Desert Crossing by Elise Broach Read Free Book Online Page A

clumped and tangled the way it always was first thing in the morning. But he looked different. His shoulders were hunched. His eyes were too bright.
    â€œHey,” he said, climbing in on Beth’s side. “Hey, you guys.” The truck had a wide cab, but not wide enough for four. I was squashed between Jamie and Kit, their shoulders pressing hard against me.
    I grabbed his arm and held it. “Are you okay? Jamie? What happened?”
    He didn’t look at me. “I’m okay.”
    â€œBut what did they do to you? Were you in a cell?”
    He frowned, staring through the windshield.
    â€œWhat is it?” I tried to get him to look at me, but he wouldn’t.
    â€œNothing. I just … I’m just tired. I didn’t get much sleep.”
    â€œBut did they—”
    â€œI don’t want to talk about it, okay?”
    I watched his face. “Okay.”
    He was quiet for a minute. He kept glancing at Beth, and the tight, worried look on his face suddenly shifted. I could see him trying to shake off the strangeness that had settled over him, trying to force his old self back into place. He arched his back a little, stretching, and said to Beth, “You ever give this many people a ride before?”
    â€œNo,” Beth said. “It’s pretty tight.”
    â€œThis will make more room.” Jamie lifted one arm and settled it along the seat behind Beth’s shoulders.
    Beth looked at him but didn’t say anything.
    I couldn’t believe it. For a minute I thought I was wrong. But no, the expression on his face, the way his hand dangled close to her arm. What was she, twenty years older than he was? And hadn’t he just been arrested for murder? Or whatever it was they’d done with him? But here he was, hitting on a woman almost our mother’s age. I dug my elbow into his side.
    â€œOw! Hey! What’d you do that for?” he gasped.
    â€œSorry,” I mumbled. “I was just trying to make more room.” Next to me, I heard Kit stifle a laugh.
    *   *   *
    When we got back to Beth’s, she drifted away from us, preoccupied. “I have to work,” she said. “Help yourselves to whatever you need.”
    She twisted her hair into a thick rope and wound it against the back of her head. Then she stuck a pen through it, holding it in place.
    â€œHow’d you do that?” Jamie asked, watching her.
    â€œLots of practice.”
    He smiled at her. “You have great hair.”
    Beth’s brow twitched and she looked at him curiously. “Thanks.”
    â€œJamie,” I said, trying to get his attention. “We should call Dad.”
    He hesitated. “Yeah. Maybe you could do it? Tell him we probably won’t get there tonight.”
    I went back to the bedroom, and as soon as I opened the door, the dogs came pouring out, snuffling and whining. They raced toward the living room, and I heard Beth yell at them. I sat on the edge of the bed, dialing my dad’s work number. He wouldn’t be in his office; he almost never was. He was a sales rep for an insurance company, and he spent half his time on the road.
    I listened to the four short beeps of his answering machine, then the impersonal friendliness of his work voice: “This is Bob Martinez. I’m away from my desk right now, but leave me a message and I’ll return your call as soon as possible.”
    I took a deep breath. “Dad? It’s me, Lucy. We’re calling from New Mexico, some place outside Albuquerque. We…” I tried to think how to say it. “We had kind of an accident, you know, with the car. Nobody’s hurt—” I took another breath. “Well, we’re not hurt, but we think we hit somebody, a girl, and she’s—” I scrunched the hem of my T-shirt and pressed it against my stomach. “We don’t really know what happened. It was raining so hard, we couldn’t see.