The Pumpkin Man

CHAPTER

SEVEN

Jennica closed Meredith’s journal and shook her head. People were crazy all over—fickle, untrustworthy, always ready to kick you in the teeth as soon as they scented a hint of weakness. Her aunt’s journal entry was dated more than twenty-five years ago, but nothing ever really changed. Her aunt sounded more than a little crazy, but the problems she had faced were the same either way. People always sucked. Only the names changed. Jenn knew about trying to be nice to people and having them kick you in the face as thanks.

She curled up in a ball on the couch and hugged her pillow. Reading Meredith’s journal wasn’t helping her mood. For the past few days she’d felt worse than she could ever remember.

From the back of the apartment a sudden pounding beat rocked the picture frames on the wall, and a moment later Kirstin came dancing down the hall in gray sweats and a baggy white Hello Kitty T-shirt singing AC/DC’s “You Shook Me All Night Long.” Jennica couldn’t help but laugh when her roommate held the phantom mic to her lips and then wriggled her hips like a rock star.

“Off the couch, you moody bitch!” Kirstin demanded. She tried to drag her friend up by the hand, but Jennica waved her off. Kirstin didn’t stop, but instead danced her way around the living room, dancing with a lamp and then miming obscene things with a flashlight she pulled from the hall closet until the song ended. Finally she launched herself to land on the cushion next to Jennica, breathing hard.

“Good workout,” she proclaimed. When she caught her breath, she said, “Look Jenn. I know it’s all gone to hell over the past month, but life has to go on. You can’t just keep sitting here.”

“No,” Jenn agreed. “In about forty-five more days we’re going to be sitting in the street.”

Kirstin shook her head. “No we’re not. We’re going to be sitting on the beach in California ogling surfers.”

Jenn raised an eyebrow but said nothing.

“C’mon,” Kirstin continued. “We’ve got no jobs, and in a month we’ve got no place to live. You just got handed the deed to an empty house near the ocean. We should at least go check it out. It’s not like we have anything better to do! You just don’t get opportunities like this very often. And usually, if you do, you’ve got too much going on to make use of the opportunity.” She grabbed her friend by the shoulders, blue eyes hypnotic and wide. “We have no responsibilities. We have nothing to lose. We are two hot chicks with the key to a house on the beach. Let’s go to California!”

“Well, one of us is hot, anyway,” Jenn replied. Kirstin rolled her eyes. “And I don’t actually have the key to the house.”

“Puh-leez. It’ll do us both good to get out of here. We can pack this place up over the next week, put our stuff in storage and go see what your aunt left you. If we like it, maybe we’ll stay. You’ve always said you wanted to live somewhere warmer, and I’ve always wanted to live near a beach.”

“I keep telling you, I don’t think Meredith’s house is near the kind of beach where people actually swim,” Jennica protested.

Kirstin put a finger to her lips. “Where there is ocean, there is swimming.”

Jennica had to admit the idea held an attraction. She’d always hated Chicago winters. And what did they really have to lose? She had no more family, no job, and soon no place to live. But she’d always thought of herself as Aesop’s ant and Kirstin the grasshopper. Wasn’t it more prudent to stay and use the month they had left to make sure they had someplace to live and the money to pay for it?

“What are we going to do when we come back?” she asked.

“We could stay with my mom for a while if it came to that,” Kirstin said. “But maybe, if we’re lucky . . . we won’t be back.”

Jennica shook her head but didn’t say no.

Kirstin stood up and held out a hand. “C’mon, couch potato. We have a lot to pack. Know where we can get some boxes?”