Hold Fast by Kevin Major Page A

got another think coming.
    â€œWhy not?”
    He looked up again. “Because I don’t want you to,” he said, as if those few words settled it all.
    â€œThat’s no reason,” I answered him back.
    He put the paper down altogether and then sat up straight. He kept the same smart-aleck sound in his voice though. That didn’t change. “Okay, you want a good enough reason. Well, for one thing, it’s too far. For another, I don’t know who this Gerard fellow you’re talking about is. He might live in a tar-paper shack for all anyone knows. And for another, I don’t see any need of it. That’s three reasons. Good enough?”
    I felt like ripping out a bloody big curse.
    â€œThey’re all foolishness.”
    â€œMichael!”
    â€œWell it is! Gerard is a good friend of mine. And he don’t live in no tar-paper shack like you said!”
    â€œNow, look, I don’t want to have to get mad with you.”
    As if he wasn’t already.
    â€œBut you won’t even listen to me.”
    â€œMichael!” His voice was turning hard and sharp. Hewas trying to cover up some of his temper. “Now, I’ve said all I’m going to say about it. You might as well get it out of your mind. Even though you’re not my son, you know, I’m still responsible for you. That’s something you haven’t taken time to realize. Now, I know all that’s happened over the past few months hasn’t been easy. But you’re living with us now and you’re going to have to learn to accept what I say as being the best thing for you. You might not like it, but it’s the best thing.
    â€œNow I don’t want to hear you raise your voice to me again like you just did. The answer is no, you’re not allowed to go. That’s final. Now, go to your room and think about what I said.”
    I had to stand there like a fool and take that. I had a mind to tell him right off, call him right down to the dirt. He probably would a tried to clobber me if nothing else worked. I wouldn’t doubt it one bit. That oversize pig! Cripes! He was bloody well right I wasn’t his son. And that wasn’t half of it.
    I took off for the room. It was no blessed good arguing. More sense in a lousy bag of nails. I wouldn’t a minded if he had said no and had some good reasons to back it up. But there wasn’t one grain of sense in anything that he said. He only done it to make me spitey. I knew before I ever started just what his answer was going to be. He just wanted to show how bloody fast he could squash me into the ground with his thumb.
    The best thing for me, my arse. The best thing for him was more like it. And he expected me to have some respect for him then. Not to raise my voice to him. Cripes, what made him so special! What about him raising his voice tome? What about that? And I didn’t owe him nothing, not one lousy red cent.
    Curtis heard it. The bedroom door was open. He didn’t say anything when I came steaming into the room. I wanted to slam the door so hard that the bloody hinges would drop off.
    â€œWhat a friggin old man you got!” I had to force myself to hold everything else in. Otherwise I might a said something I would a been sorry for.
    I must a been lying on the bed for an hour before I moved. I went over and over in my mind just how much I hated that godforsaken hole I had to live in. I wished to hell I could get out of it.
    The first thing I done when I got up was to take a piece of paper and sit down and try to write a letter to Aunt Flo. I had it all down that I wanted to come back. That nothing was working out right. That I would promise not to be any trouble. Then I took the letter, balled it up and fired it into the garbage can. It didn’t sound right. Frig, none of it was right. It was like I was begging for a chance to live with them.
    Then I took another sheet of paper and started a letter to Brent. I