Annie's Rainbow - Fern Michaels [3]
In her room with the door closed, Annie allowed her eyes to fill with tears. Tomorrow would be the end of the long road she’d traveled these last six years. The optimism Jane saw was just a facade for her friend’s benefit. So many times she’d wanted to give up, to just get a job that paid decent money, to live in a place that didn’t crawl with bugs. She was tired of counting pennies, of eating mayonnaise sandwiches, macaroni and cheese, greasy hamburgers and drinking Kool-Aid because it was cheap. At times she resented the mind-boggling monthly sums of money she had to send for her mother’s care. Tom had a good job, but he also had three small kids and a demanding wife. He paid what he could. Tom didn’t have student loans the way she did. Tom ate steak and roast beef. She hadn’t had a steak in two years. How, she wondered, had she managed to survive all these years sleeping just a few hours each night, studying and working? If you persevere, you will prevail, she told herself. She’d done just that. One more day, and it would be the first day of the rest of her life. An adventure. And she was ready for it.
God, I’m tired.
Annie woke two hours later when Jane banged on her door, shouting, “Annie Daisy Clark, dinner is now being served!”
“Be right there.”
“This looks, uh ... interesting,” Annie said when she took her place at the table.
“Not only is it interesting, it’s delicious. If you don’t like the way it tastes, spread the rest of the grape jam over it. At least it will be sweet, and there isn’t any dessert. Let’s go get an ice-cream cone later. My treat.”
“I’d love an ice-cream cone. Shhh, the news is on. Maybe they caught the other guy. I don’t know why but that whole thing made me really nervous.” Annie’s eyes were glued to the small nine-inch television set perched on the kitchen counter.
“Wow! They caught him! Like he really doesn’t know where the money is. Do you believe that, Annie?”
“I don’t know. There were cops everywhere. They didn’t say who was carrying the money, the one they caught or the one that got shot. The campus security team is helping the police so they have a lot of manpower. They’ll find it. By tomorrow the money will be safely back in the bank vault. We’ll go to the drive-through and close our accounts at eight o’clock when the bank opens. You did good, Jane, this was a decent dinner. I never want to eat macaroni and cheese again as long as I live. You cooked, I’ll clean up.”
“Do you want to pack up the cars before we go for ice cream or after?”
“Let’s do it first. We’ll get it out of the way, and we can take a last walk around the campus. It’s a beautiful spring night.”
“Then that’s exactly what we’ll do. What did we decide about the books?”
“I called the Book Exchange and someone is coming over to pick them up at nine-thirty. We’ll get two hundred and ten dollars. We can stay in a cheap motel one night and not have to worry about making the trip all in one day. How does that sound?”
“Perfect.”
“Okay, while you’re doing the dishes, I’ll go get my car. I can drive yours over, too, if you want me to?”
“That’s okay. There are only a few dishes. It’s going to take you longer to load your car since you have all those paintings. We’ll both finish up at the same time.”
An hour later, Annie carried her last suitcase down to the car. Her small carryall with her cosmetics, along with her laundry bag with the bed linens, would be the last thing to go in the car Sunday morning.
“I have some extra room in the backseat if you need it, Jane.”
“Do you think you can fit my small easel in there? If you can take it, I’ll be able to see out of the rearview mirror.”
“Hand it over,” Annie said.
“Okay, I’ll meet you in the parking lot.”
Annie opened the door to shove the easel between the front-passenger seat and the backseat. When the leg of the easel refused to budge, she shoved it with her shoulder. She looked down to see if her old running shoes were in the way. They were, but it was