North Fork (25 page)

Oh yeah. I got my car. It's a blue Mazda Protégé, not even close to new, but no big dents or torn seats. These old people had it before me and they took good care of it. Sometimes, when Sterling is on a rampage and won't let her have the Taurus because he paid for it even if it is in Bonnie's name, I let Kristen drive my car. She bought a bike and sometimes last fall, she had to ride it clear to the college, which is ten miles away. The SKAT bus runs only three times a day, so if she rode it, she would have had to skip her high school classes.

She's determined to be independent and responsible. I could get through my day without a car, so I started loaning her the Mazda. It was easier than seeing her trying so hard. At first Trish was worried about insurance, but Kristen asked Bonnie, and she's covered on their policy whether Sterling likes it or not. She has this card in her wallet to prove it in case she gets stopped. Because she has a license and lives in his house, his company makes him cover her.

It's never as simple as some adults want it to be.

Or me either.

Wayne M. Johnston taught English, Creative Writing and Publications at La Connor High School in La Conner, Washington for nineteen years. For twenty-two years prior to that, he worked on tugboats, usually as chief engineer, towing freight barges between Canadian and American West Coast ports. In 2011 he won the
Soundings Review
First Publication Award for his essay, “Sailing.” For his debut novel,
North Fork
, he drew from his experience in reading student journals to reproduce the way kids voice matters to a trusted adult.

North Fork
started with a prompt Mr. Johnston presented several years ago to students in his Creative Writing class. A rough version of Natalie's entry in the sixth chapter was the response he himself produced. The story stayed with him and evolved into the novel. He would like to thank his students, colleagues, friends and family members who read the several drafts of the book and offered encouragement, with special thanks to Erin Brown whose positive response early on kept the author's belief in the book alive.

Mr. Johnston lives with his wife, Sally, on Fidalgo Island in Washington state where he is working on another book.