Chapter 2

It wasn't so long ago really, but all that seemed to have been in another world to Sarah now, another life somewhere that she had lived through and was now ended, no more a part of her life now than night was a part of day, or one day a part of the one before. That was over, gone, past, and nothing counted any longer save the present. And each day that she lived now was one more to make up for the miserable ones that came before.

Sarah was truly happy now, she was finally doing something wild and exciting, just like all her girlish daydreams when she was in high school back in Utah, dreaming of a life somewhere filled with reckless deeds and adventure, instead of endless piles of dirty dishes and a smelly man's socks draped over the shower curtain. Ever since her first trip to the zoo as a kid, she had always had a special spot in her heart for animals, all kinds of animals, so when she spotted that ad in the classified section that blistering hot afternoon a month ago, it was only natural that she give it a try at least. Mr. Hawkins her boss now, said that it was her girlish enthusiasm and sincerity that landed it for her, but whatever it was, she was grateful. It had called for, simply, an "attractive young girl who loves animals for assistant's job with traveling zoo and animal show. See the American and Canadian west and get paid for it!" And now the job was her's, special assistant to Mr. Henry Hawkins at a hundred and fifty a week, all expenses paid. It was like a dream come true; Sarah was fearful of waking up and finding herself back in Blackjack with all those coarse, uninteresting people, listening to them talk of bits and derricks and barrels of oil until she died of old age, penniless and still stuck in that God-forsaken hole in the Mojave Desert.

But it was indeed all real, not something she had fantasized out of sheer desperation. She had gone to see Mr. Hawkins, riding into town with Mr. Parker when he went to get the mail and supplies, and she never went back, not even to get her clothes. Mr. Hawkins hired her on the spot, and she swore old Mr. Parker to secrecy, as no one had seen them leave together. Her new boss seemed quite concerned about her marriage difficulties, and he even offered her an advance on her first week's salary so that she could buy a few new clothes and not have to spend another second with that coarse slug of a husband back in Blackjack.

She did take the time to write her husband a letter, though, which was probably more than he deserved. Mr. Hawkins mailed it for her in Las Vegas when he had to drive up there on business. She could just imagine Jamie, red-faced and blustering, clad most likely in work jeans and steel-toed boots, storming into Las Vegas and demanding of someone, probably the first policeman he spotted, that they return his wife before he got really mad and wrecked the whole place. Jamie was like that, though he certainly had contained it well enough when he was courting her; he thought a wife was just another piece of property, like a monkey-wrench or an old comfortable pair of shoes, so he treated her accordingly. As near as he could figure it, being the wife of Jamie Olsen was a distinct privilege, something to be thankful for, and that should be enough to satisfy any woman. Nice clothes? Tenderness? A good life? Hell, that was for dudes and rich folks, not for Jamie. Hard dirty work and chasing the rainbow was all he knew, all his father and his father before him ever knew... and Sarah hoped he would be happy with it now that he had it all to himself.