Pigs in Heaven by Barbara Kingsolver Read Free Book Online Page B

endearing characters, a famous tourist landmark and a happy ending.”
    “Shit. Is that all of them?”
    “Almost. There are five more pages.”
    “Skip over the Queen Bee News exetera.”
    “Check. Skip the Queen Bee News and the Lou Anns.” He turns a couple of pages and then flips back. “Oh, your mother. She called before I’d started writing everything down. She thought she saw you on the news.”
    “In Kentucky ? That can’t be.”
    “Well, basketball season’s over.”
    “Lord, it must have scared the bejesus out of her.”
    “Don’t worry, I’m very good in crisis situations. I told her she was hallucinating. Then after I heard, I called her back and told her you and Turtle pulled through without a scratch.”
    “It’s not like we fell down any holes.”
    “She won’t completely believe that till she hears from you.”
    Taylor smiles. “I’ll call her in the morning.”
    “She wants a new picture of Turtle. Her theory is that in the one you sent Santa Claus looks like Sirhan Sirhan.”
    “No, like Lee Harvey Oswald.”
    He looks at her, takes off his glasses and throws the notepad on the floor. “How did you know that?”
    “I lived with her twenty years. I know what she’d say.”
    “You two ought to be in the National Enquirer . TELEPATHIC MOTHER-DAUGHTER DUO RECEIVE MESSAGES THROUGH FILLINGS .”
    “We’re just close.”
    “ Perversering mother-daughter duo.”
    “Would you please shut up? You’re jealous of everything, even my mother.”
    “Did you and Turtle really persevere perversely?”
    “I’m going to be sorry I let you keep a scrapbook.”
    “It’s great material. Oh, and another news flash also: She’s leaving her husband.”
    Taylor stares at Jax. “Who? My mother is leaving Harland? Where’s she going? Is she coming here?”
    “You didn’t get the message through your fillings?”
    “She’s leaving him? Where’s she going?”
    “I don’t know.” He closes his eyes. “Not here. She sounded a little sad.”
    “I have to call her right now.”
    She shoves his head off her lap, but Jax catches her around the waist and pulls her back onto the bed. “It’s two in the morning there, sweet thing. Let her sleep.”
    “Damn it. I hate time zones. Why can’t they just make it the same time everywhere at once?”
    “Because if they did, somewhere on earth some poor musicians would have to sleep at night and go to work in daylight.”
    Taylor relaxes a little against Jax, who puts his arms around her. He spreads his hands across the bony marimba of her ribs, wishing for the music they hold. “Are you in love with our garbage man?” he asks.
    “Danny! Oh, pew, his truck smells like compost city.”
    “Uh huh. So you’re saying you would be in love with him, if his truck smelled better.”
    “Jax, why do you do this?”
    “I’m thinking you’ll leave me, now that you’re famous.”
    “A world-famous employee of a car-parts store.”
    “You’re the manager. Don’t sell yourself short. You don’t need me.”
    She strokes his kneecap, which is angular and hard as a box terrapin. “Jax, honey, I never did,” she says.
    “I know.”
    “Or Danny, or Bruce Springsteen, or the man in the moon. It’s nothing personal.”
    “I know. It’s because of your mother’s guiding myth.”
    “What’s that?”
    “That the women in your family need men only as a remedy for minor plumbing irritations.”
    “Well, maybe that’s true. And I’m here in your bed anyway, how about that,” she says. It is, technically, his bed; she got rid of hers in a yard sale when she and Turtle moved into Jax’s tiny house at the edge of town. She tips her head back until it rests against his chin. “So will you shut up about my leaving you, and is that all the big news you have for this evening?”
    “I’ll show you big news,” he says, delicately biting the nape of her neck. He lifts her breasts, which fit perfectly into his hands, though he knows this is no promise