Beneath a Meth Moon by Jacqueline Woodson

Author:Jacqueline Woodson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Group, USA
Published: 2012-01-09T05:00:00+00:00

kaylee after

I WASN’T THERE when Daddy rang Kaylee’s bell, but I could imagine it. Her mama answering it fast before it started the dog off barking and my daddy standing there, his head down, his eyes thick with tears. I have some bad news, Donna, then holding out his hand to show Donna the pipe, the moon.

I wasn’t there, but I am now—inside this memory of it—Kaylee listening from behind her bedroom door, knowing it all now—where the moon came from, how I was going to go from sniffing to smoking, how I would move away from her—further and further until the afternoon she’d open her door to find me there, asking her for money. I’ll get it back to you, Kaylee. You know I’m good for it. Her hand in the corner of her top right drawer where she kept the money she’d been saving—a month’s worth of moon. Take it, Laurel. Take it and leave me alone. And me shaking, moon sick and ready to run.

The dream of Texas a long way behind us. A shadow of two girls on my front porch, the sun on us, the future filled up with promises it couldn’t ever keep.

You my girl, Kaylee. You’ll always be my girl.

I don’t even know you anymore, Laurel. And Kaylee closing the door.

It’s not mine, Mama, Kaylee said, stepping from behind the door, looking her mother in the eye in a way I had long ago learned not to do.

I know, Donna said, pulling Kaylee close to her. Because how could she have said to my father, How could you not have known? How could you not have seen your daughter wasting away in front of you? Your daughter’s darting eyes, her broken-out face, the tiny burns on her lips and fingers? Donna hugging her daughter to her, not saying what she wanted to say—how she slowed down in front of our house, wanting to ring our bell, wanting to tell my father what she knew, what her daughter had cried into her lap after a game. Laurel’s doing meth, Mama. She’s doing meth!

And my daddy standing there, my pipe and moon in his hands, then turning, turning away from them and throwing it hard into the darkness.

I wasn’t there. I was already mostly gone.

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.