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

Zadie felt the gas pump shudder against her forehead. She had rested it there just as a headache was beginning to swell behind her eyes and the cool metal had seemed soothing. What the hell am I doing? she thought—not in regards to why her face was pressed up against a dirty gas pump, but to the broader question of why she was pumping gas at a rest stop in Middle of Nowhere, Texas, at six in the goddamn morning. Zadie pushed herself off the pump and blinked into the sheet of cherry-colored sky where the sun would soon be. She loved sunrises, but she rarely woke up early enough to see them. I’ll probably be seeing a lot of them on this trip, a thought that was supposed to inspire her but just ended up making her feel preemptively exhausted.

She turned to see Finn heading toward her with two plastic grocery bags in her hands, a bottle of Snapple sticking out of her left armpit, and a six-pack of mini-doughnuts tucked under her chin. “No coffee?” Zadie asked. She knew she wasn’t supposed to have caffeine while she was pregnant, but given the choice between that and falling asleep at the wheel, she opted for the less lethal of the two options.

“Oh, crap,” Finn said, dropping the bags at her feet. “I knew I forgot something.”

Zadie glanced inside the bags. And yet you remembered to buy three different flavors of Combos. “It’s fine,” she said, trying to hide her irritation as she placed the gas nozzle back on its cradle. “I’ll get it. You want one?”

“Nah,” Finn said, popping open a peach Snapple. “I don’t drink coffee.”

“You don’t drink coffee? How do you function in the morning?”

Finn shrugged. “I just get out of bed and then, you know, do stuff.”

“You mean, you don’t wake up and immediately want to fall back asleep?” Zadie said, mystified. She usually spent an hour swatting the snooze button before her day got started, and it took two cups of Colombian before she could safely operate the toaster. She even had one of those mugs that read: DON’T TALK TO ME UNTIL I’VE HAD MY COFFEE.

“Not really. Why would I sleep when I could—”

“Do stuff?”

“Exactly.” Finn popped a mini-doughnut in her mouth and washed it down with a swig of her Snapple.