Nebraska by George Whitmore

Author:George Whitmore [Whitmore, George]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-4804-5505-4
Publisher: Open Road Media
Published: 2013-10-08T21:42:00+00:00

Dad sang in his sweet tenor voice.

“Sing along! Don’t be shy!”

Dad sang all the verses. The tires were getting slithery even under Dad’s chains. The tire tracks were now more like pencil lines. Dad beat the wheel in time with his singing.

Soon he was not singing anymore and just beating. “Gene Krupa. There’s a great drummer. You know, I’m getting awful tired of hearing myself talk. I may not ever talk again. What would you think of that? I may never open up my mouth. Course, I would have to open my mouth to eat, wouldn’t I? Or I would starve. Or they would have to feed me through the gut. In Paris they like goose livers. Did you know that? They’re crazy about goose livers. And because they are so crazy about them they go to great lengths to fatten up those old geese over there. The geese, their whole life is nothing but a banquet. They put a tube down their gullets and shove the food in, stuff those birds, stuff them till they’re ready to bust. Seriously, though, I’m getting awful tired of hearing myself talk. Why don’tcha say just one thing? Just one. You have not even said you’re glad to see me. I hope you aren’t too mad at me. You mad at me?” Dad reached over in front of me and pushed the button on the glove compartment.

His hand came out not with a gun or a knife but with a Hershey bar. “If you,” Dad said, holding the bar in the flat of his hand and steering with the other. “If you say just one thing I’ll give you this Hershey bar. It has nuts in it.” He tipped up the bar so I could read the wrapper. “Just one thing.”

I always liked chocolate. I looked at the brown and silver candy bar in front of me. “What do you say?”

I reached out for it. Dad snatched it away. “Oh, no!” Dad laughed delightedly. “First say it.”

I asked, “Where we going?”

Dad didn’t say anything. He dropped the candy bar into my lap. I peeled the wrapper off the chocolate. I said to myself I wonder if they ever get the bars mixed up? What if No Nuts came in the Nuts wrapper? What if all over America people would have to learn to ask for No Nuts permanent when they really wanted some? The chocolate melted down over my teeth.

“Can’t I have some?”

I broke off a chunk and put it in Dad’s hand. He popped it into his mouth.

“I would of,” he said, “give it to you anyway, had you not even talked.”

Dad stopped for gas and got out to pay. The snow around us was now like a cyclone and the station was the eye. I had to go bad but I held it. I could see Dad in the office talking to the man. Dad came out with Cokes. He offered me one but I shook my head no. We pulled out into the storm.

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