fiction by Jason Edwards
Note—this is an edited version of the story Loretta tells Hugh in “Hugh’s Bris.”
So basically it all started when Gloria took Rex to one of those stupid palm readers and you know he only went along because he thought she was pregnant with Kevin’s kid and he was being nice but she wasn’t pregnant was she, no, she lied about that which was ironic considering Rex did get her pregnant later when she let him have his way with her and they didn’t use protection since he figured she was already pregnant with Kevin’s.
The palm reader I guess was once of those nasty smelly foreigners from Africa or Eretria or something you know the ones always sitting outside Starbucks and they drive cabs.
After she told them a bunch of stuff that Gloria thought was amazing and Kevin though was stupid Gloria said she had to go pee so Kevin went outside and smoked a cigarettes and so did the gypsy or whatever to you call a palm reader and then she told him, she said that for some men being an adult doesn’t happen until their fathers die, and it would be tough raising a kid these days since everyone lives forever, babies be having babies.
Kevin was amazed, because Gloria didn’t even look pregnant so how did the gypsy know. So Rex is like, nah, nah, nah, and he decides Gloria has to get an abortion even though she wasn’t pregnant and it was Kevin’s anyway, because Rex doesn’t want his own son killing him.
Gloria said she would but she wanted Rex one more time because you know the procedure’s painful so he had his way with her and I guess you could say she had her with him and she got pregnant, and then she moved to Tucson or something and when she came back she told him she’d had the abortion but that was a lie but her baby did have cerebral palsy so it wasn’t like she was going to raise it herself, she just left it with an organization or an institution or something.
Then later, like when the kid was 17 or something he moved back and he didn’t even have cerebral palsy he just had one of those things where a kids has to wear a bar between his knees for a while, like a hip thing. And the kid’s like a bad-ass now because all of his life kids making fun of him for wearing that bar thing between his knees and one day’s he’s strutting on Oak and this guy bumps into him and the kid doesn’t even think twice he just pushes the dude into the road and bam, bus.
He was smart, too! This guy’s been dealing E and ludes and acid to everyone in the neighborhood and he tries to deal some to the kid and the kid’s like how much and the guy’s like the first one’s free and the kid’s like the first one’s the most expensive of them all, then, and the guy’s like shut up and the kid takes a freebie and he cuts it and gives it to some junkies and its weak shit but it works the junkies start cutting their own shit and pretty soon they’re off the stuff more or less and they stop going around to the guy’s and he’s out of business.
At this party later the kid meets this milf and he’s like where’s your old man and she’s like, killed, and the kid’s like oh snap and feels bad for her and hooks up with the milf.
Everything turns to shit. The junkies are gone, people are moving back into the neighborhood, prices are going up, taxes are going up, the kid and his milf can’t afford the rent, so they go to church to pray on it.
That old blind pastor’s like, nah, nah, nah, when Rex was killed is when all the bad shit started happening, and the kid’s like, well who did it?
The pastor’s all like, a kid from around here is all I’m saying.
The kid’s like, damn. And he tells the milf how just a few years ago, this crazy-ass man broke into the institution where he was living and was shouting and cussing and he grabbed up the kid and yells daddy killer! Motherfucking daddy killer! And it freaked the kid out so much is why he left! And that’s why he was, like, relieved when he heard the institution burnt down in that fire!
The milf goes, wait, institution?
The kid goes, yeah.
She goes, Arizona?
He goes, yeah.
She goes, and when you got here, you was where?
The kid’s all, Oak, some greasy asshole bumped into me so I shoved him into the road and she goes What? That’s how my old man died and the kid goes, so?
The milf goes that was Rex my old man was Rex you killed him and the kid’s like nah nah nah I ain’t from around her that old priest said Rex was killed by someone from around here I’m from Tucson.
The milf, Gloria, she goes, I was in Tucson once, left a kid there, a kid I made right here, with Rex. And the kid’s just sitting there, saying, motherfucker, over and over again. Gloria runs off, back to their crib, drops, like, three Es and a half dozen tabs, and when the kid finally gets home, there she is, hanging from the ceiling fan.
All the kid can think is, I was the shit, I was the shit, I was the shit, and he takes Gloria’s, his mom’s stash and he goes to the park and drops the rest of her tabs and he just sits there and stares at the sun until his eyes are burned out.
That’s where they found him, sitting there in the park like a junkie, just rocking back and forth, eyes streaming goo, saying, I’m shit, I’m shit, I’m shit.
And what’s really fucked up is Gloria killing herself like that and the kid’s tripping his eyes out like that, word got around, people didn’t want to live in the neighborhood anymore, and property values dropped, and taxes went back down, and it took like ten years, and a lot of other crazy stuff happened to their kids, but eventually everything went back to normal.