The Girl in the Well Is Me by Karen Rivers

Author:Karen Rivers
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Algonquin Young Readers
Published: 2016-02-19T05:00:00+00:00

6

Cats

I did not mention before about how my mother is crazy, but that doesn’t make it less of a fact. Since Dad went to jail, she has gone totally bonkers, insane-­o-­rama, around the bend. Other than working, which she does all the time, and smoking, which is her new and completely crazy and expensive and dumb habit, the other thing my mother now does is collect cats. Right before I left the trailer park to meet The Girls to do their club initiation (i.e., getting my hair massacred and falling into a well), Mr. Sutton, who owns our place, knocked on the door and gruffly handed me a notice to give to my Mom when she got home from her job at the brewery, which is where she is today, stirring a bubbling vat of hops that will make her stink for days and days. She calls them “hopes” instead of hops. “Just stirring the hopes today,” she’ll say. “Maybe I’ll throw in some dreams.” Some of the time Mom makes more sense than others.

Mr. Sutton has a long mustache and a plaid shirt, like everyone else in town who is a man. He is trying to grow a beard, but the wisps of hair on his chin make me think of newborn babies. I feel bad for him. No one wants a baby-­head on their manly chin. The hair on his chest is worse though. That stuff makes it look like he is permanently hugging a baby chimp which is showing through the gaps in his pearly buttons. In other words, he’s the grossest, most disgusting, pathetic excuse for a human being, ever. I’m pretty sure he chose the orange décor in this dump. He likes orange. His hair is orange. His skin is also a little orange, but that may just be the fake tanner he uses because he for real gets terrible sunburns in the actual sun. Living in Texas was his first mistake. Ours too, come to think of it. I thanked him for the letter as sweetly as I could. I just felt like if he thought I was sweet he’d have mercy on us. I should have known better.

As soon as he left, I steamed open his letter and read it. Who writes letters in this day and age? He should have just texted her but—actually—no, she doesn’t have a cell phone anymore, so forget that. Well, he could have called. Mr. Sutton must have known that we’re too poor for technology. Where is his sympathy? Where is his kindness?

The letter was written in capital letters on yellow lined paper. It said that Mom’s cats were a health hazard, and either they had to go or we would be evicted. I glued the envelope shut again with a glue stick and left it on the table where she’d see it. I hope I put the glue away. If I didn’t, then she’ll know what I did and then I’ll be in for it for reading her mail and for trying to pretend that I didn’t.

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.