Free Seasons of Her Life by Fern Michaels Page A

kind of call to me again unless you’re ready to answer for your failure.”
    â€œI’m sorry, Pop,” Amber whispered, but her father broke the connection. Amber looked at her watch. Two minutes and ten seconds. Why had she expected more? Daughter. He never even called her by name.
    Amber backed away from the phone, inching her way to the orange-covered chairs. She’d just ratted on her sister and herself, too, for that matter. For what? What had she hoped to gain? A kind word? To be called by her name?
    Amber’s thoughts boiled. She didn’t want to go back to Barstow. She didn’t want to live in her parents’ house, and she didn’t want to work in the shirt factory. If her father decided to come here and yank both of them home, she knew she didn’t have the guts to put up a fight. Ruby did, though. Ruby would fight to the death, and she’d made a deadly enemy of Ruby tonight. Even though she was twenty-one going on twenty-two, and of age, she knew she didn’t have the nerve to cross her father. Ruby had guts. She’d thumb her nose at George and make him carry her, kicking and screaming, all the way back to Barstow, while she herself meekly climbed into the car and said, “Yes, sir, I’m happy to be going home, and sir, I’m sorry I failed you.” A vision of Ruby thumbing her nose at their father brought a smile to her lips. She wished she could fall off the face of the earth into a deep hole that would truly route her to China. Her father would never find her in China.
    A second vision of her father leering lasciviously at Grace Zachary made her want to vomit. All the neighbors looked at Grace in her shorts and skimpy halters. She wondered if her father ever saw her mother naked. Not likely, she decided. That was sinful, decadent, and wicked. It was a mystery how she’d ever been born. But then, she hadn’t exactly been born. She’d come down as an angel. As long as she believed that, all the rest was bearable. This was simply temporary until ... Until what, she asked herself wearily. Until what?
    â€œTill marriage,” she said aloud in the elevator. Nangi had spoken of marriage and going back home. He’d hinted, but he hadn’t asked. His home was on the other side of the world. Her father couldn’t touch her that far away. He’d also disown her. One of these days she was going to decide just how much that mattered to her.
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    The day was misty, overcast, with gray, plodding clouds circling overhead. Not a day for the zoo, Ruby decided when she bounded out of bed. Damn, the weather report predicted clear, sunny skies. Sunrise was a mere five minutes away. Ruby crossed her fingers. “Don’t spoil my day,” she murmured to the empty room.
    Her eyes fell on the wicker picnic basket, compliments of Nola. She had hoped to go with Calvin to the park after the zoo. “I emptied out my sewing box and lined it with a dish towel. I won’t be doing any sewing today,” she’d said cheerfully. Nola had the answer to all her social problems. Now all she had to do was stop at the corner delicatessen and pick up ham and cheese sandwiches, Coca-Cola, hard-boiled eggs, and some peaches. Maybe a square of cheese for nibbling. It wouldn’t hurt to get some potato chips, too.
    She was flush, as Nola would say. With her paycheck yesterday Captain Dennison had given her a card with twenty-five dollars in it and a note saying she was the best secretary he’d ever had. He’d also wished her luck in her new job with Admiral Query, which she was to start on Monday. The moment she cashed her check at lunchtime, she’d gone to the personnel office and handed over her final payment to the director. She was now seven dollars ahead of the game and in debt to no one, a feeling she liked. The picnic would wipe out the seven dollars, but she didn’t mind.
    She should be thinking about her new job, planning