GIRLS ON THE RUN is Dorothy Rice Bennett's second novel, following last year's NORTH COAST: A Contemporary Love Story. Jennifer and Stacy are young and both, for different reasons, on the run. Meeting at a truck stop, they form an unlikely alliance and cross the country together. Reaching a stopping place, they try to build lives-and to figure out what their relationship means and what to do about it. . . . In the middle of the night, 23-year old Jennifer Halston speeds west on I-70. A phone call had warned her to flee from Pittsburgh. Now she does not know what to do and just keeps driving her faded Chevy Nova-while her blue eyes search the rearview mirror with fear that she is being followed. At a truck stop in Ohio, Jennifer notices a young woman climbing down from a truck cab. Later she sees her again standing by the roadside with a thumb up. After hesitating a moment, Jen decides to offer her a ride. And thus she meets Stacy Stevens, a short, stocky ex-soldier with spiky hair and a duffle bag over her shoulder. Stacy, 26, angry and running from rejection by her family and the Army, is openly a lesbian. After Jennifer recovers from her initial shock, she realizes that Stacy is a decent person and that she doesn't care about her being gay. Soon Stacy reassures Jen that the toughs pursuing her in Pittsburgh, after an altercation in a bar, are not likely to be chasing her now that she has left their turf. Jennifer gradually calms down but continues driving west. Stacy and Jennifer form a tentative alliance and forge a path across the United States. Jennifer has limited funds; Stacy knows how to camp, so they sleep under the stars. Brought up in a large farm family, Stacy exudes confidence; Jennifer, an only child whose parents died when she was a teenager, is fearful. Yet comfort gradually grows between them. Stacy finds the tall blonde very attractive but knows enough to keep hands off. She also wonders aloud if maybe their being on the run was not an ac
