time flies by claire cook

7/29/2019 Time Flies by Claire Cook

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http://www.facebook.com/clairecookauthorpage


2/13

Time Flies

Claire Cook


3/13

To my high school classmates, and yours.


4/13

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5/13

ChApTer 1

When my cell phone rang, Id just nished cutting up my mar-

riage mattress.

I put down my chain saw careully so it wouldnt scratch the

hardwood oor. Ten I slid my saety glasses up to the top o my

head like a headband and reached or my phone.Hello-oh, I said.

Hey, B.J. said. Its me. Whats up?

I pued a sprinkling o sawdust rom the phone. Not much.

Same old, same old.

So, check your emailthe invitation just went out. You are

coming up or our reunion, right?

N Wh I h k h d h i


6/13

2 ClAire Cook

B.J. blew a raspberry into the phone line. No way is not

an acceptable answer. Youre going. No excuses. Youre not still

mooning around about Kurt, are you?You mean like counting the days till he sends me a Hallmark

card or Almost Ex-Wies Day?

B.J. still laughed exactly like she had in high school, a series o

sharp staccato barks. See, your sense o humor is back.

Ha, I said.

What you need is some un in the sun. Plus, i you ask me,

there arent nearly enough opportunities to act like a teenager

once you get to be our age, so weve got to grab any chance we

get. And the good news is we can drink legally this time around.

Great, I said, but Im still not going.

Jan wants all o us to stay at her beach house or the week

Jan who?

Dont give me Jan who. Jan Siskin. Actually, I think its

Reeves now. Or maybe it was Reeves but its now Schro. Or

maybe its Siskin again. Who cares. Anyway, as you well remem-

ber, we kind o hung out with her all our years in high school.

And now she has a beach house.I dont think she really even liked me, I said.

B.J. aimed a blast o air across seven states and into my ear.

Hey, you havent heard rom Veronica, have you?

I sighed. You mean in this millennium?

Shes not returning my phone calls or emails. But. She. Will.

I let B.J.s tenacity wash over me like a wave. When I looked

d I h ll h h ldi l


7/13

Time Fl ies 3

mittee, right? Well, weve decided were not going to mention

either the year we graduated or how many years its been. Were

just going to call it Te Marshbury High School Best Class/BestReunion Evah.

Tats ridiculous. I opened one o the French doors to the

deck o the master bedroom to get rid o the gasoline smell. I

seriously needed to upgrade to a battery-operated chain saw.

Te committee consensus is that the actual numbers might

be a turno. Its a lot o years to wrap your brain around, and none

o us eels that old, and most o us dont look that old, especially

the women, so we just thought it would be more un i we ocused

on the positive.

Which would be?

B.J. let out a little snort. Tat were still alive?

I took a quick stab at the math, then gave up. How many

years hasit been anyway?

Dont even think about it, B.J. said. Its way too depressing.

Come on, we havent seen each other in orever.

Okay, so how about you go to the reunion, and then you can

y down here and tell me all about it.Mel, Im serious.

Me, too. Im seriously not going, B.J., so drop it. Please.

Give me one good reason you shouldnt go.

I sighed. Everyone else will dress better, look better,bebetter

than I am. High school reunions are like a test or personal suc-

cess and Ill slide right o the bell curve. Im not amous, I didnt

i k k h b d l A d I d i


8/13

4 ClAire Cook

One good reason, B.J. said. Im still waiting.

Ater we hung up, I put my cell phone down and contem-

plated the savaged chunks o king-size bed beore me.Its not that I was bitter. I mostly just wanted the springs.

J

Okay, maybe I was a teensy bit bitter.

Our two sons, revor and roy, were seven and six when Kurt

had dragged me kicking and screaming to the suburbs o At-

lanta. Tey were thriving on sandy summers boogie-boarding at

the beach and snowy winters sledding down the biggest hill in

our little seaside Massachusetts town. We lived a tree-lined walk

away rom the best local elementary school. I had a boring but

comortable part-time job answering phones or a nearby art gal-

lery that let me work my hours around my kids. Mothers hours.

Lie was good.

Kurt said his job oer had come out o the blue. As i it were

luck. Or destiny. Kismet. Serendipity. His old boss had taken a job at

a big Atlanta corporation a ew years beore, where hed been mov-ing up ever since. And now he wanted Kurt to come work or him.

Out o the blue, I repeated as I stirred a pot o homemade

chicken alphabet soup with a wooden spoon. He just called you

out o the blue and said uproot your whole amily and take them

away rom everything theyve ever loved because I have a job or

you. Even though you already have a perectly good job.

h h h ki h d h b k d Gi


9/13

Time Fl ies 5

Kurt shrugged. He loosened the blue-striped tie Id bought

because it reminded me o the way his eyes changed shades in

dierent lights. He unbuttoned the top button o his white shirt.Long-sleeved. Extra starch.

I stared him down. In the ading light o the early evening,

his eyes were a dark navy, almost black.

He looked away rst.

I icked on the kitchen lights and turned my attention back

to the soup.

Smells good, he said as I stirred.

I kept stirring.

Okay, I put out a ew eelers, he nally said. Its time to

move on. I think Ive taken things as ar as I can here.

For a quick, crazy second I thought he was talking about the

boys and me.

J

Ater I loaded the bed chunks into heavy-duty black plastic con-

tractor bags and dragged them out to the garage, I vacuumed thebedroom. Ten I hauled my mattress-ecked sel into the bath-

room and turned on the water. It sputtered like it always did, then

burst orth in a erocious battle o brushed-nickel showerheads

and body jets. I peeled o my clothes and let the wet needles

pummel me like a bad marriage.

I towel dried while I contemplated putting on actual pants,

h ki d h i d d b d h i d hi


10/13

6 ClAire Cook

I stood on my stone ront steps and blinked against the bright

North Georgia sunshine. Te sun rose later here, and eventually

Id ound out that it was because we were so close to the centraltime zone line. And just south o the oothills o the Blue Ridge

Mountains. Coolish, evergreen-scented mornings gave way to

steamy semi-tropical aternoons that stretched into long cook-

out-on-the-back-patio evenings. An enormous magnolia held

court in the ront yard, surrounded by camellias and Lenten roses,

as well as a solitary blue hydrangea that reminded me o home.

But Id also planted windmill palms and banana trees, plants Id

thought would only grow as ar north as Florida. Surprisingly,

theyd thrived here.

As soon as I opened the barn doors on one side o my Honda

Element, I leaned in and ipped one o the two backseats orward

at the waist. Ten I lited the whole seat up and hooked it to the

side o the car with the carabiner that dangled rom the ceiling. I

circled the car and repeated the steps on the other side. An amaz-

ing amount o empty space materialized, anchored by the Ele-

ments black nonslip rubber-matted oor, which actually hosed

down or easy cleaning. I wanted a house like that.All aboard, I said in my cheeriest talking-out-loud-to-

yoursel voice. Next stop, Ikea. Id done my online research. You

couldnt beat the design or the price. Ater all the years o com-

promiseKurts traditional taste trumping my ownI wanted a

clean-lined, ultramodern bed. Te latex mattress Id decided on

even came rolled, so Id just get someone at the store to help me

h hi i h b k El d h


11/13

Time Fl ies 7

hill in my sae little neighborhood and pretended I was just going

to Publix or Whole Foods, or to get my hair done. I was still ne

as I navigated the interminable crush o trafc on Roswell Road,with lanes that mysteriously disappeared and tried to trick you

into turning right when you didnt want to.

Long rows o burgundy and pink crepe myrtle graced the

islands in the center o the road, anked by mounds o cheery

yellow Stella dOro daylilies. Enclaves o new brick and stone

neighborhoods peeked out between clumps o chain stores and

restaurants. I you could shop it or eat it, you could nd it within

a three-mile radius o my house. Except or Ikea.

Te instant I saw the sign or the highway, my mouth went

dry. Id stay to the right, drive as slowly as I needed to. Anybody

who didnt like it could just go around me.

My hand shook as I clicked on my blinker.

I could do this.

I willed my oot to stay on the accelerator. I wound my way

up the on-ramp slowly, pretending I didnt see the car behind me

getting right on my butt.

Te eeder lane dumped me out onto the highway. Te carbehind me screeched past and catapulted into the maze o speed-

ing steel as i it were hurling itsel o a cli. Lane ater lane ater

lane stretched out to my let, cars ying downhill at terriying

speeds.

Anxiety sat on my chest like a baby elephant. Te skin on my

arms prickled, closing me in, walling o any hope o escape. Im-

di d li b d i d k h b id


12/13

8 ClAire Cook

not to eel the angry orce o the mammoth vehicles that whizzed

by my let shoulderSUV, tractor-trailer, SUV, car, SUV, SUV,

SUV. I risked a quick peek at the speedometer and made myselpush it up to ty-ve. Tat was respectable, wasnt it? I mean, i

you could drive ty-ve miles per hour, you were perectly nor-

mal, right?

I just had to drive past our highway exits, take the th, and

then it was only a hop, skip, and a jump to Ikea.

Breathe.

A sign came into view announcing that the rst exit was

coming up in three miles. I tried to picture driving past it, but

I couldnt even imagine reaching it. For three endless miles I

white-knuckled it.

By the time the rst exit nally appeared, I knew I had to get

o the highway. But it elt as though ear had rozen my arms in

place.

I had to get o. I couldnt get o.

I orced mysel to lunge or my blinker, my hand shaking as i

I had Parkinsons, and managed to turn the wheel and escape the

highway our exits too soon. I crawled my way to a semi-desertedast-ood parking lot just down the road rom the o-ramp.

I leaned back against the headrest until my sweat chilled and

my heartbeat returned almost to normal.

Maybe Id just sleep in the guest room.


13/13

Get Time Flies

at any of these retailers or at a bookstore

near you!

Enter the TIME FLIES REUNION SWEEPSTAKES for a weekend at LakeAustin Spa Resort!

www.clairecook.com

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