Read Tex for Free Online Page A

in the air and came straight for the ground.
    â€œIt ain’t scary, it’s just fun,” I told her.
    â€œYou’re crazy, Tex.”
    We spent the rest of the evening paired off. It was almost as good as having real girl friends.
    I thought about cutting through the livestock barns on the way out, for one quick look at the horses, but didn’t. I’d got back to being happy, which is the right way to leave the Fair, and there wasn’t any sense in doing something you knew would make you sad.
    I was real sorry when ten o’clock came and we had to split up—Jamie and Marcie going to the south entrance to meet Marcie’s mother, Johnny and me heading for the north to meet Bob. I could be wrong, but I think they were sorry we had to split up, too.
    We were a little late meeting Bob. He had parked down a side street to wait for us, and we tried sneaking up on him and his date to see if we could catch them making out, but they were just talking.
    â€œYou want to go by and see Charlie before we go home?” Bob asked, when we got in the car. Charlie was the oldest Collins kid. He went to med school and lived in an apartment in the city.
    â€œSure,” Johnny said, “we haven’t seen Charlie in a long time.”
    â€œMason mind you being out late?” Bob asked me.
    I shook my head. The only thing Mason minded me doing was skipping school. I could come in at five in the morning, just as long as I was up at six to get ready for school.
    â€œHow about you?” I asked Johnny. “Won’t Cole get upset if you’re out late?”
    Johnny grinned. “Not as long as I’m with Bob. Bobby can do no wrong.”
    For some reason that remark set Bob’s girl friend into a fit of giggles. Bob just kept his eyes on the road.
    Walking into Charlie’s place was like still being at the Fair, only without the rides. There were a whole bunch of people there, running in and out. As soon as we got there Charlie introduced us around as his family: Bob was his younger twin, he said, and since they looked an awful lot alike, people seemed to accept it. But he also told them me and Johnny were the second set of twins in the family, and our names were Mutt and Jeff, and he told people Bob’s girl friend was their aunt. And some of the people there were in a condition to accept that, too.
    Charlie Collins was one of the blonde Collins, like Cole. Everybody liked Charlie. He knew it and wasn’t afraid to let you know he knew it. And everybody liked him, anyway. He wasn’t as big as Cole, but nearly, and rugged-looking. Like a whiskey ad in a magazine. Clothes that would look silly on anybody else looked fine on him. Jamie had always called him Jet Set Charlie, and that was what he looked like.
    Right after we got there he fixed us a drink. I thought it was
7
-Up till I took a big gulp and choked on it.
    â€œCharlie…” I heard Bob protesting, and Charlie said, “Come on, Saint Robert, I don’t get to see you guys that much anymore.”
    And Bob ended up having a drink, too.
    I was pretty thirsty after all that running around at the Fair, and I gulped down my first drink, and the second one, too. It tasted really good, like pop with a zing to it. The only thing I’d ever tried drinking before was beer, and I never could get a taste for it. Beer tasted awful sour to me. This stuff was sweet. I was on my third one when I noticed things were looking extra bright and sharp and I had to talk louder because my hearing was getting funny.
    I’d never been drunk before. I know that’s hard to believe, me being so close to fifteen years old, but it was the truth. Pop never had been much for booze, partly, I think, because his prison stretch had something to do with bootlegging, but mostly because he didn’t need it. Pop always had a good time.
    Poor Bob kept trying to stop the flow of alcohol and kept ending up with another drink himself.