Excerpt: In The Wind

Yeah, right. Where are we going? Really? Where?

Florida.

Sure we are, she thought. She just lit a smoke and sat back for the ride. She wondered when he’d tell her where they were really going. Baltimore, probably. He knew a bunch of folks there. She laughed out loud about the last time he took her to the city. They ended up in a really cheesy strip joint in Highlandtown. The kind of place where you want to pay the women to put their clothes back on. When she came back from a trip to the bathroom, one of the girls kept asking her when she was coming back to work. She figured he had put the girl up to it since she’d never been in the place before, and she’d certainly never danced for dollars.

He said, You’re buying into it, huh? The trip? I thought you’d pitch a fit.

She leaned over and said, Sure, honey. I’m in. You’re driving. What am I supposed to do? I don’t think I’d win if we arm wrestled over it. Besides, you would probably wreck, and I’m not ready to check out. Not tonight.

When they zoomed on through Baltimore, she got a little worried. She kept trying to think if he had ever mentioned knowing someone in Washington or anywhere close to the D C area. Somewhere around Laurel they stopped to gas up, and she found a bathroom. She got more smokes and two big cups of coffee and a Coke. She never went anywhere without at least one of the things in reserve somewhere. Jeezus, it was cold. The riding shirt didn’t offer much protection in the wind. Good thing the heater worked in the truck.