Learning
by Meagan Stallworth
David stared at the door. Sweat on his forehead tingled in the wind that still blew his hair every which way. His tiny pink hands curled up into fists, pushing his nails back in place. He bit the inside of this lip and tore skin, but didn’t feel it. He heard Tony breathing hard on the other side of the door. David put his ear closer to see if there was anything else to hear. A few seconds passed. Nothing. His body heat soared. With his face resting against the door, he wished that he had never gotten out of the car. He wished that he had something to drink so that his mouth wasn’t still so dry. He wished that his hands didn’t hurt. He wished that his mom wore blouses that covered her up. He wished that Tony hadn’t smiled at him. He wished that all the creepy houses in Tony’s neighborhood didn’t all look the same. He wished that the wind wasn’t blowing so hard. He wished that he knew where he was. He wished he could be like his mother and scream whenever he wanted.
The puppy from across the street had made its way to David’s side because of all the commotion, wagging its tail and making shrill “arf” noises. He panted and stared at David, who’d removed the side of his face from the big white door and turned around at the only noise in the neighborhood other than the three of them. The puppy barked once. He barked again. David didn’t like the dog. He made too much noise. Worse than his mother, he wasn’t saying anything. Without very much consideration, David reached down and grabbed him by the neck. He swung him against the door where his face had been. He heard Tony coming back. So he did it again. The puppy yelped and squirmed, but David’s grip was a devout one. He heard his mother saying something about her hair. “Let go?” David swung the puppy again, using him to lure his mother to the front door. Blood spouted from its mouth. Then the door flung so wide open that the knob hit the wall.
Tony stood with more red ink on his pants, now covering the front of his shirt, too. He held his mother’s hair, which was still attached firmly to her head, in his left hand. David held the puppy in his right. Joanne and the puppy panted and whimpered but dared not to speak or bark. Tony looked like he had been exercising in a desert terrain, but was still smiling a little.
“Christ, kid. You could have just knocked if you were that damn lonely being outside for fifteen fuckin’ minutes. First you don’t open the car to door to say Hi, then you’re...you’re banging my neighbor’s dog on my—what the fuck?? Who the hell is gonna clean this red shit off of my door? It used to be white, you little
fuck.”
David stared back at him the same way he did when he had first woken up in the car. The puppy tried its hardest to jump away, the same way David had been jumping in his seatbelt. Both efforts were in vain. Tony leaned forward.
“Do you have something to say to me, kid?” he asked.
David paused, dropped the dog, which limped back across the street, and looked into Tony’s clean shaven face with his head tilted to one side and eyes squinted.
“Are you a teacher?” David finally asked.
Tony stared at David, then at Joanne with his eyebrows turned in and his nose turned up. He paused and then laughed a little.
“You got some fucked up family, Jo,” Tony said.
He threw her onto the brick porch head first and slammed the door, pushing her feet out of the way while doing so. Tony reached in his pocket, hurriedly rustled around a little, and pulled out a few slips of faded green papers. He threw them onto Joanne’s body, a couple of them sticking to her skin. Her hair was messy and arms were covered with black and red spots. Her blouse was torn down the back and one of her dangly earrings that she liked so much was missing. Her face was streaming with mascara. David looked at her. There were no tears, no trembling lip, no curious child-like crinkle in his brow. David felt all grown up. He walked to the car, and she followed, sobbing. David felt bad for Tony having gotten so much of that ink on his pants. He must have been grading too fast. And with his mother screaming at him, that had to have been really difficult, he thought. Joanne gathered the green papers and tucked them away beneath her shirt.
When they reached the car, Joanne got back in the driver’s seat and David took his position in the back. He buckled his seat belt and leaned his head against the window. Joanne checked herself in the rearview mirror again, fixing her make-up and wincing while she patted her arms with napkins from the dashboard.
