Flesh and Bone Read Online Free PDF Page A

home, the platters rotate around the table, starting and ending with Grandpa. Harold serves no one else. John John and his mother help themselves. No one talks. Eating requires all the attention in the room.
    Under the table, Harold pushes his foot against mine. I move away and he follows. I don’t know what this means,but I ignore it the best I can. He’s not even looking at me. He forks food into his mouth and his foot finds mine.
    â€œAre you seeing anyone?” Harold asks.
    John John frowns and glares across the table.
    â€œNo,” I say.
    â€œAre you shy?” he asks.
    â€œA little.”
    â€œGirls love strong men,” he says.
    â€œHarold,” John John says.
    I don’t know what’s going on. There’s something between these two. I watch them and there is a solid anger stuck there, boiling and staining the dinner hour dark.
    â€œI’m just helping the boy,” Harold says.
    â€œI know what you’re doing,” John John says.
    â€œLeave it be,” Harold says.
    â€œHe’s my friend,” John John says.
    â€œI know.”
    John John shakes his head and puts his fork down. He leaves the table and goes out through the kitchen. I watch him and worry. This is not how it’s supposed to be.
    â€œDon’t let him worry you,” Harold says. “He’s just a bit jealous.”
    I finish my plate and look around and no one says anything. Silence is a current through the nerves in my back. My shoulders hunch.
    â€œDo you want to see my room?” Harold asks.
    We walk to the little space Harold lives in beyond the kitchen. Windows let in the wet air, but it’s still warm here. The bed is a mess of sheets and a thin blanket. Beer cans and ashtrays sit on the dressers, the nightstands, the window sills.
    â€œYou want a beer?” he asks.
    He brings me a beer from the little refrigerator in the corner and we sit on the bed. He brings a magazine from the closet. Naked people stretch and fondle each other. Harold flips through the pages and I pretend that it doesn’t matter.
    â€œI could jerk off right here,” he says.
    â€œOkay.”
    â€œHave you ever jerked off with someone?” he asks.
    â€œNo.”
    â€œI could show you,” he says.
    His dick is larger than you’d think, long and thick and slightly purple. He strokes it and the skin stretches. I watch him like I’d watch a wild dog.
    â€œYou can do it too,” he says.
    I find that the sight of him half naked makes me hard. Slowly, unsure of what this is about, I pull my dick free and before I know it Harold and I are stroking each other. We come together and lie on the bed with our eyes closed.
    â€œThis is just us,” Harold says. “I could go to jail.”
    â€œNo one’ll know.”
    â€œJust let me know when you want to do it again,” he says.
    â€œOkay.”
    â€œYou should probably go now,” he says.
    I lie there for a moment, but then I tuck myself away and go into the kitchen.
    â€œDid you have fun?” John John’s mom asks.
    â€œI’m not sure,” I say.
    â€œI imagine.”

Head
    T HEY PLAY J OURNEY and Quarterflash. They play Motley Crüe and Ozzy. I sit at the table with Mina and we eat cheese, drink juice. We watch everyone dancing around us.
    Photographers flash in the corner. Laughter and conversation rise upward and clutter the concrete rafters. I want to go home. Dances are not my thing. I feel isolated here, even with people crowding all around me.
    â€œIs this what you do at dances?” Mina asks.
    â€œI’m not too good at these things.”
    â€œCome on,” she says and pulls me out to the floor.
    I jerk and bounce, but I have the rhythm of a bobblehead doll.
    A slow song plays. Mina presses herself against me.
    â€œYou’re a strange boy,” she says.
    Her tits press against me. I feel myself stir. This is not good. I pull away. I sit and Mina puts her