my face and dropped some Tide.
A second later the jawbreaker shot out of my mouth and bounced past her down the aisle and rolled into the meat section.
Ma said my face was blue.
Your face was so blue, Ma said. It was bluer than when you were born.
I couldnât talk right for the rest of the day.
Since then Iâve mastered the Heimlich maneuver. In addition to that poster in the Health Office we were handed pamphlets during CPR training. Itâs easy if you follow the illustrations.
I practice the Heimlich maneuver nearly every time I go to the bathroom. It works best if you use an object with a point or a snout. Lately Iâve been using Maâs Head & Shoulders dandruff shampoo. You have to stick it in your abdomen and thrust upwards. Sometimes this action makes me fart but it works pretty good.
Iâll concern myself with vitamins and minerals when I grow out of the choking phase.
In the kitchen the window is covered with frost.
It looks like crystal spiderwebs. The field behind the house is frosted, too, and then the woods come out of the field all sudden and black.
The abandoned Ford Taurus looks like itâs thinking. The FUCK is still there and now someone has added YOU right next to it. Iâm pretty sure Shay was hiding drugs in it for a while.
There was this time I saw her and Flahive crawl out of the back seat and walk back to the house. You could tell there was something fishy going on by their faces. They both looked scared and excited at the same time.
Once I told Shay that I was going to call the police if she didnât stop doing drugs.
Iâll call the cops, I said.
Be my guest, she said. They donât got nothin on me.
Then I said, I hope you get AIDS! and she slapped me so hard I turned a circle. One of her nails scratched a line in my face and it bled.
I hope your foot falls off! I screamed.
Then I ran down the street and hid at the bus stop.
There arenât many hiding places at the bus stop but Shay never came out to find me, so I guess it worked.
I open the kitchen window and look out at the field. A deer is standing next to the car now. Itâs staring at me like it wants to say something.
Run! I say to it for some reason. Run!
Iâm afraid that whoever wrote FUCK and YOU is lurking around somewhere and they might hurt the deer.
Run! I say again.
But it just stands there.
I watch the deer for another minute and close the window.
I try and wash a glass but the sponge is frozen so I just eat my Pop-Tart and hold my mouth under the tap to drink.
The dishes stink like fish and sourness and I know washing them will be left up to Cheedle. He usually does them when he gets home from school.
Cheedle scores huge amounts of points with Ma for this kind of enthusiasm for household chores.
On the kitchen table there is no note from Ma but there is a letter with my name on it. Itâs in a small white envelope with no return address. I think it might be money from my Uncle Jack.
My birthdayâs on November seventeenth and my Uncle Jack usually sends ten dollars to be put toward clothes or school items such as books or Mead spiral notebooks.
I think about this for a moment and I realize that I will be twelve.
This is a dozen years.
Iâll be like eggs and donuts.
The birthday money is perfect timing, considering that Eric Duggan is no longer paying for my hot lunch.
I put the letter in my pocket and continue getting ready for school.
I open Shayâs door and Iâm surprised to find that sheâs in her room for once. When she sleeps she makes a face like her head hurts.
Her room is colder than mine and I find it superhuman that she didnât burrow under her covers in the middle of the night.
I touch her head several times.
Shay brushes my hand away and wakes.
Hey, I say.
She says, Hey.
She pulls her covers over herself and groans.
She says, Why is it so fucking cold in here?
I donât know, I say. The whole house is
A second later the jawbreaker shot out of my mouth and bounced past her down the aisle and rolled into the meat section.
Ma said my face was blue.
Your face was so blue, Ma said. It was bluer than when you were born.
I couldnât talk right for the rest of the day.
Since then Iâve mastered the Heimlich maneuver. In addition to that poster in the Health Office we were handed pamphlets during CPR training. Itâs easy if you follow the illustrations.
I practice the Heimlich maneuver nearly every time I go to the bathroom. It works best if you use an object with a point or a snout. Lately Iâve been using Maâs Head & Shoulders dandruff shampoo. You have to stick it in your abdomen and thrust upwards. Sometimes this action makes me fart but it works pretty good.
Iâll concern myself with vitamins and minerals when I grow out of the choking phase.
In the kitchen the window is covered with frost.
It looks like crystal spiderwebs. The field behind the house is frosted, too, and then the woods come out of the field all sudden and black.
The abandoned Ford Taurus looks like itâs thinking. The FUCK is still there and now someone has added YOU right next to it. Iâm pretty sure Shay was hiding drugs in it for a while.
There was this time I saw her and Flahive crawl out of the back seat and walk back to the house. You could tell there was something fishy going on by their faces. They both looked scared and excited at the same time.
Once I told Shay that I was going to call the police if she didnât stop doing drugs.
Iâll call the cops, I said.
Be my guest, she said. They donât got nothin on me.
Then I said, I hope you get AIDS! and she slapped me so hard I turned a circle. One of her nails scratched a line in my face and it bled.
I hope your foot falls off! I screamed.
Then I ran down the street and hid at the bus stop.
There arenât many hiding places at the bus stop but Shay never came out to find me, so I guess it worked.
I open the kitchen window and look out at the field. A deer is standing next to the car now. Itâs staring at me like it wants to say something.
Run! I say to it for some reason. Run!
Iâm afraid that whoever wrote FUCK and YOU is lurking around somewhere and they might hurt the deer.
Run! I say again.
But it just stands there.
I watch the deer for another minute and close the window.
I try and wash a glass but the sponge is frozen so I just eat my Pop-Tart and hold my mouth under the tap to drink.
The dishes stink like fish and sourness and I know washing them will be left up to Cheedle. He usually does them when he gets home from school.
Cheedle scores huge amounts of points with Ma for this kind of enthusiasm for household chores.
On the kitchen table there is no note from Ma but there is a letter with my name on it. Itâs in a small white envelope with no return address. I think it might be money from my Uncle Jack.
My birthdayâs on November seventeenth and my Uncle Jack usually sends ten dollars to be put toward clothes or school items such as books or Mead spiral notebooks.
I think about this for a moment and I realize that I will be twelve.
This is a dozen years.
Iâll be like eggs and donuts.
The birthday money is perfect timing, considering that Eric Duggan is no longer paying for my hot lunch.
I put the letter in my pocket and continue getting ready for school.
I open Shayâs door and Iâm surprised to find that sheâs in her room for once. When she sleeps she makes a face like her head hurts.
Her room is colder than mine and I find it superhuman that she didnât burrow under her covers in the middle of the night.
I touch her head several times.
Shay brushes my hand away and wakes.
Hey, I say.
She says, Hey.
She pulls her covers over herself and groans.
She says, Why is it so fucking cold in here?
I donât know, I say. The whole house is
Similar Books
