Chapter 6 of My Accursed Novel

First phone conversation with her parents:



“Clark has forwarded your mail to us.”


“Oh?” Maureen’s stomach knotted. Only gone a few weeks and he’s already clearing her out of his life.


“I guess he thought we’d make sure everything got to you. You know, that the bills got paid and everything.”

But if he loved me, if we were really a “we”, wouldn’t he keep paying our bills, she thought?


“He kept your clothes and books and things . . . for now, he said. You know, honey, I was never . . . well, I never approved of this thing with Clark. I mean, for God’s sake, he’s fifteen years older than you.”


“Twelve. And is there a point to this, Dad?”


“Well, still, don’t you think you owe him the decency . . . You should really call him, honey. He’s very upset. It sounds like you haven’t called or spoken to him at all. If you want to have a relationship with someone his age, you need to act like more of an adult.”


“I’ll drop him a card. I’m not ready to talk to anyone else just yet.”


“Is there anything we should know about it? He didn’t beat you up or anything, did he?”


“No . . . no. It’s not that.” Maureen became distracted picturing Clark puttering around the house, watching the door, running for the phone. Tears slipped from her eyes. “I’m just not ready to be found yet. Tell him I love him.”


“I’m not telling him that. You tell him.”


“I love you, too.” She hung up the phone and hoisted her backpack higher onto ther shoulder, stumbling down the sidewalk and back to the greyhound station. Her pass expired tomorrow. She would have to pick a far off destination, a 2 or 3 day trip to somewhere she could settle and work for a while to scare up a few bucks for the next leg of the trip.