Chapter 12

Oswald's Funeral Home sent the good hearse. Daddy requested them ... he was their attorney of record and the viewing rooms were just south of the Catholic Church. If Linden Blvd were more than a block long, their driveway would be South Linden. It's not.

When were were in the seventh, we went to school with Mike Oswald. We still speak ... you have to with neighbors but Mike was one of the guys who resented our being smart ... he also resented the fact that we were successful in suing the school board.

His dad was on the Board. The court awarded damages meant the football team didn't get new and different uniforms this year ... Mike was one of the Junior High first stringers ... what ever that meant.

I wasn't much on team sports. I thought lessons in life were supposed to be positive. Being all pleasant like to a bunch of motherfuckers who cheated so we would lose didn't strike me as 'sportsmanship'. Somebody should have taken out the head referee. Mr. Bad Call Against US.

"You son of a bitch!"

I could tell Mike was just getting started, so, "You knew my mother?"

"Huh?"

"I said, you knew my mother? It was a question."

"What?"

"Mike, you were nasty about my mom ... Did you know her?" I asked.

"You know I didn't."

"How do I know that? You weren't making a friendly statement. In fact, you sounded so positive about her attitude or personality, you must have known her."

"Well I didn't ... never met the woman. My dad says she was pleasant and quite pretty."

"Your dad liked her?"

"Well ... yeah ... I just said so, didn't I?"

"Not exactly ... you said she was a bitch. Your dad said she was nice."

"Damnitall, David. It's just a figure of speech."

"Your dad was actually saying bad things but you cleaned it up?"

He turned away and shook this head. I made sure I was walking away before I started laughing.

Grace grinned, "That went well."

"I thought so."

"What a maroon!" Grace has a 'thing' for Bugs Bunny ... I hope she gets over it soon.

Soon ... but not too soon ... another cartoon character will replace Bugs. "What do you want to do today?" "Same thing as yesterday..." "And the day before that and the day before that and the day before that..." "Shut up Pinky."

Grace looked up, "Ulp ... don't look now ... he's coming back."

Mike ran up and slid to a stop... "Ok ... let's try this..."

I interrupted him, "Mike, Mike, Mike ... did you have to consult with your friends before you could come up with a better insult?"

I turned him around and pointed at his buddies. They were having laughter convulsions ... until Mike turned around.

"Mike ... they're laughing at you ... not with you ... AT you. They're all hoping you will say whatever they told you to say ... I'll get mad ... beat the living fuck out of you so they can run over here and help you and maybe ... just maybe All them can do the job they want to do by themselves ... but know they can't. What they're forgetting is Grace."

"What does Grace have to do with it?"

Grace smiled at him, "Mike ... I'm meaner than David."

"You're a girl."

"Thank you for noticing," she shrugged. "Mike, there are times I get so mad at the world ... even I don't know what I did."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"When you and your great pals are on the way to the hospital ... and the cops want to know what happened, You Can Tell Them That a Girl Beat The LIVING FUCK Out Of ALL OF YOU Because You Pissed Her Off By Saying Bad THINGS About her MOM!!" She was shouting by the time she finished.

"Yeah, sure ... you little bastard."

I stepped back.