Stupid Fast - By Geoff Herbach Page 0,65
“Andrew, why did you burn your clothes?”
“I wanted to scare Jerri into talking to me.”
“That backfired.”
“Yes. She told me the only way to move forward is to destroy the past.”
“I guess that makes sense,” I said.
“It makes no sense,” Andrew said.
“I mean, that explains her behavior.”
“Her whole stupid life.”
We didn’t say anything else as we rode, just pedaled. But when we hit the edge of my paper route, Andrew stopped.
“I think we should call Grandma Berba now,” he said.
“Why?” I really didn’t want to call her.
“Because she’s a terrible person and if she tells us…you know…tells us where to stick it, we’ll have a different situation on our hands. You know what I mean, Felton?”
“No.”
“I want to have our situation in hand before we go to the Jenningses so we can tell them what’s going on truthfully and completely,” he said.
“Oh, yeah. You’re smart.”
“Yes,” Andrew said. He swung his backpack around and pulled out Jerri’s address book. Then he handed it to me.
“You call,” he said.
No. No. No. Grandma Berba has never liked us—me and Andrew knew it. She called on our birthdays, said happy birthday, and then hung up. At Christmas, she’d send cards to Andrew and me and always wrote “Happy Chanukah” in them because our father was Jewish, even though there was always a Christmas tree or a baby Jesus on the front. She’d also send ten dollars. She never came to visit. She never invited us to Arizona. She moved there right before I was born. I only remembered her at all because she was around right after Dad died. Before she went back to Arizona, she shouted at Jerri. I don’t remember what it was about, but Jerri shouted back. Jerri freaked on her. She wasn’t a very good grandma. Jerri wouldn’t ever even talk about her. So I wasn’t exactly excited to make the call. I found her number in the address book.
“Okay,” I said to Andrew. “I’m calling.”
I punched in the numbers real slow. My heart pounded. My back hurt. I pressed the Call button and then held my breath. All this fear expanded in my chest. My phone hand was shaking. In a second, the phone at Grandma Berba’s was ringing. It rang three times. Then someone picked up.
“Hello,” the voice said. But it seemed too young to be a grandma.
“Um, could I talk to Carol Berba?”
“Speaking.”
“Grandma?” I said.
There was a long pause.
“Yes?”
“This is Felton. Felton Reinstein.”
“I know who this is, child.”
“We…Me and Andrew…”
“Tell me you’re safe.”
“I…I don’t know…” And then I just started sobbing. I couldn’t hold it in. I was totally sucking air. Gulp. Gulp. Gulp. Snot poured out my nose like in that football movie with the broken legs, and my eyes burned. I choked. Finally, I got out: “Grandma?”
“I’ve been expecting this call for ten years. What’s your phone number? Is it the phone you just dialed from?”
“Yes.”
“Felton. Please. Are you safe?”
“I think so.”
“I’ll call you back in ten minutes with my itinerary. You hold on, Felton.”
I hung up the phone and looked at Andrew. He was bawling.
“She’s not interested in us, huh?” he said.
“No. No. She’s coming.”
CHAPTER 45: GRANDMA
It’s 5:41 a.m. I think most of the time, Grandma is up by now. She’s not this morning. I just went upstairs to take some of her iced coffee out of the fridge because I just want to stay awake. It was a long night, and Grandma is snoring in the guest bedroom. I’m sorer right now than I was riding the bike to Aleah’s that day.
You can’t think Grandma is mean any longer. I won’t let you, okay?
Grandma sold insurance, and she made a lot of money, and Jerri told her she didn’t want Grandma’s money-grubbing values to affect us kids because Grandma wanted to go after Dad’s parents for more support money after he died. Jerri capped our presents at no more than $10, so Grandma sent $10, and Jerri told her there was no reason for us to see Grandma’s Arizona condo with the pool or Grandma’s BMW because then we’d value money over…what? Not family, because Jerri kept us from our family. Maybe vegetables or nature. So Grandma backed off and waited, even though she knew it made me and Andrew think she didn’t like us. She also said that maybe Jerri was right about some of her values because me and Andrew sure turned out to be sweet kids.
Okay.
Let’s go.
CHAPTER 46: BRAIN MASH: PART I
The next hour of my life had to be the