Glory Alley and the Star Riders (The Glory Alley Series) (31 page)

Patrice
knitted her brow
.
“Your stupid mouth is going to get you in big trouble someday
, Danny-
O
, a
nd I hope I’m there to see it
.
That goes for you too, Randy.”

“Hey,” Randy held his chest, acting shocked
.
“Leave me out of this.”

Brandon
joined the tift.
“Don’t act like Mister Innocent
.
I’m tired of the way y
ou
two
egg each other on like
mindless
buffoons.
”

“Yeah,”
Patrice
agreed
.
“It’s not logical to blame
Glory
,
or me, or anybody for something out of our control.”

“And what do you know about logic?” Randy said with disdain
.
“Ted
Filmore
—
t
he guy looks like road
kill
.”

Danny raised an index finger.
“But he does have a cool car
.”

“You are SOOO shallow
,
”
Glory said.

“
Get it straight,” Brandon addressed them all. “
Dad
’s gonna start drinking again no matter what any of us do
—
or don’t do
—
because
he’s a loser
.”

Glory
wanted to defend
Dad
, but
her
tongue wouldn’t cooperate
.
She
dropped
her eyes
to the table.

“You’re just saying that to take the
heat
off yourself,” Randy accused Brandon. “You
cop an attitude with
Dad
, acting all cocky, getting him mad and then
it’s worse on all of us.”

“If it’s anybody’s fault,” said Danny. “It’s
George
’s
.
If it wasn’t for h
im
being born
,
Mom
would still be alive and we wouldn’t be in this mess.”

“What a horrible thing to say!
”
Patrice
s
aid.

“What do you expect from an idiot who wears the same underwear four days in a row,”
Glory
quipped.

“At least I’m a
sane
idiot,” Danny replied. “And I change my underwear every three days whether it needs it or not.”

Randy laughed as if his twin was the
most original funnyman
on the face of
Tullah
.
Glory
rolled h
er
eyes
. W
hat was the use
?

George
, covered with white frosting and greasy butter, sat in h
is
booster seat at the end of the table giggling along with the twins, not knowing any better
.
H
e
held out an empty hand toward the last
cinnamon
roll
.
“More?
”

“
Don’t worry
,
George
,”
Glory
vowed
.
“
Even if nobody else cares what happens to us, I do
.
And
by the stones of
Tullah
, I’m not going to rest until I
find a way to make things bette
r for you, for me, for all of us.
”

Her siblings star
ed
at her
as if
an alien had landed
on her head
.

“I don’t know about the rest of you,
” Rand
y
said with feigned sincerity. “Now
that Glory’s
on the job, I feel all toasty and safe inside
.
” Then he burst out with laughter along with his twin.

“
Imbeciles
,” Glory
hissed
.

Later that day
,
Dad
told
Glory
to skip chores
;
j
ust the two of them were riding into town to do some errands
.
Glory
studied him with a suspicious tilt of the head
, seeing
through his v
eiled attempt to get to
the bottom o
f h
er
apparent
insanity
.

During the ride
Dad
made an effort at small talk
.
Since she was on to him, she kept
her
response
s
just long enough to avoid being rude.

“Are they treating you all right at school?”

“
Mostly, except for this cheerleader named Mandy
.”

“A cheerleader is picking on you?”

“Yeah, but
she’s mean to everybody
, so no
biggie.”

“How’s your grades?”

“Fine.”

“
How good is fine?”

“Well, last year I was ranked
twenty-one
out of
three
-hundred-
and-
something kids
.
This year I’m
fifteen
.
”

“That’s real good,
Glory
.
I’m proud of you.”

They traveled in silence the rest of the way, but
Glory
felt breezy inside
.

In the city
,
they stopped at a lumberyard where
Dad
filled a rolling flat with long pieces of lumber, paint
,
and screws
.
Repairing the rickety front porch was on
hi
s
T
o-
D
o-
L
ist.

On the way back home
,
they stopped
at a
burger
joint
where they discussed their favorite sports teams
.
She avoided all the
forbidden s
ubject
s
and
told a silly joke
s
he
ha
d heard at school
instead.
Dad
laughed
.

She
savored the day
knowing it
would
soon go to seed like a dandelion in the wind
.
As
a creamy
c
hocolate shake
pleasured her taste buds
,
she
committ
ed
his
laugh
ter
to
memo
ry
.
It had been such a long time since Nice
Dad
had come around
that
she
had almost forgot
ten
how much fun he could be
.

On the way home Dad
gripped the steering wheel as if the road was covered with a sheet of ice, all anxious-like.
A dozen
times it looked as if he was about to say something, but the words retreat
ed
.
Finally, he spit out what was on his mind
.

“
Glory
,
I’m sorry
.”

“F
or what
?
”
Glory asked
,
trying to narrow down the thousands of possible reasons.

“For the
father I’ve become.
I wasn’t always like this
.
”

“
True.”

“
Before we moved to the farm I dabbled in journalism, but you probably don’t remember any of that.”

“Not really,”
Glory
replied
.
“But I’ve heard
it mentioned
.
Have you ever considered writing
again
?”