The Cousins Read Online Free Page B

with Stan, and she had a smug little air of authority. “He’d be wearing a protective suit, and there are people with fire extinguishers right there. And there’s a little cage inside the car to protect him from the crash. But they won’t let him do it yet. He’s not ready.”
    “Good,” Lila said.
    “How many buildings can you jump off?” Stan said. “Can’t make a living on motorcycles. Some years down the road I’m going to be doing everything.”
    If you’re still alive, they all thought; but nobody dared to say it.
    Stan and Earlene didn’t want the wedding to be at Mandelay; they said they would prefer to have the money. Also, he was converting to her religion, and would be a Christian, for the children they hoped to have. When they decided to elope to Las Vegas and be married by a justice of the peace, the family was greatly relieved. A year later, Earlene gave birth to their first child, a son, Grady—named after some relative of hers—and two years after that their daughter, Taylor.
    Every summer Stan and Earlene brought the children to Mandelay for two months, to escape the California heat and visit their grandmother, who still sent checks. After a few days Stan would leave them there and go back to Hollywood to work or look for work. Earlene was restless, disgruntled.
    “I don’t know why I gave up my career,” she would say.
    The house was filled with children. Uncle Seymour, the oldest uncle, who had always been independent, had his own estate with Aunt Iris and their children, Charlie and Anna; but the others were there: shy Kenny, Jenny with her dolls, active Melissa, Melissa’s brother, confident Nick; Grady and Taylor, and Olivia, who was a teenager now and already dreaming of getting away. Her mother was too possessive and she had no privacy. There were too many aunts to offer unasked-for advice.
    Later, when she looked back on it, she realized that all these people living together—doting, intrusive—formed a buffer between Earlene and her children, and that Mandelay was the only place they felt safe.
    Grady and Taylor were beautiful children, and Olivia loved them madly. They had perfect little muscles, without even trying, and they were active as monkeys. From the few things she saw, Olivia didn’t like the way Earlene treated them. One evening, in the long upstairs corridor, Grady and Taylor got into a squabble, and when Earlene came running to find out what had happened, Taylor said, “He hit me.” They were very young. Earlene grabbed Grady, holding him off the floor, and commanded Taylor to hit him. Taylor didn’t want to, she was trembling; Olivia suddenly realized it was not her brother but her mother she was afraid of. “Hit him!” Earlene snapped. Taylor took a swing and punched Grady, and then Earlene let him down. He fled sobbing into the bathroom. Taylor ran after him, and Olivia followed.
    He was huddled under the sink, crying, and Taylor was huddled beside him, holding him in her little arms, comforting him, and she was crying, too.
    Earlene and Stan didn’t get along, and several times they separated. She had the children alone, and he told his mother things, which Julia told Lila, who told Olivia. One night when Grady was only six, Earlene locked him out of the house. He had been dressed in his swim trunks, watering the lawn, which was one of his chores, and when Earlene demanded he come into the house he dawdled too long. Night falls quickly and cold in Southern California; it is desert country. Earlene locked the door and left him out there, scarcely clothed, shivering, while she went about her business: making Taylor eat supper, putting her to bed, watching a little TV, having a few drinks. Grady walked barefoot for several miles down the road to his father’s house, which was how the family found out.
    “What do you expect?” Earlene said to Julia. “He leaves me alone with them. I’m the one who has to discipline them. He doesn’t do it.”
    Grady