The Lobster Kings Read Online Free PDF Page B

already done her hair and her makeup beforestarting to make breakfast and pack lunches. She uncrossed her arms, crossed them again, and then brought one hand up to her necklace. I could tell that she was nervous. She hadn’t talked to Daddy, and she wasn’t sure what he’d say. She seemed to consider it, and then let her fingers fall away from the pearls, standing up straight and crossing her arms. “The
Queen Jane
is no place for a young lady.”
    And this time I did speak. “Scotty can go fishing, but I can’t?”
    There was a long silence. Rena stood still on the threshold of the bathroom. Carly put down her doll. Upstairs, I heard the first movements from Scotty’s room, the creak of his bed and then the floor. We were waiting for Daddy to respond.
    He put the glass jar of sugar down on the counter and unscrewed the lid. He didn’t seem to be in any sort of a hurry as he opened the drawer, pulled out a soupspoon, and started scooping sugar into the thermos. I counted the spoonfuls, five, six, the squeak of the spoon in the sugar, the occasional tinkle of the handle hitting the glass of the jar or the rim of the thermos. Fourteen and fifteen, and then Daddy dunked the spoon in the thermos and gave it a twirl. He didn’t say anything, and the lack of voice was too much for me.
    “Scotty’s a baby, and he’s still going fishing?” I said.
    I was looking at Momma, and she was ready to respond, but it was Daddy who spoke. “Scotty’s a Kings, and he’ll be out fishing with me today, Cordelia.”
    “You and your sisters can stay home with me,” Momma said. She was trying to make her voice sound bright, but all I could think of was glass breaking. “You’ll help me with painting the back room, and after lunch we can bake some cookies if you’d like.”
    “I’m a Kings, too,” I said. I pushed myself away from the table, hard enough that some of the milk in my glass sloshed out. I’d like to be able to say that I hadn’t meant to push that hard, but I had, and more importantly, I meant what I said next. “I can’t go fishing because I’m a girl?” I paused, so that the next words would really hit. “That’s bullshit.”
    I think that I was hoping the word would drop like a bomb. The men on the docks swore without any real thought, and I’d heard Daddy talking like he meant to take the paint off the hull of the
Queen Jane
, but that wasn’t the language we used in our house. I’d never heard anything stronger than a “darn it” come out of Momma’s mouth. I pressed hard on the word, “bullshit,” looking at Momma and waiting for her to respond. She opened her mouth, but it was Daddy who spoke.
    His voice was calm and even, as if he were simply suggesting I wear rain boots instead of sneakers. “I don’t think you’re going to talk like that in front of your mother,” he said, “but the point is taken.” He picked up the thermos and screwed on the cap. “It
is
bullshit, Cordelia. You’re right. You’re a Kings, too, and if you want to be out on the water, you’ll be out on the water. All the kids will go today, and if any of the girls decide that they don’t want to be out on the
Queen Jane
in the future, well, they don’t have to be. But if they want to fish, if
you
want to fish, Cordelia, I’ll have you along.” He didn’t look at Momma as he said it, but he didn’t need to. We all knew that what he said, as far as it came to fishing and the Kings name, was how it would go.
    To her credit, Momma didn’t storm out of the room, didn’t do anything more than nod and pack up lunches for me, Carly, and Rena, to go with the lunches she’d already packed for Scotty and Daddy.
    Out on the
Queen Jane
, things moved like they normally did. Carly had brought along her doll, Mr. Pickles, and she and Rena pretended that he was their captain, giving them orders for what lines to move, what traps to bait. They were too old to be playing with dolls, but Carly never went anywhere without