A Boy.
Page 12-14.
5. Story
Page 12
The door to Bradley’s room
swung open
and his sister,
Claudia, barged in.
She was four years older
than Bradley.
“Get out of here!”
he snapped at her.
“Or I’ll punch your
face in!”
“What are you doing?”
she teased.
“Talking to your
little animal friends?”
She laughed,
showing her braces.
It was Claudia
who had broken Ronnie’s ear.
She had stepped on it
accidentally.
She told Bradley
it was his fault
for leaving his animals
strewn all over the floor.
He didn’t tell her
that Ronnie wasn’t on the floor,
but lost in the desert.
Instead, he had said,
“Who cares?
It’s just a stupid red rabbit.”
“Mom wants you,”
said Claudia.
“She told me to get you.”
“What does she want?”
“She wants to talk to you.
Tell your animals
you’ll be right back.”
“I wasn’t talking to them,”
Bradley insisted.
“What were you doing then?”
“I was arranging them.
I was putting them
in alphabetical order.
It’s a project for school.
Call my teacher
if you don’t believe me.”
Claudia snickered.
Although she always
made fun of Bradley’s animals,
she had really felt bad
when she stepped on
the rabbit.
She knew it was
Bradley’s favorite.
She had bought him the bear
to make up for it.
“What do I want
a bear for?”
he said when
she gave it to him.
Bradley went into the kitchen.
The fish,
now cut
Page 13
up
and covered with onions,
was frying on top of the stove.
“You want me?” he asked.
“How’s everything at school?”
asked his mother.
“Great! In fact,
today I was elected
class president.”
“Your grades are all right?”
“Yes. Mrs. Ebbel
handed back
a language test today
and I got another A.
In fact, it was an A plus.”
“May I see it?”
“Mrs. Ebbel hung it on the wall,
next to all my
other A tests.”
“Mrs. Ebbel just called,”
said his mother.
His heart fluttered.
“Why didn’t you tell me
that tomorrow was Parents’
Conference Day?”
asked his mother.
“Didn’t I tell you?”
he asked innocently.
“No, I don’t think so.”
“I told you,” he said.
“You said you couldn’t go.
You must have forgot.”
“Mrs. Ebbel seems to think
it is important for me
to be there,”
said his mother.
“That’s just her job,”
said Bradley.
“The more mothers she sees,
the more money she makes.”
“Well, I made an appointment
with her for eleven o’clock
tomorrow morning.”
Bradley stared at her
in disbelief.
“No, you can’t go!”
he shouted,
stamping his foot.
“It’s not fair!”
“Bradley, what – ”
“It’s not fair!
It’s not fair!”
He ran into his bedroom
and slammed the door
behind him.
Page 14
A moment later
his mother knocked
on the door.
“What is it?”
she asked.
“What’s not fair?”
“It’s not fair!”
he yelled.
“You promised!”
“What did I promise?
Bradley? What did I promise?”
He didn’t answer.
He couldn’t
until he thought up
why it wasn’t fair
and what she
had promised him.
He stayed in his room
until Claudia told him
that he had to come to dinner.
He followed her out
to the dining room,
where his mother and father
were already sitting down.
“Did you wash your hands?”
asked their father.
“Yes,” Bradley and Claudia lied.
Bradley’s father
worked in the police department.
He had been shot
in the leg four years ago
while chasing a robber.
Now he needed
a cane to walk,
so he worked behind a desk.
He didn’t like that kind of work
and often came home grumpy
and short-tempered.
The police never caught
the man who had shot him.
“I hate fish,”
Bradley said as he sat down.
“So do I,” said Claudia.
“It sticks to my braces
and I taste it for weeks.”
“Brussels sprouts
make me throw up,”
said Bradley.
“They smell like old garbage,”
said Claudia.
“That’s enough,”
said their father.
“You’ll both eat
what’s on your plates.”
Bradley held his nose
with one hand
while he picked up
a brussels sprout
with the other,
and put it, whole,
into his mouth.