Three O’Clock Appointment

They were going to lunch. It was Thursday afternoon and Jan had two hours before her three o’clock appointment. As she stopped the car and honked for Rachel in the driveway, she went over her mental list of activities. She had to stop at the cleaners by five to pick up Jennifer’s cheerleading outfit, buy Jimmy’s favorite cereal for breakfast, then head home for a long awaited rendezvous with a quiet, empty house. Jan loved the kids and lately welcomed the constant hysteria two teenagers bring; however, a night of solitude since the divorce, alone with her thoughts was a Christmas present out of season.

Rachel opened the door and slipped in the passenger side gracefully in spite of her fashionable mini skirt.

“Chez Jacques sound good for a salad?”

“Great,” said Rachel, “then if you don’t mind, you can drop me at the gallery. I’m meeting Tony there at three.”

“Tony?” questioned Jan. Every week or two there was some new flame in Rachel’s world. She had very little trouble attracting new men, only in keeping them. Jan shuddered involuntarily. The dating scene was not something she looked forward to after seventeen years of being with one man.

Jan pulled to the right to enter the freeway off ramp, slowing almost to a stop. Before she knew what was happening, Rachel’s body was slammed hard into Jan’s right arm, as a man wet, with perspiration, shoved something in her face….