Growl Power! by Deborah Gregory Read Free Book Online

and plops down at the kitchen counter.
    “Good morning, Sleeping Beauty,” Angie says.
    “I knew something was fishy when Skeeter came over the other day,” Ma says. Heaving a deep sigh, she covers her face with her hands.
    “When did he come over?” I ask concerned.
    “Monday—no, it was last Sunday, that’s right. His eyes were glassy. I could tell he’d been drinking.”
    Ma screws up her face like Uncle Skeeter and imitates him. “‘That uptight husband of yours, John Walker, may be my brother-in-law—but Johnnie Walker Red is my
cuzzin
.”’
    Johnnie Walker Red is the brand of Scotch Uncle Skeeter likes. Even Daddy keeps it in the bar at our house in New York, but he has never made one joke about having the same name as a brand of liquor. That’s Daddy for you.
    I walk over and give Ma a hug. I’m so glad she has stopped pretending we are too young to understand these things. We’ve known since we were real little that Uncle Skeeter drinks, smokes, and doesn’t go to church, and that it bothers everybody in my family. We also know that Uncle Skeeter and Daddy never got along.
    “What did Skeeter say when he came over?” Angie asks.
    “He said he was tired of trying to make everybody happy, and just wanted to go somewhere he could ‘rest in peace,”’ Ma says sadly. Then she chuckles, because Uncle Skeeter was probably making a joke off Granddaddy Walker’s funeral parlor, Rest in Peace.
    “But India says he has a new girlfriend?” Angie asks gingerly.
    Ma doesn’t seem at all bothered that we know. “Yeah. I don’t remember her name—something Wilkerson. Skeeter said, ‘That Wilkerson woman sure knows how to treat a man.’ That’s all I remember.”
    Hmmm. “India says she heard him on the phone with his girlfriend, saying something like, ‘you sure are just like your name—softer than a mink coat!”’
    Ma rubs her eyes and dismisses me. “What would India know? She’s just a child.” No sooner than the words are out of her mouth, Ma realizes what she’s said, and who she’s talking to. We chuckle along with her.
    “Ma, what’s wrong?” I ask, hoping that now that we’ve been so honest with each other, she won’t try to cover up other things. “I mean,
besides
Uncle Skeeter being missing?”
    All of a sudden, I see the tears well up in Ma’s eyes, and she lets them roll down her cheeks without even wiping them. Angie and I sit real still at the table, waiting for Ma to talk.
    “I don’t know which is worse, living with your father and being miserable, or living without him and being so damn
lonely
,” Ma says, her voice cracking. “All I do now is get up, go to work, pay bills, then get up and do it all over again. Not that I have anything to get up for now, with y’all gone.”
    Now
I know what’s bothering Ma. She
misses
us—all this time pretending she didn’t mind if we lived with Daddy! Angie starts whimpering, and now I feel the tears well up in my eyes, too.
    “We don’t want to go on the audition,” Angie says. “Let’s just stay here together. I mean, what if it isn’t for real?”
    “Egyptian and India told you about it, right?” Ma stops her.
    “Yeah,” Angie replies, wiping tears from her cheeks.
    “Well, then I suggest the two of you go, because those kids seem to be the only ones around here who
do
know what’s going on.” Ma laughs, then looks down at her raggedy nails. “Lord knows I need to do something with these claws.”
    Angie and I chuckle, but I know we both feel guilty inside.
Our
hair and nails look nice, ’cuz Daddy pays for us to go to the beauty parlor twice a month in New York. But I don’t think we deserve that, if Ma is miserable.
    I look over at Ma, and she suddenly breaks out in a smile. It’s the first time her smile has seemed genuine since we’ve been here. “I love y’all, you know that?” she says. “It’s so good to have you back here—even if it’s only for one week.”
    Galveston Bay is about