Finding Bluefield by Elan Branehama Read Free Book Online Page A

have sex. The backseat is very roomy.”
    “What do you do?”
    “I’m not following,” Nicky said.
    “Do you take your clothes off?”
    “In a car?”
    “So what do you do?”
    “We kiss for a while, and you know.”
    “Tell me.”
    “He opens my bra and I pull up my skirt. He pushes his pants down and puts on a rubber. Tommy thinks it’s great. Afterward, we drive over to the diner for burgers and fries. He eats a lot and can’t stop grinning and I get to choose the radio station.”
    “Did he ever touch you like this?” Mary Beth asked, placing her hand on Nicky’s nightgown.
    “What are you doing?”
    “Make believe I’m Tommy. I can teach you. I know what’s missing.” Mary Beth kissed Nicky on the lips. “Does he ever do this?” Nicky was still recovering from the effects of the kiss when Mary Beth slipped her hand inside Nicky’s nightgown. By the time Mary Beth was done asking and demonstrating, Nicky was no longer imagining that Mary Beth was Tommy, and she stopped wondering what was missing. Nicky kept going out with Tommy because she didn’t want anyone to wonder why she and Mary Beth slept over at each other’s house so often—even after dates with Tommy. Besides, like she told Mary Beth, she really did like him.
    After graduation, Tommy went to college on a basketball scholarship and he and Nicky decided to see other people. Mary Beth went to college in California, went away and never, ever came back. Nicky was left wondering how to meet other women. She had no idea what she was supposed to look for or how she would recognize them, or how they would spot her. Until she saw Barbara sitting at her counter eating a slice of her blackberry pie and she knew.

    *

    The weary travelers returned to the church parking lot that evening cheerful but quiet. Nicky couldn’t help thinking that returning to Bluefield held some disappointment for many of her fellow travelers. Anxious to see Barbara, she threw her bag into the Chevy and drove off.
    Barbara was sleeping when Nicky slipped into bed. Gently, slowly, she caressed Barbara until she rolled over and began to return Nicky’s kisses. After they made love, Nicky turned on the radio and lit a cigarette. The college station was playing Phil Ochs.
    “That was wonderful,” Barbara said, catching her breath. “You’ll have to go away more often.”
    “It’s coming home to you that I like.”
    “How was the march?” Barbara asked. “I saw some of it on the news.”
    “Great. Wonderful,” Nicky said. She lay coverless in the heat and placed her hands on her abdomen. “And the best part is that we’re going to have a baby.”
    “You’re so funny.”
    “I mean it,” Nicky said. She sat up. “I think you’ll be proud of me. I met this guy and let him have sex with me, and—”
    “You what!” Barbara grabbed her glasses from the nightstand and sat up.
    “I told him I had an IUD.”
    Barbara got out of bed. She pulled on one of Nicky’s T-shirts. “Who?” Barbara said. “I don’t understand.”
    “Some guy.”
    “What guy?”
    “That’s not important.” Nicky rested her cigarette in the ashtray.
    “Of course it’s important.”
    “Barbara, we’re always talking about having children, so I went ahead and got us one. It’s fabulous.”
    “You’re serious.”
    Nicky grinned and nodded.
    “You went off to Washington and fucked some guy at the march so you could get pregnant,” Barbara said.
    “I didn’t do it for the sex. You’re all I need for that.” Nicky put her hand out to Barbara who didn’t take it. She dropped her hand.
    “Apparently not.”
    “Look, Barbara, if we lied a lot,” Nicky said, “someone might let us adopt an orphan from Asia or South America. But then this opportunity came up, and I just had to take it.”
    “Had to?”
    “Like it was meant to be. Like that’s why I went to the march, like that’s why you were too stubborn to go with me.”
    “I’m not letting you go anywhere by