Bullet Point Read Online Free PDF Page B

me.”
    He looked at her. He was all cleaned up now, blood washed off, hair combed, nose a bit swollen but straight.
    “I’m so sorry,” she said. A tear formed in one eye, rolled down her cheek.
    “You didn’t do anything.”
    “Oh, I did.”
    “What, Mom? I don’t get it.”
    “I only wanted—” Her face started to crumple up. She got control of herself and continued. “I hate what just happened. It made me sick. And there’s no excuse, none at all. But for someone like Rusty—his whole life has been about hard work, and now getting canned like he did, sitting around all day, useless, stewing in his…” Linda went silent for a few moments. “He’s his worst self right now.”
    This is how he always is. That was Wyatt’s response, but he held back, caring too much about his mother to say it.
    Linda gazed at the Mannions’ house. Dub’s big flat screen glowed in his second-floor window. “I wanted this—want this to work so bad.”
    “Wanted what to work?”
    “A family. This family.”
    Wyatt shook his head.
    “Nobody’s perfect, Wyatt.”
    “And a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.” A nasty thing to say, and he regretted it at once.
    Too late, of course. His mom actually winced, as thoughhe’d thrown a punch. “This jealousy of his—it’s just so stupid,” she said.
    “He’s jealous of me?”
    Wyatt’s mom gave him a long look that made him even more uncomfortable than he already was but that he couldn’t interpret. “That’s not what I meant,” she said. “I meant—” She paused, as though making some effort, then licked her lips. “I meant Sonny. Rusty’s always been a bit jealous of him.”
    “He knew him?”
    “Not really. Rusty was a bit older, went into the service as soon as he could, got posted out to the Coast. He was jealous sort of after the fact, jealous that Sonny and I were—had once been…an item.”
    “An item?”
    “A couple. We…we were so young.”
    Wyatt didn’t want to hear about that. Wasn’t he the young one right now? Her job was to be the older one. “Where is he?”
    “At home, asleep. I don’t think he even—”
    “Not Rusty. I’m talking about my real father.”
    “He’s in prison. A life sentence, you know that.” The TV light went off in Dub’s bedroom.
    “Everyone keeps saying I know things,” Wyatt said, “but I don’t. What prison?”
    “I’m honestly not sure. They sent him to Sweetwater originally, but he might have gotten transferred since then.”
    “Sweetwater? That’s the name of a prison?”
    “Sweetwater State Penitentiary. From the Sweetwater River, downstate.”
    “Did you ever visit?”
    His mom nodded. “Once, a few weeks before you were born.”
    “Only once?”
    “It…it was horrible. And he didn’t want me to come back.”
    “Why not?”
    His mom shrugged. “Life sentence. It was pointless.” She sighed. “Plus, what he did—I could never think of him the same way again. That made it almost easy, letting go. Maybe a harsh thing to say, but true.”
    “What was the crime?”
    “You know all—” She stopped herself. “It was a robbery gone bad. Sonny swore he didn’t fire the shots, but even if that was true, it’s the same as if he did, under the law.”
    “Who fired the shots?”
    “They ended up pinning it on Sonny, all on the testimony of some lowlife.”
    “What was his name?”
    “I don’t remember,” his mom said. “So long ago, and besides, none of this—”
    “Come on, Mom.” Wyatt raised his voice. He was tired of this fogginess, a fogginess he hadn’t even realized was there till this last few minutes, but now he wanted clarity, a simple understandable story from A to Z, all the blanks filled in.
    “What do you mean, ‘Come on’?” his mom said.
    “I want the story.”
    “But—”
    “Just give it to me in bullet points.”
    “Bullet points?”
    “The important parts.”
    His mom nodded. “The most important part was how stupid it all was. Sonny had