Once in a Blue Moon by Diane Darcy Page B

Sarah’s throat. “Well, I never! Good day.” She turned
and stomped away, her back stiff.
    Melissa realized the
chubby woman had taken offense to her words, and her mouth parted.
“Wait! I wasn’t trying to insult you!”
    After a quick, scared
glance, Emma scurried after Sarah.
    Amanda stood for a
moment, a mocking smile curving her lips. “Well, your children are
delightful anyway.” She bowed her head graciously to Melissa.
“Forgive me for rushing off so soon, but I must get back to my
menial labor. Good day.”
    Melissa stood in the
cabin’s doorway, gaping for a moment, then her lips tightened and
she slammed the door. Good day? Good riddance to all of them was
more like it!
    She
started to pace. She hadn’t been trying to insult anyone. And if
she’d wanted to insult them, she could have! Their hair, their
clothes, their uneducated hick accents! She hated it here. Hated it ! First Richard,
and now these women.
    She paused. And what
was Richard going to say when he realized she’d alienated the
neighbors? Would it matter to him that she hadn’t done it on
purpose? Probably not. Not in the mood he was in today.

Chapter
Seven
     
    Melissa walked to the
table, then back to the door again, the lack of pacing space
irritating her further.
    “Uh, Mom?” Jeremy
stepped forward and held out the last cookie.
    She snatched the
offering. “Just who do those country bumpkins think they are
anyway?” She waved the cookie in the air.
    Jeremy opened his mouth
to answer.
    “ Like it matters . What do I care about what they think? When I start my new
job, I won’t have time to socialize anyway, even if I wanted to.
Which, of course, I don’t! ”
    Jeremy shrugged and sat
beside Jessica.
    “Like I’d even want
to,” Melissa said darkly. She stared at the cookie in her hand,
confused about how it came to be there. She set it on the
table.
    Jeremy picked it up and
split it in half, offering Jessica the second piece.
    Melissa took a deep,
calming breath. The best use of her time at this moment would be to
forget all about the Pollyanna Brigade, get out of the cabin and
find herself a job. It was still early. They’d left Sully’s at
first light, and granted, the walk had been slow, but it must only
be eight or nine in the morning. That gave her all day to find a
job. Not that it would take that long. If she hurried, she might
even be employed by lunchtime.
    She glanced around. It
certainly beat hanging around the cabin, waiting for Richard to
come back. Besides, they needed the money; to buy her a new dress,
for starters! Or to buy the material, thread and needles so she
could create her own dress. She’d show those women!
    Two miles. She groaned
at the thought of walking in tight shoes again. Give her a
treadmill and she could walk four miles without breaking a sweat.
What she wouldn’t give for her Nikes, spandex shorts and sports bra
right about now.
    But at least it wasn’t
as far into town as it was to Sully’s. She stopped pacing, sat on a
chair and took off her shoes so she could examine her feet. Her
nylons were in bad shape, runs shooting up in all directions, a
mauve-painted toenail sticking through the end of one. She stripped
them off. Her heels, red and irritated, hadn’t quite formed
blisters, but it was close. What she wouldn’t do for a pair of
exercise shoes and some soft socks.
    She looked at Jessica’s
feet.
    Jessica tucked her
black punk sneakers under the chair and shook her head.
“Uh-uh.”
    “I only want to borrow
them.”
    “They’re too small for
you anyway.”
    “What size are
they.”
    “Six and a half.”
    Jessica was right, they
were too small. Melissa’s gaze switched to Jeremy’s shoes.
    Jeremy sat back and
crossed his arms, not bothering to hide his shoes. “It will never
happen, Mom.”
    Melissa could see he
meant it. She sprang up. “Fine.” She walked across the cold
linoleum to the chest, retrieved some stockings and two
handkerchiefs. She pulled the stockings