Read Online Blank Confession by Pete Hautman - Free Book Online Page B

joke about Marie “studying late.” Nobody laughed.
    I asked Marie, “Is Jon picking you up this morning?”
    â€œMikey, shut up,” she said.
    Mom poured herself a cup of coffee and took it out to the patio.
    â€œYou are so lame,” Marie said.
    â€œI’m not the one who skipped school and came home at midnight.”
    â€œIt was eleven thirty, and screw you.”
    â€œWhat happened to Jon’s eye?”
    She sat stirring her corn flakes, getting them good and mushy. After a while she shoved the bowl aside.
    â€œHe had a fight with his dad.”
    That wasn’t what I had expected.
    â€œHis dad kicked him out. I had to help him move his stuff over to his brother’s apartment.”
    â€œJon has a brother?”
    â€œStepbrother, really. From Jon’s mom’s first marriage. He lives on Front Street, over on the east side.”
    That was all the way on the other side of the city. Iliked the idea of Jon living as far away as possible.
    â€œDid you talk to him?”
    â€œI was with him all day—what do you think?”
    â€œI mean, did you talk to him about the money?”
    Marie did her eye-roll thing. “It’s always about
you
. Jon gets beat up and kicked out of his own house, and I get grounded, and all you can talk about is
your
pathetic problems.”
    â€œDid you talk to him or not?”
    â€œNo. It wasn’t the right time. Besides, you lost his package; you should pay for it.”
    My sister.
    Jon didn’t show up at school again on Tuesday, and I let myself imagine that I would never see him again. Maybe now that he was living all the way across town he would transfer to another high school. So instead of looking over my shoulder all day, I made an effort to appreciate the educational system.
    I made several sarcastic and amusing remarks during American Lit—we had just started reading
The Catcher in the Rye
, so it seemed appropriate for me to channel Holden Caulfield, the original wise-ass. Mr. Clemens was not appreciative, but he didn’t send me to the office or anything.
    After that I almost got kicked out of Biology for feeding Mr. Bush’s pet rat a Cheeto, but I handed in my Cultural Studies report on time, and I made it through gym without getting snapped by a towel. After school I talked Shayne into going to Thriftway with me. He didn’t seem all that excited about it, but he came.
    Thriftway is my favorite used-clothing store. It’s like a Goodwill, but they sell only clothing. Mrs. Jerdes, the owner, had set aside a hardly used bar mitzvah suit for me—an unusual dark green with pale blue pinstripes. Nineteen dollars. I tried it on. Perfect fit. I found Shayne back by the denim rack sorting through the black jeans.
    â€œWhat do you think?” I said, holding my arms out and turning around.
    Shayne looked me up and down.
    â€œIt’s you, Mikey,” he said.
    Since I was enjoying the fantasy that Jon was permanently gone, I paid for it with my last twenty dollar bill.
    My good day continued after Shayne dropped me off at home. Mom was making rice with pigeon peas and sausage, one of my favorites. Dad got home early from work and was out in the garage puttering with the busted pump from his fountain. Marie had come straight home from school for once and was doing her homework in the den. I went through the pockets of my new suit and found a folded-up hundred dollar bill in the watch pocket. I’d found money in thrift store suits before, but never a hundred.
    It was a sign.

22. MIKEY
    I went to school the next day, Wednesday, feeling pretty good about things, especially when I saw that Jon was once again absent. Maybe he’d dropped out permanently. I could get behind that.
    Shayne didn’t show up either, which surprised me because when he had dropped me off the night before he had said, “See you tomorrow.”
    But I wasn’t worried. Yet.
    After school I texted him