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Show "I was seventeen. "It's two-toned," I commented. "What is," he demanded. "Mom's hair." Again, his napkin fluttered. Mom rested her sandwich on the plate. There was sauce on her fingers. She began sucking the sauce off. My father wasn't watching her. He watched me watching her. Clearly this scene was my fault. She licked sauce from her palms. When I looked back at him, it struck me that he was trying to stare me down. It was both pathetic and frightening not unlike the snarling Xavier. When my mother caught on to our confrontation, she threw her sandwich at him. He blocked it with his hands. I ran for the back door. In the back yard, in the late afternoon light, things looked supremely normal. There were two trees in the back yard, my maple with its rungs, and a bing cherry. It was August. We had picked all the cherries, but we hadn't taken down the aluminum pie tins that we had hung from the branches to scare off the birds. The tree looked festive, a tribute to human exuberance. The two children who lived next door were in their back yard. The two girls were intently threading dandelions through the links in their boxer's choke-chain. The dog stood up against orders, and shook. The flowers flew. On a distant street, I heard the distinctive rumble of a hot rod, the rhythmic roar. I decided it was time to visit the mansion again. I got my bicycle out of the garage, and pedaled off. Wally answered the door. He was wearing a captain's hat, a blue jacket and whites. "Hello mate," he said. After considerable bafflement on my part and prodding on his, I told him that I had come to sit in the dream car. "Yes, Penelope mentioned you. I do remember that. Unfortunately, mate, Penelope and the car are gone. She was prone to sea sickness and we can't have that, can we?" After the fight, we started going on our Sunday drives again. My parents played "Cadillac". The baby moons were a thing of the past. My mother's hair had gone from blonde to plantinum. We still drove through expensive neighborhoods to look at houses, but avoided the street where we had seen the car. |