BooksBarbecue
Back The Wilderwomen
Chapters (37)
  1. Copyright Notice
  2. Dedication
  3. BEFORE
  4. AFTER
  5. ONE THOUGHTS ON SUN HATS
  6. TWO TIME FOR CAKE
  7. THREE TWELVE MONTHS
  8. FOUR PSYCHIC KARAOKE
  9. FIVE A SECOND SLEEPING BAG
  10. SIX SIX MONTHS
  11. SEVEN THE EARLY BIRD GETS THE PANCAKE
  12. EIGHT SIX MONTHS
  13. NINE FOLLOW THE MUSIC
  14. TEN THE STARS ARE BRIGHTER IN THE DESERT
  15. ELEVEN SIX MONTHS
  16. TWELVE EVERY STAR HAS A SONG
  17. THIRTEEN PSYCHIC KARAOKE
  18. FOURTEEN ONE MONTH
  19. FIFTEEN A WELL-TRAVELED HAT
  20. SIXTEEN JOEL VS. THE VOLCANO
  21. SEVENTEEN TWO WEEKS
  22. EIGHTEEN HOUSE OF MEMORIES
  23. NINETEEN IF TREES COULD TALK
  24. TWENTY THREE DAYS
  25. TWENTY-ONE SEARCH PARTY
  26. TWENTY-TWO NOT THE SAME ZADIE
  27. TWENTY-THREE WAVES OF SMOKE
  28. TWENTY-FOUR THE DAY OF
  29. TWENTY-FIVE THE SKY IS FULL OF BIRDS
  30. TWENTY-SIX NEST
  31. TWENTY-SEVEN
  32. EPILOGUE
  33. TWENTY-EIGHT A SONG ABOUT A BIRD
  34. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
  35. Also by Ruth Emmie Lang
  36. ABOUT THE AUTHOR
  37. Newsletter Sign-up

“Fine. If we’re not going to talk, then I’m putting on music.” Nora punched the power button on the stereo and the cassette deck whirred to life. Zadie leaned her seat back, closed her eyes, and pretended she was still in her own bed.

Finn didn’t like it when her mom and sister fought, and it had been happening a lot lately. It hadn’t always been this way. Something in the past few months had shifted between them, some cosmic disturbance that forced them to say things to each other that they didn’t really mean, then go hours without speaking. Whenever she asked her mom about it, she would just sigh and say, “Teenagers.” Finn didn’t bother pointing out that she, too, was almost a teenager. Sometimes she worried that the moment she turned thirteen, she and her mom would suddenly start hating each other as well.

The fighting had stopped. For now. Zadie’s eyes were closed, but Finn couldn’t tell if she was asleep or just trying to avoid another argument. Her mom was playing Simon & Garfunkel, which did little to liven the mood. It continued this way for an hour or more until her mom suddenly announced, “I think it’s time for a slushy break! Who wants one?” Whatever had been bothering her mom was apparently old news, because she was smiling now and drumming on the steering wheel.

“I do!” Finn said, relieved at the prospect of getting out of the stale car. “The green kind.”

“One Soylent Green coming up.”

Nora got off the highway at the next exit and pulled into a gas station labeled GO FOR GAS. The lettering on the sign was so faded it looked as if it had been hastily colored in with marker, and a bird had built a nest in the cradle of the second O.

The door chimed as they walked inside, and the girls made a beeline for the Slushie machine, two plastic chambers filled with roiling icy slurries of Yellow No. 5 and Blue No. 1.

“Aww. No green,” Finn said with an exaggerated pout.

“Yeah, there is. Watch.” Zadie filled half a cup with yellow slush, followed by blue, then snapped on a lid and shook it vigorously. When she was done, she pulled off the lid and handed the cup to Finn.