Total pages in book: 89
Estimated words: 86857 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 434(@200wpm)___ 347(@250wpm)___ 290(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 86857 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 434(@200wpm)___ 347(@250wpm)___ 290(@300wpm)
“Shh …” My cheeks filled with hot embarrassment when the teenaged girl checking our pool passes gave us a weird look. She must have heard Josie say testicles and sperm.
I veered right near the boys’ locker rooms, and Josie went left toward the girls’. Meeting on the other side, we searched for a place to keep our towels and bags.
“If I had a husband, and he cheated on me, I’d kick him hard in the balls with my boots. My mom said it could cause a guy to not be able to make children someday. And that seems like a fair punishment for cheating, don’t you think?”
I’d been kicked in the balls on more than one occasion, usually an accident. Just talking about it made my stomach hurt. “I don’t think my mom will kick my dad in the nuts. She says she still loves him.”
“I’d kick him in the testicles, but I think my parents would ground me.”
“Don’t call them testicles.” I dropped my bag next to the fence.
“That’s what they’re called.”
“You sound like a doctor.”
“Maybe someday I’ll be a doctor, so it’s a good idea for me to keep calling them testicles instead of nuts or balls.”
I never thought she had a loud voice until we were in public talking about testicles. Then it felt like she was using a megaphone, and everyone could hear her.
“The one exception to kicking someone in the testicles …”
Here we go again.
“… is if someone is trying to kidnap you or touch your genitals. A kidnapper or a pedophile. Or it could be the same person, right?”
I had no idea what a pedophile was, and I wasn’t going to ask her until we were someplace private for fear that she’d use the word genitals ten times in her loudest voice.
“If a pedophile kidnapped you, they could tie you up and touch you whenever they wanted to. I suppose that would be easier than stalking kids outside of schools. Right?”
I gathered that a pedophile was a pervert. That’s what my mom called adults who touched kids’ privates. I felt certain Josie’s dad talked with her a lot about pedophiles or perverts. Josie was eleven going on thirty.
“Do you want a grape ice pop?” I asked her, desperately wanting to change the subject.
“Orange.”
I nodded, escaping to the concession stand before she could talk about … anything. The second I returned with the ice pop, she started up again.
“I think I’m going to start spending time with your mom like when you’re at baseball practice. Chad spends all of his time playing video games. And you guys don’t have a dog or any other family pet, so I’ll spend time with her. Then maybe she’ll not be so sad. Maybe she’ll get dressed.”
Even at eleven, I knew there was something special about Josephine Watts. She wasn’t trying to be anything more than the girl who treated other people the way she wanted to be treated. Of course, I didn’t tell her that, but maybe I should have.
“You can be our pet.” I laughed at my own joke.
Josie attempted to give me a sneer, but she started giggling. “I won’t even pee on the carpet. My dad said we can’t get a dog because they pee on the carpet, and then you have to pay a carpet cleaner to suck up the mess, and they charge you a whole bunch of money for every visit. He said we can’t afford a dog because they can barely afford Benji and me. I know they really mean him, not me, because the only time they call the carpet cleaner is when Benji makes a mess.”
“We had a dog in Texas, but my dad ran him over with the car.”
Josie’s nose wrinkles. “Did he die right away?”
“No. His back legs were broken, and he was going to need a cart with little wheels. And something was wrong with his insides too. We were going to have to push on his belly to help him go pee. So my dad had the vet kill him.”
“Put him down.” Josie rolled her eyes. “Not kill him.”
“The vet gave him something so his heart would stop beating. He killed him.”
Josie finished the last of her ice pop and nodded. “Yeah, I think so too.” Then she shrugged. “My dad and I kill animals. Maybe I should be a vet someday.”
We tossed our wrappers into the trash and headed straight to the line for the waterslide. From that day on, Josie made a point to visit my mom almost every day until my dad moved back home. Josie was a lot of things, but first and foremost, she was a good person.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
I wake from a restless sleep with a gasp, jackknifing to sitting. Heart racing. Chest burning. Sweat beading along my brow and trickling down my back. He took the girls from family gatherings. I took the girls from family gatherings.