Looking for Julie by Jackie Calhoun Read Free Book Online Page A

bed to phone Jamie. His cell rolled to voice mail and she left a message. An hour later the vibrating phone woke her. It was loosely clasped in one outstretched hand. Samantha Thompson appeared in the display. “Hi, Sam. What’s up?”
    “Remember the guy with the truck? Well, he found Jamie alone and beat him up. He went to UHS, but his nose won’t stop bleeding. I think it’s broken, and Nita wants him out of here, and his parents are in Mexico.”
    “Let me talk to him, Sam.” She waited until Jamie came on. “I hear you got into a fight, nephew.”
    “I was massacred.” He sounded nasally.
    “Do you have cotton up your nose?”
    “That and blood. Listen, it’s not good here. Nita thinks I’m trouble. She wants me out. My roommate’s girlfriend has moved in.”
    “Well, she can’t do that.”
    “You tell her and Nate that. I can’t take another beating.”
    She sighed. “Look, I just got back from Minocqua. Can you wait till Friday? Give me Sam’s address.”
    She was asleep when Lynn walked in.
    “Since you wouldn’t answer my phone calls, you forced me to come here.” She lay on the bed next to Edie and looked at her out of dark oval eyes.
    Edie’s anger had cooled, and her hurt feelings had healed.
    “I apologize,” Lynn said as they stared at the ceiling. “I should have told you, but would you have told me? What if you had a thing for Pam? Would you admit it?”
    She laughed. “Don’t try to turn the tide, Lynn.” For some reason she thought of Claire.
    “I don’t have an excuse. It just sort of happened.”
    Edie wanted to talk to Lynn about Jamie. Losing Lynn as a friend was not an option.
    Lynn started to get up. “Do you want me to go?”
    “No. Tell me about Frankie and I’ll tell you about Jamie.”
    Lynn flopped back down. “You’d like Frankie. She’s a political animal.”
    “What does she look like?”
    “She’s kind of on the heavy side, but she has a pretty face and great hair. She doesn’t ski or hike like you.”
    Big boobs and ass, Edie interpreted, and hair you could run your fingers through. Lynn would like that. “Neither do you.”
    “True. We go to meetings together, and you’re meetinged out.”
    “Yeah, I am. I thought after the election we’d get good universal health care and a green economy. What we got was a recession and more war.”
    “We were already in a recession. You can’t quit, Edie. If we all quit, the party of NO will take over.”
    “I want to talk to you about Jamie and Sam.” And she launched into the latest phone call.
    “Poor Jamie,” Lynn said, rising on an elbow to look at Edie. “See what I mean? We have to fight for equal rights and respect.”
    “I’m going down there Friday afternoon and see if I can straighten this out. He claims his roommate will beat him up if he tries to get the girlfriend out of their dorm room. God, I wish his parents were home.”
    “What will you do?”
    “I thought I’d talk to the hall advisor first, if they have one. Maybe he can put him in with someone else. I don’t think I can help Sam.”
    “Could they room together?”
    “Not in Sellery. The boys and girls wings are separate. God, why do I get stuck with my nephew’s messes?” There were no good solutions. She realized that. Her power was limited.
     
     
     
    She left for Madison before three on Friday. It took a little over two hours from Point to Sam’s apartment on West Washington. The streets were cleared of snow. As she stood on the decrepit porch knocking on the door, she looked around at the rundown rentals that had once been two-and three-story residences.
    Jamie opened the door. His taped, bloodied nose and bruised face shocked her. His eyes were lost in the swelling, and his violet hair made his entire head look black and blue. She figured Sam had been exaggerating about the beating, as Jamie would have, but now she wished she’d come when Sam called.
    Inside were Sam and another girl, whom Jamie introduced as