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.As he listened to her talk aboutthe people he had grown up with, he was amazed and alittle saddened.Why didn tanyone ever say anything to him?Where had he been while all this was going on?For a while there, as Cooper drove her through thewilderness, Julia thought he didn t talk to her much because she was a woman.She keptstealing quick glances at hishard, craggy face and finally decided that he wasprobably an equal-opportunitynon-speaker.It occurred to her, not for the first time, that she knewhis body more intimately thanwhat went on in his head.They d had the most intensesex she d ever had in her life, andshe couldn t get him to open his mouth.Ordinarily, she wouldn t press anyone to talk to her ifthey didn t want to.Well, allright, she d rather talk than not any day, but still& youhad to respect people s choices. Even if the choices were hard to understand like nottalking.But she was out in the wild now, out in the open.Outwhere there were no people,only long sweeps of grass.And then, even worse, a fewmiles out of Simpson thelandscape changed and they drove straight into theheart of first-growth forest wheretall, frighteningly dark trees blotted out the sun.The landscape was as empty as her soul as her life.Her life.Julia tried hard not to think about what wouldhappen to her life.Later.After the trial, if she made it that far.She wouldn treally have a life to go back to.If she got back.She knew perfectly well that her job wouldn t bewaiting for her when she got back.Oh, the company might keep her on, if the governmentmade a fuss about it, but itwould be some low-level paper-pushing job, not thereal editing she d finally moved upto.In the corporate world, nobody s leaving left a hole.Corporations were like the ocean.Waves just washed over the empty spaces andyou never knew that anyone hadbeen there.Federico Fellini was with another family now and aslong as he was getting amplerations and no one bothered him, he was perfectlyhappy.Jean and Dora would thinkabout her on Saturday mornings, but that was about it.There was no empty space inBoston that she could step back into.She hadn t beenthere long enough to put downroots.Actually, she had never been anywhere longenough to put down roots, Juliathought sadly.For better or worse, her life in Simpson was her lifenow.She shivered and barely noticed when Cooper bent toturn on the heating system.She wasn t cold outside, she was cold inside.Cold andmiserable and lonely.Who knew how many men were gunning for her?Herbert Davis kept trying tosound reassuring when she called, but she could tell hewas worried.Worried about the case, worried about the testimony.Worried that shewouldn t make it.Well, so was she.Still, probably as long as she was in a moving vehiclewith Cooper, she was safe.Shedidn t need to look across to the steering wheel toknow that his hands were large andcompetent.That he was tall and strong.That he seemedto know how to do just aboutanything.If they had a flat tire, he could probably hold thevehicle up with a rope heldbetween his teeth and change the tire while fending offmarauders.He was, after all, atrained soldier.And to top it all off, there was even agun in the truck and Cooper hadsaid that he knew how to use it.Then again, he had also said he was better with a knife.Julia shuddered at the direction her thoughts had taken.She felt completely lost andalone, out of her depth.What was she doing here? In aplace where she was a stranger,in the most literal sense of the term.She wanted todrown her black, bleak thoughts but she didn t have anything to drown them in not an oldfilm, not a good book, not evensome whisky.All she had was Cooper.Cooper was very good fordrowning bleak thoughts in sexat night.But now it was daytime and they couldn thave sex, not while he was driving.So he had to talk to her. Cooper? Yeah? Talk to me. Julia could hear the wistful note in herown voice. Talk to you? Julia could hear the tension in Cooper svoice. What do you wantme to talk about? Tell me tell me about the Cooper Curse, she said. Fuck.Sorry. Cooper s knuckles turned white on thesteering wheel. Where didyou hear about that? Oh& she stalled. Just around. It s nothing. Cooper s voice was low and tight. Asilly legend. About what? When he was silent for a long moment,she repeated the question ina soft voice
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