The New Normal Read Online Free

his uncle and I thanked him again and we went out into the street. The sky was drained of color; it was windy, and the air was crisp. It felt like it might snow.

three
    A scabby old man with a shopping cart full of bottles and cans pushed up against me as he passed us.
    â€œGot a dollar for me, sweetie?” His putrid breath hung in the air.
    I clutched my purse and shook my head no.
    â€œHow ’bout yer fella?” He turned to Roy. The man’s jaw hung slack, showing his brown, rotted teeth.
    Roy dug a dollar out of his pocket and held it out.
    â€œMuch obliged, sir.” The man bowed and lifted his cap, showing a scaly, bald head. Then he clattered on down the sidewalk, whistling “Ring-Around-the-Rosie.” I felt as if somebody was walking over my grave. If I’d had any hair left on the back of my neck, it would’ve stood up.
    My sisters and I used to hold hands and dance around in a circle, singing that song:

    Ring around the rosie
    A pocket full of posies
    Ashes, ashes
    We all fall down!

    Then we’d pull each other down to the ground as hard as we could. I rubbed my eyes, trying to wipe the image out of my head. I could still hear the man with the cart, whistling down the sidewalk.
    â€œWant to go for a bubble tea?” Roy asked, turning to me.
    â€œA what?”
    He laughed.
    I had never had it before. Roy insisted that I try it, so we walked to a little bubble-tea café. Roy ordered, and I sat down at a small round table, rubbed my palms together and stared out the window at two thin brunettes sharing a cigarette.
    â€œEarth to Tamar!” Roy said, placing a cup with a straw in it on the table in front of me. “Do you read?”
    I rolled my eyes and drew a sip of tea through the straw. It was squidgy and lukewarm and actually pretty nasty, but I told Roy I liked it because I didn’t want to hurt his feelings, and you should never look a gift horse in the mouth.
    â€œSo, do you feel any different?” Roy asked.
    â€œI always feel different.”
    â€œYou know what I mean.”
    â€œI guess I feel…a sort of relief.”
    â€œYeah?”
    â€œYou know, like when your bike tires are too full and then you let a little bit of air out and it’s a better ride?”
    â€œUh-huh…”
    â€œI don’t know. I don’t know if it even does anything. I mean, how could it? Really.”
    â€œWell, that’s the great thing about acupuncture. Uncle Lung says you don’t have to believe in it for it to work.”
    Some grade-twelve girls from our school came in then, and Roy craned his neck to watch them as they flounced up to the counter and ordered their disgusting teas. They were chatty and giddy and talking too loud. They tossed their perfect hair over their perfect shoulders or tucked it behind their perfect ears. I hated them all.
    â€œLet’s go.” I got up and dropped my still-full cup into the garbage can and stood by the door, buttoning my coat. Roy’s gaze lingered on the girls as we left.
    The sky had darkened to a leaden gray. We said nothing. Our breath formed silver clouds in the air between us. We walked to the C-train and stood on the platform with our hands jammed in our pockets. The platform was full of businesspeople in suits, carrying briefcases, looking pinched and worried, checking their watches every three seconds. I don’t know what I want to be when I grow up, but I know I don’t want to be one of them.
    We got on the next southbound train. There were some idiot punk kids on the train, swinging from the poles and hollering obscene jokes at each other. Blue-mohawk girl from school was there. She nearly kicked me in the face when she did a backflip over the top handrail. I wished the C-train cops would come and bust her stupid ass. Roy and I didn’t bother talking over the din of the punks.
    When we got off at Anderson station, Roy’s bus was just pulling away from the