Down to the Bone Read Online Free PDF

bag, and in a huge garbage bag, and throws them out the front door.
    “Go!” she says with tears in her eyes. “See if your secret lover’s parents take you in.” Her veins swell and pop out of her throat. “Have them pay all your bills, love you, and care for you, as I have.”
    Pedri, hearing all the commotion through the open windows, runs to me from the swings in the backyard. “Shyly, what happened?”
    Mami screeches out an explanation about my being disobedient. “Your sister knows what she must do in order to come back.” She wipes her tears with the back of her arm.
    “Don’t throw Shyly away, Mami, please.” He clings to me. “Don’t go, Shyly,” he bawls.
    “Mami, I promise.” I fall on my knees. “I’ll never talk to any of my friends again.”
    “I’ll tell Jaime I let you stay at a friend’s house in Ft. Lauderdale for the summer. Don’t forget to take your dog.” She goes to the laundry room where Neruda has her bed and wakes her up. She practically throws her to me.
    Pedri hugs me hard and runs to his room sobbing.
    My mom pushes me out of the front door. I stumble and almost fall. “I’m sorry, Shai, but I can’t continue loving you if you stay with that girl.” She calms down a little. “I love you with all my heart. I’m doing this for your own good. When you’ve changed, and you’re honest with me about who she is, come back.”
    She slams the door in my face.
    A bunch of sparrows fly overhead. There’s a weird brown ring around the clouds. I think the sky is going to fall. I feel an odd sensation in my chest, as if I have a hole in there the size of Cuba.
    “Shai, are you there?”
    “Yeah. Sorry.”
    “I thought you had hung up and I was talking to myself.”
    Marlena’s grandfather and I get along great. He’s interested in politics and reading Spanish newspapers to us so we never lose our mother-tongue and stay up on what’s happening in Latin America.
    We chat a little longer in Spanish about world events. “Communism is evil, Shai. Thank good ness it hasn’t cast its spell around the world, taking everything down with it, including people’s morale, their desire to be somebody, and hopes and dreams for a better world. Communism equals death of the soul, it makes folks limp through life . . .”
    When he’s done, we say our goodbyes. I feel as if a train just hit me. Not because of his usual talks, which I like. But because on top of everything I’ve been through, I can’t get to Marlena.
    Why did Rick have to come today, of all days?
    Rick is an eighteen-year-old Marlena met at her uncle Marco’s house two years ago. He lives in Puerto Rico all year round with his dad. He visits his mom and Marlena whenever he can take off a week or two from work, and on holidays. Marlena has to act like she’s into him so her family doesn’t get suspicious. That stings. Her uncle Marco, Marlena’s father, Rick’s father and grandfather are close friends. They want Marlena and Rick to get married one day. Just my luck!
    If I want to stay with Marlena, I pretty much have to accept the Rick situation. I could easily rant against her having him as a boyfriend, but that will only destroy our bond. There’s no way Rick can compare to the powerful feelings she and I have for one another. Alternating people like that, though, always shuttling between two perspectives, is something I’m glad is in my past. In some strange way, I’m thankful I don’t have to go on lying anymore about my “boyfriend.”
    I walk to the mailbox a few blocks away, grab a pen and paper from inside my shoulder bag, and write Pedri a note:
    Hi, Little Punk. I love you more than all the raindrops that have ever fallen on earth. Don’t worry about me. I’ll be okay. I want you to be a little man and behave. Don’t get into trouble. I miss you SO much, Pedri. I’ll call you every day.
    Ten kissies on the tip of your nose.
    I love you, love you, love you!
    Your big sis,
    Shyly.
    It sucks to not