Sentence Time.'
'Now, that's a nightmare.
Ten minutes later the landing gear came down with a whine and a
thump. Five minutes after that they landed.
'They were supposed to bring the car right out to the plane,' Bill
said, already starting up the Type A shit. This she didn't like, but at
least she didn't detest it the way she detested the plummy laugh
and his repertoire of patronizing looks. 'I hope there hasn't been a
hitch.'
There hasn't been, she thought, and the feeling swept over her full
force. I'm going to see it out the window on my side in just a
second or two. It's your total Florida vacation car, a great big white
goddam Cadillac, or maybe it's a Lincoln - And, yes, here it came,
proving what? Well, she supposed, it proved that sometimes when
you had deja vu what you thought was going to happen next really
did happen next. It wasn't a Caddy or a Lincoln after all, but a
Crown Victoria - what the gangsters in a Martin Scorsese film
would no doubt call a Crown Vic.
'Whoo,' she said as he helped her down the steps and off the
plane. The hot sun made her feel dizzy.
'What's wrong?'
'Nothing, really. I've got deja' vu. Left over from my dream, I
guess. We've been here before, that kind of thing.'
'It's being in a strange place, that's all,' he said, and kissed her
cheek. 'Come on, let the wild rumpus start.'
They went to the car. Bill showed his driver's license to the young
woman who had driven it out. Carol saw him check out the hem of
her skirt, then sign the paper on her clipboard.
She's going to drop it, Carol thought. The feeling was now so
strong it was like being on an amusement-park ride that goes just a
little too fast; all at once you realize you're edging out of the Land
of Fun and into the Kingdom of Nausea. She'll drop it, and Bill
will say 'Whoopsy-daisy' and pick it up for her, get an even closer
look at her legs.
But the Hertz woman didn't drop her clipboard. A white courtesy
van had appeared, to take her back to the Butler Aviation terminal.
She gave Bill a final smile-Carol she had ignored completely-and
opened the front passenger door. She stepped up, then slipped.
'Whoopsy-daisy, don't be crazy,' Bill said, and took her elbow,
steadying her. She gave him a smile, he gave her well-turned legs a
goodbye look, and Carol stood by the growing pile of their luggage
and thought, Hey there, Mary...
'Mrs. Shelton?' It was the co-pilot. He had the last bag, the case
with Bill's laptop inside it, and he looked concerned. 'Are you all
right? You're very pale.'
Bill heard and turned away from the departing white van, his face
worried. If her strongest feelings about Bill were her only feelings
about Bill, now that they were twenty-five years on, she would
have left him when she found out about the secretary, a Clairol
