Our Town by McEnroe Kevin Jack

Author:McEnroe, Kevin Jack [McEnroe, Kevin Jack]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
ISBN: 9781619026384
Publisher: Counterpoint
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

* * *

Dale held his cue stick in his right hand and pointed the green chalked tip at his opponent. Clover, sixteen, put her iced tea down on a bamboo coaster on the small table beside her. Pieces of sea glass and beer bottle caps glassed together atop three uneven, steely legs. She listened to the ocean. She felt the breeze on her cheeks. She sat beneath a large fish tank that hung down over an empty hearth. A fireplace without fire. Once it housed an electric chimney. But that only lasted two days. In the tank were six fish—large and colorful—and, as she stood up, they all seemed to be looking at her, staring into her face. Past the fish stares Clover noticed her own turquoise reflection. She smiled and saw her snaggletooth. And noticed that her face had begun to gain shape. Rounder. Like a heart. But she didn’t think it was cute, like a heart. She just thought it was a round heart. It bled out her insecurity. Fat, ugly heart. She turned around. Dale was playing pool with his friends with his shirt off. He was going through a Mexican-cowboy phase—“ranchero”—so he wore his blue jeans tucked into white cowboy boots. The sun was setting, it was getting cold. He wrapped himself in a bandito blanket. His amigo cut one long line—maybe a foot and a half—across a vanity mirror and they all took turns taking it. An inch in the right nostril, another in the left. When they were done, he told them to sit, now, because he wanted to teach his daughter billiards. Drinking beers—Coronitas—and doing cocaine with a hundred-dollar bill after Clover got home from school on a Wednesday—Dylan’d signed up for judo, he’d skip school then just do that—Dale wanted to teach his daughter something. He wanted her to be beautiful, like her mom. But not weak like her. Not pathetic. He wanted her to be wry, and self-aware. Clever, and sure of herself. He wanted her to be brave. A girl that could play pool with men could do anything. Like the heroine in a screwball comedy, whom all the men pine after but no one has the courage to court.

“You’re up, baby,” Dale said, and he sipped his mini-beer and hit the big end of his pool cue on the Navajo carpet beneath the table on the floor.

“One sec, Daddy” Clover replied. “Let me get some food in me.”

“Yeah, all right,” Dale answered, but only because he wanted to get back to the drugs. “Make it fast though. And try to not eat too much.”

Clover didn’t answer. She walked to the kitchen. The house was bright, with high windows, and it hung out over the sand. The front room featured a shag carpet and had two plump, brown leather couches—cracked from years in the sun—that sat parallel to each other in the middle of the living area. The kitchen looked over the living room from one step up. And above the wooden center table hung pots, pans, and skillets.

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.