County Line Road Read Online Free Page B

from the airline that laid him off years ago. Jimmy hadn’t seen the name and logo for a long time since they went out of business. No TV commercials, no billboards, no paychecks. Jimmy remembered how his father looked in that uniform and how he used to want to be a pilot back then.
    He moved some jackets aside and found hats. Baseball caps from pro teams, some still in the packages, and then one from his high school. It was Rich’s baseball cap when he was captain of the team. It still had orange dust on it from the field. Jimmy smelled it. A mixture of dirt and grass. Rich used to smell like that all the time. Now he just stunk of cigarette smoke, Jimmy thought.
    Behind some t-shirts was another box. It was so heavy, Jimmy struggled with it. He got it down and opened it on the floor. The smell of his mother’s perfume hit him like a nuclear shock wave. It flattened him emotionally, and he had to sit down. There were birthday cards he and Rich had given their mom, photographs, and mementos.
    Jimmy lifted out a stack of his elementary school drawings, revealing a heavy piece of plaster. He recognized it immediately. It was the hand stamp he’d made in kindergarten for his mom. He was so happy to see it, but when he tried to pick it up, his joy dropped. It was broken in half. How did it break? He didn’t remember that. And why was it here? How come his mother didn’t have it with her?
    He turned the pieces over in his hands and saw the letters “my” written in his childhood scrawl. As he wondered if it was part of “Mommy” or “Jimmy”, he heard the kitchen door open.
    He shoved the plaster pieces back in the box, covered them with the other things, and heaved the box up on his shoulder, panic rising in his stomach.
    He heard keys drop on the kitchen table and the refrigerator open and shut.
    He wedged the box back in place and shoved the t-shirts and hats in front of it. He slipped out quietly, closing the closet door without a sound. The next target was the bedroom door. He didn’t know who was home, but it didn’t matter. He skirted the bed and paused at the open door to listen.
    It was quiet.
    Jimmy ventured one foot out the door, and hearing nothing, he pulled his whole body through as if it were a force field in some science fiction movie. He escaped down the hall, aiming for his bedroom as if it were the light at the end of a tunnel. He ripped his t-shirt over his head, fearing it held the smell from the box, and threw it in his open closet where a row of trophies of runners looked down from the top shelf. He pulled a new shirt from his dresser draw so fast, the trophies there wobbled. He grabbed one to steady it.
    “All that training sure is paying off,” Linda said from behind him.
    “Shit, Linda, I didn’t see you,” Jimmy said.
    “Well, I see you,” she said, smiling.
    He wasn’t sure if she meant she’d seen him come out of her room or what. If she’d seen him, she’d already be laying into him, he figured. Unless she’s hiding it and will use it against me later, accuse me of stealing something else.
    “You look just like those pictures of your dad when he was younger.”
    Relieved, he busied himself with brushing his hair.
    “Where have you been?” she asked.
    “I just got home from the beach,” he said, hoping that’s what she meant. “I gotta’ take a shower.”
    She still stood in his doorway, so he squeezed past her, turning sideways to avoid her. He retreated to the bathroom. He noticed she was dressed for work in her nurse’s outfit and shoes. She must have just gotten off work, he thought and was glad, hoping she’d be tired as usual and hide out in her room as she did most of the time after her shift.
    “I bought your father a new Marlins shirt to take his mind off the baseball. Want to see it?” Linda smoothed her blouse, running her hands down her sides to her hips as if there were wrinkles. How could there be wrinkles, Jimmy thought, as his eyes went to her blouse