Roll with the Punches Read Online Free PDF Page A

answer.
    "You're the baby?" James was so sweet, trying to divert me from my worries.
    "Yep."
    "Me, too. Cuts down on your responsibility, you know?"
    It had until now. But Monica was gone. My brothers, Hank and Jerry, were on the East Coast with 2.2 kids and 2.3 marriages each. So I was up at bat, and the parents were throwing curve balls.
    "And what we get away with," he whispered, glancing toward the back seat. "Pranks and lies. As a kid, I killed my sister's Chia pet slowly, with Coke.”
    "That's nothing," I said. "I offed a hamster, a gerbil, and two canaries. Not on purpose. Sort of over-handling and under-feeding. I even killed a Petrie dish full of mold for my sixth grade science project. How was I supposed to know bleach was lethal? I had to color a bunch of dust bunnies with felt tip pens to fake the mold I needed for my results.”
    More gasps came from the back seat as we sped through a red light.
    I said, "Mom and Dad had better be hardier than that."
    James said, "But didn't Monica leave strict orders for you to visit your folks?"
    "Hey, they were okay when I saw them just last …" month , I realized. But I couldn't tell James that. My time was so tight these days with work and writing and the daily exercise I needed at age thirty-four to fend off flab. Plus every extra shift I could get at the library and tutoring junior high English to make up for lost wages since I'd taken June off to finish my now-worthless book.
    James grinned. "Well, what can they expect from the baby of the family, huh? Just the baby."
    These words, surely meant to soothe, clunked in my head. Just Rhonda, just the baby.
    He went on. "And about your book, don't blame yourself. I mean you know how many people could have stolen it. Hackers, for one. If you register for writing conferences or sign up for writing magazines online, anyone could get access to your computer."
    Clank, clunk. Maybe not the best subject to divert me with. "I have a blog and a website, too."
    He shrugged. "Well, there you are."
    At the hospital, I jumped from the car and rushed into the building and up to room 226B, where I stopped short at the sight of the still, gray, nearly lifeless form in the first bed. Could that be my energetic mother? Brought down to this in a few scant minutes? But the man sitting by her was not my father.
    Then I heard a familiar voice from beyond the gold room divider curtain. "One more pillow under my knee, here, Caesar. And bring me my purse, will you? Those flowers can go over there.”
    I finally let out the breath I’d been holding for the last twenty minutes and moved to the cheerful window side of the room. There sat my tall, skinny mother, Ethel Hamilton, propped on pillows in the second bed. Phone to her ear, she looked weary, but still queenly. An orderly in scrubs, a cleaning rag flopping out of his back pocket, hopped around the room doing her bidding.
    Into the phone, Mom said, "Of course I'm still coming next week, Monica. Even if I have to swim."
    I approached, and Mom said to me, "Why are you here?" She shoved a tray of cheap chocolates at me and chattered on to my sister, "It's just Rhonda. I told your father not to bother her. What were you saying?"
    “Just Rhonda,” again? Damn it! Hadn't we gotten past that? Barely keeping my gurgling mix of anger and anxiety in check, I said, "Mom, what happened? I just got this call from Dad and rushed right over.”
    She waved me off and continued into the phone. "It's not that bad, honey. I just slipped on a wet patch this afternoon in Food Mart, probably Seven-Up or something spilled on the floor. It was really sticky, you know, probably some kid did it, and boom! Down I went, pretty fast. They really ought to watch the kids in there. Some old person could fall down and really get hurt.”
    Like you , I thought, though she'd never admit she was old. Mom's desires were easy for my Spidey sense to read. She usually wanted to be a first lady of something: TV, movies, cable, the