We’re great.” She smiled at Kelly, and then got a look that Kelly would later refer to as Laura’s go fuck yourself look. “Why do you ask?”
    “Just curious, I guess. You never talk about Mike.”
    “Like I said, he’s private. And, he’s mine.” Laura smiled. “Not that you were implying otherwise.” Kelly thought it was common, if not immoral for single friends to make moves on married friend’s husbands.
    Easter dinner would be a turning point in her relationship with the Davis marriage. They’d had too much to drink and Kelly made a flirtatious comment to Mike in front of everyone, including his mother and father.
    They’d just come in from an Easter egg hunt and roll, and the noise was deafening. The four Davis children, plus a