Me and Fat Glenda by Lila Perl Read Free Book Online

many ways it reminded me of Aunt Minna’s except that it was much bigger. And although Aunt Minna had a lot of old things, all very neat and clean of course, everything in Glenda’s house seemed new and shiny and expensive.
    â€œIt’s so . . . planned out,” I said. “Everything matches. I mean, it all goes together.”
    â€œThat’s because my Mom had it done by an interior decorator. You know, one of those ladies who always keep their hats on. Of course, my Mom didn’t follow everything she said. A lot of it was her own idea, too. That’s so there’d be some . . . individuality.”
    By this time, we were wolfing down the first of the sandwiches. Glenda made them so thick that slices of tomato came squooshing out from between the slices of toast and, while you were pushing them back in, strips of bacon came shooting out from the other side.
    â€œThese really are good,” I said. “They’re even better than alphabet-burgers.”
    Glenda actually stopped eating and looked at me in astonishment. “Than what?”
    â€œAlphabet-burgers. Oh, you wouldn’t know what they are. Nobody does. Because Toby and I invented them a couple of months ago. They never existed before that.”
    â€œWho’s Toby?” Glenda pounced.
    â€œMy brother Toby.”
    â€œI didn’t know you had a brother. Little or big?”
    â€œSixteen, going on seventeen.”
    Glenda smiled slyly. “Well, what do you know about that! But, wait a minute. Where is he? Hey, he’s not in reform school or something like that?”
    â€œOf course not! What an idea.”
    â€œOh well, I’m just asking. I didn’t mean anything bad. See, I know a kid from around here who nearly went to reform school. Same age. He goes to Havenhurst High. I bet you wouldn’t believe that, from this kind of a neighborhood and all.”
    I told Glenda about Toby staying in California with the Gonzaga family so he could finish school there, butI could see she thought it was a peculiar arrangement.
    â€œWhat’s he like, anyway? Is he cute?”
    â€œVery.” I could see Glenda was interested, so I rubbed it in good about how terrific-looking Toby was and how independent and how we always had a thousand girls hanging around our house in California just waiting to get a look at him and hoping he’d take notice of them.
    â€œHmmm. I hope I get to meet him one of these days.” Glenda was taking a breather between sandwiches, leaning forward with her elbows on the table and her knuckles curled up against her temples and a dreamy expression on her face. “So what about these alphabet-burgers that you two invented?”
    I told her the whole story, but leaving out the stuff about Inez’ and Drew’s raw-food kick and all the other diets they’d been on. Then I told her what A-burgers and B-burgers stood for, and said she should try to guess the rest we had invented up to L. C was easy, of course, but she got stuck on D. I knew she would. So I told her I’d let her be a partner, starting with M-burgers, if she guessed five of the ten letters from C to L. She already had C, so she only needed four more. Without Toby around I sure could use another person to share alphabet-burgers with. And who was there to choose from, aside from Glenda?
    Glenda was still trying to guess D when the front doorbell rang. “Come with me,” she said. “It’s probably somebody selling something.”
    We went to the living room, and Glenda tried to peek out the window first to see who was there. There didn’t seem to be anyone so she opened the door wide to look out. The next thing we knew something came flying into the room, something big and white that swirled over our heads in a loop exactly as though it was alive.
    â€œWhat is that thing? Get it!” Glenda shrieked. The front door was still wide open and outside I thought I heard the sound