A Face in the Shadow Part 1 Chapter 8

Eight
Rachel pulled up the entrance ramp to the interstate.
“You have got to be kidding me.” All three lanes in each direction were creeping along. She slowly nosed to the left only merging in when someone let her in. She waved a thank you and flipped on the radio
And we’ll have your next traffic update in ten minutes on WJ-
She clicked it back off. August sunlight was stronger than her air conditioning. She clicked the fan to four and held her hand over the vent.
“Great, one more thing to fix.”
She turned the fan as high as it would go and pointed the vents to her and dialed her mom’s number.
“Mom, it’s me.”
“Hey, darlin’ I was settin’ the table. You on your way?”
“Yes but I’m stuck in some nasty traffic. We’re moving about twenty under right now.”
“Get here when you can. I’ve got dinner waitin’.”
“Hopefully I’ll be there in about ½ an hour. I had a last minute project dropped on my desk.”
“We’re meeting Drew at 7:30.”
“Who?”
“Drew, the realtor.” She had to be kidding. Rachel looked over at the clock. It was 5:37.
“He’s coming over?”
“No, we’re meetin’ him down the way. Owners just knocked $15,000 off the price.”
“You told him I’m not really in the market to-?”
“Rach, other line’s beepin’. We’ll talk when you get here.”
She flipped her phone shut and set it in her lap. Up ahead traffic was starting to move. The State street exit always slowed things down on Friday. Should have remembered that.
Shannon had managed to back out at the last minute. Some lame excuse about a last minute date. A few minutes later she passed the State street exit and accelerated to a little over the speed limit. She moved toward the center lane on the highway to avoid the rush hour racecars that plowed through this two mile stretch of highway.
It would be nice if her mom bugged Adam half as much as she did Rachel. Rachel pushed down on the accelerator and zipped past a VW bug. The man inside was hunched over the wheel and looked way too tall for such a small car.
“What kind of guy drives a bug anyway?”
Maybe once her parents stopped treating her like a child and acknowledge that she had done something with her life. Her older brother Adam was the golden child married to a beautiful woman who could have modeled. Mom would add ‘if it hadn’t caused a brother to fall to the sin of lust.’
Rachel loved Adam, didn’t like him too much though. He was too judgmental, too much like their parents and -.
A streak of red flashed past on her left. A dodge squealed in to her lane. She slammed her brakes to avoid running in to him.
“This is why I stay in the office until 6:30.” Her voice echoed in the near silent car. She was not in the mood for this traffic, a visit with her family or the guilt picking at her. Two CD’s were in her glove compartment. She reached over and took the first one her fingers wrapped around. No time to mess with the thoughts in her head. Accept who your family is and don’t try to change them. Let them be who they are, and limit contact. It had worked in the eight years since graduation.
She turned up the volume and let the music take her thoughts away from the cacophony in her mind.


You are reading A Face in the Shadow by Tiffany Colter.
Tiffany is a writer, speaker and writing career coach. She is a frequent contributor to print and online publications in addition to her regular marketing blog at www.WritingCareerCoach.com
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This story is copyright Tiffany Colter. 2007. It may not be copied, distributed, sold or included in any larger work without the expressed written permission of Tiffany Colter.
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