Earthly Possessions - Anne Tyler [38]
“One moment.”
Something in the lines turned off and on. There was a pause and then a thin voice said, “Hello?”
“Hello. Mindy?”
“Who’s this?”
I handed the receiver to Jake. “Hey there,” he said. He grinned. “Yeah, yeah, it’s me. I’m here. No, that was just—well, I’m fine. How’re you?”
He listened a long time. His face grew serious again. “Sorry to hear that,” he said. “Really? Well, I’m sorry to … look here, Mindy, I need to know something. Has anybody been asking for me? Asking if you knew my whereabouts? You sure, now. No I’m not in no trouble, quit that. Just tell me where to come for you.”
I pressed my back against the glass of the booth, trying to get more room. I watched Jake’s fingers tap the directory and then grow still. “Why not?” he said. “It ain’t even dark yet. Look, now, Mindy, we’re in sort of a hurry here, we … how’s that? Naw. What would I be doing with a ladder?”
He listened a while longer. “Yeah, well,” he said. “First left after the … sure. Sure I got it, I ain’t that stupid. Okay. Bye.”
He hung up and dug his fingers into his hair. “Shoot,” he said.
“What’s the matter?”
“First she says she can’t get free today, wants me to come at midnight instead and fetch her down a ladder. A ladder! I tell you, sometimes that Mindy is so … and when I say no, she says then maybe she’ll meet me at six tomorrow morning. Maybe, maybe not. What is she playing at now?”
“I would think a ladder would be sort of … risky,” I said.
“You don’t know Mindy, that’s just the kind of thing she admires,” he said. “I’m surprised she don’t want me charging up on a horse.”
We left the booth and went into the grocery store. Jake chose a Gillette, a can of lather, a giant bottle of Coke, and a bag of Doritos. I saw a freezer full of orange juice and developed a craving for some, but he said it would be too much trouble to mix. He was very short-tempered, I thought. He cruised the aisles, muttering to himself, hurrying me along whenever I slowed down. “Come on, come on, we ain’t got all night.”
“The way I see it, all night’s just what we do have,” I said.
“This is not the time to start acting smart,” he told me.
After we’d finished in the grocery store we drove on through Linex, which had turned a silvery color now that the sun was down. We traveled so far I wondered if we were going for good, giving up on Mindy. I thought that would be fine. (Even leaving someone else’s loved one could fill me with a kind of wicked joy.) But then Jake slowed the car and peered at the woods to his right. He said, “This here will have to do, I guess.” A brown wooden sign spelled out TUNSAQUIT KAMP-GROUNDS in chiseled letters. We turned onto a dirt road and bounced along, passing an empty bulletin board, a Johnny-on-the-Spot, and several trashcans. Finally the road ended. Jake stopped the car and slumped back. “Well,” I said. “Yeah, well,” he said.
He rolled down the window. This deep in the woods it was already twilight, and a mushroom-smelling chill hit us like a faceful of damp leaves. He rolled the window up again. “I thought at least they’d have picnic tables,” he said.
“Maybe we could try further on.”
“Nah.”
I pulled my raincoat around me but Jake just sat there, drumming his fingers on the steering wheel. Finally I reached into the grocery bag and opened the Doritos. “Have some,” I said. He shook his head. I took a handful myself and ate them one by one. “They’re good,” I told him. “Try and see.”
“I ain’t hungry.”
“If we just had that orange juice they’d be perfect.”
“Now, how’d we mix orange juice way off here in the woods? Besides, I had to watch the money. We’re almost out.”
“If you’re watching the money, why’d you buy the razor?” I said. “I’d rather have orange juice.”
“Well, I would rather have a shave,” said Jake. He straightened up and checked his face in the mirror. “Death Row Jethro,” he said, and sank back. “She’d take one look and run. I can’t abide not shaving.”
“I can’t abide not eating fruit,” I told him. “I just have this craving; I believe I’m getting scurvy.”
“Will you quit that? Will you just stop dwelling