This One Time With Julia by David Lampson Read Free Book Online Page A

there all my life. And the third month I got so homesick that I had to come home early. I’m not saying that being with Alvin was exactly like that. But he can be a lot to handle sometimes. I’m sorry that I keep going on about him.”
    “It’s okay.”
    “Then I’ll just go on a little longer. The first time I ever saw him he was reading a book on the beach. He was so focused on his book that he had no idea I was watching him. Then he reacted to something he was reading and spit into his book. Not even in an angry way. But something in the book made him want to spit, and he forgot where he was. Do you think that’s why I went over to talk to him?”
    “Sounds like something he would do.”
    “I think Alvin lived in a dream world most of his life. But anyway, I’m finished rambling about him now, I promise. Goodnight, Joe.”
    “Goodnight, Julia.”
    I never found a way to lie on that mattress that didn’t hurt a lot, but I don’t think that was the reason it took me forever to go to sleep that night. It felt as if more had happened to me that day than in my whole life up to that time, and so instead of sleeping I just lay there trying to remember it all. Sneaking out that morning. The terrible walk through the valley. Trying to drink the fountain, and then seeing Alvin there. The cab. The motel. The little birthday cupcake that the hotel manager had. Then Julia. I knew something about the way she talked about my brother felt familiar, and lying in the dark I finally realized that it reminded me of school, before I stopped going, how they always made us read books and discuss them. I never tried to read any of the books, but I listened to everyone else talk about them. The teacher was always bugging the kids to say important things about the books, and everyone except me eventually learned to do it. And that’s how Julia talked about Alvin. I had never thought so hard about a person in my life, and I felt a little guilty for listening to her do it, and for thinking a little harder about him myself. I think maybe if Julia really loved Alvin, she wouldn’t think about him quite so hard. And trying to understand him clearly wasn’t helping her, because she was frowning as she slept, wrinkling up the whole top of her nose. I thought maybe if I went over and kissed the center of her forehead, it would smooth out her whole face, like shaking out a towel. But while I was deciding whether to actually do it, I finally fell asleep.
    In the middle of the night, I woke up to find Julia talking again. She was lying on her back, moving her arms and legs like she was climbing a ladder. “What are we going to do?” she was saying. “I just have no idea how to handle this.”
    “What’s wrong?”
    She sat straight up in the bed, totally still. “Who’s going to make breakfast tomorrow? That’s what I want to know. What are we going to eat?” She started to panic again, swinging her arms faster now. I got out of bed and went over to try to calm her down.
    “We can go to McDonald’s,” I said. “Or we can go back to the same diner. We can go anywhere you want.”
    “It’s going to be too late. We should have planned it earlier.” Her eyes were wide open, but she wasn’t looking at anything, just staring through the wall in front of her as if it wasn’t there. I realized that Julia was still asleep. I’d seen Marcus do this a few times, but when he talked in his sleep, he never said more than a couple of words, and you could never understand him. Julia was different. She talked a lot, and you could understand her perfectly, and she’d tell you things she’d never say when she was awake.
    “I promise we’ll have enough breakfast,” I said. “Everybody’s going to get enough to eat.”
    “I don’t understand how you two can be brothers.”
    “Who, me and Alvin?”
    “How can you be his twin, when you’re so much stronger than he is?”
    “I don’t know. I’ve always been really strong.”
    She