No Way Out by Fern Michaels (great books for teens .TXT) 📗

She laughed at the idea that she was having conversations with her animals.

At first, she thought talking to Buddy and Percy was just another “symptom,” but she’d read that talking to your pets is a sign of intelligence. The same with inanimate objects. When Ellie had read that, she thought she must be a genius. If she bumped into a chair, she would say, “Excuse me.” The article had been published by a zoological anthropology professor, so she felt that she had permission to converse. And they laughed at Dr. Doolittle.

Chapter Seventeen

After Mitchel’s mom dropped him off at the end of his outing with Jackson, he went into the kitchen to grab a beer. Greg was sitting at the table, reading a golf magazine.

“How did it go?” Greg asked.

Mitchel popped the top and placed the beer on the counter. He leaned back and crossed his arms across his chest, something his mother often did—that is, up until today. “It was really great.” Mitchel uncrossed his arms. “Well, except for running into an old friend.” He used air quotes around “old friend.”

“Oh?” Greg opened the refrigerator and pulled out a beer for himself. “Let’s go outside. You can tell me all about it.”

Greg opened the door for Mitchel to walk outside, figuring Mitchel would want to light up a cigarette. He was surprised when he handed the ashtray to Mitchel and Mitchel refused. At first, Greg thought it would turn out to be an argument and was stunned at Mitchel’s response.

“Nah. But thanks.” Mitchel pulled out one of the patio chairs from the table and took a seat. Greg did the same.

“So?” Greg clinked beer cans with his brother. “Spill.”

“OK. So you know a while back I was kinda misbehaving myself.”

Greg interrupted. “Which ‘while’ are you referring to?” Greg knew that Mitchel had not been on his best behavior for over a year.

“Hah. Funny guy.” Mitch took a pull of his beer. “In Clarkston. Benny’s Barbecue and Burger Grill.” He raised his eyebrows.

“Oh, yes. Benny’s Grill. I recall a young lady waitress worked there?”

“You got two things wrong. She ain’t young, and she ain’t no lady.” Mitchel guffawed.

“Well, you seemed to think so at the time, if I recall.” Greg was egging him on in a brotherly way.

“Aw, c’mon. I never said anything about her being a lady. Far from it, my brother.” The two guys burst out laughing.

“Touché.” Greg tapped Mitchel’s beer can again with his.

“So what happened?”

“OK. So, you know Ma, she was in her usual mood.”

“Let’s not overstate the obvious. Get to the good part.” Greg sat back in the chair, waiting for the juicy bits.

“Yea. So we get to Benny’s, and I had totally forgotten about Lucinda until she appeared at our table. I should say flew to our table on her broomstick.”

“How could you forget she worked there?”

“It’s been a year, and I had forgotten that she works the Saturday day shift. She always said she was a night owl and liked getting off at eleven. She’d say, ‘That’s when all the fun begins.’ ” Mitchel reached in his pocket for a cigarette but thought better of it. He had only smoked one the entire day. Maybe he was on his way to stopping. “Anyway, she comes sauntering over to our table, cracking her gum. She leans into the table and puts her face so close to mine I almost had a heart attack. I thought she was going to smack her lips all over me. So, she starts, ‘Helloooo, Mitchel, long time no see.’ You should have seen Ma bristle. I mean, Lucinda could not have been more obvious. I think she even brushed her breast against my shoulder, but I was frozen in place.”

“Oh, man, Ma must have been having a cow!”

“Several.” Mitchel laughed. “And then Lucinda keeps wiggling her ass every time she walks away.”

“Oh, you managed to catch that, did you?” Greg asked.

“Stevie Wonder would have been able to catch that!” Mitchel almost spit out his beer at his own joke.

“Holy smoke. So what did Ma say?”

“Not a whole lot. She didn’t have to. The looks she was giving me and Lucinda could have stopped a freight train,” Mitchel answered. “I couldn’t wait to get out of there. Then, when I asked for the check, she draped her arm over my shoulder. Man, I thought I was going to have a heart attack. I had no idea what Lucinda might do or say next. It was really bad.”

“And did you get away unscathed?” Gregory pressed.

“Thankfully. But Ma was in such a mood that she refused to go to the movie and wanted to go to the outlet shops.”

“So you skipped the movie?”

“No. Hey, don’t tell Elaine, or anyone. But Jackson and I went to the movies alone.”

“Wow. You were taking a big chance, brother.”

“Yeah. But I wasn’t thinking straight, and you know how Ma can be. She was not going to that movie. I could tell she wanted to get as far away from me as possible. But then the strangest thing happened. When she came back to pick us up, she was in a great mood. It was like she was a totally different person. Somebody I had never seen before. Not just from her mood this morning, but a different person altogether.”

“Retail therapy can do that for a woman.” Greg finished off his beer and got up to get another. He turned to Mitchel. “You want one?”

“Nah. I’m good. Thanks.”

“Speaking of a different person, are you all right?”

“Yeah. Why?” Mitchel asked.

“Because I don’t remember you ever turning down a beer, and you haven’t had a cigarette. Don’t get me wrong. I think it’s great. Hold that last thought. I’ll be right back.”

Greg went into the house to get himself another beer. Elaine was in the kitchen. “What’s going on?” she asked casually.

“Mitch is telling me about his day and how Ma was like a different person by the time”—he stopped short of revealing how