Every Tuesday Vicki at I’d Rather Be At the Beach hosts First Chapter, First Paragraph, Tuesday Intros, where we share the first paragraph or two of a book we are reading or thinking about reading soon.
Mine comes from The Last Cruise by Kate Christensen. It doesn’t come out until July.
As Christine walked out of the air-conditioned terminal into the balmy, sweet air of Southern California, she inhaled sharply and started to laugh. She might as well have traveled to another planet. It was summer here. The air vibrated with sunlight. Bits of mica glinted in the pavement, making it sparkle. She walked through clumps of people with deep tans wearing shorts and sandals. when she looked down to steer her luggage cart over the curb, she caught a glimpse of the winter pallor of her own skin, dead white.
The cabbie helped her stow everything in his trunk. “You brought everything, I guess.”
“I’m going on a cruise,” she told him, trying to temper her giddy elation with apology. In the cab on the way to the hotel, she leaned her head against the back of the seat and watched the palm trees roll by. She wanted to drift on the fumes of the wine she’d drunk on the plane, lose herself in thought, but the cabbie was energetically chatty, with a musical but guttural accent she couldn’t place. He had shining black hair and chalky skin, and he was skeletally skinny. she decided he was a vampire, which added a dreamlike, sinister undertone to his chattiness.
A bit of a creepy cabbie but I’d like to read further.
I agree, but the descriptions do give you a pretty clear picture.
I’d read more. BTW: You forgot to add your link to Mister Linky.
Thanks. I’ll go take care of that now. I got busy yesterday and it slipped my mind.
I would need more to make me read on personally. But the title does intrigue – why the LAST cruise?
I’ve rarely met a chatty cabby in the U.S. Uber driver maybe, but not a cab driver. They get the address and then are on their phone for the rest of the drive.
It’s been ages since I’ve taken a cab and I’ve never taken an Uber.