Walking Dunes by Sandra Scofield Read Free Book Online Page B

Hawaiian print shirt, had started on a bottle of gin. Marge, in a rayon wrap, had her bourbon. Her robe was an old one, bright green and blue, with snakes crawling up the trim, their heads caught in the facing and turned in on her breasts. She wore it unbelted, and her bra and half-slip showed.
    David asked what food there was.
    Marge shrugged and reached up to loosen her bra straps. Her large breasts slid down like filled balloons. David opened the refrigerator to inspect the contents. A chicken had been stripped of the meat. There were eggs, a plate of soggy sliced tomatoes, jars of chow-chow, olives, and pepperoncinis. He slammed the door shut. “What do you eat!”
    His mother said, “There’s stuff in the cupboard.” She drained her glass and made a face. “Get me some ice, Davy.” She poured an inch of whiskey into the glass.
    The ice tray was thoroughly stuck in the tiny freezer compartment, which looked like an ice cave. It had been his sister’s responsibility to defrost it, and it probably had not been done since she left last New Year’s Eve, never to return. He used a table knife to hack away at the tray. He made a lot of noise.
    â€œIce we can do without!” his father said.
    â€œYou do without ice, I want it,” his mother said.
    â€œI got it, I got it, jeez.” David ran water over the tray, plunked a couple of cubes in his mother’s glass, put the rest in a bowl in the refrigerator, and refilled the tray. He knelt to inspect the canned goods. He chose a can of bean with bacon soup and held it up for inspection. “Anybody?”
    Saul said, “I’ll have a cup of that.” David scraped the soup into a pan, added water, set it to heat, and turned on the iron skillet. He spread a piece of bread with bacon grease from the crock on the stove. His mother had bacon almost every morning. He put the greased bread down on the skillet to fry.
    â€œPiece of this, too?” he asked his father.
    â€œYou should live so long, to see me eat pig grease.”
    â€œThere’s bacon in the soup.”
    Saul flipped his hand. “And you need a microscope to find it.”
    David gave his father soup in a cup, and ate the rest from the pan. He set it in the sink to soak. The phone rang. “I’ll get it,” he said, but his father had already stepped the few feet it took to reach the phone. He held it out away from him and pointed to it. “Your girlfriend, so late.”
    David went into his room and picked up the phone. “You can hang up now,” he said.
    â€œDavy, weren’t you going to call me?” It was Glee.
    He could hear his father breathing. “So hang up ,” he said again, and Saul did. David sat down. “Don’t start that.”
    â€œI knew you were home. I drove by a little after five and there was the car. I went home in case you called. Then I figured you must a gone to the hospital. But now it’s midnight—”
    â€œI know what time it is. Don’t your folks mind you blabbing on the phone in the middle of the night?”
    â€œThat’s what I called to tell you. They’re not here. They went to Greg’s sister’s for the weekend. Big Spring. You could come over.”
    â€œI’m too tired. Too much driving today.”
    â€œDavy—” she whined.
    He felt as if she had run her manicured fingernail down his spine. “I’m too tired,” he said, more softly.
    â€œI can come over there.”
    â€œMy folks—”
    â€œWhen they go to bed.”
    He did not want to try to explain. “They’ll be up a while.”
    â€œI have things to tell you.” She spoke so breathily he could hardly hear her.
    â€œTell me.”
    â€œIn person, Davy.”
    â€œ David. ”
    â€œYou’re in a bad mood!”
    â€œI told you, I’m tired.”
    â€œSorry.” She did sound contrite. “I haven’t seen you since