Kara’s Moon

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

KARA DROVE THROUGH the mountains, the road more familiar than it should be. It had been three months since she had traveled here. Three months since she had left Ginny. Her stomach tightened. What would Ginny say to her? Would she be angry?

Maybe she would be thankful Kara had left. Maybe she had time to sort out her life, to decide what she really wanted. Maybe it wasn’t Kara.

Kara closed her eyes briefly, thinking of the pain she would feel if Ginny sent her away. But then, it couldn’t be any worse than the pain she had been suffering these past few months. Marsha, of all people, had made her come back.

"You’re making yourself sick. Hell, you’re making me sick just watching you."

Kara could smile now. It was almost over, one way or the other.

The Dobson place was as she had left it. She opened the windows, letting the breeze chase away the stale smell of the closed-up cabin. She unpacked what little she had brought back with her. She had been afraid to pack too much. She wasn’t certain how long she would be staying. And October was but a few weeks away.

She gave in to the nervousness that had been threatening the entire trip and took a beer and a cigarette to the porch and settled in her chair, pleased that it still felt comfortable to her. She listened to the calls of the birds, the calming sound of the wind in the trees. Different than the sound the wind made at her cottage, yet familiar, and she relaxed.

She would go to her at the store, she decided. Not at the house, where Nana could watch their every move, hear their every word. And the store was safer, she thought. Ginny might be less inclined to strike out at her, if that was to be her intention.

She should go, yet she stayed rooted to the chair, fumbling into her pack for another cigarette. Nerves. What a terrible thing for a woman her age.