A Fine Dark Line Read Online Free PDF

getting. But I’m not. And if I was, I’d be smart enough to pick it up and get rid of it. And if Chester is getting what she says he’s getting, I don’t want any part of him.”
    I finally gave in. “And what is she getting that you’re not?”
    “Do what?”
    “Jane Jersey. You said she wanted to show you she was getting what she thinks you’re getting. What were you and her getting?”
    Callie closed the door. “You really don’t know about this, do you, Stanley?”
    “I got some idea.”
    “No you don’t. You keep calling it a balloon.”
    “Well it is a balloon. Kinda.”
    Callie laughed. “You don’t have a clue.”
    “Well, I know Daddy’s real mad. I know that much.”
    Callie sat down on the end of the bed. “Daddy’s wrong. I think he knows he’s wrong. He’s just waiting to be sure.”
    “Waiting for what?”
    “To see if I come up pregnant. To see if there was a leak.”
    “Pregnant? A leak in what?”
    I know it’s amazing, but I actually had no idea how pregnancy occurred. It just wasn’t talked about then by parents or in polite society.
    Callie, however, was versed in all this, and was not as skittish about it as Mom and Daddy. She said, “You want to know how a girl gets pregnant?”
    “I guess.”
    “Well first, let me straighten you out on something. I’m not getting anything from anybody . . . Remember that part. You know those dogs out in the yard? The ones Daddy turned the hose on?”
    “The ones with their butts hung?”
    “Their butts weren’t hung,” Callie said. “The boy dog had turned, and that put them rear end to rear end, but it was his thing that was hung.”
    “His thing?”
    “That’s right. His doodle.”
    “In her butt?”
    “In her pee-pee.”
    I was growing very uncomfortable.
    “Let me explain it to you,” Callie said.
    When she finished, I was amazed. “People do that?”
    “Yes.”
    “Why?”
    “Because it feels good. Or so I’m told.”
    “Does it feel good with one of those balloons on? Is that what makes it feel good?”
    “I wouldn’t know if it felt good with one or without one.”
    “Ooooh, you and greasy Chester?”
    “I didn’t do anything. Let me tell you something, Stanley. I don’t really like Chester that much. I mean, I like him, but not that way. He’s a little on the stupid side. I like riding around in his car, but to tell the truth, I like Drew Cleves.”
    “Never heard of him.”
    “He’s quite the big dog at the high school. He’s a year ahead of me. He’s handsome. On the football team. Very popular. Of course, I hate football. Even if I want to be a cheerleader.”
    “You haven’t even started to school and you know all that?”
    “Yes. Unlike you, I’m not obnoxious. People like me. Well, most of them. I guess I’d have to mark Jane Jersey off the list.”
    Since Callie was so forthcoming with information, I thought I’d slip in a question that had been bothering me.
    “Callie?”
    “Yeah.”
    “Daddy says Rosy Mae is a nigger. Is she?”
    “That’s a terrible word,” Callie said. “Mom says never to use it. Daddy shouldn’t say it. Rosy Mae is a Negro. Or colored.”
    “He says we shouldn’t be around Rosy Mae unless she’s working here.”
    “It shouldn’t be that way, Stanley, but I guess it is. I haven’ta thing against coloreds, but I doubt I’d be very popular hanging around Negroes.”
    “Is that why they don’t go to our school? Because they’re niggers?”
    “Stanley, I’m going to spank you myself if you say that terrible word again. Coloreds do not like being called niggers. I may not be brave enough to spend time with Negroes, but I know it’s wrong, and I know calling them nigger is wrong. And you should too. The world just hasn’t caught up with the way we ought to be treating people, Stanley . . . What’s that?”
    “What’s what?”
    “That rusty old box poking out from under your bed.”
    “I found it.”
    Callie pulled the box out. “What’s in