I didn't answer.
"Who cares is she's carrying an extra hundred, it's all pink on the inside." I tried counting to ten. "You don't want some of that? Wow, that mangy blond of yours is putting out."
Without a word I punched him, sending his head into the side window. "If you ever call Shannie a dog again I'll kill you!"
Steve's hands never left the steering wheel. "What the fuck is your problem? I meant Ellie you asshole."
"Whatever."
Two days later - Shannie's birthday - I erupted on Steve Lucas. Diane, Shannie, Steve and I were sitting around the kitchen table. Steve asked, "Any one see Jenny Wade around lately?"
"I heard she's really round lately." Shannie inflated her cheeks.
"She rode one too many poles," Steve Lucas laughed. He stared at me.
"Man, why do you have to bring that shit up?"
"What stuff? Oh, that stuff," Shannie snickered.
"You can't leave it alone can you? You have to blab it to everyone! Dickwad!" My voice rose an octave.
"Calm down, you'll give yourself a stroke," Diane snapped.
I reached for my coffee cup. Shannie pinned my arm to the table. If she was a second slower I would have launched the cup at Steve. "I didn't mean anything by that brother," Steve Lucas said. He was a mench. He understood my memories were returning.
Unlike Steve Lucas, I rarely snapped on Shannie. Not even later that winter when she raked me after Mr. Miller broke his hip. We were walking down Cemetery Street when we witnessed his fall. I exploded into a fit of laughter, even as he writhed on the ground. "Are you insane? Wait, I already know the answer." Shannie snapped as the ambulance drove away. She turned and walked home.
"I hate to see you leave, but I love watching you walk away," I cried.
"Asshole." She flipped me off before slamming her front door.
The Miller's never forgave me. I earned their scowls till the day they died. I didn't care, they never visited me in the hospital.
I shuffled into Fernwood. I wandered up and down the rows of tombstones until I found my Grandfather's phony grave. I stood admiring our ruse when Bear startled me, "What was all that ruckus?" Bear stood next to me.
"Old man Miller broke his hip."
"What a shame," Bear shrugged.
"God how I miss him," I nodded at the headstone.