Thunderland by Brandon Massey Read Free Book Online Page B

afternoon, she met her girlfriend Alice Franklin at her home in Waukegan. Linda hoped talking to Alice would help her relax. More important, she hoped Alice would help her discover how to heal the most damaging wound her marriage had ever suffered.
    Alice opened the door. “Girl, since you called me I’ve been bouncing off the walls. You only told me bits and pieces of what happened, and it made me sick. How’re you feeling?”
    “The same way I probably look. Like shit.”
    “Let’s talk about it.” Alice took her by the arm and brought her inside. “Maybe that’ll help both of us feel better.”
    Although Alice and Linda shared a variety of interests and attitudes, they hardly resembled each other. Linda was five-four and petite; Alice was five-ten and voluptuous. Linda’s hair was short and curly; Alice’s dark, lustrous braids flowed to her shoulders. Linda wore stylish yet basically conservative clothes; Alice draped herself in flamboyant, ethnic garments that generated stares and compliments everywhere she went.
    She and Alice had been best friends for two decades. They went to the same high school, attended the same college-Illinois State-and both began their careers as elementary school teachers. While Linda left the teaching field to become a freelance writer, Alice scooped up two advanced degrees and became a history professor at the College of Lake County. Now Alice was writing a novel of her own during the summer break. It amused Linda how their lives often paralleled each other.
    However, their history of relationships with men was vastly different. Thomas and Linda had been high-school sweethearts and had married soon after she graduated from college; she had never truly been with another man. Alice had been through a long series of boyfriends and had only wedded three years ago. Although Linda had been married much longer than Alice, Alice had such wide and varied experience with men that Linda frequently found herself relying on her for advice and support.
    Alice went in the kitchen and retrieved a pitcher of iced tea and two glasses. She and Linda sat in wicker chairs on the patio.
    Linda sipped the tea as she recounted her story. The drink quenched her thirst, but she really wished she had something stronger.
    No, red flag the thought, she told herself. Don’t even think about it.
    “I can’t believe you hit him,” Alice said. “Thomas had it coming, but that’s not like you at all. You must’ve been pushed to the edge.”
    “I was. But I’m not sure that his grabbing me was the main reason I slapped him. It’s more like ... he’s a stranger to me.”
    “What do you mean?” Alice said, her large, black eyes curious.
    “We’ve had arguments in the past about his carelessness, but until today I hadn’t seen how much Thomas has really changed over the years; and seeing it scared the shit out of me. Since he seemed so different, I guess I wasn’t sure whether I could trust him not to hurt me. So I did the only thing I could to get away. Smacked him.”
    Alice nodded. She understood. One of her ex-boyfriends had been abusive.
    “Now that I’ve thought about it, I realize he’s been acting like a total stranger for a long time.” Linda’s hands tightened around the cold glass. “But when he shook me like that, it was a rude awakening.”
    “I bet it was. I can’t see Thomas doing something like that to you. What got into him?”
    Linda shrugged. “If I knew what had gotten into him, I’d pull it out.”
    “It could be stress,” Alice said. “That’s not an excuse, of course, but it could explain a lot. After all, his dad’s sick and cooped up in that nursing home. He’s working day and night at that restaurant. All of that pressure would make anyone crazy.”
    “I’ve talked to him about cutting his hours, but he acts as if the world would stop turning if he came home early one night,” Linda said. “Don’t even talk about taking a vacation, girl. The word isn’t in