Sleeping Beauties by Susanna Moore

coyotes. It just disappeared. He called to see if we’d seen any around the pool, looking for water.”
    “How did he know coyotes killed the dog?”
    Judy shrugged. “He was mad because the dog was so expensive. He said if he’d known that coyotes were going to eat a thousand-dollar dog, he’d have just gone to the pound.” She stopped to write something in her notebook and Clio waited patiently. When she finished, they turned onto a side road that led to a grove of pepper trees. There was a small camp of mobile homes near the trees. The trailers looked as if they’d been there for years, dried leaves and branches banked against the scalloped metal borders of each small plot. If they took the side road, they’d reach the pepper trees without having to go through the camp.
    “Are there ever girls here when I’m away?” Clio asked. She looked at the flat ocean far below them, embarrassed by her question. There was a smell of salt, and wild mustard.
    “Girls?”
    “When I’m with Mimi. When I’m not here.”
    “Sometimes there are girls here,” Judy said hesitantly, “but you know them—Jumbo’s girlfriend comes with him, and C.Z.’s wife.”
    “Did you ever go out with Tommy?” Clio pulled a long stalk of mustard flowers through her fingers, and her hand was suddenly full of tiny yellow petals. “You know, like Mimi.” She ate some of the flowers. “You seem to know his ways. Much better than I do, I think.”
    “He’s my brother,” Judy said.
    Clio stopped in the road to gaze at the petals as thin as wet rice paper in her hand. The air smelled like hot tar. Waves of heat rose in oily streams around them. She tried to shake the petals from her palm.
    “I never knew whether he told you or not.”
    Clio’s palms were moist and the petals stuck to her skin. “Why do you do it?” she asked.
    “He likes me to be nearby.”
    “No. I don’t mean that.”
    “If I’d stayed at home, I’d be working in a submarine shop.”
    “Submarine shop?”
    “Making those long sandwiches. At least here I get to meet people. It’s never cold. I get to go swimming in a pool whenever I want.”
    “That is why people live in California.”
    “It’s better than what they had.”
    “Why is it a secret?”
    “A secret?”
    “Yes.”
    “It isn’t a secret, really. He just doesn’t think about it. It doesn’t mean anything to him.” She hesitated. “Maybe you better not let on you know, if he didn’t tell you. Maybe he doesn’t want you to know. He might be mad.”
    “I think that is called a secret.”
    Judy pulled the top from the pen and ran it along the metal spiral of the steno pad. It made a bright clicking sound and the insects singing in the field suddenly fell silent.
    “Do you think he’d fire me?”
    “Oh,” Clio said, furious, “I don’t know.” She began to walk.
    “I was surprised when he married you,” Judy said, catching up with her. “He never tells me these sort of things, but he said you were quiet. You knew how to behave. He’s not used to that. And it was time for him to get married. For his career, I mean. Everyone thought it was a good idea. You had class, he said. And you weren’t after him because of who he was. You were the first one who wasn’t. He didn’t know anyone like you before.” She was out of breath.
    “I wasn’t after him,” Clio said, stopping to look at her. “I was trying to get away.”
    “Away? Away from what?”
    Clio saw the sudden glint of a satellite dish in the trailer camp and it was blinding for a moment. She put her hands to her eyes. “From home. Like you.” She turned and started down the mountain.
    “Are you mad at me?” Judy asked, following her. “I don’t know anyone like you, either.”
    “I think you should find another job. We both should.”
    “You do?”
    “No more Tucks boxes.”
    “You know, I used to be embarrassed to buy them. In case the checkout girl thought they were for me! Can you imagine! I know it’s