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

Got her in before she messed up her panties, Tomi following quiet as a
mouse. HeтАЩs not quite big enough to send into the boysтАЩ room alone yet.
Then she didnтАЩt want to wash her hands, and when I made her, she got her
hands and face and hair and T-shirt and the floor all wet, and glared up at
me like I did it. She stomped out of the bathroom with her sneakers going
squish, squish, squish.
I looked in to see if I knew any of the drivers. Kimberlea and Avis were
both there, still going along the same route I was. I met Avis for the first
time in Minneapolis on this run. Kimberlea I met soon after I started. The
women on the road tell me you can go forever between seeing someone
twice, so that was lucky. As long as we kept going along the same route,
taking our full breaksтАФwho wouldnтАЩt take her full break?тАФso theyтАЩd be the
same length, weтАЩd keep meeting up. Kimberlea is older than my mama,
maybe forty, and she used to do keypunching in the very last office that
still used it, years and years after everyone else stopped, until the business
was sold and they retired the old-time system. Her kids are twelve and
eight, and she was even married when she had them.
Avis was having trouble with her boy. Her one-year-old twins were in
the big playpen in the middle of the dining room, the boy screaming his
head off. I looked at Cilehe, but she just stared at the kid with big round
eyes, didnтАЩt copy him. The baby wailed, while Avis drank Coke with her
face turned away from him, her eyebrows down and her mouth real tight,
trying to act like the baby wasnтАЩt there.
тАЬBut I donтАЩt know if I want green or blue,тАЭ she was saying to Kimberlea.
Kimberlea sighed. тАЬGirl, what do you need with neon fingernails?тАЭ I put
Cilehe in the pen, away from AvisтАЩs boy, and let Tomi sit next to me.
тАЬJust because IтАЩm stuck in a truck all day doesnтАЩt mean I canтАЩt look
good!тАЭ Avis is a couple years younger than me, maybe seventeen.
тАЬThat sort of thing costs money. You donтАЩt get that much to save.тАЭ
тАЬSo what else do I have to spend it on?тАЭ
тАЬYou can save it,тАЭ Kimberlea said stubbornly.
тАЬRight, and maybe in twelve years when my babies are teenagers and
they let me out, IтАЩll have a couple hundred bucks!тАЭ Avis took a long drink
of her Coke. Kimberlea and I said hi. тАЬSo why not order the implant kit
and have something now?тАЭ
тАЬCouple hundred dollars is better than nothing. And you could save
more than that.тАЭ
тАЬOn what the government gives us?тАЭ Avis snorted and peeled open a
Snickers.
тАЬI save six dollars a week,тАЭ Kimberlea said.
тАЬYou told us,тАЭ Avis said.
Last stop, KimberleaтАЩd laid out her whole plan over breakfast. SheтАЩs
studying for her accounting license. AccountingтАЩs just a matter of using
spreadsheets and stuff, she said, but they still make you study for it. The
course work costs, and then you have to get a license, which is a lot of
money even before the bribes. She saves every penny. DoesnтАЩt even use up
her food vouchers; sells the leftovers back to the government for half value,
or sometimes to other truckers for two thirds. Her plate had scraps of
meat loaf and carrots. Not even Jell-O for dessert. She stays husky just the
same.