The Red Diary Read Online Free PDF

seen much love in his father's eyes in a very long time, but maybe be understood that more than Nick did because he understood being different.
    Davy never seemed to be what people expected him to be and he didn't know why, but he'd gotten used to it. He knew his dad was just different, too, "Hey, buddy, I'm taking off in a few."
    Davy turned his head on the pillow to see Nick filling the doorway. He smiled. "Okay."
    Nick lowered his voice. "And when Elaine isn't looking, I'm gonna smuggle out some more of those brownies." His heart filled with pride. "I won't tell," "Whatcha readin'?"
    He followed Nick's eyes to the worn paperback lying face down on his chest. "Treasure Island." Elaine had dug it from a box of her old schoolbooks in the garage a few months ago when he'd been watching stuff about the Gasparilla Pirate Fest in Tampa on TV.
    "Any good?"
    He nodded, "Pirates." "Cool."
    Despite Nick's cheerful wink good-bye, Davy kept thinking about the dark knot inside his brother. He thought of it like a black storm cloud in Nick's stomach. Yet Davy didn't always feel the storm, Sometimes when he and Nick were alone, it was more like one of those afternoon drenchers that came in the thick of summer, then disappeared in the blink of an eye, leaving the sky blue J again.
    Dad always brought out the storm in Nick, though.
    And Elaine always invited them over at the same time anyway. She always said, "Nick probably won't like it, but we're a family and ... " She never finished that part, though, so Davy always wondered what she meant to say.
    "Can you take Dad home?"
    Nick and Elaine had just stepped into the living room, where their father's snoring punctuated the quiet.
    He gave her a hard look, She knew better than to ask. "Come on, Nick, give me a hand here." She used the sharp tone meant to remind him she was the oldest and thought it should count for something, despite the fact that it had quit counting soon after their mother's death.
    "How did he get here?"
    Elaine pursed her lips. "Davy and I went and got him before dinner."
    "Then maybe you should take him back. I can stay with Davy 'til you get home."
    "Do I ask so much of you?" she snapped.
    They both glanced instinctively down the hall toward Davy's room. He'd endured enough yelling in his life; it always upset him.
    "Maybe not," Nick said lowly, honestly. He peered hard into Elaine's eyes to make sure she was paying attention when he added, "But I don't like being put in this position. Now help me get his drunken ass off the couch and out into the car." Five minutes later, Nick was driving too fast toward his father's ramshackle apartment. The older he got, the less he could bear to be around him. He hated the man's smell-sweat and booze-beside him in the seat. He hated the way he lay slouched like some limp, over sized doll, occasionally bumping the-gearshift with his knee. Twice already, Nick had shoved his father's leg over and said. "Watch it." Now his dad smacked his' lips every few seconds. and the sound was unnerving. "Jesus," Nick muttered in disgust.
    He couldn't believe he'd lived through twenty years of this, but that's when it had all started-the stormy day their mother's car had been broadsided by a delivery truck in an intersection with a broken traffic light.
    He remembered with clarity how happy and how passionate his parents had been-always kissing, grabbing, rubbing, even when their kids made fun of them. "Yucky," Davy had once called their behavior, and Dad had laughed and said, "You wait and see, David. One day you'll understand,"
    Their mother's death had buried their father in a hole so deep he'd never even tried to climb out. That's when the drinking had started, and the meanness, and the neglect. At thirteen and twelve, Elaine and Nick had learned to handle the neglect and silently taken on the roles of mother and father to Davy even before it had been completely necessary. But it was their father's meanness that had ruined them all. And that