After the Fire

After the Fire by Jane Rule Page B

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Authors: Jane Rule
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said.
    “Right out of the late movie on TV last night,” Karen said.
    “Why always watch it alone?” Adam asked.
    Karen shrugged and turned away. Adam didn’t usually pressure her in this way, but, since Sally and Sarah had been here, he had begun to test her. She wasn’t sure how to handle it and didn’t want to. She had worked at being one of the boys for a year, and she wanted it to stay that way.
    The ferry parking lot between sailings was an ideal place for Karen to teach Red the basics of driving. They agreed to meet there on Wednesday and Friday mornings between the 8:10 departure of the ferry to the mainland and its arrival back at 10:20. Without a gearshift to manipulate, Red was confident enough for the road after the first hour, and she drove them to the store for morning coffee.
    It was an older crowd who gathered here, the first place where you might learn who had dropped dead at the bridge table last night, whose daughter was pregnant, or who had taken the money yesterday at the golf course. Over the months Karen hadn’t exactly been accepted here. She was more friendly with the younger women who worked behind the counter than with the other customers, but by now they expected her. The lack of greeting when she arrived with Red surprised her. Red seemed to take no notice.
    “No coffee?” Karen asked as Red waved a hand against the cup Karen was about to pour her.
    “I’ll get juice,” Red said.
    “How long do you have to live on this island before you turn into a health freak?” Karen asked amiably.
    “Until you get pregnant,” Red answered.
    Karen glanced around, but no one seemed to have heard the remark. She led them to an isolated corner before she asked almost in a whisper, “Are you?”
    Red nodded.
    Karen still did not dare pursue the subject until they were back in the car.
    “What are you going to do?”
    “Have it,” Red said.
    “Do you want it?”
    “That’s why I’m pregnant,” Red said.
    “When?”
    “In about four and a half months.”
    “You’re going to do it all by yourself?” Karen asked.
    “Only way,” Red said. “Don’t you ever think about having a kid?”
    “I’m gay,” Karen said, surprised at how undefensively it came out.
    “I know,” Red said, “but that doesn’t make any difference.”
    “I suppose not,” Karen admitted, “but I haven’t thought about it since I was a kid myself and just assumed I’d have to. I don’t think I ever liked the idea.”
    “I don’t like the idea now,” Red granted. “But there’s no other way I’d get a baby.”
    “Are you afraid?”
    “Sometimes, a little bit, but mostly I think about how it will be when I have the baby.”
    “Do you think people are going to give you a bad time?”
    “There’ll be nothing new about that,” Red said. “I told Mrs. Hawkins. She was all right.”
    “She would be,” Karen said.
    She wanted to go on to say that she’d do anything she could to help, but it was too early in this new stage of friendship to make offers for the future. What Karen had to do now was build Red’s trust so that she could just assume Karen’s help when the time came.
    Blackie, tied to the toll booth, was hysterical at the sight of them as Red steered the car through the narrow pay lane and out onto the wide blacktop with its reassuring margin of error. Karen used the marked lanes to teach Red the finer points of steering.
    “If there had been a car in that lane,” Karen chided, “you would have taken off its fender.”
    While Red practiced, the dog continued to bark.
    “I’m going to kill that dog before I get her trained,” Red said finally.
    “That’s what I’d think about a crying baby,” Karen confessed. “Better you let that dog develop your patience.”
    Red looked at Karen and grinned. “You’re right.”
    There were two cars already lined up at the toll booth. Rat had gotten out of his and was playing with Blackie by the time Karen and Red reached the booth. In the

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