Ten Years of Public Breakups, Then He Ran After My Bus novel · Chapter 31 of 40

Chapter 31: Admitted Students Day

We left the Pine Tree Motor Lodge at noon.

Eben drove to Portland at sixty-two miles an hour for the first time in his life.

"You can go faster," I said.

"We've got time."

"It's an hour fifteen. We're due at one," I said.

"I know when we're due."

"You never drive the limit," I said.

"I'm making an effort," he said.

I had my feet on the dash and his jacket over my knees.

The truck smelled of bait and coffee, and the heater roared.

Outside the window, Route 1 ran by under a hard blue sky, white fields and black spruce and the long gray shine of the water.

I had called Paulie from the motel bathroom, while Eben made coffee in the lobby.

She had screamed.

I had held the phone away from my ear, and through the bathroom wall I'd heard the clerk at the desk say, "Is that her?"

"What did Gordie say?" I asked now.

"He texted," Eben said. "He's gone to the Anchor Light with a stepladder."

"For the Board?" I said.

"For the Board."

"What's he doing?" I said.

"I don't know," Eben said. "He wouldn't tell me. He said it was a surprise."

I smiled out the window.

We crossed the bridge at Wiscasset and passed the antique barns and the closed ice cream stands.

"Tell me about your father," I said.

He didn't answer for a mile.

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