| OCR Text |
Show 139 What I liked about Bif is he didn't kxi buy me a present and he didn't apologize. "Come here," said Bif, dragging me into the kitchen. "Hey Red," he called. "Drag that dying old father of yours in here and let's the men have a drink." So Red and Grandpa Whitey came into the kitchen to have a drink and left Helen and the other kids in the Christmas tree room with Aunt Jelly and Grandma Emma. You could see Red got his size from Grandma Emma and not Grandpa Whitey who more than anything looked like a giant midget. Things had been a little tense when we first came but now there v/as KXHX warm kitchen drunkeness and the dark Christmas night passing for the last time until another year while Uncle Bif and Grandpa Whitey and me and Red Xxaxxxxxxix stood in the center of the kitchen and drank shots and beer and Uncle Bif said Grandpa Whitey and Grandma Emma were going to live forever and he'd never be able to turn their shed in the back into a work room and Granpa Whitey said, "heh, heh, live forever," and blew smoke at Uncle Bif while Red gave a funny xxxxx whince and faintly, far away, came the sound of a small explosion xxx like a small sound comet in the xaxxaxxxgki star sound night with a tail of whistle that grew and grew on the faces of Red and Uncle Bif and Grandpa Whitey Loop and nax Helen now standing frozen at the kitchen door and behind her the pie face of Grandma Emma Loop and xaxixxaiix and the quiet £aaa blank face of wondering Aunt Jelly because it was the whistle of the bomb that would end the world, a whistle that would begin with an explosion and end with an explosion amidst the quiet recognition of Christmas faces, it kaax grew, it became a scream, the house shuddered for a moment and then came a loud THUD. Red scratched his head. He didn't know how to be afraid of things. He was cocked toward the yard where he heard the thud and that's where he headed followed by me and Uncle Bif but not Grandpa Whitey who stayed in the kitchen and blew smoke and said, "heh, thud." Grandpa Whitey just didn't give a shit. Uncle Bif turned on his garage light from the back of the house and Red led us to the center of the yard where a newly formed kaxaxaxiiiaa crater emitted smoke like a kaxxaepcxxaxxaaax barbecue pit atjtbn_Jcxn+*r ^ whir.h was a metal ball about the size of a |
