[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
.He’ll go ballistic when your mother leaves him.”“She’s not going to leave him.”“I wouldn’t be so sure.They married young and she’s changed.Your father’s trying to keep her on a leash.That’s why he gets so angry.”“Since when did you become a family shrink?”“Like I said, it doesn’t take a genius.”I stood and glared down at her.“My mother isn’t like that.She’s not going anywhere, so I’d appreciate it if you stopped talking like an idiot.”Elizabeth shrugged.She squirted oil onto her leg and let it run down both sides of her thigh onto the towel.“Suit yourself.Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”“You’re an ass sometimes, you know that, Elizabeth? You haven’t got a sweet clue what my family is all about.” I bit my bottom lip to keep myself from bursting into tears, turned and stomped through the hot sand as fast as I could to get away from her, not caring that my feet were burning with every step.“And you need to wake up and face reality!” Elizabeth yelled.Her words followed me to the road, like bad karma.When I reached the end of the sand, I turned around to face her and stuck my middle finger in the air.“Take that,” I said, knowing she couldn’t hear, even if she hadn’t already stretched out on her towel to bake in the sun.“Just go back to Toronto where you belong and leave me and my family alone.”My father still hadn’t arrived when Mom finally called me and Elizabeth to the table.She’d let the potatoes and chicken cook too long and it was an effort to swallow the dried out food while my mother chewed hers without seeming to notice.She kept looking towards the doorway to the shop as if she was expecting my father to walk through any second.Elizabeth didn’t even hide scraping most of her meal into the garbage pail, and that worried me more than anything.It wasn’t like my mother to let us leave the table without finishing our meal.Dad called at quarter to seven to say that he had to work overtime at the mill and wouldn’t make it before Saturday afternoon.Mom’s eyes shone with something that looked a lot like relief where she stood holding the phone to her ear.Elizabeth glanced from my mother to me and smiled.“I’ll clean up the dishes, Mom,” I said, scooping our dirty dinner plates into a pile.“I’ll be back in a minute to help,” said Elizabeth.She grabbed the latest romance novel she’d brought to the table from the store’s display rack and headed for the stairs.Mom smiled at me.“I’ll just finish up in the shop then.Maybe I’ll close a bit early tonight.I think everyone in Cedar Lake has been by already today.”She left the kitchen humming a song I couldn’t place.I turned and started stacking up plates and carrying them to the counter.I was just starting to fill up the sink with soapy water when the phone rang.I picked it up.“Hello.Oh hi, Aunt Peg.No, I’ll get her for you.” I set the phone down and called upstairs.It took Elizabeth a few minutes to clomp down the stairs.She picked up the receiver where I’d left it on the counter, then turned her back on me.“Yeah, Mom?”I kept running water into the sink, pretending I couldn’t hear Elizabeth’s side of the conversation when I could hear every word.“Please stop crying,” she said.“You know he always says that.Why do you let him get to you? Stop crying, Mom, and go to bed.”I scraped plates and let the water run so that soap bubbles almost overflowed the sink.I tried not to hear any more.At last, Elizabeth slammed down the receiver and stomped past me without looking.I thought about going after her, but what would I say? It wasn’t like she’d ever wanted my sympathy before.I started washing plates instead.The roasting pan proved a greasy challenge, so I slipped it into the sink to soak for a few minutes while I read the paper.Hunched over the entertainment section, I heard the front door jangle as someone entered the store.My mother’s voice mixed with a man’s.I raised my head and tried to figure out who had come in.I crossed the floor to the doorway as quietly as I could, then slipped into the shop and stood behind the last row of Kleenex boxes, paper towels, and toilet paper before moving behind a roll of paper towels so that I could peek out and see the man’s profile.I knew before I saw him who it was: Johnny Lewis, standing near the door.He moved out of my range of vision on his way toward the counter, where my mom was sitting on the stool behind the cash.Even from this distance, I knew he’d come for more than a carton of milk.I stuck my head around the corner, but they were still out of sight.I silently shifted packages of paper towels onto the floor before I sidled forward and angled myself to see in the direction of the counter, but my view was blocked by rows of canned food.“You really have to leave soon.” My mother’s voice.“I was hoping you’d changed your mind.”“I never … you can’t believe that was ever a possibility.”“He doesn’t appreciate …” Johnny’s voice trailed away, but I could still make out the intensity in the murmur of his words.“You have to go before they figure it out.You know it’s not safe for you here anymore.”“I only stayed this long because I was hoping you’d come with me.”Their voices dropped away.I could hear my mother talking, but I couldn’t make out what she was saying, how she answered him.I moved closer to the end of the aisle and tried to see around the end without being seen.By the time I had myself positioned, Johnny had moved behind the counter.I watched him cross the distance to my mother with his arms open.I took a step forward.Johnny pulled my mother to her feet and I hesitated, caught between wanting to run to my mother and not wanting her to know I was there.Johnny wrapped his arms around her and she folded into him, like she belonged.I staggered back and knocked against the metal end of the shelving unit.My hand reached out to steady the shelves before something crashed onto the floor and gave me away.I couldn’t take my eyes off them.They were standing locked together, her head resting on his chest and his hand stroking her hair.I wanted to run from my hiding place and pull her from him, but even in my panic, I knew she would never forgive me.Instead, I turned and slipped back into the kitchen.I crossed the floor as quietly as I could, opened the back door, skirted around the side of the house and fled down the path into the woods.Chapter FourteenWhen I walked through the back door into the kitchen an hour later, the lights in the store had been turned off and my mother was gone.I looked around inside, trying to think what I should do about it.My stomach tightened like I was going to throw up.I needed something to take my mind off seeing my mother and Johnny together.Anybody would do.I raced upstairs in search of Elizabeth, frantically calling her name as I went, and following the music of her pocket radio to the closed door of the bathroom.I knocked hard against the door, resting my head against the wood and called, “Elizabeth, what are you doing tonight?” I pressed both my palms against the door jambs while the smell of strawberry bubble bath and cigarette tobacco spread up from my feet through the gap in the door.I heard splashing, like Elizabeth was flipping over in the water.Her voice was muffled through the door.“I’m going out with Danny and Michelle.Danny came by when you were out [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

zanotowane.pl

doc.pisz.pl

pdf.pisz.pl

listy-do-eda.opx.pl