Live and Let Die by Bianca Sloane Read Free Book Online

which was in the center of the community.
    While the Crossings had its fair share of strip malls and stand-alone big boxes, The Pavilion, a behemoth compound that housed just about everything one could possibly need, was the pulse of the community. The Pavilion hummed almost around-the clock with a stream of activity. A sprawling Kroger offered a coffee shop, salad bar and specialty meat and cheese counter; a Cheesecake Factory always crammed with couples on dates, couples with two- point-five screaming kids and couples celebrating because their two-point-five kids were finally out of the house; the Super Target with its endless supply of plush towels, kitchen gadgets, artwork, and DVDs. Rounding out the Pavilion experience was a Barnes and Noble, twenty screen multiplex, arcade, pottery painting studio, ice skating rink, a man-made lake with gondola rides and a dizzying array of Banana Republics, Eddie Bauers, Gaps and Forever 21s, all cascading into one another. Bright red trolleys ferried customers around the complex to designated pick-up and drop-off points and the valet stand at The Pavilion’s nicer restaurants were a perpetual logjam.
    Surrounding the perimeter of the Pavilion were several residential subdivisions named after trees: The Willows, The Elms, The Oaks, and so on. Many of the streets of these neighborhoods were named after flowers.
    Paula’s home, rather removed from the hustle and bustle of the Pavilion, was located in The Maples on Red Rose Lane. Typical of The Crossings, Red Rose Lane was a quiet tree-lined street adorned with a mix of bungalows, single family and ranch -style houses. As its name suggested, many of the yards were festooned with lush rose bushes in a spectacular array of peach, yellow, white and, of course, red. In the neighborhood beautification contest held each summer, Red Rose Lane swept the Best Gardens competition every time. Red Rose Lane was one of the community’s most diverse neighborhoods, boasting an Indian family, an Asian family, three Hispanic families, and four black families including Paula and Phillip, with the remaining five families white.
    Paula turned her cart into her driveway as a gentle breeze whispered through the tree-lined street and the rose bushes of Red Rose Lane on this hot, sunny day. As Paula opened the door of her spacious yet quaint home, she was greeted with a whoosh of coolness from the air conditioner. She took the three bags of groceries out of her cart and set them on the gleaming white ceramic countertop in the kitchen before she folded up her cart and placed it in the laundry room.
    Everything in Paula’s house was sterile white. And immaculate. She spent hours every day vacuuming the plush white carpet, dusting the white bookshelves and scrubbing the white porcelain of her toilet. Not only was the house free of dirt, it was barren, lacking any personal touches or warmth. A few simple framed pictures of flowers were the extent of the decoration and a small bookshelf topped with a green vase of fake begonias and a smattering of gardening books. All in all, it looked more like an unfinished model home than one a married couple actually lived in. And that’s the way Paula liked it. It was a three-bedroom ranch with a tidy front lawn that Phillip paid a service to tend to on the third Tuesday of the month, though there were no roses, or any flowers for that matter, to decorate the yard. It was just a small patch of green for a lawn and a single row of bushes to the left of the front door. Inside was the master bedroom, Phillip’s office and the guest bedroom that had never seen a guest as long as the couple had lived there.
    Paula smoothed her hair back and began to put food into her color-coordinated pantry and cupboards. Paula prided herself on the order and cleanliness, with everything lined up in nice neat rows, with the labels facing out. Not a can or a box was out of place. It was Wednesday, which meant for dinner they would have baked