Page 148 - Some Dance to Remember

118 Jack Fritscher

“I can hardly look at it!” Ryan said.
“I really mean watch it, Ry. Shut your trap or I’ll shut it for you.”
“Now boys,” Charley-Pop said.
“You and what army?”
“The United States Marine Corps.”
“I’m wetting my pants.”
“Now boys,” their father said for the benefit of Sandy Gully, “let’s not
let a little friendly rivalry between brothers embarrass the ladies in the car.
Let’s not spoil our vacation.”
“Especially one we hadn’t planned on.” Annie Laurie held her purse
tight in her lap.
“I’ll beat the shit out of you,” Thom said.
“Thom,” their mother said, “you’ve never used profanity before.”
“Profanity becomes him,” Ryan said. “Think of it as enlarging his
vocabulary. I’m committed to the sacred. He’s committed to the profane.”
“I’ll wale your shit,” Thom said.
Ryan looked Thom straight in the eye. “My shit?” he said. Then he
began singing: “From the curse of Montezu-oo-ma,” and he shocked them
all by putting his pure seminarian’s hand on Sandy Gully’s knee, “to the
whores of Tripoli.” He stopped singing. “Isn’t the Tripoli a B-girl bar in
the San Fernando Valley?”
“I’m from the Valley,” Sandy said. “I like singing like with Hootenanny
on TV.”
“That’ll be enough,” Charley-Pop ordered.
“Wait a minute,” Ryan said. “Who’s being phony here? Neither you
or mom is acting normal. What is this? A road show for Thom’s benefit?”
“You’re all so much fun,” Sandy Gully said. “Just like Thom told me.”
“Thom’s a great judge of character,” Ryan said.
“And you’re so pretty,” Sandy Gully said to Margaret Mary. “Just
think. You and I are going to be sister-in-laws.”
“Sisters-in-law,” Ryan corrected her.
“And you’ll be my brother-in-law,” Sandy said. She slyly pressed her
thigh against Ryan’s leg.
“I’m going to be sick,” Ryan said.
“Have you ever noticed,” Sandy Gully said, tucking Margaret Mary
under her pert little chin, “how really pretty little girls hardly ever grow
up to be beautiful?”
Margaret Mary burst into tears. War was declared. From that day she
hated the girl who was to become her brother’s wife.
“My daughter,” Annie Laurie said, “will always be lovely.”

©Jack Fritscher, Ph.D., All Rights Reserved
HOW TO LEGALLY QUOTE FROM THIS BOOK