Read Online Pretending Normal by Mary Campisi - Free Book Online Page A

the once over with her faded blue eyes, her blue-black hair piled high, her red lips twisted into a frown. Everything about her is faded and old, like a T-shirt that’s been washed too many times and then tie-dyed in an attempt to rejuvenate it. “Out back,” is all she says to me before she turns her yellowed smile to the balding man with the briefcase sitting at the counter.
    “If it isn’t Sara Polokovich,” Rudy says when he sees me. He takes a drag on his cigarette, blows out three perfect rings. “In the flesh.” He throws back his fuzzy head and howls with laughter. “You sure got our buddy all twisted up.” He leans forward, points his cigarette at me and grins. "Right where it counts.” He grabs his crotch with his free hand. ”Right where it counts, baby.”
    Pig. “I’m here about my sister.”
    “So, baby Polokovich squealed, huh?”
    “No. She came home wasted. I dug it out of her.”
    “Feisty bitch, aren’t you?” He narrows his beady eyes, takes another drag and cocks his head to one side. How can one person have so much hair? A big tangle of fuzz on his head, held in place with a faded blue and white bandana, a furry mustache and matching beard that intertwine, meld together, like a gum wrapper bracelet. And then there are his arms—muscled, hairy monsters, covered in dark brown, with hands and fingers sprouting the stuff, too. Rudy watches me watching him, his mouth opening like the entrance to a cave, baring yellow teeth, just like his mother’s. “Like what you see?”
    “Stay away from Kay,” I say, ignoring his gross remark. “Leave her alone or I’ll turn you in.”
    “You’ll turn me in?” He slaps his knee and belts out another howl. “You, Sara Polokovich, will ‘turn me in?’”
    I try not to be intimidated when he rolls off of the metal parking rail and steps toward me. “Yes, I will if you don’t stay away from her.”
    “This is funny. Really.” He throws his cigarette on the ground, stomps it with a booted foot. “It would be outright hilarious if it weren’t so goddamn pathetic.” His smile fades. “It’s only booze, baby. You give the same lecture to that city boyfriend of yours?”
    “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
    The dark cave opens, and a horrible sound floods my ears. “Drugs, baby. Your boyfriend’s a pusher.”
    “Liar! Liar!” I yell again, so he knows that what he is saying is impossible.
    Rudy shrugs. “I run beer, sweetheart. Peter gets the drugs from his old man. I hear it’s a real candy shop.”
    “I don’t believe you.” Rudy Minnoni is a liar. He is like that, no good, looking to destroy someone else’s happiness. My skin prickles hot and cold. I take another step away from the lie. Then another and another until Rudy’s, Your boyfriend’s a pusher , fades away and all I hear is his laugh, chasing me down the alley, as I turn and run, stumble, push on, not stopping until I am outside Peter’s house, where I double over near an oak tree, heaving. Peter finds me here, sweating and chilled, clutching a handful of crushed oak leaves between my fingers.
    “Sara? For Chrissake, what’s wrong?”
    “I just saw Rudy Min noni.”
    “That imbecile. What did he want?”
    “He said you’re a pusher. Peter, what’s he talking about?” Tell me anything, please, make me believe.
    “You know,” he says, brushing the crumpled leaves from my fingers, “people lie all the time to make themselves look better, make somebody else look worse.”
    “I know.”
    “And sometimes they lie to protect people, from situations, from other people… even from themselves.”
    “Rudy was lying, wasn’t he?”
    “What do you think?”
    “Yes.” I try to break down the barrier in those blue eyes. “Yes, he was.” I say the words louder, pouring more conviction on them.
    “Rudy’s an asshole, stay away from him.” Then, “Do I look like a pusher?”
    I shake my head no.
    “Okay then.” He brushes his mouth over mine.