Conjoined at the Soul by Huston Piner

Author:Huston Piner [Piner, Huston]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Amazon: B00TGV649K
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Jeremy nods.

***

I stare at the phone on my desk. My hand shakes as I pick up the receiver. Taking a final breath, I dial Kerry’s number.

“Hello?”

“Hey, man. It’s me.”

“What’s up, Randy-man?”

“Got a minute to talk?”

“A minute? Well, let me see.” I can hear the grin in his voice. “Yeah, I might even be able to spare a minute and a half.”

“There’s… uh… something I’ve been meaning to tell you… and I --”

“Hey Stupid,” Wally’s voice cuts through the receiver like fingernails on a chalkboard. “Mom says dinner is ready.”

“Get off the phone, Turd!”

“You better come now, Shithead! Trust me, you’re gonna want to eat this crap before it gets cold.”

Kerry laughs. “Sounds like whatever you want to tell me will have to wait.”

“Yeah, I guess so. Well, later, dude.” I hang up the phone and wonder if I can get to Wally and kill him before he gets to the table.

When I try to call Kerry back after dinner, his line is busy. Then as luck would have it, between The Turd and Mom, our phone is in use the rest of the evening.

This is worse than a nightmare. Kerry knows I want to tell him something, and if he suspects what it is, tomorrow could be horrendous. And Mom never buys my “I feel sick” routine so my chance of avoiding him is zero. I’m doomed.

***

To my relief, the next day Kerry acts like he’s forgotten all about my phone call. But I haven’t. I’ve had enough second thoughts to fill a book, and they all say the same thing: Keep your mouth shut and pretend the conversation never happened.

At lunchtime, we’re trying to guess what today’s nutritional offering is supposed to be while ignoring the shouts of a junior who’s vainly trying to remind everyone about Friday night’s dance. As the junior gives up and storms off, Annie breezes over to us, grinning from ear to ear. She’s wearing a big floppy denim cap with spangles, magenta bellbottoms, and the kind of printed disco shirt I thought they only wore on Soul Train.

There is nobody else within five spots of where we’re sitting, but she pulls up a seat so close to Kerry it looks like they’re Siamese Twins. She gives me a quizzical look and I respond with a slight shake of the head. She purses her lips and rolls her eyes at me.

Meanwhile, Kerry’s delighted to have his first up-close experience of Miss Personality 1979. I’ve told him a lot about her but she and Jeremy sit with a different group of kids for lunch. I can tell he’s dying to know how the real Annie will compare to the picture I’ve painted of her.

He doesn’t have to wait long.

She spies Mike sitting a couple of tables over from us.

“Guess what happened to Mike Kowalski’s elephant?” she says and bursts into a loud snort-giggle.

Kerry’s eyes widen; he’s heard about Annie’s laugh before, but this is his first encounter with the real thing.

“It blew up in the kiln,” she laughs.

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