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Show 132 the biggest hug when she said that. Red bought Helen a little transistor radio ax£ and Helen bought Red a flannel shirt which was too small because nobody could ever buy Red anything that wasn't too small because he had a neck and shoulders like a bookcase and you can't put a shirt on a bookcase, so Red pouted xxxixg getting all red in his chair next to the Zenith and said xxxBxaxmxxii "god-damn-it, god-damn-it, I told you not to buy me clothes,' though he always got clothes from somewhere and you'd think Helen would be able to find clothes that fit him by now, but Red never knew how to accept a present anyway so just as well to give him one good reason. The rest of us got stuff like oranges and candy bars, some socks. Neda didn't get a Mars Bar and didn't even bitch. Red went to church with Helen and took Joseph and Andrew with them while me and Neda stayed home because we went to Midnight Mass instead, except we didn't. I went to an all-night doughnut shop and spent the money Helen gave me for the church on doughnuts and coffee with lots of cream and sugar. Neda met me there not too long later, with freshly fallen snow on her long brown hair. She ate about a half a doughnut and didn't put cream or sugar in the coffee I bought her. She had on lipstick and eye make-up and a dress with nylons and a look like she understood everything in the world. "I just can't hate ikaxxaxx Helen and Red anymore," she said. "I just can't hate them. I can't muster it up to hate anybody anymore." We toasted coffee to God's omniscience. Neda smiled. "Worship is one way to God, understanding another," said Neda, which I accepted because despite all her changes I knew indesputably she was a genius. In the spring she'd graduate from grade school and enter the ninth grade at one of the xxxxaia Catholic girls' high schools in town, because already she said she was tired of dealing with boys. "Adolescence," said Neda. "Fuck." And we toasted to Bush's last Christmas. So Neda made gxixix Chistmas breakfast while the others were in church, ham, gaiixxxxxxxxgx smoked Polish sausage, eggs, toast, a lot of food considering we hardly got any presents, and I went out and shoveled the walk just for something to do. When Red came back |