The Twelve-Fingered Boy by John Hornor Jacobs

Author:John Hornor Jacobs
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Social Issues, Action & Adventure, Juvenile Fiction, Paranormal, Fantasy & Magic, General, Bullying
ISBN: 9780761390077
Publisher: Carolrhoda Books
Published: 2013-02-01T00:03:31+00:00

In my room, I grab an old school backpack and my army duffle bag. The dresser is still stuffed with our clothing, mine and Vig’s. I pick up his dinosaur T-shirt. I lift it up to my nose. It doesn’t smell like him anymore, just stale cigarette smoke.

Under the mattress I find my stash, still there, in a cigar box. Seventy-three dollars and change. Mostly taken from cars in Holly Pines. It’s wrong, but you do what you have to do.

We change clothes. My jeans are too big for Jack, and we have to find a belt and roll the legs. I grab a couple extra pair of shoes and shove them in the duffle. In my closet, I rummage around and get my survival kit—another cigar box, this one with matches, a pocketknife, some twine, some nylon rope, and a compass.

When we’re packed, I sit down on my bed and Jack comes over to me, sits down, and doesn’t say anything as I cry.

Huge sobs rip out of me, hurling out there for Jack to see. It’s like a cough I can’t control, with bits of my lungs coming up and out. Messy and raw. I feel like a boat rolling over in the sea, hull exposed. I feel like a car-struck dog, too injured to crawl under the porch.

I cry. Jack watches.

When I finally stop, he puts his hand on my shoulder and gives a long squeeze.

That’s all.

“I’m so sorry, Shreve.” Jack’s said this before, but it’s always been about something he’s done.

I wipe my nose. It’s not bleeding anymore, but it is running like a faucet. My throat is sore.

“Don’t be.”

“I can’t even begin to—”

“Then don’t.”

I’m everything she said I am. Selfish. Here I am crying about what a rough deal I’ve got, what a crappy mother I have. And Jack, the orphan, the homeless kid, the parent-killer, he tells me he’s sorry. I’m a fool.

Moms continues to stare into the TV as we come out. I make her a last drink before we leave. Then we walk out through the park and into the woods.

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