Read Online Notes From the Backseat by Jody Gehrman - Free Book Online Page B

that sent shivers up my spine. “Shows you what I know.”
    I swallowed hard and forced myself to adopt a casual tone. “Did you ever date?”
    She tilted her head back and forth and pursed her lips; it was the noncommittal look a doctor gives you when you ask, is it going to hurt? “We never really dated, ” she said. “We just…hung out.”
    The ambiguity made me want to throttle her. “Hung out?”
    â€œYou know how it is.” She didn’t look me in the eye. I wondered how much it would hurt if I took a pair of needle-nose pliers to the diamond twinkling in her nose and yanked as hard as I could. “When you’ve been friends for ten years, there’s not a lot you haven’t experienced together.”
    â€œI’ve known my friend Marla for twelve years.” I cleared my throat. “Of course, we’ve never had sex.”
    â€œReally?” she said. “Why not?”
    I was still puzzling over this comment when I heard the crunch of tires on gravel behind us. I was hoping it was Coop already back with gas, but it seemed unlikely. When I turned around I saw the next best thing, under the circumstances: a CHP officer sizing us up through the windshield of his patrol car.
    â€œDammit,” Dannika said. “God dammit. ” Apparently she didn’t share my enthusiasm.
    â€œWhat’s wrong?” I whispered.
    â€œIt’s a cop!”
    â€œYeah, I know. And we’re stranded. Don’t we need a cop?”
    â€œJust, don’t let him into the trunk, whatever happens,” she said, glancing furtively over her shoulder.
    â€œWhat do you have back there, a body?”
    She shot me a withering look. “Let me do the talking, okay? I know how to handle pigs.” She sat up very straight and gripped the wheel with shaking hands. She looked like a little kid playing “car” in her parents’ garage.
    â€œHello, ladies.” The officer sidled up to the Mercury. His hairline was receding slightly, but still he was mildly handsome in a squeaky-clean lanky way. He had a rather mammoth mole on his left cheek; the overall effect was very John-Boy Walton. “What seems to be the problem?”
    Dannika was staring straight ahead, a zombielike expression on her face. In spite of her insistence that she would do the talking, she appeared to be incapable of speech.
    â€œHi, officer,” I said. “We just ran out of gas. My boyfriend went back to Point Reyes Station to get some.”
    â€œHe the big guy hitchhiking, ma’am?”
    â€œThat’d be him.” I smiled winningly.
    Dannika made a weird sound in her throat. It reminded me of the sound Audrey makes when she’s getting ready to hack up a hairball. It was apparent she was trying to suppress it. She was still white-knuckling the steering wheel and staring through the windshield, rigid as a statue.
    â€œEverything all right, miss?”
    Miss—he called her miss. Why would he call her miss and me ma’am? Are my crow’s feet getting worse? Dannika wasn’t responding. Again, I could see it was time to intervene.
    â€œShe’s deaf.” For some reason I found it necessary to add, “Can’t hear a word.”
    He looked concerned. “Should she be driving?”
    â€œOh, no, she doesn’t drive. She just likes to pretend…when we’re not moving. It’s her little game.” My tone implied her hearing wasn’t the only part of her that was damaged.
    â€œUh- huh. ” It seemed to me the officer was gazing rather longingly at Dannika, even though the lengthening shadows of twilight made it impossible to really appreciate her perfect features and her luminous hair, which was practically holographic in full sun.
    â€œUm, do you think you might be able to give my boyfriend a lift? I mean, if he hasn’t already hitched a ride?”
    Officer John-Boy tore his eyes away from Dannika