Night at the Fiestas: Stories by Kirstin Valdez Quade

Author:Kirstin Valdez Quade [Quade, Kirstin Valdez]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Published: 2015-03-22T23:00:00+00:00

FAMILY REUNION

“WHAT’S AN ATHEIST?” THE GIRLS AT SCHOOL HAD ASKED Claire at recess when she was ten and a new kid and too dumb to know when to shut up. They were sitting on the grass near the fence, finger-crocheting. Claire was desperate to be liked by these girls with their neat ponytails and jean skirts and coordinating socks. Her strand of finger-crochet looked dingy and tangled, nothing like the smooth braid Josie Lewis produced.

“It means you have faith in the fossil record,” Claire had explained, which was how her anthropologist stepfather had explained it to her. Really what it meant, Claire knew, was that you were from the wrong kind of family, a family that rented and wasn’t from Salt Lake City and was disfigured by divorce. It meant that instead of a minivan you had a father in San Diego who drank Fosters for breakfast. It meant you weren’t Mormon. “Basically it means you believe in Homo habilis.”

“Ooooh,” breathed Lindsay Kimball, whose grandfather was the prophet. “You said homo. I’m telling.” She brushed grass off her skirt and trotted over to the playground monitor.

Claire sighed and followed. Once again, she’d have to sit out for recess.

Claire was always in trouble for swearing, usually for saying “Oh my God.” It popped out without her noticing and was hard to control because no one could explain to her why Mormons thought God was a bad word. She thought they were supposed to like God.

It was particularly galling to get in trouble for swearing, because her mom didn’t even allow stupid or hate or shut up, which all the other kids got to say. And her mother didn’t care whether these words were directed at people or not; Claire couldn’t even say, “I hate eggplant,” which she did, passionately. “So you want me to lie?” she’d asked her mother over ratatouille. “You want me to lie for the sake of appearances?”

“Try detest,” her stepfather Will had suggested. “Try loathe or abhor or execrate.”

Claire’s mother shifted Emma to her other breast and smiled across the table at Will, shaking her head. “Thanks, sweetie. That’s very helpful.”

As far as Claire was concerned, none of these people knew what real swears were. If the girls at school knew the kind of words her father said, they’d never speak to her again. Mother-fucking-cocksucker-piece-of-shit and stupid-cunt-bitch. Sometimes he screamed these words at strangers—cashiers at the supermarket, for instance, or other drivers on the stalled freeway. Last summer, he’d taken Claire to the pound to adopt Zark the dog. The day had been a good one, until there’d been a problem with his credit card, which had culminated in him kicking a chair, throwing pens and animal-care pamphlets around the room, and screaming at the poor woman cowering behind the counter.

But her father didn’t even have to be mad to say those words. Or even that drunk. Sometimes he said them when he was telling a joke. Claire didn’t know their exact meanings, but preferred not to delve too deeply.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.