Read Glass - 02 for Free Online Page A

anytime soon. “Sure.”
    Good. All it takes is a simple
    phone call, okay? That’s why
    we gave you the cell phone.
    “I’m really, truly sorry, Scott.
    Robyn and I just got to par…uh,
    talking, and I lost track of time.”
    Okay, Kristina. I can understand
    that. I know it’s been a while
    since you’ve spent time with a friend.
    He’s letting me off this easy?
    Unreal. “Yes, it has. Thanks
    for understanding, Scott.”
    Just don’t forget you won’t find
    a better friend in the world than
    the friends you have in your family.

S cott Takes Off to Play Golf
    Jake is at a friend’s.
    I put Hunter down
    for a nap, decide to try
    one myself. My
    brain
    might be doing
    jumping jacks, but my
    body is shutting down.
    It feels like a lead anchor,
    sinking
    in a sea of quilt,
    tugging me toward repose.
    I’m drifting. Sleeping?
    A parade of
    faces
    floats behind my closed
    eyes. An ethereal Robyn
    grins, her ecru face
    distorting
    into a vampirelike apparition.
    Right behind her comes Trey
    (predator or prey?),
    handsome
    and hungry as a winter-
    starved coyote. Segue
    to Grady, Grade-E loser,
    vile
    convenience store
    slave and crystal meth
    submissive, followed
    by Leigh, my absent,
    beautiful
    sister, with her lesbian
    lover, the cheerleader.
    Then Mom and Scott, who
    must suspect the
    uglier
    side of last night’s adventure.
    So why didn’t they lash
    out at me, bombard me
    with
    questions, search my stuff,
    smell my breath, something?
    Do they just not want
    to know for sure, stress
    themselves with such
    wisdom?
    Or have they, perhaps,
    simply given up
    on me?

T hat Feeling
    Of wanting to sleep,
    desperately needing sleep,
    fighting the monster for sleep,
    reminds me of one reason
    I have been happy to leave
    the meth in Hunter’s wake.
    Though it’s calling to me,
    Just one more little toot,
    I simply will not give in.
    I will keep the monster in
    check. I am stronger
    than any addiction. Right?
    Somewhere, a telephone
    rings. I swim up into gray
    afternoon, the inside of
    my head thick as chowder,
    tug myself from bed,
    go to find the offending bell.
    I don’t get there quickly
    enough. Hunter wakes
    at the alarm, and by the time
    I reach the phone, nap-wet
    baby soaking one arm,
    the caller is midmessage.
    … haven’t been out your way
    in a long time. I figured
    your eighteenth birthday
    was a good excuse. Besides,
    I want to see my grandson
    while he’s still a baby. We
    should hit Reno on the twenty -
    eighth, so save a few hours
    to celebrate with your old man.

M y Dad
    Is coming for
    a visit?
    (Why now, after
    all these years?)
    And not just
    any visit,
    but on the weekend
    of my birthday,
    when Leigh is
    also coming for
    an unexpected visit.
    Leigh, who still
    refuses to speak
    to the father who
    left her in his dust.
    A visit now,
    the same time as
    Hunter’s baptism?
    I can just hear
    Mom: That bastard
    has to plan
    a visit to Reno,
    a place your sister
    and I figured he’d
    forgotten about?
    Why does he have to
    remember it now?

I Expect Her to Say
    Exactly that. She doesn’t.
    But what she does say is enough
    to make you cover your ears.
    I never knew my mom could
    have such a foul mouth! You
    fill in the blanks. They scare me!
    That mother——ing sonofabitch!
    Did he spend all year, waiting
    for just the right——sucking
    moment to f—up what should
    be a perfect day? He has no
    ——ing right! No right at all.
    I simply cannot believe
    that pr—would dare show
    his face around here,
    not after last year. And as for
    his wanting to play “grandpa,”
    I really don’t think so!
    I’m conflicted about his plans.
    I want no confrontations, no bad
    blood. (Especially not if it’s going
    to be spilled in the baptismal
    fount, or over the icing on
    my birthday cake!)
    But, despite everything that
    went down over my summer
    in Albuquerque, I want to see
    Dad again. He’s a freak, true,
    and a piss-poor father.
    But he still belongs to me.

M om Is Still Ranting
    And suddenly she