Read Online Flynn's World by Gregory McDonald - Free Book Online

Jenny’s blue orbs blazed at her brother. “Will you shut up!”
    “You shut up, you blue-eyed blond girl!”
    “Now, Winny,” Flynn heard himself saying. “You must be respectful toward your elders.”
    “You know what Jenny said when Billy Capriano blew in her ear?”
    “Winny . . .” Jenny growled.
    “What did Jenny say when Billy Capriano blew in her ear?” Flynn asked.
    “She said, ‘Thanks for the refill!’”
    Flynn laughed.
    “Da!” Jenny exclaimed. “That’s not funny! Don’t you laugh at me!”
    “I’m laughing at Winny.”
    Winny snarled at his sister. “You’ve been picking on me all day. I did not hide your damned hair drier in the damned laundry hamper! I left your damned hair drier in the damned sink!”
    Silence around the dinner table.
    Finally, Jenny, with suspicion, accusation, disappointment, said: “Da . . . ?”
    Flynn cleared his throat. “I did not hide your hair drier in the laundry hamper, either. I found it in the sink. I did put it on the edge of the laundry hamper. It must have fallen in. By itself.”
    Through Jenny’s big blue eyes Flynn could watch her brain doing a swimmer’s racing turn.
    Shrewdly, she said, “When Winny slammed the door.”
    “So?” At ten-twenty that night Flynn made the day’s last trip to the necessarium, as he thought of it.
    Todd, having just come home, was in the upper corridor.
    “The public high school is abuzz,” Todd reported. “This afternoon, Billy Capriano quit the wrestling team.”
    “Why? What reason did he give?”
    “The kids I talked to said he didn’t give a reason. No one really knows what he said to the coach. But the coach got mad. People heard him shouting.”
    “So the inference can be drawn the coach believed Billy’s reason for quitting the team was inadequate.”
    “Any reason short of Billy’s having Saint Vitus’ dance and the seven-year itch simultaneously would be inadequate, Da. Billy really is a very good wrestler. Even at his age, Billy was expected to make it to the state championship matches in his weight class. I mean we’re talking regional, maybe national championship when he’s a senior. Major college scholarships.”
    “That good, is he?”
    “He walked home alone.”
    “What did he do there?”
    “I don’t know. His father came home a little before fivethirty. Dinner.”
    “Did angry noises emanate from the house?”
    “No. At six-forty, Billy left the house, alone.”
    “Ha! Now we’re gettin’ into the good stuff!”
    “He walked to St. Jude’s Church. They have catechism classes Monday nights.”
    “Oh.”
    “He left the church at eight-thirty. Walked home alone.”
    “Straight home?”
    “Yes.”
    “He spoke to no one on the street? Stopped in nowhere?”
    Todd shrugged. “The kid’s a straight arrow, Da.”
    “Have you had something to eat?”
    “I made myself a corned-beef sandwich. Milk.”
    “With plenty of Colman’s Hot Mustard?”
    “I don’t have your leather mouth.”
    “Got your homework done?”
    “I did it in the bushes beside Billy’s house. Don’t blame me if some teacher calls about my handwriting. The ground is cold.”
    “Good lad.”
    “Following people is boring.”
    Flynn said: “Then be a leader.”
    Back in bed, Flynn turned out his reading light.
    He cuddled Elsbeth.
    “Nice kids,” he said. “Think it’s time we got married?”
    “Again? We came from such different backgrounds, places, you and I, over eighteen months we had to get married in three different countries!”
    “That’s right,” Flynn said. “We’ve each been married three times. I forgot. We’re much more fashionable than I thought.”
    “Three times married to each other. Without benefit of divorce!”
    “Golly. Grover might charge me with bigamy.”
    “May your paperwork never catch up with you, Frannie.”
    “Not to worry,” Flynn said. “I died three times, too. And I can prove it!”
    “Next time,” Elsbeth said, “leave me insurance.”
    After