Wheels by Arthur Hailey Read Free Book Online Page A

more conscious of the change because other activities were less. Greg and Kirk now came home seldom, having left Michigan for college-Greg to Columbia, en route to medical school; Kirk to the University of Oklahoma to major in journalism. She was still drifting . . . Still not quite asleep. The house, near Quarton Lake in the northern suburb of Birmingham, was quiet. Adam had gone. Like most in the auto industry's top echelon, he was at his desk by half-past seven, had done an hour's work before the secretaries came. Also, as usual, Adam had risen in time to do exercises, take a ten-minute run outside, then, after showering, get his own breakfast, as he always did these days. Erica had slipped out of the habit of preparing it after Adam told her candidly that the meal was taking too long; unlike their early years togeth er, he chafed impatiently, want ing to be on his way, no longer enjoying their relaxed quarter hour together at the table. One morning he had simply said, "Honey, you stay in bed. I'll get breakfast for myself .”
    And he had, doing the same thing next day, and on other mornings after that, so they had drifted into the present pattern, though it depressed Erica to know she was no longer useful to Adam at the beginning of his day, that her imaginative breakfast menus, the cheerfully set table and her own presence there, were more irritating to him than pleasing. Erica found Adam's diminishing concern about what went on at home, along with total dedication to his job, more and more an aggravating combination nowadays. He was also tediously considerate. When his alarm clock sounded, Adam snapped it off promptly before it could penetrate Erica's sleep too deeply, and got out of bed at once, though it seemed not long ago that they had reached for each other instinctively on waking, and sometimes coupled quickly, finding that each could bring the other, feverishly, to a swifter climax than at night. Then, while Erica still lay, lingering for a moment breathlessly, her heart beating hard, Adam would whisper as he slipped from her and from the bed, 'What better way to start a day .”
    But not any more. Never in the morning, and only rarely, now, at night. And in the mornings, for all the contact they had, they might as well be strangers. Adam awakened quickly, performed his swift routines, and then was gone. This morning, when Erica heard Adam moving around in the bathroom and downstairs, she considered changing the routine and joining him. Then she reminded herself that all he wanted was to move fast-like the go-go cars his Product Planning team conceived; the latest, the soon-to be-unveiled Orion-and be on his way. Also, with his damned efficiency, Adam could make breakfast just as speedily as Erica-for a half-dozen people if necessary, as he sometimes had. Despite this, she debated getting up, and was still debating when she heard Adam's car start, and leave. Then it was too late. Where have all the flowers gone? Where the love, the life, the vanished idyll of Adam and Erica Trenton, young lovers not so long ago? Oh where, oh where! Erica slept. When she awakened it was midmorning, and a watery autumn sun was slanting in through slats of the venetian blinds. Downstairs, a vacuum cleaner whined and thumped, and Erica was relieved that Mrs. Gooch, who cleaned twice a week, had let herself in and was already at work. It meant that today Erica need not bother with the house, though lately, in any case, she had paid much less attention to it than she used to do. A morning paper was beside the bed. Adam must have left it there, as he sometimes did. Propping herself up with pillows, her long ash blond hair tumbling over them, Erica unfolded it. A sizable portion of page one was given over to an attack on the auto industry by Emerson Vale. Erica skipped most of the news story, which didn't interest her, even though there were times when she felt like attacking the auto world herself. She had never cared for it, not since