The Transcriber by Kristen Witucki

Author:Kristen Witucki
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781936846412
Publisher: Gemma Open Door

NINE

Treading Water

I remember the first time my dad lied to Emily in front of me. When I was seven, he decided to take me with him on a plane trip to Iowa to see our uncle and aunt.

“Can I go?” Emily asked.

“No.”

“Why not? It’s not fair!”

“We can only afford two tickets, so I’m taking Louis.”

On the plane, Dad told me that he didn’t want to take Emily to see his sister and brother-in-law, because he felt frustrated with their sympathy. They kept telling him his family was in their prayers, as though his family was totally isolated from them. “She’s not helpless, you know,” he would say on such occasions, but they still wanted to pray for him. He had decided not to bring Emily along, to hide her from what they might say.

As it was, I wished Emily had gone instead. They were boring. The weekend activity was fishing. Dad taught me how to put worms on the hook, how to assemble the line and to reel in a fish, but the days were long, hot and filled with mosquitoes. While we waited for hours, Dad taught me the rhyme:

Fishie, fishie in a brook,

Daddy caught you on a hook.

Mommy fried you in a pan.

Louis ate you like a man.

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