Shaking the Sugar Tree Read Online Free PDF

a stubborn shit when you got something stuck up your ass,” he said.
    “And you could never see the forest for the trees,” I added.
    “What Bill is trying to say is that the deaf boy should have a real man for a father,” Papaw pointed out. “Someone who likes a good set of tits and knows how to scratch his balls, not someone who’s going to teach him how to have sex with a chimpanzee.”
    “That’s what your parents did, Papaw, and look how that turned out,” I said.
    He grinned.
    I turned back to Bill.
    “Would you give up your house and move back in with Mom?” I asked.
    “No,” he said.
    “Then why should I?”
    “It’s not the same.”
    “You’re married. You can make babies so you’re better than me.”
    “Don’t start with that shit.”
    “That’s what you’re saying.”
    “I’m saying you need help. Why don’t you let Mom help him?”
    “I have to live my own life,” I said. “You know how I am.”
    “That’s the point, isn’t it?”
    “Whatever.”
    “Baby brother’s mad now.”
    “Bite me,” I said.
    “Shelly and I would be happy to take care of him.”
    “Oh, thanks. Maybe I could live in your garage.”
    “Or maybe you could cut your hair and get a decent job.”
    “Not a whole lot of jobs for writers.”
    “I meant get a real job, not sit around with a thumb up your ass writing about UFOs.”
    “I have never written about UFOs!”
    “UFOs, vampires, crops circles, whatever the hell it is, it doesn’t pay the bills.”
    “Thank you for believing in me.”
    “Bite me.”
    “You might want to be careful before you say that to a gay man. Never know what they might do.”
    “Ain’t that the truth.”
    Noah came out onto the porch, wearing shorts and a T-shirt that once belonged to Eli.
    I want to see the rabbits!
    “Come on,” I said. “We’re gonna go see the rabbits.”
    “Watch out for the anaconda out there,” Papaw added. “Bastard ate the mailman the other day and now the mail’s always late.”
    We walked around the side of Mama’s house out to the back where there was a large barn with a long row of rabbit cages inside. Her chicken coops were full, and dozens more wandered around pecking at the ground. Mama bred both rabbits and chickens and sold them and kept herself supplied with eggs and rabbit stews and a little bit of cash on the side. It was an odd hobby for a former schoolteacher.
    We made our usual inspection tour, peering into rabbit cages, checking water bottles and feed bowls, and breathing in the scent of hay and rabbit pellets.
    Watch out for snakes, I warned, because snakes were a problem at Mama’s house what with all these rabbit and chicken McNuggets walking around.
    One of the four-wheelers was parked inside the barn, the key still in the ignition. Mama used it to haul away fallen tree branches and other debris that she burned out back.
    “Come on,” I said, hopping onto the four-wheeler.
    Noah beamed, clambering up behind me. I moved him around so he could sit in front and do the driving while I did the supervising, knowing Mama would have a stroke, but he had to learn sometime.

7) H is for homo
     
    “L ET ’ S SAY grace,” Mama said when dinner was ready.
    Noah was to my right, Shelly to my left. Bill and the boys were on the other side of the table. Mama was at the head. Papaw sat in Daddy’s place.
    We made the sign of the cross clasped hands.
    “For what we are about to receive, may the Lord make us truly grateful. In the name of the father, and of the son, and of the holy spirit.”
    We tucked into Mama’s fried chicken, red beans and rice, fried okra, corn on the cob.
    “How is Father Gray?” Mama asked.
    “He went on and on about abortion today,” I said.
    “Rightly so,” Mama said. “All those murdered babies. I’ve been meaning to get over there and see that display of crosses.”
    “If they think a clump of cells is just as important as a human being, they’re full of hot stinking crap,” I