Flavor of the Month by Goldsmith Olivia Read Free Book Online Page B

them, and their mother whispered some words.
    After breakfast, only Frosted Flakes and water ’cause there was no milk, Momma walked Sharleen and Dean to the school bus. Sharleen saw that her mother had put on her one good dress. It was bright blue with a white collar.
    And she was carrying a cardboard suitcase. Sharleen knew then that her life was about to change, but couldn’t imagine it getting worse. As Dean moped alone up ahead, their momma spoke real serious to Sharleen. It made Sharleen feel like a grown-up.
    “Sharleen, honey, Momma’s got to go away for a while. I can’t take you two with me, but I’ll come back for both of you as soon as I get a job and a place for us to live. You know you wasn’t my natural-born daughter, but I love you like my own. Dean is my blood, but I got to leave him, too. He’s only your half-brother, but I want you to love him like a true sister. I’ve only been your stepmomma, but I love you like flesh.” She handed Sharleen the little Bible. “Keep this now, till I come back. No, honey, don’t cry. You got to be strong. Jesus is going to watch over you. I promise you that. You talk to the Lord, and he’ll take care of you while I’m gone.” She paused, wincing at the pain in her face. “I want you to promise to take care of Dean. He ain’t as smart as you.”
    Sharleen listened in silence, knowing that there was nothing she could say. She’d known all along that her momma could not live through any more beatings. Her momma had no choice. Sharleen was glad she was getting away. And, being such a good girl, she didn’t stop to think that there would be no one for her now. No one except Jesus, who she couldn’t see, and Dean, who she had to take care of.
    “Don’t say nothin’ to Dean until tonight. I don’t want no fuss,” Momma said.
    Sharleen nodded, and she and Dean got on the school bus. She turned around in the rear seat to look back at her mother. The frail woman raised her hand and waved twice, then turned very quickly and walked along the main road in the opposite direction, toward the Trail ways bus stop near town. Sharleen had turned forward in her seat after she lost sight of her mother. She wouldn’t cry. She just wouldn’t. Because, once she started, she thought, maybe she’d never stop. She had bit her lip, then turned to her brother. “Dean, I’m going to take care of you now,” she told him. He said nothing for a while, then just leaned his head against her shoulder and closed his eyes.
    “It was a real good puppy,” was all he said.
    Sharleen remembered it all, standing there under the thin trickle of the shower. She hadn’t heard anything, lost in the memory of her momma and the sensation of the falling water. But suddenly Daddy was holding open the shower curtain with his shaking hand, his odor filling the steamy stall with his intrusion.
    “What the hell are you doing?” her father growled. “Wakin’ me up. You crazy?”
    She jumped at the voice and backed up to the rear wall of the tiny tin shower stall. Her practiced eye measured her father’s condition. Drunker than ever. It had been eight years since her momma had left, and her daddy had been mean and drunk for all of them. But he’d never done this before. Please, Lord, she thought. Please.
    “Daddy,” she managed to breathe, trying not to show her fear. “Wait a minute and I’ll be right out.” She squeezed past him while he watched her nakedness. She took the towel off the peg on the wall and, feeling less vulnerable with it wrapped around her, walked toward the living room to the safety of her clothes and the outside door.
    She heard the motion before she felt it. His hand fell like a stone on her wet head. Then he grabbed a handful of hair and he pulled her back, back toward the smelly den of his bedroom. The towel fell, leaving her bare. She screamed at the suddenness and the pain, and tried to stop him by holding on to the slippery handle of the old refrigerator. He