Read Online Supervolcano: Eruption by Harry Turtledove - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Harry Turtledove
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Bryce Miller and wasn’t anything like Bryce Miller. She made no effort to tell that to Vanessa. She knew useless when she saw it.
“Yeah,” Vanessa said. “The business climate is better there. That’s what he says. Lower taxes, fewer hassles, the whole nine yards.” She paused. Now she’s going to tell me whatever she really calltell me , Louise thought. Vanessa let the pause stretch long enough for the thought to form very clearly. Then she said, “So I’m going with him.”
“To Denver?” Louise exclaimed. “To live?” Vanessa had lived in or near San Atanasio her whole life. She thought a shopping expedition to South Coast Plaza in Orange County was like a safari in Burkina Faso.
But she said, “That’s right. I’ve already started looking for jobs online. I’m sick of working for this idiot, anyway—am I ever.”
Are you sick of your paycheck? Louise had had some sudden, painful lessons about money since she’d stopped banking Colin’s checks on the tenth and twenty-fifth of every month. But Vanessa was good with computers. She’d find something with more certainty to it than arranging dried flowers. Louise was liable to have to find something like that herself, dammit.
“I thought I should probably tell you,” Vanessa said, and by her tone of voice she’d been in some doubt.
“What does, uh, Hagop”—funny name!—“think about you packing up and moving to be with him?”
“He was surprised,” Vanessa said. I’ll bet he was , her mother thought. She went on, “But he got used to the idea okay.”
“Did he?” Louise had wondered if the older man was leaving town not least to get away. Maybe not. Something else occurred to her: “Have you told your father yet?”
“Oh, sure,” Vanessa said carelessly. “He doesn’t want me to do it.”
“I know he’s not crazy about Hagop. . . .” Louise wasn’t, either, but didn’t want her opinions associated with Colin’s.
“It wasn’t that.” Now her daughter sounded impatient. Vanessa was good at that. “He kept going on that Denver was too close to what’s cooking under Yellowstone Park. Is he okay? He sounded kind of, I don’t know, loopy about it.”
“Oh.” Now Louise understood what was going on. “You don’t need to lose any sleep about him, I don’t think. He’s got a, ah, lady friend who studies volcanoes, so no wonder he’s all excited about them.”
“But there aren’t any volcanoes in Yellowstone, are there?”
“I don’t know. But that’s what this woman, girl, whatever she is, studies.” Louise’s spies—people from the old neighborhood—were sure about that. Come to think of it, Marshall had said something about it, too. Louise hadn’t put it together with the other till now.
Vanessa went on with her own train of thought, the way she often did: “Besides, Denver’s, like, four hundred miles from Yellowstone. More, even. I looked on a map. Dad must not have. He doesn’t usually freak out over nothing, but he sure did this time.”
“Okay.” Louise was thinking about Denver a different way. It was one more milepost marking how the family was fragmenting, with all the people going their own way. Modern families did that. It was part of how things worked. Rob spent so much time on the road with his silly band, he was like a stranger when he did drift back into town.
“Listen, Mom, I’ve gotta go. Break’s about over,” Vanessa said. “I’ll try to come by before I move, or maybe we can have lunch or something. ’Bye.”
“ ’Bye,” Louise echoed, but she was talking to a dead phone. She sighed again and stowed hers in her handbag. She’d spent upwardsf twenty years— the best years of my life , she thought, sincerely if not originally—raising the kids. And for what? To see them scatter to the winds, the way kids did. From their point of view, it was as if she hadn’t done a goddamn thing.
Which meant . . . what? She frowned. Thinking about What Stuff Meant—in capital
“Yeah,” Vanessa said. “The business climate is better there. That’s what he says. Lower taxes, fewer hassles, the whole nine yards.” She paused. Now she’s going to tell me whatever she really calltell me , Louise thought. Vanessa let the pause stretch long enough for the thought to form very clearly. Then she said, “So I’m going with him.”
“To Denver?” Louise exclaimed. “To live?” Vanessa had lived in or near San Atanasio her whole life. She thought a shopping expedition to South Coast Plaza in Orange County was like a safari in Burkina Faso.
But she said, “That’s right. I’ve already started looking for jobs online. I’m sick of working for this idiot, anyway—am I ever.”
Are you sick of your paycheck? Louise had had some sudden, painful lessons about money since she’d stopped banking Colin’s checks on the tenth and twenty-fifth of every month. But Vanessa was good with computers. She’d find something with more certainty to it than arranging dried flowers. Louise was liable to have to find something like that herself, dammit.
“I thought I should probably tell you,” Vanessa said, and by her tone of voice she’d been in some doubt.
“What does, uh, Hagop”—funny name!—“think about you packing up and moving to be with him?”
“He was surprised,” Vanessa said. I’ll bet he was , her mother thought. She went on, “But he got used to the idea okay.”
“Did he?” Louise had wondered if the older man was leaving town not least to get away. Maybe not. Something else occurred to her: “Have you told your father yet?”
“Oh, sure,” Vanessa said carelessly. “He doesn’t want me to do it.”
“I know he’s not crazy about Hagop. . . .” Louise wasn’t, either, but didn’t want her opinions associated with Colin’s.
“It wasn’t that.” Now her daughter sounded impatient. Vanessa was good at that. “He kept going on that Denver was too close to what’s cooking under Yellowstone Park. Is he okay? He sounded kind of, I don’t know, loopy about it.”
“Oh.” Now Louise understood what was going on. “You don’t need to lose any sleep about him, I don’t think. He’s got a, ah, lady friend who studies volcanoes, so no wonder he’s all excited about them.”
“But there aren’t any volcanoes in Yellowstone, are there?”
“I don’t know. But that’s what this woman, girl, whatever she is, studies.” Louise’s spies—people from the old neighborhood—were sure about that. Come to think of it, Marshall had said something about it, too. Louise hadn’t put it together with the other till now.
Vanessa went on with her own train of thought, the way she often did: “Besides, Denver’s, like, four hundred miles from Yellowstone. More, even. I looked on a map. Dad must not have. He doesn’t usually freak out over nothing, but he sure did this time.”
“Okay.” Louise was thinking about Denver a different way. It was one more milepost marking how the family was fragmenting, with all the people going their own way. Modern families did that. It was part of how things worked. Rob spent so much time on the road with his silly band, he was like a stranger when he did drift back into town.
“Listen, Mom, I’ve gotta go. Break’s about over,” Vanessa said. “I’ll try to come by before I move, or maybe we can have lunch or something. ’Bye.”
“ ’Bye,” Louise echoed, but she was talking to a dead phone. She sighed again and stowed hers in her handbag. She’d spent upwardsf twenty years— the best years of my life , she thought, sincerely if not originally—raising the kids. And for what? To see them scatter to the winds, the way kids did. From their point of view, it was as if she hadn’t done a goddamn thing.
Which meant . . . what? She frowned. Thinking about What Stuff Meant—in capital
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