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21 " this architect who everyone misunderstands. I completely forget to ask what she and Charlene are going to laugh about. One evening Mama takes Baylor and Little Shep and Lulu and me to Fred’s Hamburger Drive-In where we eat at least "
― Rebecca Wells , Little Altars Everywhere
22 " hope they remember that when they get older. When they count up the things I did and didn’t do. I never gave the drinking a second "
23 " Siddalee looked at me like: You liar, Daddy, you big liar. I don’t know why I’m thinking "
24 " social structure of Troop 55. There are "
25 " Edythe, I finally say, Why don’t you go on back to your bunk and eat your boogers for a midnight snack like you always do at home? Well, that comment really sends my friends, and I’m a big hit. But then I see Edythe’s face. It’s like something has fallen on it and crumpled it in. Somehow she looks so familiar that I can feel her bones inside my own body. And I start to feel sort of sick. She turns and walks away and "
26 " sits on the bedspread between her and Necie. I can smell that nail polish in the clean cool air of the woods. The minute Mama opens her mouth I realize she’s had at least four drinks. Her voice is loose and deep and content and amused, and she says: Edythe, don’t you ever "
27 " Life is not a book. You can’t just set it down on the coffee table and walk away from it when it gets boring or you get tired. "
28 " ...when we done went and ripped all the gold "HIS" monograms off the anniversary towels and writ SHITHEAD on them with magic markers. "
29 " supposed to walk off my block, Sherry says, like a real whiny-baby. "
30 " want to be grown-up and drive my own convertible and live in a different town where nobody knows Mama or Daddy. "
31 " this dream where I just tell it all, and then this special-made vacuum cleaner comes and sucks all the crap out of my lungs. Stops me from drowning. Clean oxygen reaches deep in my chest like it hasn’t for so goddamn long. In the dream I tell it all, and I breathe like a baby. I forget to worry about the next breath, just trust it’s gonna come. Siddalee asks too many questions. I don’t know where the child gets those thoughts. She pins me to the wall with all the stuff she asks. Sometimes I wish she’d lose her voice. And sometimes I want to go and sit in front of her and ask her questions. I’d like to say: What do you want me to do? Tell me what to do—step by step—to get out of the mess we’re in here in this house. But I know it’s foolishness "
32 " I was near, even though she couldn’t see me. But then I’m always expecting too much from the girl, wanting her to know things she can’t "
33 " Well, I could have predicted that something like this was going to happen. You can’t go anywhere with Mama without things getting nuts. If it’s going along too smooth she will invent something just to stir things up. Sometimes we’ll be downtown "
34 " Honestly, Edythe, Mama says, like she’s going to give her the most important advice in the world, If you continue acting this way, you will be unpopular for the rest of your life. I wish I could go someplace far away "
35 " sadness we did not have to work on. It came, as sadness usually does, as soon as I sat down and began to listen. The small press had a correspondingly "
36 " God will not allow us to be overwhelmed by temptation, but with it He will provide a way of escape so that we will be able to endure it. "