Glory Girl Read Online Free Page A

shaved through his hair, his head ringed with black stitches, he had felt so sorry for himself that he had cried like a baby. Now he felt fresh sobs shaking his body. His drumsticks clattered to the floor.
    Mr. Glory relented. “All right,” he said, “go to bed. Take a pain pill.”
    “Thank you,” Joshua said tearfully as he crawled out from under the drum set.
    “Can I have a pain pill too?” Matthew asked quickly. “My knee still—”
    “No! And these accidents have got to stop! You’ve had your last stitch, Joshua, you hear me?”
    “Yes.”
    “I don’t care if you split yourself wide open. You too, Matthew.”
    “Me? He’s the one that’s got the stitches. He’s got ninety-one! I’ve only got forty-two!” He could not keep the sense of injustice out of his quivering voice.
    “Matthew!”
    “Yes, sir.”
    “All right now.” Mr. Glory ran his hands through his limp hair. He needed another body permanent. “Now, Angel, after we sing the chorus, you—”
    The phone rang, interrupting him. “Get that, Anna,” he called.
    “It’ll be for Angel,” Anna said, putting the lid back on the pot. “Some stupid boy. ‘You don’t know me, but I saw you in the blah … blah … blah.’” She came out of the kitchen wiping her hands on her jeans.
    In the living room Mr. Glory nodded to his wife. “Maudine, let’s try it again.”
    Mrs. Glory began the introduction. She had been playing the piano since she was four years old. She never had to look down at the keys.
    “‘Oh, we’re climbing, climbing, climbing.’”
    Anna picked up the phone in the hall. “Hello.”
    “‘Every day it’s one step more.’”
    “What?” Anna asked.
    “‘Higher, higher, higher.’”
    “Wait a minute, let me close the door. Now, who is this?” she asked.
    “‘Than we’ve ever been before.’”
    Anna said, “Oh,” as if she’d been stuck with a pin. Slowly she lowered the phone and held it against her chest. Then she lifted it and said, “I’ll get my dad, Uncle Newt. Hold on.”
    She opened the door to the living room. A chill of dread caused her to shudder slightly. “Dad?”
    “‘Looking, looking, looking for that heavenly shore—’”
    “Dad,” she said louder.
    “Keep going, Maudine,” Mr. Glory said as he walked toward the hall. Mrs. Glory began the second verse with a ripple of chords. “Who is it?”
    Anna let out her breath in a rush. “It’s Uncle Newt. He says he wrote you a letter and he hasn’t heard from you and he’s getting out of prison and needs to know if—”
    Mr. Glory spun around as if he were looking for someone to strike. Mrs. Glory stopped playing the piano. Angel’s high note trailed off.
    “Did she say Newt’s getting out of prison?” Mrs. Glory asked. She stood up so quickly that the piano stool fell over backwards. “John, you’ve had a letter from Newt?”
    Mr. Glory did not answer. Nostrils flaring, he drew in a breath. He showed his teeth like a dog. When anybody saw Mr. Glory in a rage, they never doubted that people had evolved from animals.
    “Newt is on the phone?” Mrs. Glory was having a hard time taking in the news. It was the first time she had heard Newt’s name mentioned in years. “Your brother Newt is on the phone?”
    “Yes!” Mr. Glory screamed. He was so filled with rage that his face burned. He looked to the right, to the left. Anna thought he was looking for a piece of furniture small enough to smash to splinters. She stepped back out of the way.
    “I think he’s being paroled, Mom,” Anna explained. “He wants to come stay with us for a while. He has to have an approved place.” She had gotten this from the letter, but her father wouldn’t know that.
    “Just when we’re beginning to have some success,” Mr. Glory said through his teeth. “Just when people are beginning to accept us, to believe in us—you know what a woman in Albemarle told me? She said, ‘Your whole family is good—it’s in your faces and your