Free Five Fortunes by Beth Gutcheon

program.” The very idea of calling it that made Carter snort. Then Terri had set about testing her flexibility with various contortions, her upper- and lower-body strength, and her percentage of body fat. Now she had her on the treadmill. To Carter’s annoyance, this was the moment Terri chose to get chatty. She set the slant of the treadmill up to High, set the speed up to just under Jog, and then asked, “So, are you from Arizona?”
    “L.A.,” said Carter.
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    “No kidding! Me too! I’m from South Central.”
    “You’re a long way from home,” Carter said, beginning to feel the sweat trickle between her shoulder blades.
    “Tell me about it. I’ve got family there though. My sister and my little niece. What do you do in L.A.?”
    “I’m a private detective,” said Carter.
    “No shit!” Terri covered her mouth with embarrassment, but Carter laughed loudly.
    “Sorry. I know a lot of my ladies are doctors and lawyers. I never met a private detective before, especially here.”
    “I’ll bet,” said Carter.
    “How are you feeling now, by the way? On a scale of one to ten, are you working hard?”
    “Five.”
    Terri adjusted the speed of the treadmill upward a notch. “No kidding, how’d you get into that?”
    “I was a public defender, and I got tired of the slime.”
    “I hear you.”
    “How about you? What’s a nice girl like you doing in a place like this?”
    “I played basketball, volleyball in high school. I got a scholarship to college.”
    “I didn’t think there was any money in women’s sports.”
    “This college sent a lot of teams to the Olympics. Coach was training us for that.”
    “Did you make it?”
    “All the way to the last cut, then I broke this little teeny bone in my wrist. How you feeling now, scale of one to ten?”
    “Seven,” said Carter.
    “Hop off a second and let me take your pulse.” Carter jumped her feet to outside the moving tread and Terri took her wrist for thirty seconds, watching her stopwatch. Then she readjusted the treadmill and said, “Get back on, and keep walking, we’ll cool you down.”
    “Then what happened?” Carter asked.
    “I went back to college, took my degree in Phys Ed. I was going 58 / Beth Gutcheon
    back to the neighborhood to teach, but my mother’s asthma got worse. I applied for this job so I could move her out here where it’s hot and dry.”
    “How did you even know about this place?”
    “Same way the guys at the Texaco station know about the Rolls-Royce factory. Hop off again, I’m going to take your pulse.” Carter did, and was silent again for thirty seconds.
    “Okay, get back on. I’ll bring you some water. You want a towel too?”
    Carter nodded. When Terri came back Carter asked, “Are these jobs hard to get?”
    “Very,” said Terri. “You can work some very crummy dives in this profession. Most places the showers aren’t clean, and the clients are rude, and you have to teach classes until ten o’clock at night.
    Everyone in our business wants to work here.”
    “Why?”
    “The atmosphere. The clients are happy because they get massages every day and the food’s good. The trainers are happy because they get respect, you know? It’s not like some storefront aerobics joint where you never get to know anybody and the clients think you’re a moron because you’re an athlete, and they’re a genius because they’re a paralegal.”
    Carter laughed.
    “Okay, if you feel like your heart is back to normal, you can hop off any time and I’ll give you the news.”
    Carter pushed the button that stopped the machine. She mopped her wet face and got another cup of water; then she stepped outside the gym to where Terri was waiting in the shade.
    Terri showed her the charts on her clipboard.
    “The news is pretty good here. You’re in the top ten percentile for fitness for your age. Your endurance is good, your heart is strong, returned to resting pulse real fast. You’re a smoker, aren’t