Part 10 (1/2)
”Hey, everybody!” shouted Ronald. ”Nathan just got beat up by a girl!”
”And he's crying!”
”What a baby!”
Beverly gave him one last punch. ”The next time I ask you to get off the bars, you'd better do it!” She brushed her hands off on her pants and walked away.
Nathan lay on the dirt and cried. He didn't think he was bleeding, and he'd received much more violent beatings from Bernard Steamspell, but he couldn't stop the tears.
”I can't be your friend anymore,” said Gordon, leaping from the jungle gym and heading off in search of alternate acquaintances.
Jamison climbed down from the bars and extended his hand toward Nathan. ”It's okay,” he said. ”She looked tough. I thought I even saw a muscle.”
Nathan wiped his eyes then let Jamison help him up. ”Can I die with you?”
”So how was school?” Mary asked when Nathan got into the car.
”It was bad, then it was good, then it was bad, then it was good, and then bad again. Do I have to go back?”
”Yes. What did you learn?”
”I learned how to blow things up.”
”What?”
”That's what they teach at that school. They gave us all dynamite and showed us how to use it. Then Mrs. Calmon handed me a great big knife and said that it's okay to stab people if they're unattractive.”
”Oh, she didn't either.”
”She did! And she said that tomorrow she's going to teach us how to drown people with only a little bit of water, barely enough to fill a gla.s.s. I'll be able to kill anyone I want when the school year is over.”
”What did you really learn?”
Nathan shrugged. ”She showed us places on a map, but I didn't care about any of them.”
”Well, that's a silly att.i.tude. What if you wanted to go to those places? You wouldn't know where they were.”
”They were all dumb places.”
”How would you know that if you didn't care about them?” She stopped at a red light and looked at Nathan more closely. ”Why do you have a mark on your face?”
”I got beat up at recess! And I wasn't doing anything!”
”Who beat you up?”
”Her-his name was...I forget his name.”
”Why did you say 'her'?”
”I didn't.”
”Did you get beat up by a girl?”
”None of your business!”
”Nathan! Don't speak to me like that. Why did she hit you?”
”I don't know.”
”Should I speak to your teacher?”
”No! Can we talk about something else?”
”Of course we can, Nathan. We have a guest coming for dinner tonight.”
Nathan was suddenly horrified. ”It's not Beverly, is it?”
”Is she the one who hit you?”
”Is it her? Is it really?” If Beverly tried to attack him in his own home, he'd show her. He'd dig a pit in the living room and cover it with a rug and as soon as she stepped inside she'd plummet. He wouldn't line the bottom with spikes or anything like that, but if he could coax a tiger inside...
”Her name is Sharon. You'll like her. She's very nice.”
”Where did she come from?”
”She came in to the restaurant this afternoon for a late lunch. She ordered the lamb, which I felt was a mistake, and I successfully steered her toward the pasta with blackened chicken.”
”Why is she coming over if she's eaten already?”
”You're a very rude little boy today, aren't you?”
Nathan realized that he was indeed being rude. It wasn't Mary's fault that he'd had a terrible first day at school, except for her contribution toward forcing him to go. ”I'm sorry,” he said. ”I'm sure tomorrow will be better.”
”Of course it will. I think you'll really like Sharon.”
Nathan pouted in his room for a full three minutes after they got home, but then he decided that he had better ways to spend his time than wallowing in self-pity. He'd made a friend, after all. Jamison didn't care that he'd been beaten up by a girl.
Mary was correct. Nathan did like Sharon. She was very pretty; in fact, Nathan didn't recall ever having seen a woman in real life who looked the way women looked in the movies. She wore a fancy dress and makeup, and both Penny and Mary apologized for the way they looked and for the condition of their home, despite the fact that Nathan thought they both looked nice as well, and they'd cleaned the entire house top to bottom, including the rain gutters, though Nathan doubted that Sharon would inspect them.
Sharon laughed a lot, and they all played games. Mary also laughed often, giggling loudly at all of Sharon's jokes, even the ones that Nathan thought could have been funnier. Every once in a while Nathan noticed Penny looking a bit sad, which was strange since everybody was having so much fun.
Nathan was sent to bed half an hour earlier than usual. He wasn't happy about it, but he didn't protest. He was tired anyway.
ELEVEN.