he pulled out of the driveway.
She closed and locked the door. She had nothing to do today, no meetings scheduled, no work to perform, and this time it was by choice.
As hard as it was to believe, almost against her will, she'd grown fond of free days, of having time off, and she'd started deliberately rearranging her duties and shifting her workload so that she worked only Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.
Tuesdays and Thursdays were free; they were her own.
She hadn't gone back to the tennis courts since her run in with those teenagers, but she hadn't wanted for things to do. She'd hung around the house, worked in her garden, visited with the new friends she was making in the neighborhood. She was getting used to this life, used to Utah, and if things in Bonita Vista weren't exactly perfect... well, what was?
She sat down on the couch, turned on CNN. There'd been an earthquake in the desert outside Los Angeles, and according to Cal Tech seismologists, the temblor measured 6.1 on the Richter scale and could be felt as far away as Phoenix and Las Vegas. No damage reports or injury statistics were yet available, although, in their never- ending quest to put victims on the air, the anchors did talk for over a minute to a Howard Stern caller before realizing that they'd been had.
'Baba Booey !' the caller yelled. 'Ef Jackie! Ef Timmy's skull!'
Laughing, Maureen turned off the television. It was going to be a hot day today, and if she wanted to get anything done in the garden, she'd better do it before ten. She went up to the kitchen to pour some water into her sports bottle and went outside, carrying the phone with her in case a client called while she was working. It was a bad habit, she knew, and one reason Barry refused to get a cellular phone, even though he readily acknowledged the practical benefits of having one in the car in case of emergency. He didn't like her need to be constantly tethered to her job. She recognized his concerns, but she also tried to make him understand that his job was unique, that most people's occupations required dealing with clients or customers, and that they could not just hang up a 'Gone fishing' sign whenever they didn't feel like working. They had to take and answer calls even if they came at inconvenient and inappropriate times.
The garden was doing well, and she fed her roses, plucking out some morning glories that had sprouted up and were winding their tendrils around some of her more sensitive plants. The phone rang while she was picking her first ripe tomatoes of the season, and Maureen wiped her hands on her jeans and grabbed the phone from the rock on which she'd placed it. 'Hello?'
It was Audrey Hodges. Laura Holm had stopped to chat for a second while on her daily power walk around the neighborhood, had mentioned that she'd seen Maureen working outside, and Audrey was just calling to see how things were going.
'Fine. I'm taking the day off to do a little work around the house.'
'Good, good.' Audrey paused. 'Actually, this isn't entirely a social call. Frank and I are looking for a tax accountant. We've just gotten an IRS notice saying that we owe an extra five hundred dollars because Frank's numbers didn't gibe with the numbers submitted by his employer and our bank. It's the second year in a row this has happened, and I'm getting pretty sick of it. We had a big fight last night and, well, the upshot is that we decided to have someone do our taxes for us this year.
'Just this year,' she added quickly. 'I don't want you to start counting on us and think you have a permanent client. Frank intends to just use your tax forms as a template and follow the same steps next year. I'd prefer to have you do all our taxes from now on, but getting even this big a concession was like pulling teeth.'
Maureen laughed. 'No problem. I'll even give you a good neighbor discount.'
'Thanks, Mo. Say, would you like to come over for lunch?'
She hesitated. 'I don't know. I'm kind of busy ...'
'Come on. You have to eat anyway. We can catch up on a little neighborhood gossip and you can get some extra exercise in the bargain. Just walk down here around noon, eat, and ran. I won't keep you.'
'Are you saying I need the exercise?' 'After my French onion soup you might.' Maureen laughed. 'Okay. I'll see you around noon.' She spent another hour in the garden, watering plants and squishing quite a few snails before heading inside, changing her clothes, and washing up.
The computer was beckoning to her, and she was tempted to finish the spreadsheet she'd started yesterday, but she forced herself to sit down on the couch and read the most recent Los Angeles Times they'd gotten in the mail. This was supposed to be a day off. She finished the paper shortly before noon and quickly went to the bathroom, putting on some lipstick before grabbing her house keys and heading out. A lot of people around here didn't lock their doors, she knew, figuring they were safe in a gated community, but after what had happened to Barney, she and Barry always made sure they locked the place up before leaving.
The day was beautiful, not yet hot but pleasantly warm, the sky filled with the type of fluffy white clouds in which children loved to see shapes. On the way down to Audrey's house, she passed the flat vacant space that had supposedly been put aside for Bonita Vista's future swimming pool and was surprised to see a group of shiftless men working on the property. Five or six of them were clearing brush with clippers and rakes and other hand tools, while several other men were working in tandem, using pickaxes to dig at a spot in the rocky ground. They looked for all the world like a chain-gang, although there were no shackles or fetters in sight.
She walked by, not looking at the men, feeling somewhat self-conscious, expecting at any moment to hear wolf whistles and catcalls, but there was only a loud occasional grunt of exertion, the thwack of shears, and the plinging of metal on rock.
It seemed odd to her that there were no power tools, that no one had a chainsaw or a rototiller , and she wondered if the association had some rule against that.
Audrey was setting a table on the side patio of the house, and she waved Maureen over. 'Come on up! The food's ready. I was just about to bring out the salad.'
The Hodges' house was nice, but it was nestled among the tall pines at the bottom of the hill, in the flat part of Bonita Vista, and had no view. She knew that Frank and Audrey had paid a lot more for their place than she and Barry had, and Maureen was thankful that they'd found such a deal. She walked up the wooden steps and around the side of the house to the patio.
'Have a seat,' Audrey said. 'You want wine, water, Fresca , or iced tea?'
'Water's fine.'
'I'll be right out.'
Maureen sat down, and her friend emerged a moment later from the kitchen, two tall glasses of ice water in hand.
Maureen accepted her glass gratefully, took a long sip. 'I just saw a bunch of men a few lots up the street digging and clearing brush--'
'Oh, those are the guys who volunteered to help dig out the swimming pool and lay the foundation for the community center. Dex Richards is a contractor, and he's overseeing the project, whipping the rest of those couch potatoes into shape. I think even Frank's going to volunteer some time this weekend.'
'We didn't even hear about it.'
Audrey waved a dismissive hand. 'That's because it's been going on so long that there aren't any formal communications to the membership anymore. The association doesn't want to embarrass itself by making promises it can't keep or deadlines it can't meet. But I think this time we might actually pull this thing off.Dex is a good contractor and he knows what he's doing. It'll probably be too late for this summer, but by next spring we should have a pool.'
'What's this community center for?'
'Oh, you know. Block parties or birthday parties or youth group activities. Whatever. The association'll probably hold the annual meeting there. We've been holding it in the cafeteria over at Corban High. It'll be nice to have our own place.' Audrey held up a finger.
'I'll be back in a sec. I'm just going to bring out the soup and salad.'
She went inside, and Maureen stared into the trees. The world was quiet, despite an occasional bird cry and through the still air she could hear the sounds of the men up the street digging, pounding, chopping.
Audrey returned with the food, sat down, and they started eating, talking about the weather, their husbands,
