Marie Auxier

On the Corner of Greenwald and Dustinshire

Page 2

“Come on Thomas! I just split up with the guy I’ve been with for months now. Months! You know how big that is for me! And where was my best friend to console me? Lying around at home watching reruns of Growing Pains!”

“Delia, you cheated on him!”

“Only once! He slept with Beth!”

“You slept with Christopher!”

“Yeah but he slept with Beth in my apartment!”

“What the hell, Delia! Okay, so I’m supposed to comfort you for a relationship that you put down the shitter?” Delia gave him a sour look. “Exactly!”

“No, no, what’s that smell?” Delia sniffed the dashboard. A strange oily odor filled the car. Then a large blast emerged from the front end of the Buick followed by the hood jolting upwards in a cloud of white puffy steam. 

“Great, just great…” Thomas sneered as he pulled the car over. He jumped out of the driver seat once clear of traffic and went to the front of the steaming car. Delia sat a moment staring out the window at the swirl of steam, rising and dissipating into nothingness. Then a sharp pang in her abdomen brought her back to a hungry reality. She opened the dusty glove compartment and sifted through the cassette tapes and mass of old crumply papers. Thomas got back in the car. 

“Called Triple-A. They’ll be here soon. I gotta invest in getting a new car.” Thomas looked at Delia and cocked an eyebrow as she continued to sift through his old glove compartment. “Uh, what are you doing?” Delia closed the glove compartment after completely emptying it and leaving its contents all over the truck’s cab floor. “What are you looking for now?”

“Breakfast,” she answered, her head between her knees, now looking under the car seat.

“Oh,” Thomas said as he shoved his belongings back into the glove compartment. A quiet moment passed between them as Delia undid her seatbelt and Thomas beat his thumbs against the steering wheel. Then Thomas snapped his fingers saying, “Wait a minute.” He reached into the backseat and handed Delia a small package wrapped in brown paper and twill rope. “Here.”

She took it hesitantly and opened the wrapping to reveal a small loaf of— “Um, Thomas? What—is it?” She stared at the cake-like essence.

“Pumpkin bread,” he answered.

“And how long has it been in your car?”

“Only since this morning. My mom made it,” he said with a slightly embarrassed smirk.

“Oh…okay.” Delia sniffed the supposedly edible pumpkin bread and she began to nibble the tiniest bit of it, then after deciding it was alright enough to digest she took larger bites. “Want some?” she asked.

“Nah.” He shook his head looking at the passing cars. “Don’t care for eating pumpkin anything.” They sat without speaking, Thomas watching traffic, Delia chewing, both absorbing the sounds of early morning combustion. Thomas suddenly chuckled.

“What?” Delia asked.
“Nothing,” Thomas said fighting off laughter.

“No, what?” Delia demanded. “What is it?” Thomas turned to her grinning.

“Ah nevermind,” he said.

“WHAT? DAMNIT!” Delia screeched between bites.

Part 3