18
“Tommy don’t be rude, look at me” Julie said as she stood up to leave. “Homework huh? That has to be a first for you on a Saturday. I’ll have to leave you two alone while I go finish some homework of my own before my big date tonight.” Julie was an expert at embarrassing her brother, and took every opportunity to prove it. “If you can find the remote maybe you can find something for the two of you to watch together.” The next time he met one of her dates he was going to tell him that she wet the bed until the age of eight. Sweet revenge.
“What do you like to watch,” he asked, as he stood up to get the remote, “documentaries, religion shows, cable news?” he tried to list things that someone as sophisticated as Anne would want to watch.
“Oh, I’ll watch whatever you want to watch,” she responded, making a face behind his back like she had just tasted castor oil.
“I find CNN very informative.” Tommy hated cable news. He thought only old people like his parents watched it, but it had to be something she watched all the time, that is, if she watched TV at all. It was probably beneath her, but it was better than trying to keep up with the highest form of life known to man, or at least to Tommy.
After about 20 minutes of abject boredom, a story about a high school senior who had taken his mother’s pistol out of her purse that morning came on. The mother had called the police, and the boy’s guidance counselor had identified him as he stepped off the bus. It turned out that he only had one target in mind, the bully who had tormented him all through school. The eighteen-year-old senior would not be graduating in June, but instead would be facing a string of felony charges. The bully was referred to as the “intended victim.”
Tommy broke the silence, “I’ll bet you wish Gregory would never come back to school.”
“Gregory who?” she asked.
“Who else? The Crusher.” How could she not know who he was talking about after Gregory had made her cry.