Read Online My First Love and Other Disasters by Francine Pascal - Free Book Online Page B

home David sees one of his friends and wants to go back to his house, but I have to say no because I don’t know if I have the authority to let the kids go off on their own like that. David gets a little aggravated and starts crying, and thenDeeDee says something, and he kind of kicks her, not a bad one, only on her shoe, but she gets hysterical. It’s sort of embarrassing because I think everyone thinks I probably hit them, and of course I would never touch them, ever.
    I try to explain to David that it’s my first day and I don’t really know the rules but he’s going to be there for the whole summer and there’ll be other times and so on, and I almost feel like a mother. I know I sound like one. What’s really funny is that I think someone said something just like that to me a couple of years ago at camp. I don’t remember what the situation was, but I know it didn’t help then and it doesn’t help now. All the way home David won’t even talk to me.
    Turns out he could have gone with his friend, which makes him even angrier, but I was afraid to take the chance. But everything gets better anyway because I play a couple of games of War with David, and Sorry with DeeDee, and then the three of us play Monopoly, and then DeeDee gets upset about losing and throws the board in the air and all the pieces go flying. David runs off to tell his mother, who says it’s time for DeeDee’s bath any-way, and to me, “Victoria, see that they put that game away properly, please.” Suddenly David gets a bad stomach ache and has to go to the bathroom, and DeeDee goes up to get ready for her bath. Itdoesn’t take me that long to pick up the pieces, and by the time DeeDee is ready for me to shampoo her hair I’ve finished. The game will never be the same. When the kids are in their pj’s, Cynthia says they can watch TV until eight and then to bed.
    I figure that later on, after they’re in bed, if Cynthia isn’t going out I’ll take a walk down to the dock and see what’s doing. It probably takes a while longer for my room to cool off because it gets the afternoon sun, so it’s still a little warmish up there, but that’s okay because by the time I’m ready for bed it will probably be perfect. I throw myself together a little bit and go downstairs. Cynthia is on the phone so I just sit down and grab a magazine and wait.
    â€œThat’s out of the question,” she’s saying. “No!” She sounds furious. I hope it isn’t about me. Whoops, I sound just like DeeDee. “Absolutely not, Henry. I won’t permit you to see them and I don’t want you to call anymore . . . . I certainly can, they’re my children. . . . . He’s your son, you see what you can do with him.”
    Of course it has to be about her ex-husband, Jed. Maybe she doesn’t want the kids to see him.
    â€œWell,” she snaps, “until he does there’s nothing more to say. Please don’t call here anymore.” And she hangs up.
    â€œDamn that man!” she says, and I hear herthrow something like a pencil against the wall. Well, at least it wasn’t about me. I figure now’s not the time to ask to go out, so I just sit there pretending to be reading. Finally she sits down next to me. She’s still angry.
    â€œIf Henry Landry—that’s the children’s grandfather—calls, I don’t want you to let him talk to them.”
    â€œYou mean you don’t want me to let the kids talk to their grandfather?” It’s not like I mean to question her, it’s just that I want to be absolutely sure what she wants me to do. Because, after all, it is their grandfather.
    â€œThat’s right. You just tell him they’re not home and that I said not to call anymore.”
    â€œEven if they are home?”
    â€œYes, Victoria, the whole point is that I don’t want him