"Martha Soukup - Over the Long Haul" - читать интересную книгу автора (Soukup Martha)

Over the Long Haul
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Martha Soukup




Sometimes I think IтАЩve been in this truck forever, but of course thatтАЩs
not so. I just have to look at my license card if I want the proof:
тАЬShawana Mooney,тАЭ it says, and right next to that the day I got the card,
two years ago. Two weeks after little Cilehe was born, which makes it easy
to remember her birthday.
That name тАЬShawanaтАЭ makes me think sometimes my daddy was a guy
named Shawn Parker. My mama sure cried when he got shot dead when I
was eight, but she wouldnтАЩt say he was my daddy. She just said he was no
good and ran drugs and then she cried some more. Mooney, of course,
thatтАЩs my mamaтАЩs name and her mamaтАЩs, and it was my great-grandmaтАЩs
too. Also my great-grandpaтАЩs. They were married.
Then the cardтАЩs got my picture, which looks terrible with my eyes all
stary the way the camera caught them, but I kind of like the way I had my
hair done then, with all those little braids my grandma put in.
I must look awful now. I look at myself in the big side mirror when I fix
up my makeup, but I donтАЩt really look hard at the whole effect, if you know
what I mean. When Tomi gets a little biggerтАФ heтАЩs barely four
nowтАФmaybe I can teach him to fix my hair.
Or maybe weтАЩll get out of this truck.
I think about that a lot, especially when Cilehe gets cranky and yells.
Which isnтАЩt fair to her of course because what two-year-old wants to grow
up in the cab of a truck, six feet wide and six feet deep? Sure, sheтАЩs got
тАЬSesame StreetтАЭ like I didтАФand a lot of other much more boring TV, like it
or notтАФbut I could go outside besides, even if my grandma was always
warning me about gangs. CileheтАЩs the kind of baby who needs to move
around and tire herself out, which is pretty hard here.
 I know exactly how she feels.
But itтАЩs none of her doing. I tell myself that. I got her by my own
selfтАФwell, I had help, but it isnтАЩt her fault her daddy isnтАЩt in a truck too.
They put the welfare parents who actually are raising the kids in the
trucks. Now, do you know any guy whoтАЩs going to take them? Nope. Both
their daddies were long gone before that happened.
One truck stop looks a lot like another. I was kind of dozing behind the
wheel when it took a big pull right and the truck went on to an exit. I tried
to guess where we wereтАФI thought maybe Nebraska. Sure was flat as hell
out there.
Cilehe started kicking up a fit. She always acts like the last couple
minutes before we stop is a couple of hours, and screaming will make the
truck go faster. The only thing that could make the truck go faster is if I
hit MANUAL OVERRIDE and drove it myself, and IтАЩd better have a damn
good reason for that or itтАЩs big trouble. She was screaming for the potty.
She just started with that, and she doesnтАЩt like the portapotty in the cab.
Me neither. I donтАЩt care what they say, the thing smells.