The bat at the counter looks to think that's the darlingest thing she's ever heard. I could belt them both. Other kids are lucky. My pal Pfeiffer doesn't even know where his old man is. He took off after Pfeiffer was born.
Bone is even luckier.
Every couple weeks he gets on the bus sporting a new shiner the size and color of an eggplant heel. Once he showed me a cigarette burn on his shoulder. He's wearing the shirt with the burn hole still in it. He centers the burn with the hole so it looks fresh. We were watching SWAT and he tipped over to put out his smoke.