This I Know by Eldonna Edwards

Author:Eldonna Edwards [Edwards, Eldonna]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kensington
Published: 2018-03-01T05:00:00+00:00

17

Mama’s doctors sent her to Woodlands Rest Home for the last half of July. She missed this year’s baptism service, but so did I. I pretended to be sick so I wouldn’t have to watch other people get baptized when it was supposed to be my turn. Daddy brought Mama back home two days ago. She doesn’t seem very rested if you ask me. She still naps a lot and when she is up and around she bumps into the walls. Joy won’t let Mama hold Marilyn unless she’s sitting down. Mama reminds me of a Dilly Bar from the Dairy Queen, like there’s only a thin shell covering what’s melting inside.

With Mama sleeping so much we’re mostly on our own. Hope goes to summer school during the week. I don’t like to swim, so Joy and Chastity usually take Marilyn to the beach during the day. I once slipped through the middle of an inner tube and swallowed a lot of water. I thought I was drowning for sure until I stood up and everyone laughed because the water was only up to my armpits.

I spend a lot of time riding around on the ugly bike Daddy got at the Salvation Army for five dollars. After forgetting about his promise to bring us to the roller rink for my birthday he came home with the bike a couple weeks later. He bragged that they were asking ten dollars, but he talked them into a clergy discount. I painted it black with Rust-Oleum because I thought it would be cool. It turned out uglier than it started. I don’t even care. The feel of the wind in my face after I pump up the hills, then race down the other side more than makes up for its looks.

I’m practicing popping wheelies in the church parking lot when I spy Billy Wolf out of the corner of my eye. Before I can get away he pulls into the lot and starts following me around in his red car. He’s sixteen but he still picks on kids half his age. He knows I’m scared of him. Who wouldn’t be? One look from those half-closed snaky eyes of his gives me the heebie-jeebies. I’ve heard rumors that maybe he’s the one who molested that girl last year. They still haven’t found the culprit.

“Hey, weirdo,” he says out the window. “Where’d ya get such an ugly bike?”

When I don’t answer he pulls up right next to me and chuckles. He cups one hand over his mouth and spits into it, grinning. “Here’s a special kiss,” he says. Billy sticks his arm out the window and slaps the side of my face, smearing my cheek and knocking me off balance. My front wheel hits the curb and I fly forward over the bike, sliding along the ground until my shirt is up to my neck. I hear him laughing as he circles the lot one more time before peeling out, throwing a shower of dirt in my direction.

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