Page 18 of Nomad

She turned on the radio and scanned the dial from one end to the other then said, “That’s it. What’s your pleasure?”

“Don’t care. You choose.”

Bud put it on a country station and settled back into the passenger seat.

Cann was thinking back to Molly’s pregnancy and how awful morning sickness had been.

“You ever get sick?” he said. “At your stomach?”

“I did.” Her hand automatically went to her abdomen like she couldn’t talk about it without touching. “That’s over now. It wasn’t fun at all.”

“So if you graduated from high school in June and your dad wanted you to go to college, how come you’re not in school?”

“I was gonna go to Texas Tech, but I found out I was pregnant. So I told Daddy I decided I wanted to go to a different school and start in January. The different school part was true.”

“Where was it you wanted to go?”

“Where does everybody in the known universe who’s in their right mind want to go? The University of Texas, Austin.”

He nodded. “Don’t imagine Texas Tech has much to say about city planning.”

“Tell me about it.”

“So why were you goin’ there?”

“Daddy was transferred to the Lubbock office last month.”

“And you needed to go where he was living?”

“He wanted me to live at home. I guess so he wouldn’t have to pay somebody else to do the stuff I do.”

“What kind of stuff do you do?”

“You know. Everything. Shopping. Cleaning up. Laundry. Cooking.”

“Seriously.”

“Yeah. It’s just been the two of us most of my life. When I was little he got help sometimes, but he told them to teach me how to do stuff and by the time I was, hmmm, maybe eleven? I could handle it.”

“Jesus.” Cann was remembering what he’d been doing when he was eleven. He and his brother had been out on bicycles looking for trouble and never failing to find it.

“What? It’s not as bad as it sounds. Actually it was pretty good because he was gone a lot and I could do what I wanted.”

“You mean he left you alone? When you were eleven?”

“Don’t sound so shocked. I was very mature for my age.”

“Like you are now.”

“You teasing me, Johns?”

As that question seeped into his brain, his mind immediately formed a picture of Molly hanging sheets on a line to dry. Her grandmother had taught her that sheets dried in clean air have a smell and crisp feel that no dryer can reproduce. It was a lot of extra trouble, but Molly thought it was worth it.

So Cann had put a clothes line at the back of their property and once a week plain white sheets could be seen hanging from the parallel lines. He’d been surprised that Target had wooden clothes pins. He would have thought they’d be a vintage item for sale on Ebay or some such, but there they were as she said they’d be. He bought enough to last a lifetime.

He’d come home one day in the middle of the afternoon and surprised her while she was hanging up the sheets. He grabbed her from behind and breathed in deep, as always enjoying the fruity smell of her shampoo. When she squealed, the baby who was sitting in the playpen nearby was startled and kicked up a fuss. It took some doing to convince his little girl that Cann was a good reliable daddy and not a monster.

All the while he was trying to calm the baby down, Molly was laughing at him for starting a ruckus.

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