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Learning to Fall: your dad's one, too.
Terry was everything I thought he would be. We walked to school and he had this smile on his face just like the one he had when we went peeking on Ms. Harriet and she was nuded and he took her bra--that kind of smile.
He waited 'til the right time, I'll give him that. He timed it perfectly so he'd do the most damage and I guess I should be mad at him for that. I should hate him for saying what he said in front of all the kids who were excited about seeing my skinny, crooked string of an arm with its peely skin and rash all the way down to my wrist. I should want to kill him for what he said. But I don't.
We got to school and right when everybody was looking at the cool peeled skin and the shape of the rash, the way it looked like a dragon curled around my arm, Terry did his worst.
"N.B. has a homo uncle." He said it like maybe I was the one who was gay, not uncle Jacob. "His uncle is a queer, his uncle is a queer, his uncle is a queer..."
When he realized he was the only one laughing and that I was p.o.ed at him he stuttered, saying, "It's true, I know it."
I just let him talk.
"My dad and his uncle lived together in the same apartment."
Does he not realize what this sounds like?
"Dad says N.B.'s uncle Jacob isn't just a homo, he's also a transveterinarian."
"Well if your dad lived with him..." Alex came to my rescue--I didn't even have to open my mouth.
"Doesn't that mean that your dad's one, too?"
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