The Waterproof Bible Read Online Free Page A

fallen in love with him. It was certainly why she loved him still. Stewart never doubted her, or made her feel weird. He just listened, then immediately began constructing a way for her to cope.
    “So, are all your memories affected?” he asked.
    “No. Just that one. Well, no others that I know of.”
    “But it’s the one you’re using for the eulogy?”
    “Yes,” Rebecca said.
    “Why can’t you use it?”
    “Because it doesn’t make me feel anything. I’d feel false and phoney, and people would feel it.”
    “So just use another one, then. You’ve got tons of them.”
    “But that was the perfect one.”
    “What about the party?”
    “What party?”
    “The one that went wrong. The Derrick Miller party.”
    “I don’t think …”
    “Try it. I’ll wait.”
    “Okay,” Rebecca said.
    Setting her phone in her lap, she leaned forward and looked at her shiny black shoes. She closed her eyes. She saw her fifteen-year-old face reflected in the front hall mirror of her parents’ house. Her parents had gone away for the weekend, leaving Rebecca and Lisa alone, which was something that had never happened before. In her right hand was a telephone and on the other end of the line was Derrick Miller.
    “I’m thinking of maybe having a party,” Rebecca said, studying her pores in the mirror.
    “When?” Derrick asked.
    “Tonight.”
    “Do it!”
    “I don’t know, though.”
    “No, do it. Completely.”
    “You think?”
    “Definitely.”
    “Who should I invite?”
    “Everybody!”
    “You think?” Rebecca asked. This was more ambitious than her original plan.
    “For sure!” Derrick said.
    “All right. I’m doing it.”
    Rebecca began making calls. Derrick Miller made many more. The first guests arrived at 7:30 p.m., and although Rebecca recognized their faces, she didn’t know their names. They entered her home without taking off their shoes. They opened the refrigerator and moved condiments to the kitchen floor to make room for beer. Sitting on the kitchen counter, they talked amongst themselves. Bottles were opened, caps fell to the linoleum, and Rebecca attempted to laugh in all the right places.
    By 9:00 p.m. the party was already a success. Teenagers stood shoulder to shoulder in the kitchen. Music Rebecca had never heard before played on her family’s stereo. No one was using coasters. With a roll of paper towels under her arm, Rebecca travelled from room to room, sopping up spills. The first glass was broken just before ten. Around eleven a painting was knocked off the wall in the living room. Just after midnight people started smoking in the house and a couple disappeared upstairs.
    At 1:00 a.m. Rebecca noticed a bottle of peach schnapps on the kitchen counter. Her arms full of empties, she stopped. Derrick Miller was down on all fours, his head completely inside the liquor cabinet.
    “What are you doing?” Rebecca asked, her voice high and squeaky.
    The beer bottles in her left hand were slipping. Derrick pulled his head out of the liquor cabinet.
    “Just don’t,” Rebecca said. Putting her index finger in her mouth, Rebecca began biting her fingernails. She was filled with anxiety. She felt like the party was now beyond her control. These feelings went into the heads of everyone in the kitchen. They went into the head of Derrick Miller, who reached into the liquor cabinet, pulled out a bottle of vodka, then released a short, disdainful laugh. Derrick twisted off the lid. The cap fell to the linoleum and spun. Derrick raised the bottle and saluted her. Lifting it to his mouth, he drank. The guests in the kitchen cheered, and Rebecca’s anxiety increased.
    The more distress she felt, the more emboldened her houseguests became. She began biting her right thumbnail as they began laughing louder. Derrick Miller coughed, wiped his mouth with the back of his sleeve and passed the vodka to his right. The partiers cheered. The bottle was passed through the hands of three people, and then it