The Fat Girl by Marilyn Sachs Read Free Book Online Page B

support.
    “The last time you said you were at Marcie’s house, I was looking out the window when your father dropped you off. And the time before that, the same thing happened. I saw him drop you off at the corner.”
    “You’re spying on me,” Wanda shrieked. “What right do you have to spy on me?” Wanda was a shrewd fighter, quick to change directions when cornered and mount an attack herself. But it didn’t work this time.
    “Why are you lying, Wanda?” my mother said, her little face all twisted up in pain. It made me hate Wanda, but I swallowed some cold cereal and kept quiet.
    Wanda burst into tears.
    “You don’t have to lie to me,” said my mother gently in her suffering voice. “I don’t care if you go to your father’s house. He is your father. It’s only right you should visit him. I only want to know where you are because I’m your mother and I love you.”
    “Leave me alone!” Wanda shrieked. “Leave me alone!”
    “Now stop it, Wanda,” I yelled. “You’ve got no right worrying Mom like that. You should be ashamed of yourself.”
    “You get off my back, Jeff,” Wanda yelled back. “You’re never home yourself. It’s like a morgue here. And she’s always at me, picking at me and complaining, whatever I do. It’s no fun. It’s fun there. And they like me to come. Linda says she needs another woman in the house. And today’s Sean’s birthday, and I was going to help with the kids’ party in the afternoon. And then at night we were all going out to a Mexican restaurant for dinner. It’s fun there. . . I like to go there.”
    “Sean’s birthday?” I said. “I didn’t know it was Sean’s birthday.”
    “You don’t know anything,” Wanda yelled. “You’re so wrapped up in Norma, you can’t think of anything else.”
    “But . . . but . . . they never told me. They didn’t invite me.”
    “Now look here, Wanda,” said my mother very slowly, very stiffly. “I just want you to tell me where you’re going. If you’re happier with your father . . .”
    “I didn’t say that, did I?” Wanda shouted.
    “If you’re happier with your father . . .”
    “Yes, yes, yes! I am happier with him. I hate it here! I hate it!” Wanda jumped up and ran out of the room.
    My mother and I sat together over the table, just as we had a few hours before. I could feel the misery and the hurt radiating out from her, but I was feeling pretty hurt myself. They were going to celebrate Sean’s birthday that night, and nobody invited me. It was true that I had declined most of their invitations in the past, but my father had always dutifully extended them. How come he hadn’t this time?
    “I told you,” said my mother. “You see? I told you.”
    “Wanda’s a pain,” I told her. “She never thinks of anybody but herself.”
    “She’s not happy here.”
    I shrugged my shoulders. “She’ll get over it.”
    My mother stood up and began gathering the dishes. “She’s happier there than here. You heard what she said.”
    “Oh, Mom,” I said, “don’t make a big deal out of it. She’s just going to Sean’s birthday party. She always likes to go to parties. Everybody likes to go to parties.”
    “You too, Jeff?” My mother was looking at me. I could feel it coming on, but there was no way of stopping it. There never was any way of stopping it.
    “He didn’t ask me,” I told her.
    “Well, I’m sure you could go if you wanted to,” said my mother, turning her back. “I’m sure they would be very happy if you went.”
    “I don’t want to go,” I said to her back.
    She was stacking dishes in the sink, scraping the breakfast bits into the garbage disposal unit.
    “Why not, Jeff? Why don’t you go too? I could hear from the way you were talking before that you really wanted to go. Why shouldn’t you go? I’m sure you’d have a very good time if you went.”
    Very soon we were shouting at each other, and she was telling me that I was just like my father and that I