My Cousin Wendy by Al Sloane Read Free Book Online

you."
    "They wouldn't!"
    "I wouldn't be a bit surprised. Some old biddy sees you with the baby and calls child services because she's jealous and the next thing you know you're in a courtroom being judged incompetent and then you're in a rubber room filled with drugs to make you quiet."
    "Oh, come on. It's not that bad."
    "When I was a kid I used to ride all over San Diego wearing just a pair of shorts, a T shirt and sneakers. If I put my kid on a bike on my street like that today child services could take the kid away and have me arrested. It is that bad. And the more the politicians 'take care' of us, the worse it gets."
    My tirade ended as I pulled into the Arco station. I have company credit cards for all the vehicles. It works out better than reimbursing my guys from petty cash. Each vehicle has a card and each user has a pin code. They enter the pin and the milage. That way I can tell what kind of gas milage each vehicle gets and it's harder for them to fill up the family car with my card.
    The girls all had to go into the mini mart and stock up on junk. Wendy had a craving for some gross looking candy that I'd never heard of.
    I was surprised. My fill up was under $50. Prices had been dropping over the last few weeks.
    I used to drive a Toyota pickup. I loved that truck. It had over 360,000 miles on it when I sold it. I never spent over $20 to fill it up. It would seat two adults and two small kids. I started using the Aerostar, which has a bigger tank, and prices shot up over a buck in less than a year. It was normal to spend $50 or more each fill up.
    Everyone piled in. June got in the front, Wendy sat between Kathi and Beth. There would have been no way to carry this crowd around in my Toyota.
    Wendy and the girls were going a mile a minute. June and I were silent. We looked at each other and smiled back and forth. I made an exaggerated kissing motion with my lips and she laughed.
    Once I was on the freeway I held my hand out to her. She took hold of it and I lay them both down on the console between us. We lightly held hands. It felt good. Her hand fit mine. Soft, secure, loving.
    Beth and Kathi were kids, just out of high school a year or two. Maybe not so innocent, but they had some growing and learning ahead of them. They had the viewpoints and attitudes of youth. All that energy toward doing their own thing, no matter how stupid it was. They'd look back and wonder how they ever could have been that way, we all do. Hopefully they wouldn't go too far off the rails. I can honestly say I'm not sorry for any experience I've had. Not that there's no sorrow. I've had a lot of that. But I've learned from my experience. Not that everything we do when we're young is stupid. Both Beth and Kathi had their grownup qualities, too. That's why the four of us got on so well together.
    Wendy had her youth for a while. She played at being Mary Tyler Moore, working in the insurance industry instead of a TV station. Eventually she met Mr. Right and got married. And then he turned into a monster. And there was no Wendy for 20 years until she had the courage to buy a gun, which gave her the courage to run away from him and into my arms. I hurt like hell when she moved into her own place, but I knew she had to find out who Wendy was and be her. In another three months, she'd be tied down by a baby. She was already starting to be tied down by her body. She was working against the clock to discover Wendy the woman. And she didn't need me pulling her in a third direction, no matter how good it was for her, no matter how much I wanted it.
    June was in the middle as far as age was concerned. Her marriage hadn't been good but her husband was such a weakling that she had to grow strong or perish. She grew strong and eventually parted ways with the child she married. She learned her business, improved on it and became the best. And then she sacrificed to get her own shop going and expand past that.
    I'd loved Wendy since we were kids. I'd