Momma has a smile plastered on her face and says “oh sure, that’s a good idea, we’ll get it on outside and it can have its own doghouse. We can put the nametag over the door, like in the cartoons. Like snoopy.” Daddy says “ain’t got no time to be building a special house for yon beast. It sleeps on the porch like all other dogs before it. That way it‘ll keep out the riff-raff and can see what all it’s barking at for once.”
“Yeah” I say “what all it’s barking at.” Daddy nods at me “just so. Well, get to movin’!” He aims a kick at Momma. She two steps it back out of sight, and I hear a dragging sound which makes itself known before too long. Jacob is on a blanket and Momma is dragging him outside. She lays him on the porch, and I say “look at it, just laying there like it ain’t want to move on account of how lazy it is. Makin’ us do all the work.”
Daddy says “I can’t believe the nerve of it all. Tell you true, we had us a dog when I was growing up. So stupid that it would snap at bees and try to jump over all of God’s creations. Jumped so high once that it got stuck in a fence and done snapped its leg so that it was floppin’ all around. Ain’t no money in the world can cure stupid, so we put it down and started again with a new one. They’s always more dogs out there. Not like this one who’s always hanging around and pretending it can’t walk. What a cryin’ shame there’s so much laziness in the world.”
Daddy is outside, messin’ about. I’m sittin’ on the couch and reading a picture book about all kinds of animals, and Momma is peeking out the front window, watchin Daddy. He's far enough away so that she feels comfortable enough coming up to me and to ask what she asks. “What all happened with you all in the woods with them chickens? Where you get them chickens from? Ain’t they the chickens of that greasy man what trades us for eggs and whatall?” I grunt at her.
“What all made him want to give up his chickens what gives him tradin’ eggs?” I shrug and keep reading “goddamn it, Gabe, what all is going on in here? You ain’t got nothing to be afeared of, Daddy is right on out there and ain’t on his way back in here, so you just talk to me. What is so terrible about talkin’ to your Momma every once in a while?” I set down my book and stare at her. “What you lookin’ at me like that? What has your Daddy done to you? Where’s my Gabe at?”
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She comes close and is tearing up and she tries to give me a hug, but I push her away. I say, “I ain’t gone nowhere except for where you wanted me to go. You say I’m the number one smartest one and can learn real quick like *that*. Maybe I done learned as quick as you say. I’ll tell you the one time since you done told me the one time too. Everything can start again even if you ain’t want it to. You got to sometimes get the ice cream with the gum in it to take care of yourself. And make someone else pay for it.”
“Don’t talk that way, Gabe. I’m your mother and I tell you the way it is and not the other way around. That man outside ain’t your Daddy, and I ain’t want you actin’ the same as him. I only wanted you to play along, not to change who you is. Just to play along until we can find our way out of this mess. Find our way out so we can get parted from your Daddy and move to Grandma’s house. Take Jacob with us to the hospital and we can all get well together. Without that wild man who I ain’t recognize no more.”
I say, “You think he’s going to let you just walk on out of here? I see him sitting in the living room in the dark every night now. Why do you think that is? He like sitting in living rooms in the dark all the time? Sound like good fun? No. Daddy is watchin’ so you ain’t steal me away. It’s you who I ain’t trusting. You trying to leave as soon as you can and tear this family apart. You is making the world a worse place for us all.”
Momma covers her mouth with her hands and her eyes are wet.
“Don't say that. Where you learn to say that? Has Daddy been talking to you?”
I say “I love my Daddy. He takes me out and learns me the outside world. How it really is. You ain’t understand that that dog is keeping us down farther than you know. Taking up too much attention so that this place is falling to scraps. I ain’t see you bringin’ in any food for nobody to eat. All you do is worry around the place and try to take care of that mutt. You is wasting our good hard-earned things on something what can't even give nothing back. I ain’t havin’ nothing to do with that animal no more. That there is now your dog. Daddy and me ain’t havin’ nothing more to do with it.”