Read Online Skin and Bones by Sherry Shahan - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Sherry Shahan
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scales.”
“Waistbands don’t lie,” Lard added.
Bones had stopped listening. He was keeping an eye on Nancy, who was standing watch over the room. She winced, apparently from a pantyhose wound—nail polish patched the run.
Today Mary-Jane’s clip-on braid was blue. “Can I have a warm-up on my tea?”
Bones shoved his banana into his pocket when Nancy picked up the pot of hot water. When she filled Mary-Jane’s cup, he untied his tennis shoe and sat it on his lap. Two seconds . That’s all he needed to get rid of the rest of his milk and cereal.
Then, as if things weren’t bad enough, Dr. Chu walked in and looked around like he was about to interrupt himself. “Sexuality Group will be at ten o’clock instead of eleven.” He straightened his smiley face tie and left.
“No need for Bones to attend the sex meeting,” Mary-Jane said.
Elsie smirked. “Anyways, there can’t be much meat on it.”
Lard stood up so fast his chair slammed over backward. “ What’d you say? ”
Once Elsie and Mary-Jane stopped laughing and high-fiving each other, Elsie said, “You heard me.”
Lard looked like he was about to release a cage of flying monkeys. “And you’re nothing but a ruminant, polluting the atmosphere with your methane gas, who doesn’t know that anyways isn’t a real word!”
Spoken like the son of a teacher , Bones thought, scooting his cereal bowl slowly to the edge of his tray. His shoe waited in place. His socked foot tapped the floor while he waited to make his move. Then a cell phone went off in someone’s pocket. All heads in the room swiveled as Elsie retrieved her phone, unsure if she should answer it or just hand it over.
Suddenly an orange peel flew past Bones’s line of vision, then an empty milk carton. Elsie hollered, “Food fight!”
That gave Bones another idea. Maybe even better than the first one.
No , he told himself. Stay focused .
In the ensuing chaos, he dumped the soggy corn flakes into his shoe.
13
Bones had stopped breathing, afraid of getting busted or afraid of spilling his shoe, he wasn’t sure which. He tried a neutral expression while lacing it back up. He felt Teresa watching him, as if adding up how many starving kids in China the contents of his shoe could feed.
She started to say something, then hesitated, and shook her head. Bones heard her mutter something after he’d gotten up to leave.
“I got T-A-L-L-C-H-I-E-F on a triple-word score,” Alice said from the couch in the dayroom. The Scrabble board sat next to her on a cushion. Tiles were spread out in the empty box, all facing up. “You probably never heard of Maria Tallchief. She was the first Native American to be a prima ballerina.”
“Cool.” Bones shivered, mostly because his sock was wet. He limped over to check out the board. F-I-R-E-B-I-R-D. C-R-A-C-K-E-R. Alice chose three tiles from the box. “Have you ever been to a ballet?” she asked, adding N-U-T to C-R-A-C-K-E-R.
“I’d like to someday.”
“The classics are the best,” she said. “I’ve been collecting old videos for years.”
Then she smiled triumphantly. “Salt tablets.”
At first he thought she was talking about her next play on the Scrabble board. “I quadrupled the dose to retain water,” she explained.
Then Bones got it. “That’ll give you five pounds of water weight.”
“Just for weigh-in, then I’ll pee it away,” she said. “Chu Man may be smart, but I’m smarter. But don’t try to hide soluble tablets in the tank behind the toilet. Even waterproof bags leak.”
Bones nodded. There was so much she could teach him.
Alice twisted her hair into a Cinnabon on top of her head. “What is it about different body types shrinks don’t understand? It’s as if they want us all to look the same, like we should be pressed from the same mold. Seems a little Third Reich, if you ask me.”
Bones knew what she meant. “Yeah.”
“Have you ever seen a ballerina with an ounce of body
“Waistbands don’t lie,” Lard added.
Bones had stopped listening. He was keeping an eye on Nancy, who was standing watch over the room. She winced, apparently from a pantyhose wound—nail polish patched the run.
Today Mary-Jane’s clip-on braid was blue. “Can I have a warm-up on my tea?”
Bones shoved his banana into his pocket when Nancy picked up the pot of hot water. When she filled Mary-Jane’s cup, he untied his tennis shoe and sat it on his lap. Two seconds . That’s all he needed to get rid of the rest of his milk and cereal.
Then, as if things weren’t bad enough, Dr. Chu walked in and looked around like he was about to interrupt himself. “Sexuality Group will be at ten o’clock instead of eleven.” He straightened his smiley face tie and left.
“No need for Bones to attend the sex meeting,” Mary-Jane said.
Elsie smirked. “Anyways, there can’t be much meat on it.”
Lard stood up so fast his chair slammed over backward. “ What’d you say? ”
Once Elsie and Mary-Jane stopped laughing and high-fiving each other, Elsie said, “You heard me.”
Lard looked like he was about to release a cage of flying monkeys. “And you’re nothing but a ruminant, polluting the atmosphere with your methane gas, who doesn’t know that anyways isn’t a real word!”
Spoken like the son of a teacher , Bones thought, scooting his cereal bowl slowly to the edge of his tray. His shoe waited in place. His socked foot tapped the floor while he waited to make his move. Then a cell phone went off in someone’s pocket. All heads in the room swiveled as Elsie retrieved her phone, unsure if she should answer it or just hand it over.
Suddenly an orange peel flew past Bones’s line of vision, then an empty milk carton. Elsie hollered, “Food fight!”
That gave Bones another idea. Maybe even better than the first one.
No , he told himself. Stay focused .
In the ensuing chaos, he dumped the soggy corn flakes into his shoe.
13
Bones had stopped breathing, afraid of getting busted or afraid of spilling his shoe, he wasn’t sure which. He tried a neutral expression while lacing it back up. He felt Teresa watching him, as if adding up how many starving kids in China the contents of his shoe could feed.
She started to say something, then hesitated, and shook her head. Bones heard her mutter something after he’d gotten up to leave.
“I got T-A-L-L-C-H-I-E-F on a triple-word score,” Alice said from the couch in the dayroom. The Scrabble board sat next to her on a cushion. Tiles were spread out in the empty box, all facing up. “You probably never heard of Maria Tallchief. She was the first Native American to be a prima ballerina.”
“Cool.” Bones shivered, mostly because his sock was wet. He limped over to check out the board. F-I-R-E-B-I-R-D. C-R-A-C-K-E-R. Alice chose three tiles from the box. “Have you ever been to a ballet?” she asked, adding N-U-T to C-R-A-C-K-E-R.
“I’d like to someday.”
“The classics are the best,” she said. “I’ve been collecting old videos for years.”
Then she smiled triumphantly. “Salt tablets.”
At first he thought she was talking about her next play on the Scrabble board. “I quadrupled the dose to retain water,” she explained.
Then Bones got it. “That’ll give you five pounds of water weight.”
“Just for weigh-in, then I’ll pee it away,” she said. “Chu Man may be smart, but I’m smarter. But don’t try to hide soluble tablets in the tank behind the toilet. Even waterproof bags leak.”
Bones nodded. There was so much she could teach him.
Alice twisted her hair into a Cinnabon on top of her head. “What is it about different body types shrinks don’t understand? It’s as if they want us all to look the same, like we should be pressed from the same mold. Seems a little Third Reich, if you ask me.”
Bones knew what she meant. “Yeah.”
“Have you ever seen a ballerina with an ounce of body
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