What Friends Are For: Crossing The Divide Short Story Series, #4

By J.B. Reynolds

When the mask breaks, what lies beneath?

When you're a young mother living in a small town miles away from friends and family, boredom and loneliness are part of the job description. So when Tracy receives an unexpected call from the beautiful and elegant Kate Hensley, she jumps at the chance to get out of the house and share the company of another woman. But Kate is everything Tracy isn't, and she finds herself questioning Kate's motives in extending the invitation. When a chance meeting turns their expedition sour, Tracy gets her answer, but it's not one she's expecting…

What Friends Are For is the fourth instalment in a series of surprising and darkly humorous short stories. If you like relatable characters, amusing dialogue, and action spiced with both comedy and tragedy, then you'll love J.B. Reynolds's Crossing The Divide short story series.

Get What Friends Are For to continue the surprising series today.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tsubaki Press
• Release date: Oct 9, 2017
• ISBN: 9780473412906

J.B. Reynolds

J.B. Reynolds lives in rural Northland, New Zealand, where he raises children and chickens. He writes short fiction, and is also working on a novel about a security guard who time-travels back to the medieval past. When not writing, he’s a husband, father, and high school teacher (not necessarily in that order). He likes sailing, cycling, and playing music. He has a big garden and likes getting dirt under his fingernails.

Book preview

What Friends Are For

J.B. Reynolds

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So I’m at home folding laundry, cos that’s what you do when you got a young kid. Between the shit and the piss and the vomit, seems like all I’m ever doing is laundry. I’d just given Hayley a box of raisins cos she was cranky—she loves her raisins, guaranteed to shut her up for five minutes anyway—when the phone rings. It’s Kate Hensley. Her son, Corbin, goes to daycare with Hayley, which is how Kate and I know each other.

I’m not sure why her Corbin goes to daycare, since as far as I know she doesn’t have a job; I guess she just needs the time to paint her nails and prune her roses in peace. Anyway, she wants to know if I’ll go along with her and Corbin to Alexandra for the morning to have a look round the shops. This is unexpected. I said we knew each other, but we’re not exactly friends. We see each other when we’re picking up or dropping off the kids at daycare, but we’ve never hung out before. I’m up for it. It’s not easy to make friends in Cromwell, especially when you’re a young mum and you’re new to town. I get sideways looks when I walk down the street, pushing a pram, like people are thinking, There goes another one. Should’ve kept her legs closed. They’re right of course, but hey, what’s done is done.

Kate might be posh, but she’s always been friendly enough. I ask her how long we’d be in Alexandra cos my shift at the pub starts at one-thirty and I got to get Hayley to daycare before that. I was late on Monday and the boss gave me a bollocking. I don’t want another one.

She says, Oh, don’t worry about that. I promise we’ll be back before one.

I say, Okay then, cos the housework can wait, and I think it’ll be nice to go shopping—you know, do some girly things. To tell the truth, I’ve been feeling a bit lonely lately. I stopped going to mothers’ group cos I was the youngest one there, and I didn’t exactly fit in. I mean, they were nice enough to my face, but all they ever did was bitch about other mothers behind their backs, so God only knows what they said about me.

So I’m excited Kate’s called. It’ll be nice to get out of the house, I tell her.

"Right, I’ll pick you