“Chapter Four:
Second Grade for the
Second Time”
Sue was sucking her thumb. Again. She’d already chewed her cuticles down so far they were bleeding. She couldn’t help it. She was thinking about spending the next three days at Uncle Larry’s house. Uncle Larry always wanted to play those games in the bedroom with her and her sister Connie. Sue felt funny about it. It seemed naughty, but she sometimes could see her Aunt Janet cooking in the kitchen and smell that familiar rotten-egg odor that came from the well water her aunt had to boil before anyone could drink it. The door was always wide open, so everyone must know about the games. It must be all right for Connie and Sue to be under the covers with Uncle Larry, all three of them naked and touching him like that, right? It made Sue feel a bit tingly and knotted her stomach at the same time. She knew she’d go into the bedroom with him this weekend because it happened every time she went for a visit.
In the meantime, she continued to suck her thumb, chew her cuticles and daydream in class. Sue remembered how the morning had started, just like any other day.
