Read Online Flesh and Bone by William Alton - Free Book Online Page B

listen to anything I’d have to say.
    â€œHe never comes up here,” Bekah says.
    I just want to go. I knew this was a bad idea, but I let Bekah talk me into it. Her dad stomps around the barnyard before getting into his truck and tearing out of the driveway like he has someplace important to go.
    I finish dressing.
    â€œYou leaving?” Bekah asks.
    â€œI want to be gone when he gets back.”
    â€œYou should just stand up to him.”
    â€œI can’t.”
    â€œCoward.”
    â€œMaybe.”
    She dresses and walks with me out to the street.
    â€œYou could come with me,” I say.
    â€œYou’re mom doesn’t like me.”
    â€œShe doesn’t like us fucking,” I say. “It has nothing to do with you.”
    â€œDo you think we could ever fall in love?”
    â€œI don’t know.”
    â€œYou love Zephyr.”
    â€œI don’t know.”
    â€œI do.”
    The walk through the woods is long. A little wind whispers around the trunks. Leaves are turning from summer green to autumn’s red, yellow and brown. Soon the rain will come again and winter will span eight wet months.
    I walk and cross a creek and smoke a cigarette, staying off the roads because there’s no telling where Bekah’s dad might be. The last bit of the walk is through the berry fields with their canes hanging into the rows, thorns catching on my sweater’s sleeves.
    Mom’s waiting in the kitchen, smoking a cigarette and staring out the window. She looks at me when I come in.
    â€œYou had a visitor,” she says.
    â€œYeah?”
    â€œHe said you were fucking his daughter,” she says.
    â€œBekah’s dad.”
    â€œAre you?”
    â€œDo you want me to answer that?”
    She shakes her head. She sucks smoke into her lungs and stares at me.
    â€œYou’re too young,” she says.
    â€œNot really.”
    â€œJesus.”
    â€œWe’re careful.”
    â€œHe’s pretty pissed.”
    â€œI know.”
    â€œWhat’re you going to do?”
    â€œAvoid him.”
    â€œGood.”
    I get a cup of coffee.
    â€œAre you in love?” she asks.
    â€œBekah asked me that.”
    â€œAre you?”
    I shake my head.
    â€œI don’t know if I’ll be in love.”
    â€œThat’s sad,” she says.
    â€œI guess.”
    We sit there like that. Mom knows about love. She’s done it twice. And now she sits here in the dining room with me, worried that I’ll never figure it out.

It Thumps But It Does Not Echo
    I LIE NEXT to Harold in the bed of his truck. An aluminum canopy keeps the rain off. Sleeping bags pad our spines and hips and press down on our naked bodies. We kiss and roll. Our hands make electricity in our backs and bellies, along our spines, clear down to the knuckles of our toes.
    A branch blows out of the trees and lands on the roof. It thumps but it does not echo. He holds me down face first and plows into me like a wild man. I can feel him throbbing and pushing. I’m full and the pressure is equal parts pain and pleasure. There is nothing here to dilute the sensations. I love it and hate it.
    He shudders and slumps against my back. He lies there, his breath rolling across my shoulder blades. It’s over now. He’ll want to lie here for a while and talk, but there’s nothing I want to say to him.
    â€œAre you ready?” I ask.
    â€œIn a hurry?”
    â€œI have places to be,” I say.
    â€œMore important than me?”
    â€œI have appointments. That’s all.”
    We dress and crawl out of the canopy and stand in the rain for a moment. We light cigarettes and open beers. If I drink enough, I’ll forget the pounding he gave me. The slick feeling of sex will fade.
    He hands me a twenty.
    â€œTake it,” he says. “Have fun.”
    I fold the bill in half and stick it in my pocket. This is more than I expected. It doesn’t mean it’ll stop. It