Family Affair by Saxon Bennett Read Free Book Online Page A

black Ram Charger truck. She resumed driving.
     
    Lacey picked up immediately as if she'd been expecting this call.
     
    "What if she doesn't accept?"
     
    "What are you talking about?" Lacey said.
     
    "What if Gitana won't marry me?"
     
    "You two have been together forever."
     
    "That doesn't guarantee anything." Chase checked her rear-view mirror. Rusty was now way behind her. He drove very slowly on the road. People groaned in secret agony if they got stuck behind him. They all referred to the mile-and a-half- stretch of dirt road as "The Road" like it was an entity unto itself. She supposed it was. In the summer, it was bone dry and the dirt devils reminded Chase of the over-farmed prairies in The Grapes of Wrath. In the winter when it snowed, the juniper and pinon trees were frosted and she felt like she was driving in a snow globe. In the spring, when the snow melted off the mountains the road was a muddy disaster and it was necessary to drive very fast to avoid getting stuck in it. Once she found herself bogged down in her Passat and had to be towed out by a neighbor with a tractor. Every season presented its own challenge and getting down the road in one piece was always considered a boon.
     
    Chase, having momentarily drifted off, found that Lacey had moved on to other subjects. "Do you think that boob cream really works?"
     
    "Boob cream?" Chase was now safely off the road and on the smooth pavement of the county road. Her car purred with happiness.
     
    "The one they advertise on the radio. It says it will increase your boobs by three cup sizes and make them look perky."
     
    "Have you lost your mind? Cream can't possibly augment your breasts." Chase recalled that Lacey was obsessed with her breast size. She was convinced that men would be more interested in her if she had bigger boobs.
     
    "But the ad says it's a new drug they're trying out."
     
    "So what if this experimental cream turns your boobs green and they become covered with warts."
     
    There was a silence. "I see your point."
     
    "You have nice breasts. Stop worrying about it."
     
    Chase was now stuck behind a tractor tooling down the two-lane county road at twelve miles an hour. She was going to have to pass.
     
    "I better go. Why don't you listen to NPR? They don't have any of those kinds of ads."
     
    "Boring," Lacey said. She clicked off.
     
    Chase waited for a safe place to pass and then blew past the tractor, barely avoiding the wad of tobacco spittle that exited the farmer's mouth as she passed him. "Yuck!"
     
    In avoiding the spittle trail she nearly hit a rabbit. That would not do. So far so good, no carnage to stop and bury, she thought. She wanted to get to the greenhouse in time for lunch. She'd only left herself a half an hour window. She cursed herself for not leaving earlier, but there had been the scavenger hunt for a decent outfit. It would not do to propose marriage in a T-shirt and shorts.
     
    She pulled into the parking lot with five minutes to spare. The greenhouse grounds were abuzz with activity. May was one of their busiest months. The help, who were distinguished from the customers by their green aprons over white shirts and khaki shorts, were intent on business. Chase cut through the hothouse and toward Gitana's office. The hothouse smelled of earth and flowers and damp. The sweet smells of the various orchids did a little dance across her olfactory system like butterflies landing on flower petals. She inhaled deeply and her contextual memory drew her back to a place and time... She reined herself in.
     
    Nora spotted her and came over. The heat was unbearable. Chase always felt like she'd been transported to some Amazonian jungle while remaining dressed in a traveling suit of good English wool.
     
    "Long time no see," Nora said, her face beaming. She looked larger in her green overalls and straw cowboy hat—a bit like Mr. Green Jeans in drag. Maybe Captain Kangaroo wasn't who he purported to be, Chase