The Wonder Bread Summer Read Online Free Page A

envelopes. Jonas unscrewed the lid and held out the jar.
    “I did enough today,” Allie said. “It’s not my thing.”
    “Do two capfuls and I promise I’ll give you your paycheck,” Jonas said.
    “Please just give me my paycheck.” Allie was afraid she’d start crying. In all her life, she had never felt such overwhelming powerlessness and frustration.
    “Look how small the scoop is!” Jonas pointed at the pen cap in Allie’s hand. Allie silently conceded (she wouldn’t give Jonas the satisfaction of saying it) that it was tiny. “Two hits are like what a mouse would snort.”
    “Mice don’t do coke except in laboratories where it’s fed to them. Please, Jonas. I don’t want to do drugs. Seriously. I’m not that type of person.” Allie’s entire back lifted and fell as she tried to breathe.
    “Two mouse capfuls and then I swear on my godmother’s life I’ll give you your check and you never have to do drugs again in your life. Ever. I’ll even swear on my dead mother.” Jonas crossed himself with the baby-food jar.
    Allie took the jar. She could see no other way out. And two capfuls would be a lot less than she had already done earlier—maybe she wouldn’t even feel it.
    With the tiny piece of plastic pinched between her first finger and her thumb, Allie dipped into the jar and pulled out the smallest anthill she thought she could get away with. She lifted it to one nostril and sniffed. She dipped again and did the other nostril.
    “Good girl,” Jonas said, and he leaned back on the stool and smiled at her.
    Allie noticed that her purse was no longer in his hands. “Where’s my purse?” she asked.
    “In the stockroom. Don’t worry about it.” Jonas pulled the curtain shut then unlatched his gold belt buckle.
    “Don’t!” Allie said. “Keep your pants on. Please.”
    “Keep my pants on?” Jonas laughed. “Keep my pants on?!”
    Allie felt the coke come alive in her head. It was like two loose wires had suddenly been connected in her brain and she was now pulsing enough electricity to light up the TransAmerica pyramid. “There’s no time for that. I really need to get paid and go.” The current jumped from Allie’s head to her chest, then out the tips of her fingers and toes. She felt glowing, white-hot.
    “Just show me your tits,” Jonas said. “Come on!” He started to unbutton his slacks.
    “No!” Allie said. “Don’t do it yet.”
    “Yet?” Jonas smiled. He drummed his thick fingers on his fly. His fingernails looked like shiny nacreous seashells.
    “Let’s do more coke first,” Allie said, stalling for time. She dipped, then lifted the pen cap and tried to fake a snort. Even though her hand was inches from her nostrils, she could feel freckles of powder sailing up her nose. The electricity tunneled into her bloodstream and was now jolting against the walls of her veins like a bolt of lightning trapped in a rabbit hole. The fitting room swelled upward and Jonas’s gold belt buckle charged back and forth like the train in the Soul Train opening credits. “Is this the same stuff we did earlier?” Allie asked, and she placed the baby-food jar and the pen cap on the ground beside the stool for fear she’d drop them or electrically shoot them off her hands.
    “It’s cut with a little something special,” Jonas said. His smile seemed to spread into the walls. “Now give me the tits and I’ll take off my pants.”
    “Wait a minute,” Allie said. “I’ve got an idea.”
    “You’ve got an idea?” Jonas laughed and Allie thought she felt vibrations from the hahahaha pricking at her cheeks.
    “Yeah. Listen to this.” Allie’s words were bumping into each other with a rush. “I’m going to get totally and completely naked in the other room.”
    “Totally naked?” Jonas flicked his tongue around and shook his head. Allie saw trails of his ears as if they were each a deck of cards splayed out on a table.
    “Uh-huh. Naked except for my shoes.” Allie