Page 77 of The Backtrack
Good. That thing was probably giving
you some kind of radioactive powers
that would make you grow a third arm.
Sam:
But this is weird. Why won’t it turn on?
There’s supposed to be one more song
on the CD.
Rachel:
Who cares. It was weird that you were
seeing things. At least now you’re being
saved from yourself.
Rachel:
Speaking of which, you need to get back
to work, because they’ve put Steve on as
my copilot. No one should have to be
trapped in a small cockpit with Steve and
his steamed broccoli. He eats the stuff for
breakfast, Sam. BREAKFAST BROCCOLI,
he calls it. And then he has the nerve to SMILE.
Rachel:
Please get back soon before I forcibly
eject him from the plane.
Two knocks on Sam’s bedroom door startled her, and she looked over to see Bonnie inching the frame open.
“Are you hungry? The power’s back on at Jessie’s, and your grandma is going to grab a rotisserie chicken from Publix. Apparently, it’s a ten out of ten on their Cluck-Cluck scale, whatever that means.” Bonnie gave a small smile, and Sam forced herself to smile back.
“Yeah,” Sam said. “Sounds great.”
Bonnie held on to the frame, tapped her fingers against it, then said, “Sam, you can ask me anything, you know.”
“Okay.” Sam would use the opening to do exactly that. “How long are you staying?”
Sam wasn’t totally convinced Bonnie would give her an honest answer, but she didn’t want her to think she was just welcome to be here for as long as she liked. Not that it was her house or anything.
“As long as your grandma needs me,” Bonnie said. “There’s a lot to do.”
And then Sam just decided to say the damn thing. “Are you here because you think Pearl is going to give you money or something?”
