Free Departures by Robin Jones Gunn Page B

especially from Aunt Marti. Christy slipped past her aunt and stalked out to the car, where Mom was loading the trunk.
    “Why didn’t anyone wake me?” Christy asked, jamming her bag into an open spot in the trunk.
    “I suppose we all had a lot going on,” Mom said, giving Christy a startled look. “What’s wrong?”
    “Well, I would have appreciated having a little time to take a shower and eat something. It didn’t help that David kept coming up and banging on the door while I was trying to dress.”
    “We’re only going on a picnic,” Dad said, entering into the conversation. He was lugging a big ice chest to the back of the car. “It would have been nice, Christy, if you would have gotten up and helped to make some of this food.”
    “I would have been glad to, but no one woke me!”
    “Seems to me a girl who’s almost eighteen years old can figure out how to set an alarm clock and get herself up in the morning,” Dad said gruffly. He hoisted the heavy ice chest onto the trunk’s edge, and with a bark in his voice he said, “You’ll have to make more room than that, Margaret. I told you the ice chest needed to go in first. Whose bag is that?”
    “Mine,” Christy said, snatching her bag and sliding into the car’s backseat with a huff. She held her bag on her lap and sat there fuming.
I can’t believe I went to sleep with all those dreamy, spiritual thoughts. Then I woke up this morning ready to bite the next person I see!
    Christy’s brother came over to her open door and said, “Scoot over. I want to sit on that side.”
    “You can sit on the other side. I’m already here.”
    “You always get to sit there.”
    “So?”
    “So it’s behind Mom’s seat, and there’s more legroom. Dad pushes his seat back so far it gives me leg cramps.”
    “Oh, David, you don’t get leg cramps.”
    “I do too!”
    “Well, my legs are longer than yours, and I’m already sitting here, so you go sit on the other side. The drive’s not that far anyway.”
    Their mom called from behind the car where she and Dad were still trying to fit everything in the trunk. “David and Christy, stop your arguing. I’ll sit in the backseat. You can sit in the front, David.”
    He gave Christy a smirk, which she thought was about the worst thing anyone could have done to her at the moment. Christy pursed her lips together, working very hard not to let the words she wanted to say slip out. She drew in a deep breath and tried to calm down. It took her a minute before she felt as if her rampaging emotions had subsided. She prayed silently. Then she murmured, “David, I’m sorry. I’ll try to be nice.”
    He turned around in the seat and looked at her as if trying to make sure she was serious. “Me too,” he mumbled after a moment.
    Christy pulled her brush and hair clip from her bag and worked on her hair, getting it off her neck. The day was already hot. Too hot to be sitting in the car in the sunshine.
    When her parents finally were settled in the car and her dad had backed the vehicle out of the driveway, it seemed to grow hotter before the air conditioning finally kicked in. At last, coolness could be felt in the backseat.
    “What are we doing today?” David asked.
    “We’re going to the picnic grounds at the Dells,” Mom told him. “We’ll meet the Kingsleys there and spend the day relaxing.”
    Christy wondered if they would be able to relax much. She didn’t like the way things had been going so far. And if Melissa started to act like she had dibs on Matt, Christy knew she would be upset. Shewished she had never invited Melissa to come. If only she and Matt could have the whole day together, just the two of them.
    When the family arrived at the picnic grounds, they had to park far away from the entrance, which meant carrying everything a farther distance. Christy helped her dad with the ice chest. They lugged the heavy beast onto the picnic grounds, then Dad suggested they set it down. “I’ll go