Skip to: Site menu | Main content

Snippet nine.

2007-03-28

I laughed a little laugh. That’s Alma all over, I thought. “God she was funny.”

“I think the Doctors probably told them, and then they probably begged that it not be made public.”

“Makes sense. Seems kind of shitty for them not to have told you though.” And it took Ronnie a good twenty seconds to answer.

“Yeah. It sure is.”  he said, quietly. And for some reason neither of us understood, we both welled up with tears. “I really miss her Paul.”

“Me too.” I said. And for a while Ronnie told me about some about growing up in their house. About how Mr. Wilson could be a tyrant and how Mrs. Wilson had never said much of anything to defend herself against his frequent attacks until after Alma died when something had changed in her and now she spoke her mind all the time. He told me that Alma had been his best friend till she was about thirteen; when she hit puberty full throttle, I think he meant; when something changed in her too. I understood that. It was pretty damn normal. I mentioned this.

“Yeah. I know,” Ronnie responded, “But I was ten or eleven at the time and didn’t get it. I remember feeling a little abandoned, that’s all. But actually the reason I brought it up is that after a little while she must have seen how I was feeling and she started going out of her way to make sure we did things together once a week or so. I think I even knew she was just doing it to out of a sense of obligation instead of her really wanting to be with me, but I didn’t care. I loved her and missed her and really appreciated the time she made for me. And When Steve entered the picture, it was really great. I loved that guy. Maybe the most genuinely funny guy I ever met... well, till Yeti, anyway.”

And I realized again just how much Ronnie had lost in the last year. Jesus. No wonder he made the joke about not getting too close to me. “Do you think Steve knew about Pedersen and Alma right from the get-go?”

“No way. I know when he found out. It was late last summer, just a couple of months before she died. He called her on it. He’d heard some rumors, but he’d told me he’d completely ignored them, figured they were bogus, but he saw them in Pedersen’s car at night some time in August on Woodward, pulling out of Albans.” Albans is a restaurant just south of Birmingham.

“Did you talk about it with him?”

“A little. I knew about it already. I’d sort of figured it out from some of the stuff Alma had said over the the months. I think part of her was proud of it while another part of her was ashamed of herself. She told me more than once that I was lucky I wasn’t a girl.”

“If she wanted an abortion, why didn’t she just go get one. They’ were legal in some states even before January. New York for sure.”

“I don’t know. Dad beat the hell out of her once after he found out about the affair. He can be a real fuck sometimes. She was probably afraid to have him find out. He’d have killed her I’ll bet... then he’d have felt bad about it.”

“So she died anyway. Fucking great.”

“Yeah.”

“I’m assuming you haven’t shown the diary to your parents.”

“No way. I don’t want my Dad psychoanalyzing her based on that.” He pointed at the diary which was lying on top of my mess kit. “As far as I know they either don’t know, or haven’t admitted to themselves why she did it.”

“So they didn’t know she was pregnant until the day she died.”

“I don’t think so.”

“And they’ve never talked to you about it?”

“Nope.”

“Well, even the paper suggested complications of a pregnancy gone wrong. I’ve heard rumors of an abortion for months, but I didn’t really give it much thought. I guess it didn’t matter to me. I knew she died as a result of her affair with Pedersen, and beyond that, I didn’t really care. She was dead and there wasn’t anything any of us could do about it.”

Link to This | Back to top

Spirited Minikin (2007-03-28)
The more you post of these the more I absolutely cannot wait to read the finished product and see how it all comes together. I always say "this one is the best" and I mean it every time...they're all so darn good. Loved this one and want to know more about Alma...I know she's been mentioned previously but this snippet really intrigued me.

[ Back to top ]

Created with ShoutPost