Bev said she was taking a day for herself and I was delighted to oblige. She was no picnic when she wanted to be alone. She was out the door almost before I gave her my answer. I heard her car start and heard it stall because she never followed my advice to let it warm up for half a freaking minute. Then she was gone.
“Sounds like luck to me,” she said.
In the mall’s parking lot, a woman in an oversize GMC van was trying to back out of a narrow parking space between an eight-inch-high concrete island on her left side and a Hyundai on her right. The van was onion-dip brown, venetian blinds in all the windows, a rec room on wheels.
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The woman had the steering wheel turned hard to the right, compressing the driver’s-side fiberglass running board against the island each time she tried to go back. Twice she got stuck, went forward until she was free, then repeated the maneuver, her steering wheel still all the way to the right.
Her eyes took me in. Still in reverse, she goosed the gas and accordioned the running board a fraction of an inch more.
She hopped out. Waved me in. “You. You.”
“It is life and good fortune and should be used for the positive energy that it brings. A fountain or an aquarium–some form of moving water–helps stimulate qi and has a calming effect.”
