The Faceless One by Mark Onspaugh Read Free Book Online Page A

cheer him up.
    And the fight had been dumb: She had told him she might like to have another baby, and he had gone off the deep end about bills and their needing her income. It wasn’t that what he said was wrong, it was that he had come off so condescending, like she was some ditzy fifties housewife who only thought of shopping and babies.
    Screw him, he can watch Bobby. I’ll just sit here and drink my soda. Maybe see if Rita wants to go into Westwood
.
    Her phone rang, chirping the old
Outer Limits
theme. Steven’s ring. She pulled the phone out of her purse, answering only because it might concern Bobby.
    “Hello.” She deliberately made her voice flat, without a trace of cheer. It occurred to hersuddenly that this was how her mother would have acted. That made her sad, but she was committed, like an actress with lines firmly set as she walks out onstage.
    “Hi. You still mad?” he asked, the concern in his voice warming her just a little.
    “I think I have a right to be.”
    “You do, and I’m sorry. I acted like a real jerk.”
    “Why do you do that, Steven? You know I’m on your side.”
    “I know, I know. Look, I want to talk about this, but I promised Bobby we’d take him for a hamburger and the new SpongeBob. Are you coming home soon?”
    He could always get to her. Something in his voice that was both vulnerable and sexy. Liz wanted desperately to tell him it was all right, that they’d go and have a good time and forget the argument, but that was a treacherous path to take.
    “Promise me we’ll talk about this, Steven.”
    “After we put Bobby to bed. I promise.”
    She waited a moment, not wanting to seem a pushover. “Okay, I’ll see you in about forty minutes.”
    “I love you, Liz.”
    “I love you too, Steven.”
    Liz folded up the phone and sighed. She was determined they have this out, not let some movie or cable show prevent them from talking.
    She made her way to the parking structure on the north side of campus, the temperature promising a hot Los Angeles summer. Her car, a dented Mazda GLC, sat forlornly among flashy cars that must have cost ten times what hers had. She got in and removed the cardboard sunscreen, which had only provided slight protection from the heat. As she rolled out of the lot, she tried the fan, but the air coming in was warm, a desert wind. The Mazda had blown its compressor a week ago, and they hadn’t had the money to fix it. She tried to remember how little the lack of air-conditioning had meant to her when she was a student at CSUN, the hot, dry breeze blowing in through all the open windows of her VW bug. She used to love the way the warm air caressed her skin, drying any perspiration before it had a chance to run down her neck or sides.
    Although it didn’t do much to cool her, the memories of those days and her early courtship with Steven made her smile. She opened up all the windows and cranked up an old CD by the Be Good Tanyas, and was soon singing loudly and slightly off-key.
    Traffic was light, one of the benefits of living in La Crescenta, and she was soon driving up into the hills to their neighborhood. Houses of wood, stucco, or stone, all built with enough variety that no two seemed exactly the same. She pulled into their driveway, her little car bouncing over a couple of deep potholes in the gravel driveway. She stopped at the mailbox,which contained magazines and store flyers but thankfully no bills. She put this pile on the passenger seat and drove up the rest of the long drive.
    Midge, one of their two cats, was lying in the driveway but took off as soon as Liz’s car rumbled within ten feet of her.
    Liz exited the car, her mind whirling with bills and plans gone awry and foolish morning arguments, but it all was wiped away the moment her son was running out of the front door and leaping into her arms. His hair smelled like sunshine and baby shampoo, and his smile was becoming more like Steven’s every day. She thought she could never