Read Online The Sand Castle by Rita Mae Brown - Free Book Online

to make sure you’re all right. That everything works. You’ll thank us when you’re married.”
    â€œI’m never getting married.” He put his hand over the towel.
    â€œMe neither.” I folded my arms over my chest.
    â€œDoes it still hurt?” Louise asked, never taking her eyes off the road.
    â€œIt’s cold.”
    â€œDoes it throb?” Louise prodded.
    â€œI don’t know.”
    â€œHow can you not know?” I giggled.
    â€œCause I can’t feel anything. It’s too cold. The cold hurts.”
    â€œWell, take the towel off for a while and if it swells up or starts to really throb then put ice back on.” Mother then addressed me. “See that he does, Nick.”
    â€œMom, I don’t want to. . . .” I didn’t finish.
    â€œI can do it. I’m not going to fall asleep.” He leaned toward me and whispered. “You touch my pecker and you die.”
    â€œI’ll kill you first. I don’t want to touch that silly worm and besides, there was a towel on it. I never really touched you, Leroy.”
    â€œYou say.”
    I readied to hit him, then remembered he was incapacitated, sort of, so I folded my arms back over my chest and stared out the window.
    â€œLook, you two, this is going to be a long ride. I don’t want to hear a peep.” Louise shook her head as she did when we irritated her.
    The ice finally did melt and Leroy removed his towel, looked down. He put the towel in the bucket while covering himself.
    Mother noticed the movement, “Well?”
    â€œI’m okay.”
    â€œIs it swollen?” She continued her line of questioning.
    â€œNo.”
    â€œLeroy, how does it look?” Louise had had enough.
    â€œIt’s cut a little but it’s not swollen.”
    â€œIs it discolored?” Louise wanted to know.
    â€œUh,” he was at a loss.
    â€œWheezie, he had the ice on it so it’s probably a little blue.
    Mother’s reply to her sister made Leroy look at his part. “Color’s coming back.”
    â€œSome pain might come back with it,” Mother said, then joked, “Honey, we want that part to work. My sister can’t wait to be a great-grandmother.”
    Because Louise married at sixteen, Ginny born a year after, and Ginny married at sixteen, chances were strong that Louise might live long enough to see great-great grandchildren if they kept marrying so young.
    Mother, on the other hand, waited until her midtwenties to marry, being in no hurry to be tied down. Her endless sociability gave Louise the vapors and the platinum wedding ring on herfinger never produced the staidness that Louise thought would follow. If anything, Mother threw herself into even more activities and when I appeared she threw me into them, too. I was probably the only child in the state of Maryland happy to go to bed at night. I needed the rest.
    â€œI’m not getting married.” Leroy repeated, with more vehemence.
    â€œWe’ll see.” Louise used her singsong voice, which we both hated.
    â€œI’m not! I don’t want children. I want my mother!” His face shone crimson.
    Mother told him soothingly, “We all do, honey, we all do.”
    â€œThe Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away,” Louise said.
    â€œWhy? Why, Wheezie?” He shouted. “Why did He take Mama when there are old people to take? Everything God makes dies.”
    Frightened from his outburst and his sorrow, I wedged myself up against the door.
    â€œWheeze, pull over,” Mother ordered.
    A stunned expression crossed Louise’s pretty features. She pulled over. Mother got out and opened the door. Had I not been hanging onto the door handle I would have plopped onto the side of the road.
    â€œNickel, come up with me,” Louise ordered softly.
    â€œYes, Ma’am.”
    Mother patted my shoulder as I lurched out then slid onto the front seat and closed the door. She