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

BOOK: Glory Alley and the Star Riders (The Glory Alley Series)
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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
.

 

 
 
Chapter 12
 

 

 

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
?”

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