Red Earth Review #1

The boy’s eyes widened as if he were being electrocuted.

“What kind of game?”

“A kind of card game. And I tell you what. If you win this game, we will go to Galveston all next week.”

“How do I win?”

The father held up a trio of cards with golden fast-food logos flashing off the edges and fanned them out with that grin that he sometimes had. He plopped them down on the boy’s bed as he spoke, “these are winning tickets . . . Free cheeseburger, . . .

Free soda, . . . Free fries. They give these out and we scratch them off and win these prizes.” He paused for effect, “We get free food.”

The alarm bell rang in the boy’s head—his dad was out of money sooner than expected. Nicky’s posture went limp as he recalled past episodes of hunger and long stretches of boredom, imprisoned in a smelly rat hole, unable to pay for movies or meals or anything really. Then his father’s face immediately went wild with emotion, as if it were his cue, like they were actors in a play and had rehearsed this part many times. He stood abruptly and kicked at the side of the chair and Nicky’s ears pricked up as a dog’s might. He cursed the boy’s mother under his breath and stomped around slapping empty beer cans, which then went hurtling through the room as if they were flying cockroaches.

Nicky looked at his feet dangling off the side of the bed. His long socks had become bunched up at his ankles during the night, half on and half off his feet. His breathing quickened and became more shallow. His entire body seemed to contract on itself as he shrunk into a ball. His hands froze into claws and he rhythmically worked the index fingers and thumb together in pincer movements, tapping quickly. He did the same thing with his toes inside his socks, making the socks slide further off his feet. His father stared at his behavior until Nicky realized he was watching him and stopped, placing his hands neatly at his sides.

“Just get in the damn car.”

The father said he had already mapped out every one of the fast food restaurants in Greater Houston. “The only rule is we gotta wait an hour before we can get another card, so, . . . ” he wiggled his head like a clown at Nicky in the passenger’s seat. “I have constructed an hour-long loop. We just run the circle all day long and hit the same place every hour, on the hour.”

“How are we gonna buy all that food?”

88