Page 68 - Some Dance to Remember

38 Jack Fritscher

carpenter by trade.
Solly Blue had laughed under an arched eyebrow. “All that and a face
and body too? I want to check out his bank account, his diploma, and his
references,” he said. “Something everybody should do before they take a
lover.”
“I think it’s fabulous,” Sandy lit a Lark. “Only Ry would have such
exciting friends. It’s like General Hospital.”
“Shut the fuck up, you dumb bitch.” Thom turned on his hapless wife.
“I want that chopper off my property.”
Teddy, always protective of Ryan, said, “Your property? It’s Ry’s
ranch.”
“It’s all family,” Thom said. “Ry said so when we moved in.”
“Ha!” Teddy said. “That’s what he tells you. That’s not what he tells
me. He defers to you. God knows why.”
“What’s defer mean?” Sandy asked no one in particular.
“Because we’re family.”
“The Snopes were a family,” Teddy said. “So were the Jukes and the
Kallikaks.”
“I knew some Jukes,” Sandy said.
“Relatives, no doubt,” Teddy said.
“Zip it or I’ll clip it,” Thom said. “You’re not even family.”
“I’m his lover.”
“You’re his whore!”
“Either way,” Teddy said, “a man can pick his lovers and his whores,
but only God can make a family tree.”
“Don’t talk X-rated in front of the kids,” Sandy said.
“Why not?” Bea said. “You talk worse yourself.”
“You little bitch,” Sandy said. “Go to your room.”
“Bea’s not a bitch,” Sie said to her mother. “You’re the bitch.”
“Don’t you fucking talk to your mother that way,” Thom said.
“You’re all three bitches,” Abe said.
His two sisters and his mother glared at him like the three hags at the
opening of MacBeth.
“Thommy, stop them. I won’t be abused by my children.”
“Want to bet?” Thom said. He thrived on helter-skelter.
“Thommy, you bastard,” Sandy said. “Make all three of the little son-
sabitches go to their rooms.”
“You heard your mother.” Thom moved threateningly toward the
triplets.
“Where’s Diane Arbus when you need her?” Teddy whispered to me.

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