scottie-king

Reina sounds awesome,_ Sid says. ____ digging her more and more.___ere you there?_ I ask. __ave you seen one of these movies?___o,_ Scottie says.__cottie,_ Alex says, kicking Sid in the ribs. __eina is a fuckedup ho bag, and you need to stay away from her. I__e already told you that. Do you want to end up like me?___es,_ Scottie says.__ mean the earlier me, when I was yelling at Mom.___o,_ Scottie says.__ell, Reina is going to be a crackhead, and she__ going to get used. She__ a twat. Say it.___wat,_ Scottie says. She gets up and runs across the room, saying, __wat twat twat twat twat.___oly shit,_ Sid says. __his is some messed-up parenting. Isn__ it?__lex shrugs. __aybe. I guess we__l see.___ don__ get it,_ I say. __ don__ know what to do. These things she does, they keep happening.___t will go away,_ Alex says.__ill it? I mean, look at how you kids talk. In front of me, especially. It__ like you don__ respect authority.__he kids stare at the television. I tell them to get out. I__ going to bed.

There__ something different about her. I realize it__ her breasts__hey__e huge. I see that she__ stuffed her bikini top with wet balls of sand.__hat is that?_ I say. __cottie. Your suit.__he shields her eyes with her hand and looks down at her chest. __each boobs,_ she says.__ake that out of there,_ I say. __lex. Why__ you let her do that?__lex is on her stomach, with the straps of her top untied. She lifts her head toward Scottie. __ didn__ know. Take them out, stupid.__id lifts his head. __onestly,_ he says, __ig boobs look kind of fatty.___s Bebe says, boobs suck,_ Alex says, __nd Sid__ full of shit. He loves big boobs.___ho__ Bebe?_ Scottie lets the sand fall out of her top.__haracter from South Park,_ Sid says. __nd I love small boobs, too, Alex. I__ an equal-opportunity employer.

I hope she can__ tell that I__ appraising her and that I__ completely worried by what I see. She__ excitable and strange. She__ ten. What do people do during the day when they__e ten? She runs her fingers along the window and mumbles, __his could give me bird flu,_ and then she forms a circle around her mouth with her hand and makes trumpet noises. She__ nuts. Who knows what__ going on in that head of hers, and speaking of her head, she most definitely could use a haircut or a brushing. There are small tumbleweeds of hair resting on the top of her head. Where does she get haircuts? I wonder. Has she ever had one before? She scratches her scalp, then looks at her nails. She wears a shirt that says I__ NOT THAT KIND OF GIRL. BUT I CAN BE! I__ grateful that she isn__ too pretty, but I realize this could change.

TIA OR TARA has stopped applying makeup to my wife__ face and is looking at Scottie with disapproval. The light is hitting this woman__ face, giving me an opportunity to see that she should perhaps be working on her own makeup. Her coloring is similar to a manila envelope. There are specks of white in her eyebrows, and her concealer is not concealing. I can tell my daughter doesn__ know what to do with this woman__ critical look.__hat?_ Scottie asks. __ don__ want any makeup._ She looks at me for protection, and it__ heartbreaking. All the women who model with Joanie have this inane urge to make over my daughter with the notion that they__e helping her somehow. She__ not as pretty as her older sister or her mother, and these other models think that slapping on some rouge will somehow make her feel better about her facial fate. They__e like missionaries. Mascara thumpers.__ was just going to say that I think your mother was enjoying the view,_ Tia or Tara says. __t__ so pretty outside. You should let the light in.__y daughter looks at the curtain. Her little mouth is open. Her hand reaches for a tumbleweed of hair.__isten here, T. Her mother was not enjoying the view. Her mother is in a coma. And she__ not supposed to be in bright light.___y name is not T,_ she says. __y name is Allison.___kay, then, Ali. Don__ confuse my daughter, please._____ turning into a remarkable young lady,_ Scottie says.__amn straight._ My heart feels like one of Scottie__ clogs clomping down the hall. I don__ know why I became so angry.

We need to get home and put some ointments and ice on the stings. Vinegar will make it worse, so if you thought Giraffe Boy could pee on you, you__e shit out of luck.__he agrees as if prepared for this__he punishment, the medication, the swelling, the pain that hurts her now and the pain that will hurt her later. She seems okay with my disapproval. She__ gotten her story, after all, and she__ beginning to see how much easier physical pain is to tolerate than emotional pain. I__ unhappy that she__ learning this at such a young age.__he hospital will have ointments and ice,_ she says.

Say goodbye to your mom.__cottie pauses, then keeps going.__cottie.___ye!_ she yells.I grab her arm. I could yell at her for wanting to leave, but I don__. She pulls her arm out of my grasp. I look up to see if anyone is watching us, because I don__ think you__e supposed to aggressively hold children these days. Gone are the days of spanking, threats, and sugar. Now there are therapy, antidepressants, and Splenda.

Do you guys have sunscreen?_ I ask.__o,_ Scottie says. __o we have water?___id you bring any?_ Alex asks.__o,_ I say.Alex pops her head up. __id you bring snacks for us?___e can walk to town.__ow do mothers manage to bring everything a child could need?

My God,_ she says. __ feel like I__e gone through a car wash.__ laugh, or force myself to, because it__ not something I__ normally laugh at.__hat about you?_ she says to Scottie. __ow did you make out?_____ a boy,_ Scottie says. __ook at me.__and has gotten into the bottom of her suit, creating a huge bulge. She scratches at the bulge. ____ going to go to work now,_ she says. I think she__ impersonating me and that Mrs. Speer is getting an unrealistic, humiliating glimpse.__cottie,_ I say. __ake that out.___t must be fun to have girls,_ Mrs. Speer says.She looks at the ocean, and I see that she__ looking at Alex sunbathing on the floating raft. Sid leans over Alex and puts his mouth to hers. She raises a hand to his head, and for a moment I forget it__ my daughter out there and think of how long it has been since I__e been kissed or kissed like that.__r maybe you have your hands full,_ Mrs. Speer says.__o, no,_ I say. __t__ great,_ and it is, I suppose, though I feel like I__e just acquired them and don__ know yet. __hey__e been together for ages._ I gesture to Alex and Sid. I don__ understand if they__e a couple or if this is how all kids in high school act these days.Mrs. Speer looks at me curiously, as if she__ about to say something, but she doesn__.__nd boys._ I gesture to her little dorks. __hey must keep you busy.___hey__e a handful. But they__e at such a fun age. It__ such a joy.__he gazes out at her boys. Her expression does little to convince me that they__e such a joy. I wonder how many times parents have these dull conversations with one another and how much they must hide. They__e so goddamn hyper, I__ do anything to inject them with a horse tranquilizer. They keep insisting that I watch what they can do, but I truly don__ give a fuck. How hard is it to jump off a diving board?My girls are messed up, I want to say. One talks dirty to her own reflection. Did you do that when you were growing up?__our girls seem great, too,_ she says. __ow old are they?___en and eighteen. And yours?___en and twelve.___h,_ I say. __reat.___our younger one sure is funny,_ she says. __ mean, not funny. I meant entertaining.___h, yeah. That__ Scottie. She__ a riot.

I had to ask Scottie what TYVM meant, because now that I__e narrowed into her activities, I notice she is constantly text-messaging her friends, or at least I hope it__ her friends and not some perv in a bathrobe.__hank you very much,_ Scottie said, and for some reason, the fact that I didn__ get this made me feel completely besieged. It__ crazy how much fathers are supposed to know these days. I come from the school of thought where a dad__ absence is something to be counted on. Now I see all the men with camouflage diaper bags and babies hanging from their chests like little ship figureheads. When I was a young dad, I remember the girls sort of bothered me as babies, the way everyone raced around to accommodate them. The sight of Alex in her stroller would irritate me at times__he__ hang one of her toddler legs over the rim of the safety bar and slouch down in the seat. Joanie would bring her something and she__ shake her head, then Joanie would try again and again until an offering happened to work and Alex would snatch it from her hands. I__ look at Alex, finally complacent with her snack, convinced there was a grown person in there, fooling us all. Scottie would just point to things and grunt or scream. It felt like I was living with royalty. I told Joanie I__ wait until they were older to really get into them, and they grew and grew behind my back.