Glass Boys by Nicole Lundrigan

Author:Nicole Lundrigan
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: FIC019000
ISBN: 9781553657972
Publisher: Douglas & McIntyre
Published: 2011-06-21T00:00:00+00:00

20

IN THE BACKYARD of the farmhouse, Garrett Glass squeezed into one of the old swings, leaned his cheek against the chains. He could taste rust from the warm metal, like blood on his tongue. Pressing his bare foot against the hardened clay, he swung gently, and examined the curving woods bordering the yard. Years had passed since he’d ventured down that path. His path. And now, with all the leafy growth and unkempt grass, he doubted if he could even find it.

Closing his eyes, he listened to the creaking of the swing frame as he pushed himself back and forth. So easy to remember those carefree days when he was young. When he was in possession of something perfect and beautiful. Something he had actually created. It had all started with a gift, meant for his mother, but stolen by Garrett. He had just turned eleven years old.

He could recall the very day he had sat on a stool near the kitchen counter, puppy eyes moving between his mother, as she pounded the life out of a mound of sticky dough, and the wrapped gift pushed back into a corner. This gift was not a birthday present, but the one shred of proof that Christmas had come and gone in the world. Other than an evening church service, they did nothing to celebrate—no tree, no shaped sugar cookies, no tasteless orange hidden inside the thin toe of his sock. “’Tis only a godforsaken reason to drink,” his mother had said. “And he don’t need more of those.”

Last day of school for the year, and the gift appeared on the counter. Garrett was hopeful that perhaps it just might be for him. But on Christmas morning, when he placed a cold palm on the top of the box, his mother snapped, “Do that got your name scrawled across it?”

Of course it didn’t. “I was just wondering is all,” he said now as his mother lifted and slammed the bread on the countertop. Head cocked, eyes wide. “Jesus would want to know, Mom.” He blinked sweetly. “He’d want to know what present Aunt Sally sent for his birthday.”

She softened, he could see it in her eyebrows. The slightest lift. He could do that, soften her, especially when he played the Jesus card. And he was careful not to use that trick too often. “I suppose it won’t do no harm,” she replied. “Been cluttering up the room long enough.” Cleaning her hands on her apron, she hauled the box out from its corner, blew dust and flour off the top, found the scissors in a drawer, severed the ribbon.

“What is it?” he breathed as she carefully removed the paper.

“Pfft.” She frowned. “A camera. Packets of film. Bloody waste-of-a-dollar gadget, if you asks me.” She shoved it back into the box, coiled the ribbon, the folded wrap, and poked that in too. “Like I needs a camera. All kinds of family snapshots to be taking. Wants a hole in my head more than I wants that.

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