Page 1 of The Claiming of the Shrew
LEAH
“Leah,I know you’re happy about Bar giving you a car with hand controls, so you can finally drive.”
Leah’s answer to her sister’s remark was to slam down a gear as the mountain road cut around a switchback.
“But,” her sister Joy went on doggedly, clutching the cake dish in her lap with one hand and the passenger side handle with the other, “I have to point out that this is a Honda Civic.”
Leah didn’t dignify this with a response. She was winding this babyout.
“A manual Honda Civic,” Joy added.
“Her name,” Leah said, “is Roxanne.”
“Right. Roxanne. Apologies, I forgot.” Joy swallowed as they went around another turn. “And if you get Baby Bar too upset and make me ill, it’s going to be your problemandRoxanne’s problem, I’m just saying.”
They settled into a straight stretch, and Leah regretfully reined in her steed, clutched the wheel, and turned a bright grin on her sister. They were full biological sisters, but with ten years between them, the resemblance wasn’t that strong. Joy was softly rounded, more so now since marriage and a burgeoning pregnancy had been treating her well. Leah was slight, herbrown hair similar in color to her sister’s but fine and straight where Joy’s had a great deal of natural bounce.
But most people didn’t notice Leah’s hair or her smile (excellent if she did say so herself) or her eyes (hazel). What they noticed first was her forearm crutches—currently tucked down between the seat and the door—and second, her legs, a congenital deformity with the toes twisted in and one leg markedly shorter than the other. Childhood surgeries had given her the ability to walk with aid, and she had finally left behind the awkward, heavy braces that had been the bane of her teenage years. But driving was entirely out. She couldn’t reach the pedals with her right foot, and didn’t have enough strength in either leg to properly use them.
Being able to finally, properly drive waswonderful. After years of relying on other people to drive her, long past the age when most teenagers got their driver’s license and on into her twenties, holding the wheel of the Civic felt like flying.
Not that she really knew what flying was like, but her inner animal, her shrew, had evidently decided that driving was the next best thing to the only other flight-like activity that the shrew understood, which was falling (which it also thought was exciting). Leah’s shrew didn’t talk to her in words—she figured that this was for the best; she couldn’t imagine that a shrew would be a brilliant conversationalist anyway—but it was definitely a thrill seeker and she got a lot of innerEEEEEEEEEEEfrom fast mountain curves.
But she decided that maybe the flying could be restricted for times when she didn’t have a pregnant sister in the car. Joy still looked pale.
“Are you all right? Are you actually feeling sick? You should have said something.”
“I did,” Joy said between her teeth. “I said a lot of things, like ‘not so fast’ and ‘there’s a turn coming up’ and ‘you’ve only had your license for three weeks.’”
It felt like a lot longer.
“I mean helpful things.”
Joy scowled at her. “I can’t believe you’re driving like this with a pregnant woman on board.”
Leah was immediately contrite. “But it’s so early. Are sharp turns bad for the baby?”
“Terrible,” Joy said sincerely. “Absolutely terrible. Just the g-force alone.”
“Isn’t Baby Bar the size of a pencil eraser at this point?”
“Leah—”
“A very darling pencil eraser, the absolute cutest eraser of all time. Actually a bean is cuter, don’t you think? A cute bean, a lima or pinto bean. Maybe a garbanzo.”
“Are we there yet?” Joy asked plaintively.
In fact, they were. Leah drove up the last steep stretch, past the glacial boulder painted with FATED MOUNTAIN LODGE. There were sprays of stenciled wildflowers around the words, framed now by real wildflowers embracing the boulder in a flush of color.
It was an absolutely lovely spring day. Back in the city, the flowering trees were past their first rush of bloom, but here in the mountains they were still covered in puffs of pink and white, and the new green leaves looked lacy and soft. The ground beneath the trees was carpeted with delicate blue, pink, and yellow flowers. Leah didn’t know the names of any of them, but as she eased very carefully into the lodge’s big gravel parking lot, she was pleased to see that the flowers continued around the lodge, now in gorgeous planters filled with a riot of blooms.
The lodge’s parking area was as filled with vehicles as she’d ever seen it, around a couple dozen of them, many splatteredwith mud from the rougher stretches of the gravel road leading to the lodge. Among the surrounding pine trees, a variety of tents and camper trailers or RVs could be seen, and wisps of smoke rose from the campsites to tint the air faintly blue.
Leah opened her car door and inhaled deep breaths of crisp mountain air tinged with woodsmoke. Meanwhile Joy put her cake aside, stumbled out of her side of the car, and stood grasping the edge of the door and taking deep breaths for a slightly different reason.
“Are you sure you’re all right? The bean is all right?”
Joy straightened up and scowled at her sister as some color began to return to her face. “The bean and I are fine, but if I never drive with you again, it’ll be too soon.”
