All American Boy by William J. Mann

Author:William J. Mann
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub, pdf
Publisher: Kensington
Published: 2005-04-26T07:00:00+00:00

“Do you think he heard you?” Mom asks after Uncle Axel’s eyes close again.

Wally shrugs. “I hope he did. I hope that’s the last thing he hears before he dies.”

“Oh, Walter, you’ve got to respect the dead.”

“He’s not dead yet.”

“But he will be soon.”

They’re talking normally now, from opposite sides of Uncle Axel’s bed. He’s still making that gurgling sound.

“I think we should sit here,” Mom says, pulling over a pink Naugahyde chair with a puncture wound.

“Mom, I have other things to do. Other people to see.”

She looks up at him. “Oh, Walter, please let me just sit here for a while.”

“For what? To hold his hand? To tell him the Good Lord watches over him?”

Mom’s eyes well up. “He’s all I have left, Walter. The only family I have.”

Her son laughs. “Right. You keep saying that. So I don’t count.”

“Walter, I didn’t mean …” She looks at the old man in the bed. “It’s just that he … he took us in when we had no one. When Rocky and I were just girls …”

Wally’s furious. “Not because he wanted to. Not that he ever said one kind word to you in that entire time. You’ve told me, Mother, told me how he bullied you and your sister—”

“Walter, please, it’s not right to speak ill when a man is dying.”

“Well, you stay if you want, but I’m not about to sit here and comfort him, not when he’s this close to burning in hell.”

Uncle Axel makes a sound, a kind of burp. Somewhere down there among all the gurgling Wally thinks he recognizes his old voice, caught in his throat. They both watch the old man’s face and his chest, to see if this is it. But he goes right on breathing, right on gurgling, eyes closed.

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