The River's Edge Read Online Free Page B

loose.
    “He wasn’t always like that.”
    “Really? Well, you remember him your way, and I’ll remember
him my way.” Mom took a deep breath. “One time he got a parking ticket
and do you know what he did?” She didn’t wait for an answer. “He collected
enough pennies to pay the fine and put them in a jar.”
    “He paid in pennies?” I was amused, but Mom wasn’t. Her voice was
strained.
    “Not only that, he poured molasses in that jar and took it right
to the police station. Told them it wasn’t fair, and he shouldn’t have gotten
that ticket in the first place. He was parked in an emergency zone and he had
an emergency when he got the ticket, so it shouldn’t count.”
    “What was the emergency?” I asked.
    “Well, as he explained to the police officer, he was parked in the
emergency zone in front of the police station because he was inside paying for
his first ticket and if that wasn’t an emergency he didn’t know what was.”
    “That wasn’t mean, that was just funny,” Uncle Butch said.
    My mom cut him a look. “Yeah, that was hilarious. I laughed so
hard I cried.” She cocked her head, like she was remembering something. “Why
did we always have so many pennies in the house? I never understood that.”
    “They grew up in the Great Depression. Every penny counted back
then,” Uncle Butch said.
    “You’re right, I guess.”
    “Do you remember taking pennies to the railroad track so we could
flatten them?” Uncle Butch asked.
    “That brings back memories. Do you still have them?”
    “I do.” Uncle Butch got up from the table and disappeared into the
master bedroom. He came back and handed something to Mom.
    “I can’t believe it.” She turned it over in her hand and examined
it like it was a diamond. “Those were good times, huh Butch? We always had each
other’s back.” She looked at the penny, and then she handed it to me. “Here.
Penny for your thoughts.”
    I looked at the penny but it no longer resembled a coin. I
couldn’t make heads or tails of it. It was smooth and flat. And it wasn’t a
circle anymore, it was oval.
    “Is it worth anything?” I asked.
    “Well, I don’t think you can buy penny candy with it,” Mom said.
    I rubbed my fingers over its smooth surface, and then tucked it
into my pocket for safe keeping.
    After dinner, I sat at the table with my cousins and played cards,
but I couldn’t concentrate. Mom was on the couch next to Aunt Lori and Uncle
Butch sat in his chair that seemed to have taken on his shape. They talked
quietly in that low voice they used when they didn’t want “the youngsters” to
hear, so I put away my Mickey Mouse ears and gave up trying to figure it out.
    I thought about how I ended up here. About how my dad abandoned us
and set off a whole chain of events that landed me so far from home. Mom drove
all day and I co-piloted. During the drive, we sang, laughed, told stories. I
never felt closer to her. But, now that I thought about her leaving tomorrow,
there was no more laughter in my heart, and the summer was only beginning.

 
    Chapter Two
    Goodbye
     
    THE NEXT MORNING after breakfast, it was time
to say goodbye to Mom. My bruises reared up and punched harder against my
stomach. I had a hard time keeping breakfast down.
    We gathered by the car. Mom hugged Uncle Butch first. “Take care
of her. She’s the only thing I have left.”
    That was the first time I ever heard her say anything that might
even remotely suggest that maybe Dad was never coming back to us. It scared me
because her hope that he was coming back was the only thing keeping her going.
    After she hugged everyone else she walked over to me.
    “Bye, honey, have a good time.” She kissed the top of my head.
“And promise to call me every Saturday, okay?”
    “I promise.”
    As she wrapped her arms around me, I couldn’t help thinking about
my dad, and how I never got to say goodbye to him. I couldn’t hold back the
huge wave of emotion that was storming