My mother left us when I was twelve. She found a man who was not as parsimonious as my father and moved to Las Vegas, Nevada which is two thousand five hundred miles away. She doesn't visit. She doesn’t call. She sends me a card on my birthday with fifty dollars in it, which my father nags me about until I finally go to the bank and deposit it. And so, for all six years she’s been gone, I have $337 to show for having a mother.
Dad says that thirty-seven bucks is good interest. He doesn't see the irony in that. He doesn't see the word interest as anything not connected to money because he’s an accountant and to him, everything is a number.
I think $37 and no other and no visits or phone calls is shitty interest.
Tag: word-play
Apparently, smiling and joking was an additional sign that I needed "real help." And so I initiated Operation Don't Smile Ever. It's been a very succesful operation. We have perplexed many an enemy.
A.S. KingThey don't know what love is. Here they learn what hate is, and I am so sad that they might never know love because hate came first.
A.S. KingTag: love-and-hate
She talks about how she can't exercise because of the ailments-a bad back, sore knees, breathing difficulties-all caused by her weight gain.
A.S. KingTag: irony
Lara Jones never fails to tell me that my reading about war makes me weird, but I can't get her fascination with reading abour fairies and wizards, so I guess that makes us even.
A.S. KingAfter I lie there for a while, I realize that Dad isn't every going to do anything but be there to drive us home from the airport. And cook. And if I want something bigger to change, it's up to me. I'm scared shitless, yes. I'm doubtful, yes. But I'm angry. Angry that I am doing this because Dad can't. But then I sniff breakfast, and I know that Dad is doing what he can.
A.S. KingTag: parents
Everybody sees the ants?"
He looks at me and says, "Well, how many people do you think live perfect lives, son? Aren't we all victims of something at some time or another?"
"I don't follow."
"Left hand red!" he says. Two ants fall on this turn, and the ant laughter gets louder. "Well, think about it. How many bad things can be done to a person? You got murder and assault, rape and robbery for starters. Just with those you're looking at some big numbers of how many people see the ants." He calls, "Left foot blue!"
I say, "Huh," because I'm not sure how many people he means.
"There's battery, conspiracy, extortion, slander, defamation and harassment, child abuse, stalking-the list is long, isn't it? Don't forget that every crime has hundreds of victims-everyone who knew and loved the victim and the criminal. That shit can trickle down."
"All those people see the ants?"
"Yep. Right hand green!"
"Wow."
"Yeah," he says. "If there are people who don't see 'em, I'd say we outnumber them a million to one.
Tag: stroke-of-fate
There is something magical about the world at night. Sitting at the dining room table, sipping a glass of iced tea, I can totally understand why Dad gets up so early. Minutes seem to last longer when the rest of the world is asleep.
A.S. KingTag: time night-time
The youth choir is up onstage now, in flowing white gowns, and they're singing something in the key of goose-bumps.
A.S. KingTag: music
We're sitting there, her smoking, me watching her smoke, and it's too quiet, so I do what I've done my whole life when it's too quiet. I say something really stupid.
A.S. KingTag: awkward-silence
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