Burn District 1 Read Online Free Page B

age of another lady.”
    Laughing, my dad nodded his head. “I gotcha. Is she available?” I stopped walking toward the trailer and looked at him carefully. Who was this man?
    “She’s not married, if that’s what you’re asking. Why so interested? She doesn’t seem like your type.” My dad sighed.
    “My type is a woman who can speak English, isn’t a drunk, a skeleton or a doper.”
    “I didn’t know you were looking,” I replied. My premonition when we were on the road about Kelly and my father-in-law came back to me; it was just about a different father.
    “Mom’s been gone two years,” he said. “I’ve been doing the online dating thing for six months, and if you knew what I have been through, you wouldn’t be so stingy with your friends. Now, of course, I doubt there will be anything like online dating in the new world.” I thought about what he was saying and it hit me, hard. The New World.
    “Dad, that’s not the point. If you start anything with her and it doesn’t work out, then what do we do? We can’t abandon Kelly because you decide she isn’t for you.” He chuckled, and I could see he was embarrassed and understood what I was getting at.
    “So, tell me about your dates.”
    “How much time do you have?” he said. I peeked in the front door and the boys were watching a Pirates of the Caribbean DVD while Mike snoozed in my dad’s old recliner. Closing the door again, I pointed back at the fire pit, forgetting about our lunch.
    “We have the rest of our lives. Let’s go sit down again and you can tell me all about it.” Steve pulled a cooler out of the back of his truck and dragged it over to the fire pit.
    “Beer?” He held one up but I shook my head.
    “If I start drinking now I’ll be sleeping by dinner time. Get on with the story, please.”
    “Okay, well before I tell you the dating stories, let me clear the air about another matter. After you sent me the link for the forums, I went online to read and decided it was a bunch of bull crap.” I started to protest but he put his hand on my arm. “Let me finish.”
    “Remember that fishing trip I went on with my brother Dave last month? To the Outer Banks?”
    “I think I remember. What about it?”
    “Dave and I left for home after dinner that Sunday, and by the time we got to Florence, we needed gas, so we got off the interstate. There are no rest stops with stations along that stretch of highway.” I wondered where my dad was going with this and stifled a yawn. “Dave got out to pump the gas. He knocked on the window and pointed toward the road. It was like a race had started. Out of nowhere, cars took off from the light and were racing toward the entrance to the highway, jockeying for position.
    “I rolled down my window and shouted for him to hurry. I’d just read in the forums about a burn outside of Baltimore and witnesses said the same thing had happened; all of a sudden, people were fleeing, and within minutes, the city was bombed.” I grabbed my father’s arm.
    “Dad, why is this the first time I’m hearing this?” What surprised me is that we’d both heard similar stories for months and chose not to do anything about it. We stayed in our homes waiting, because it was comfortable there.
    “I didn’t want to scare you, and I knew you were making provisions. I had a few things to pull together and then I was going to tell you to quit your jobs and meet me.”
    “Okay, I’m sorry I interrupted you. What happened next?” My dad rubbed his face before he continued; I could see he was anxious talking about it. He stood up, pacing.
    “Come with me for a second.” He led me to his truck where he pointed to the bumper. The chrome lookalike had a wavy appearance, as if it had been exposed to extreme heat.
    “What happened to it?” He led me back to our seats.
    “What happened was that we were in line to get on the interstate and the hit was so close, the car behind us exploded into flames.”
    “Oh my