Everything Is Fine. Read Online Free Page B

shaking my oranges. Her smiling and looking at me.
    Finally she says, “You know, I could take you out for some girl time. Would you like that?”
    I don’t know what she means by “girl time.”
    “Do you think your mom would care?”
    I shake the oranges.
    “Okay, I’ll stop by next week when I get off work and we’ll go out.”
    Then she’s gone.
    M E BEFORE ORANGES : colored pencils on paper

    M E AFTER ORANGES : colored pencils on paper

    Colby does not have a girlfriend.
BILL
    Bill comes over three times a week, and when he’s done, sometimes he watches TV with me.
    Or this time, we sit on the chairs outside and he gives me a root beer while he drinks a beer.
    “You doing okay?”
    “Yeah.”
    “Really?”
    “Yeah.”
    Then we keep sitting.
    Finally I say, “Why doesn’t Dad come home?”
    I don’t know why I say it because I don’t really want him to come home. Not really.
    Bill sighs. “He’ll be home soon, Maz. He calls, doesn’t he?”
    I don’t answer that. Instead I say, “Did you tell him how bad Mom is?”
    He drinks some beer and starts peeling skin off his hand.
    “Did you?”
    “Yeah.”
    I knew it. I knew he’d tell.
    “Then why doesn’t he come home?” I ask.
    Bill wipes his mouth and then looks at me, “He will, Maz. But this ESPN thing, it’s his big break.”
    I don’t say anything because no one cares about ESPN 360. We have to special order the channel and we don’t even get a discount.
    We keep sitting.
    On the chairs me and Bill watch the cars go by and then we watch a lady with a stroller with two kids in it and two kids walking
     behind her.
    “That’s a crapload of kids,” Bill says.
    I don’t say anything because I’m drinking my root beer.
    Bill looks at me. “That’s a crapload, eh?”
    “Uh-huh,” I say, and it feels like the root beer is going up my nose. I cough.
    “Ever want some of those?” Bill asks.
    “What?”
    “Kids?” Bill says.
    “Huh?”
    “I mean when you grow up.”
    I watch the lady and she yells at the kids, and the two in the back are both holding sticks and poking her.
    I wonder how old the babies in the stroller are.
    “So?” Bill says.
    I drink a big drink of root beer and then I say, “Beer is bad for you.”
    Then we don’t talk anymore.
    I don’t like Bill so much.
DAD
    I can’t decide if I want Dad to come home or not.
    I usually just want to watch TV.
    But then Mrs. Peet came over and things had to change so I had to text him “Government.”
    That night he calls my pink phone.
    I don’t answer it the first time. Instead I watch
Survivor.
    The second time he calls it’s during a commercial so I answer it.
    He says: You picked up.
    I don’t say anything.
    He says: You watching TV, Mazzy?
    I say: No.
    He says: What are you doing, then?
    I say: Making eggplant parmesan for me and Mom.
    He’s silent for awhile and I turn down the TV then.
    Then he says: So what’s happening?
    I say: Nothing.
    He says: Nothing?
    I say: Yep.
    He says: What about the text?
    Survivor
’s back on so I hang up.
    He doesn’t call back for thirty-two minutes, and when he does call back, he says: Mazzy, tell me what’s going on and don’t
     hang up. Is your show over?
    I don’t say anything.
    He says: What’s going on, baby girl?
    So then I tell him: There’s a lady with big boobs coming around named Mrs. Peet who is from the government because a neighbor
     called.
    Dad says: Crap.
    Then he says: I already told her everything is fine.
    Then I say: I told her that too. She came in even though I said things were fine and you were just gone on a business trip
     and Mom is fine and everything, but when she was here, Mom was tired and in bed so she thinks things are bad even though they
     aren’t and she says she doesn’t care who you are and that things have to change.
    Dad sighs.
    I keep going: She says things have to change and I can’t live here alone with Mom.
    He’s still quiet.
    I said things were fine and that everything was