Midnight Sun (7 page)

“
The
little
one
better
get
used
to
it,
”
Lonnie
replied.
“
Taco
King
is
what
I
crave.
”

Taco
King
was
real
Mexican
cuisine,
made
by
real
Mexican
immigrants,
not
like
the
big
chain
restaurants
or
fast-food
garbage
endorsed
by
a
Chihuahua.
With
a
style
somewhere
between
fast
food
and
full
service,
however
one
defined
it,
the
food
was
amazing.
Lonnie
Johnson,
eight
months
pregnant,
could
not
get
enough
of
it.
The
fact
that
Anchorage
had
two
of
them,
as
well
as
several
good
Korean
restaurants,
made
their
stay
in
the
big
city
tolerable.
Neither
she
nor
Marcus
particularly
enjoyed
staying
in
Anchorage
for
any
length
of
time.
The
city
of
nearly
half
a
million
felt
like
an
overcrowded
metropolis
in
comparison
to
their
hometown
of
Fairbanks
three
hundred
and
sixty
miles
to
the
north,
population
fifty
thousand. And since Taco King had a store in Fairbanks Lonnie’s cravings could easily be satisfied at home.

Marcus
stuffed
half
a
soft
corn
tortilla
filled
with
lengua—broiled
beef
tongue—into his
mouth.
A
spot
of
sour
cream
stuck
to
the
corner
of
his
lip,
bright
white
in
contrast
to
his
milk-chocolate
brown
skin.
He
spoke
while
the
food
was
still
in
his
mouth.

“
If
you
’
re
done
torturing
yourself,
we
need
to
hurry
up
and
get
going.
Their
flight
lands
in
about
thirty
minutes.
”

Lonnie
stretched
her
back
as
she
stood,
her
distended
belly
bulging under
a
loose-fitting
blue
cotton
shirt
that
flared
out
in
pleats
beneath
her
swollen
breasts.

“
It
looks
like
a
basketball
in
her
shirt,
”
the
young
man
behind
the
grill
muttered
in
Spanish.

“
It
feels
like
a
bowling
ball,
”
Lonnie
replied
in the same language.

The
girl stared, shook her head and
repeated
her
previous statement. “
I
never
want
to
get
pregnant.
”

Marcus's
forest
green
F250
Crew
Cab
pickup
truck
sat
in
the
sun-drenched
parking
lot,
absorbing
direct
radiation.
Reflected
heat
waves
wiggled
in
the
air
above
the
hood.
It
had
been
an
unusually
hot
summer
so
far—at least,
from
an
Alaskan
perspective.
Temperatures
had
hovered
near
or
above
eighty
degrees
for
two
straight
weeks,
and
it
was
only
the
sixteenth
of
June.
Solstice,
summer
’
s
official
start
and
the
longest
day
of
the
year
with
nearly
twenty
hours
of
sunlight,
was
still
five
days
away.

Marcus held
his
wife
’
s
arm
and
carried
her
purse
as
they
walked
to
the
truck.
Two decades
in
the
Marine
Corps
and
he
still
knew
how
to
be
tender.
Lonnie
loved
it.
She
was
a
woman
who
could
take care of
herself
and
did
not
particularly
go
for
the
helpless
maiden
act
some
women
put
on.
More
than
ten years
as
an
Alaska
State
Trooper
had
made
her
confident
in
own
abilities.
But
she
never
refused
her
husband
when
he
wanted
to
play
the
gentleman,
especially
as
her
pregnancy
progressed
toward
the
final
stages.