Rule of the Bone Read Free Page A

I said and my stepfather whacked me on the head again right on the ear this time tearing out an earring which really hurt. But it was like the sight of my blood got to him because then he belted me a couple more times, harder each time until my mother finally hollered for him to stop.
    He did and when he went out into the kitchen and got a beer I stood up and still shaking I said real loud, I’m leaving this place!
    Neither of them tried to stop me or even said where do you think you’re going so I walked out the door and slammed it as hard as I could and picked up my bike where he’d thrown it and went straight over to Russ’s who let me sleep on a ratty old couch that was in the livingroom.
    The next morning as soon as I knew my mom and Ken would be at work I went over to the house for my clothes and stuff. I took a few towels and a blanket from the linen closet and some shampoo from the bathroom and shoved everything into two pillowcases. I was just about to leave when I remembered the few remaining coins and said to myself why not try and find them and take what’s left since they’re supposed to be mine someday anyhow. I was feeling hard and cold like a criminal mentality was creeping into me, and it was funny to me that I’d gone and made up the story about my grandmother to the pawnshop guy and then it’d turned out to be almost true.
    I put my stuff down by the front door and took a beer from the fridge and popped it and walked back to my mom’s and Ken’s bedroom. I knew that as the saying goes a friend in weed is a friend indeed and if I was going to crash at Russ’s I’d better have some smoke to pass around until I got a job or something.
    It didn’t seem likely they’d put the coins back in the closet but it was worth a look and sure enough when I reached into the darkness there were the two briefcases wrapped in the blanket the same as the day I found them. Ken and my mom must’ve thought that after last night I’d be too scared to go back there again but it was like I’d gone too far by now to be scared of anything anymore. The first briefcase had what was left of the coins, maybe fifty or sixty of them in a half-dozen bags which I took. I opened the second case and put the rifle together as usual and loaded it this time just to see how you did it since it was probably my last chance.
    I was standing by the window aiming through the scope at a little kid on a tricycle across the street when I heard the bedroom door behind me creak like someone was coming in from the hallway. When I spun around it was Willie the cat jumping onto my mother’s bed. I must’ve been freaked because I aimed the rifle at him and pulled the trigger but nothing happened. Old Willie came down the bed and sniffed the end of the barrel and looked like he was ready to lick it. I pulled the trigger again but still nothing happened and then I realized that the safety was on and the trigger was locked.
    I started to look for the safety but just as I found it Willie jumped down off the bed and disappeared into the closet which was lucky for him because as soon as he was out of sight I suddenly saw myself standing there with the gun in my hand and I could see what I’d been trying to do to him and I started to cry then, from my stomach up to my chest and into my head until I was standing there sobbing with my stepfather’s stupid rifle in my hand and the last remaining bags of my grandmother’s coins on the floor and the black briefcases open beside them. Nothing seemed to matter anymore because everything I touched turned bad so I just started firing. Blam, blam, blam! Mostly I shot at my mom’s and stepfather’s bed until the rifle was empty.
    Then I came out of it like I’d been in a hypnotic trance. I stopped crying and put the rifle on the bed and got down on my hands and knees and tried to get Willie to come out of the closet but he was too