分节阅读_53

  go bag all the time — even
  the doctor. they're all real outdoorsy,” she told me quietly, examining
  her shoes, too. she didn't ask oiohe hu
  jessica would have unleashed. i was beginning to really like angela.
  ”oh.” i let the subject drop as jessied to show us the
  rhione jewelry she'd found to match her silver shoes.
  we plao di a little italia on the
  boardwalk, but the dress shopping hadn't taken as long as we'd expected.
  jess and ao take their clothes back to the d then
  walk dowold them i would meet them at the restaurant in
  an hour — i wao look for a bookstore. they were both willing to
  e, but i eo go have fun — they didn't know how
  preoccupied i could get when surrounded by books; it was something i
  preferred to do alohey walked off to the car g happily, and
  i headed iioed out.
  i had no trouble fiore, but it wasn't what i was looking
  for. the ere full of crystals, dream-catd books about
  spiritual healing. i didn't even go ihrough the glass i could see
  a fifty-year-old woman with long, gray hair wht down her back,
  a dress right out of the sixties, smiling welingly from behind
  the ter. i decided that was oion i could skip. there had
  to be a normal bookstore in town.
  i meahrough the streets, which were filling up with
  end-of-the-workday traffid hoped i was headed ton. i
  wasn't paying as mution as i should toing; i was
  wrestling with despair. i was trying so hard not to think about him, and
  what angela had said… ahan anything tryi down my hopes
  for saturday, fearing a disappoi more painful tha, when i
  looked up to see someone's silver v the street and it
  all came g dowupid, unreliable vampire, i thought to
  myself.
  i stomped along in a southerly diree glass-fronted shops
  that l. but when i got to them, they were just a repair
  shop and a vat space. i still had too much time to go looking for jess
  a, aely my mood in hand before i
  met back up with them. i rahrough my hair a es
  and took some deep breaths before i ued around the er.
  i started to realize, as i other road, that i was going the
  wrohe little foot traffic i had seen was going north, and
  it looked like the buildings here were mostly warehouses. i decided to
  turhe hen loop around after a few blod
  try my lu a differe on my way back to the boardwalk.
  a group of four men turned around the er i was heading for, dressed
  too casually to be headihe office, but they were too grimy
  to be tourists. as they approached me, i realized they weren't too many
  years older than i was. they were joking loudly among themselves,
  laughing raud puher's arms. i scooted as far to
  the ihe sidewalk as i could to give them room, walking swiftly,
  looking past them to the er.
  ”hey, there!” ohem called as they passed, ao be talking
  to me sine else was around. i glaomatically. two of
  them had paused, the other ti, a heavyset,
  dark-haired maweo be the one who had
  spoken. he was wearing a fla opey t-shirt, cut-off
  jeans, and saook half a step toward me.
  ”hello,” i mumbled, a kion. then i quickly looked away and
  walked faster toward the er. i could hear them laughing at full
  volume behind me.
  ”hey, wait!” ohem called after me again, but i kept my head down
  ahe er with a sigh of relief. i could still hear them
  g behind me.
  i found myself on a sideast the backs of several
  somber-colored warehouses, each with large bay doors for unloading
  trucks, padlht. the south side of the street had no
  sidewalk, only a k feh barbed wire protee
  kind of ee yard. i'd wandered far past the part of port
  angele