The Last Exit to Normal Read Online Free Page A

it.”
    “You’ll watch it when I say you’ll watch it.” She stomped over and turned it off.
    I pushed the remote button and turned it back on.
    “What’s the big deal? It’s just TV.”
    She put her hands on her hips. “It ain’t just television, it’s a waste of time for no-accounts that waste time.” Then her voice cracked through the house. “EDDIE!”
    Edward, thinking she’d hurt herself or something, sprang through the front door, then stopped, relaxing when he remembered that his mom didn’t have a nervous system. She couldn’t be hurt. He looked from her to me and back to her. “Yes?”
    She pointed a talon at the TV. “You get this infernal thing out of my house this instant! I won’t have this . . . boy . . . sitting around in my house all day watching it. Out. Out right now or I’ll get your father’s shotgun and kill it.”
    Edward sighed. “Mom . . .”
    She faced him, her eyes challenging. Then she grimaced, nodding her head. “So you think livin’ in the city for all these years makes it just fine to sass your mother? Don’t you think for a second that I can’t strap a full-grown man if I’ve a mind to, Eddie. Get it out of my house!”
    Edward stared icicles at me, like I was to blame. I shook my head. “I was just watching the damn thing.”
    The next thing I knew, Miss Mae’s hand flashed out and I’d just been slapped across the mouth. She peered at me. “I told you I’ll have no cussing in this house. Now get into your room until such a time as I talk to your father. Go.”
    I might be a rebel without a cause in my own mind, but I was stunned. I’d never been hit before. Not by an adult, at least. I looked at Edward in wonderment, touching my lip; then I walked up the stairs, utterly defeated by an old lady, and went to my room like a good little boy.
    Dad knocked on the door a few minutes later. “Have a word, Ben?”
    I turned from playing a stupid computer game. “Sure.”
    He sat on the bed. “You’ve got to understand something, Ben.”
    “What? That this place sucks? I understand.”
    “Miss Mae is strict.”
    “Really? Jesus, I hadn’t figured that one out.”
    He stood up, which was totally unlike him. Usually he’d settle in for an hour-long talk. “Mind yourself around her, Ben. That’s all I have to say. You can come out when you’re ready.” Then he left.
    Ready? I was seventeen years old, and they were treating me like I was five. I grabbed my skateboard and headed downstairs. I didn’t care if a punked-out city kid with tattoos, piercings, Converse All Stars, and liberty spikes on his head might cause a few stares in this burg, I had to get out. Miss Mae sat on the front porch, fanning herself. She looked at my board, then at me, like nothing had happened. “What in God’s green earth is that contraption?”
    “A skateboard.”
    “What does it do?”
    I held it up. “It rolls. You ride it.”
    She grunted, eyeing the thing suspiciously. “I don’t hold by nothing that doesn’t have a steering wheel. Good way to break your fool neck, if you ask me.”
    “Want to try?”
    She sneered. “You trying to kill me before the Lord takes me away in his own time?”
    I smiled. “No. I just wanted to see you break a hip.”
    Even though she was still evil, her tone was lighter. “I got myself the ones I was born with and plan on keepin’ ’em until I don’t need ’em anymore.”
    I smiled. “See? Watch.” I flipped the board down on the porch and jumped down the stairs, landing it perfect.
    Her brow furrowed. “Do that again.”
    “Why?”
    “Don’t you question me!” she barked, then gestured with a saggy arm for me to do it again. I did, landing it like I did the first time. She nodded, then shooed me away. “Get on out of here, and stay out of trouble.”
    I nodded, skating down the walk. “Bye.”
    She called to me, her firecracker voice snapping over the street: “You be late for supper and I’ll skin your behind!”
    I waved