Tin Soldier: a short story by Resa Nelson Read Free Book Online Page B

her.  Shelly stared back.
    “I got my
first pay check today,” Shelly said.  “It’s supposed to be my special day! 
Wasn’t spending every waking moment of New Year’s Day looking at that stinking
album enough?”
    The album was
open in Rick’s mother’s arms.  Photos of Rick and his brothers as kids, made
from cheap, disposable cameras, were glued onto the pages.
    Shelly glared
at Rick’s mother with unbridled hatred.  “How can you be so insensitive?”
    Rick’s mother
spoke gently.  “Shelly, no one is trying to hurt you.”
    Rick’s
brothers settled into the living room sofas as if claiming the front row at a
boxing match.  Frank passed around the popcorn as everyone waited for Shelly’s
response.
    Shelly
steamed.  “You never had to suffer.  You had it easy.”
    Rick tried to
smooth things over.  “Mom’s from a different generation.”
    Shelly ignored
him.  “Looking in a mirror is no big deal for you.  Not like it is for...”
    Too upset,
Shelly ran down the hallway.
    Rick took a
step after her.  His mother placed a warning hand on his shoulder.  Rick
stopped and looked back at her.
    “I hate to say
it,” his mother said softly.  “But when I see girls like Shelly, I wonder if
the government is right.”
    Rick turned
and walked down the hallway.  He knew what she meant.  The same as the phrase
he’d seen earlier that day on Abby’s new license.
    ###
    Shelly sat on
the bed, hugging her knees to her chest.  “Why should I help your family with
my pay check when I could move back into my family’s apartment and help them
instead?”
    A cold chill
ran down the back of Rick’s throat.  “You can’t go.  Not after all we’ve done. 
Everything we planned.”
    Shelly
smiled.  “George Chan got a job at Harvard.”
    Rick blew off
the news.  “Doing what?  Mopping floors?”
    Shelly’s smile
dimmed.  But only a little.  “Three years from now, they’ll let him go to
school for free.  He’s got the brains for law school.”
    “So you’d
spend three years waiting for George Chan to go to law school--and then what? 
Another three years while he’s in school?  That’s six years, Shelly.  You’ll be
pushing 25.”
    Shelly gazed
into Rick’s eyes.  For the first time, she looked genuinely sad.  “But I’d be
married to a law man from Harvard.  Not some rich woman’s chauffeur.”
    Rick
considered his options.  A bitter fight would get him nowhere.  And he’d maxed
out on begging.  His best option was a crap shoot.
    “This rich
woman’s chauffeur can give you everything you want in a year.  Maybe under a
year.”
    “You can’t guarantee
that.”
    He rolled his
dice without looking to see how they landed.
    “No,” Rick
said.  “I can’t.  But let’s stick to the plan.  First we set up all the pins,
then we knock them down.”
    “Nothing can
happen until she’s knocked up.”
    Rick kept his
voice steady and calm.  “As soon as she’s knocked up, I’ll talk her into hiring
a nanny.  She trusts me.  She’ll hire you.  We wait until she has the baby.  We
wait until she’s ready to travel again.  I hit the road with her, while you
stay in her house with the baby.  When she’s with the customer, I make an
excuse to step out.”
    Shelly relaxed
for a moment.  Her face glowed the way it used to when they’d dream about a
better future.
    Rick missed
the nights talking about Mexico, where anybody could get the gene tattoo
removed without leaving a scar.  It would be easy to slip back into the States,
but this time with a status symbol in their arms.  Back in the days when the
plan was nothing but a dream, Shelly was soft and warm and tender.
    She was the
only one Rick trusted.  If life was a war, she was in the same foxhole with
him, watching his back.
    “And then?”
Shelly said, even though she knew exactly what came next.  Her voice had the
wistfulness of a child asking for the story she knew by heart to be read aloud,
just once