to go straight from being a daughter to being a mother. They needed time to be adults themselves, to forge their own identities apart from parents or mates or children.
So, yes, perhaps she did keep too tight a rein on them sometimes. She didn't let them run around totally unsupervised. She checked up on them to make sure they were where they said they'd be. She and Bill both enforced strict curfew hours. Bizarre behavior by Juniper's redneck standards. But hopefully their daughters wouldn't end up like most of the other girls in town.
She stopped off at the farmer's market for vegetables, then picked up bread and milk at the Buy-and-Save before heading home. Bill was gone -- at Street's, according to a note attached to the refrigerator -- and she had the house to herself. For once.
Shannon arrived a half hour later while Ginny was chopping tomatoes for pasta sauce. She tossed schoolbooks on the table next to the door, plopped down on the couch, and immediately used the remote control to turn on the television.
'Silence is golden,' Ginny said.
'Silence is boring,' Shannon replied. 'I hate coming home to a quiet house. It's creepy.'
'I think it's nice,' Ginny said, but her daughter was already flipping channels, trying to find the talk show with the most outrageous topic.
Samantha walked in a few minutes later. She smiled, said hello, went into her bedroom to drop off her books, then came back into the kitchen and got a can of Dr. Pepper out of the refrigerator. She sat down in the breakfast nook, across from where Ginny was chopping.
She sighed loudly, melodramatically.
Ginny tried not to smile, continued chopping.
'I need money,' Samantha said.
'You could try getting a job.'
'That's what I'm talking about.' She leaned forward. 'The Store's still hiring, but I don't know for how much longer. Those jobs are going fast. They need people to fill those positions.'
'Then why don't you get an application?'
'Can I?'
'It's fine with me.'
'I know it's fine with you. But what about Dad?'
Ginny stopped chopping, smiled. 'Ask your father,' she said. 'I think it'll be okay.'
'You talked to him?'
'What are mothers for?'
'Oh, thank you, Mom!' Samantha leaped up, ran around the counter, threw her arms about her mother and hugged.
'Puke,' Shannon said from the couch. 'I think I'm gonna barf.'
Ginny laughed. 'You could learn a little bit about the art of gratitude from your sister.'
'Yeah, right.'
Samantha remained in the kitchen, talking excitedly about how she'd juggle school and work, while Ginny finished making the sauce and then started to boil the pasta. She stopped talking when Bill came home, lapsing immediately into a nervous, expectant silence, and Shannon giggled at her from the living room.
Ginny silenced her younger daughter with a quick glance.
'Hi, Dad,' Samantha said, moving out of the kitchen to greet him.
Bill frowned suspiciously, an expression that was only half put on. He looked from Samantha to Shannon to Ginny. 'All right, what's going on? Who wrecked the car? Who broke my computer? Who had the nine-hundred-dollar phone bill?'
'Oh, Dad,' Samantha said. 'Can't I even say hello to you without you going overboard and reading something into it?'
'No,' he said.
Shannon laughed.
Ginny saw an expression of understanding dawn in Bill's face. He glanced over at her, and she nodded almost imperceptibly, telling him with her eyes to keep his promise.
'Your mother tells me that you want to work part-time,' he said.
Ginny looked at him gratefully.
Samantha nodded. 'I'm going to need money for college next year.'
'And you want to work where?'
'At The Store?' she said hopefully.
He sighed.
'I know you don't like The Store,' she said quickly, 'and I understand.
But the pay's good, and it's only part-time. They'll also work my hours around my school schedule.'
'You already talked to them?'
'No. I thought I should ask you first.'
'Well, in that case . . .' He pretended to think for a moment. 'Okay,' he said. 'I can work there?'
He nodded grudgingly. 'I suppose so.'
'Thanks!' She gave her father a big hug. 'You're the greatest dad in the world!'
'This is getting _really_ pukey,' Shannon said.
'He is!'
'Shut up, all of you,' Ginny said, laughing. 'And wash up. It's time for dinner.'
3
Samantha looked up at the front of The Store, took a deep breath, wiped her sweaty palms on the back of her dress, and walked inside, running her tongue over her teeth to make sure no lipstick had smeared off.
She was nervous. She'd expected that job positions would automatically be given to the first applicants, but she'd heard at school that The Store was actually turning people down. According to Rita Daley, Tad Hood had applied for a box boy position, and they'd said thanks but no thanks. Apparently, they were looking for specific qualities in their potential employees and were not willing to settle for anything less.
In a way that was good. It meant that there were still job openings. But it also upped the pressure factor. Maybe she herself wasn't what they were looking for.
Maybe she wasn't good enough.
She thrust that thought out of her mind. She was the smartest girl in her class, bound to be valedictorian, probably prom queen as well. If she wasn't good enough, who was?
The cold air hit her the second she passed through the doorway, and she was grateful for it. Despite her attempt to be confident, despite her pep talk to herself, she was still anxious, still sweating, and she stood for moment just inside the door, letting the air conditioning cool her off.
An older man with a plastic smile on his face, wearing The Store's green vest over a white shirt, was standing near the shopping carts, and Samantha approached him. 'Where would I pick up a job application?' she asked.
'Customer Service,' he said, pointing.
'Thank you.' She headed in the direction he'd indicated, and a second later spotted the words CUSTOMER SERVICE on the wall high above the electronics department.
Shannon's boyfriend, Jake, was at the Customer Service counter, getting his own application, and he smiled at her as she walked up. 'Hi,' he said.
She smiled back. 'Hi.'
She'd never really liked Jake, and she wondered what her sister saw in the boy. He'd been a brat and a wiseass when he was a little kid, and even now there was something Eddie Haskell-like about him, some obnoxious smarminess that set her teeth on edge and that she couldn't believe Shannon didn't see.
'What are you applying for?' he asked.
'Whatever's available.'
Jake laughed. 'Me, too.' He looked at her in a way that seemed far too personal, far too intimate, and made her feel more than a little uncomfortable.
