The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon
A Novel
Chapter One
First Inning
Mom and Pete gave it a rest as they got their packs and Quilla's wicker
plant-collection basket out of the van's back end; Pete even helped Trisha get
her pack settled evenly on her back, tightening one of the straps, and she had
a moment's foolish hope that now things were going to be all right.
"Kids got your ponchos?" Mom asked, looking up at the sky. There was still blue
up there, but the clouds were thickening in the west. It very likely
would rain, but probably not soon enough for Pete to have a satisfying
whine about being soaked.
"I've got mine, Mom!" Trisha chirruped in her oh-boy-waterless-cookware voice.
Pete grunted something that might have been yes.
"Lunches?"
Affirmative from Trisha; another low grunt from Pete.
"Good, because I'm not sharing mine." She locked the Caravan, then led them
across the dirt lot toward a sign marked TRAIL WEST, with an arrow beneath.
There were maybe a dozen other cars in the lot, all but theirs with
out-of-state plates.
"Bug-spray?" Mom aske ... read full excerpt from The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon: A Novel ebook
