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again.
    "I saved your father's life!" Bobbi shouted at me. "I found Stinson holding him under the water and I saved that retard's life." She drew in her breath, and I realized she was crying. "And don't you ever"—she kicked me again—"
ever
touch me.
Nobody touches me!
" She screamed this last bit and kicked me one more time before Seeley yelled for her to cut it
out and finally pulled her away from me. I stayed on the ground tucked in the fetal position until I was sure she'd left. Then, without saying anything to Seeley, I limped on back home.
    So that afternoon when I headed down the street, wanting to get away from Mam and the soy sauce, and found Bobbi hanging over the railing of the Seeleys' steps once again, hate and shame rose up in me so fast I stopped dead in the road and whipped around without saying a word and headed toward the creek. I couldn't run the risk of wanting to hit her again. As angry as I was, I felt guilty for attacking her—not that I didn't think she deserved it, but I hated the way I'd lost control that night.
    I had always prided myself on being in control of my emotions, and my life. It's what I did best. I set a course for myself and I followed it: Get straight As, take every honors course, make the honors society, become class valedictorian, and attend Princeton University. These were my goals and never had I strayed until that night. I hated what she made me do.
    Later, when I returned to the house, I found Pap and Larry sitting on the roof in the midst of the Nativity set.
    Even from that distance I could tell Pap had a sunburn.
    "Pap, you're frying up there."
    "Hey, JP, it's Larry is here, look."
    "Hey, kid," Larry called down, not looking at me but at the top of the Virgin Mary's head.
    "Hi, Larry. What's up?"
    Larry chuckled and smiled at me. "We are. Why don't you come up and join the party?"
    "What's going on?" I asked, wondering if Larry was high.
    Pap stood up and raised his arms and face to the sky. "I'm the Three Wise Man!" he called out.
    I ran closer to the house. "Pap, sit down. You'll fall. Larry, make him sit down."
    "Hey, down there," Pap said, "yer not me mam, you know, and I'll be doing what I please, 'cause yer not me mam."
    Larry tugged on Pap's arm and Pap sat down. Then he called down to me, "Larry's a Three Wise Man, too, and so can you be if you come up here."
    "Yeah, come on up," Larry called down. "You've got to see this."
    "See what?" I asked, coming around to the side of the house where the trellis leaned against the freshly painted wall, its legs sunk into the ground much deeper on the left than the right I shook it "Is this thing safe?"
    Pap stood up and walked to the edge and looked down at me. "You can do it, me boy, and I'll be here to catch you if you fall."
    I started up the trellis. "Gee, thanks, Pap."
    Larry laughed. I climbed up to the roof of the porch, which was as far as the trellis took me. Then I walked down to the edge where that roof met the main roof, careful not to look over. I grabbed on to the edge of the upper roof and swung my leg up, hoisting myself with my arms, and climbed on. "There's got to be an easier way," I said, crawling up the steep incline toward the top. I settled myself behind the Nativity set next to Larry, who slapped my back.
    "No sweat, eh?" Larry said.
    I took a deep breath and looked around. I'd never been
on our roof before. I loved climbing trees, but it had never occurred to me to climb on the house. Grandma Mary never would have let us.
    Then I caught sight of what Larry must have meant when he said I had to see something. "Pap," I said. "What's all this stuff? Hey, there's my Swiss Army knife. I've been looking all over for that. And Grandma's shoes."
    Pap nodded. "Her dying-in shoes."
    "She really die in those?" Larry asked.
    "Yeah," I said, looking over all the loot Pap had stashed back behind Mary and Joseph and the Baby Jesus. "There's my baseball cap Grandma Mary gave me for my birthday. And your good pen