Read Mrs. Lieutenant: A Sharon Gold Novel for Free Online

and Michael’s
favorite television programs.
    "Robert, shhh. They can probably hear every
sound through the wall."
    The bed creaks, and the headboard pushes up
against the wall – only thin plasterboard separates them from the
headboard of Anne and Michael's mirror-image bed next door.
    "One more state we've done it in," Robert
says.
    His hands tiptoe across her breasts. She
forgets about the neighbors – and their giant television.

KIM – II – May 6
Governor Reagan closes down entire California
university and college system in effort to cool student tempers ...
May 6, 1970
    “ Play the game according to the rules and do not
try to change them.” Mrs. Lieutenant booklet
    Kim unpacks the black-and-white photo in its
battered metal frame, placing it on the small table next to the bed
in the furnished apartment. The uneven table legs cause the picture
to slant to one side, making the man standing against the wooden
frame house seem shorter than the woman next to him, her hand
resting on his arm.
    The first time Jim saw the picture he offered
to buy her a new frame. Kim refused, saying she liked the old
frame. She lied. She hated the poor frame, hated the thought that
this was all that she had. Yet she can't give up any part of the
only thing she'd ever been given as a young child just for
herself.
    Jim comes into the room with a carrying case.
He takes the gun from the case and places it in the nightstand
drawer. "We're all set now," he says.
    Kim slides Squeaky in his cage into the
closet, leaving the door open a crack for air. Best to keep Squeaky
out of Jim's sight. He sometimes accuses her of paying more
attention to the pet rat than to him.
    Then she avoids Jim’s eyes and instead speaks
to the photo. "Why can't we get a phone?"
    Jim sits down on the bed and pulls her to
him. "Honey, we've been through this already. It's only for a few
weeks and we can save the money. Who are we going to call except my
parents and your sister? And we can call them from a pay phone
every Sunday."
    She says nothing. They were lucky to get this
apartment – nicer than the student housing apartment they had. This
is the first one they saw up here, and they took it
immediately.
    "Can I take the car to the store? I need some
more things."
    "Just come right back."
    Kim takes her purse off the bed and leaves
the apartment. She wasn't sure Jim would let her go by herself. He
might have thought she didn't yet know her way around. When they
had first married and lived in student housing, he worried she'd
get lost on campus. He drove her almost everywhere she wanted to go
rather than let her walk or take the bus.
    Now she noses the Ford into a place alongside
an old Chevy in front of the little store up the road from the
apartment. She'll get some ingredients to make sugar cookies. This
should please Jim.
    Two clerks stand behind a counter covered
with items for sale. A man in olive green fatigues and combat boots
faces the two clerks.
    "Where can I find the baking items?" she asks
the older of the two clerks. He points to the far corner along the
street side of the store.
    The soldier turns toward her. "Honey, I could
sure help you find the sugar."
    Kim ignores him as she walks toward the
baking goods shelf with the soldier trailing behind her.
    "Hey, honey," he says, "I'm talking to
you."
    She takes a small bag of flour and a box of
sugar off the shelf along with a can of baking powder. She has
salt, vanilla and butter at the apartment.
    Although he has said nothing more, Kim can
hear the man’s footsteps behind her as she returns to the
counter.
    The older clerk is no longer there. She hands
her packages to the younger man. He smiles at her. There is
something not quite right about his eyes and the way he moves sort
of slow. When he asks her if this is all, his voice sounds
slurred.
    The soldier bumps against her. "Excuse me,
mam," he says. "I'm just trying to be friendly." His breath smells
of beer.
    She doesn't answer. The clerk says,