Tender Graces by Kathryn Magendie Page B

her beak opening and closing as if she’d tear us up one bite at a time. Nothing she hollered made sense, just a bunch of cussing and spit flying out of her mouth. Micah bent to pick up the glass pieces, while I tried to unbend the bones of the lampshade.
    She slapped Micah on the back of his head, her eyes teeny slits of mean. “You little shitters! I got that lamp from Jackson!” She kicked Micah in the leg, and he bit his lip so he wouldn’t cry. “I’m sick of you bastards!”
    “We didn’t mean to.” I stood up, still holding the lampshade.
    Aunt Ruby turned to me and raised her arm. “Shut up!”
    My stomach turned like a Ferris wheel.
    Micah stood by me. “I’m glad it’s broke. It’s ugly, just like you!”
    Aunt Ruby hit Micah in the stomach. He bent over and spit came out of his mouth.
    I thought how he tried to be a good brother almost all the time, but how Aunt Ruby was mean to him anyway. I thought of how she switched and slapped us for stupid reasons. I was filled to the top with an ugly mad. It burned up from my stomach to my head and then spread all over my body like fire. I ran and pushed her as hard as I could. Might as well been trying to move a boulder.
    She gritted her teeth, grabbed her own hair and pulled, spitting out a holler that curled my toes. I tried to send Micah mind messages to run, but we stood like scared lambs. In Aunt Ruby’s eyes I saw the devil that Mee Maw had shown me in her church book. Her face was purpley and her hair was every which-a-way. Without saying another word, she grabbed me up by my ponytail and shook me until my scalp burned.
    Micah ran between us, and this time Aunt Ruby hit him hard enough to send him flying across the room. I didn’t see him land, but I heard a whump against the wall. She pulled me by my right arm through the living room and into the hall. I made squeaky sounds; my head had drums beating inside it. Even though I didn’t like him, I wished Uncle Arville would come home and tell her to take a cold shower and stop being such a Bitchly Bitch.
    Micah limped after us. He had a big knot coming on his cheek and his eye was squinting up. She told him, “You stop or I’ll snap off her head, you hear me, boy?” He stopped.
    She shoved me into her stinky bathroom and I fell on the floor. Slamming the door nearly off its rusted hinges, she screamed, “Fat little bitch! Not s’big in the britches now, huh?”
    Micah pounded on the door. “Aunt Ruby! I’ll behave. Aunt Ruby!”
    She opened the medicine cabinet, picked up a pair of scissors. I waited to feel the hurt while she killed me. Grabbing me up by the shirt, she cut at my ponytail. She stuck my head under the faucet and held me there.
    Micah’s voice was far and away. “You okay? Vee? I’m sorry—”
    Ruby pulled my head from the sink. “That momma of your’n don’t want you or your brothers.” She turned to the door. “She ain’t coming back for you. Stole my boyfriend, stole my clothes. Fucking whore. Thinks she’s better’n me.” She grabbed me by the arms and shook me until I thought my head would snap off. She spit out, “Kilt her own baby. Shoulda got rid of the lot of you while she was at it.”
    Micah rattled the knob. “You’re a damn liar . It’s not true. Not!”
    She let go and I dropped in a puddle. As I lay my cheek on the cold tile, she said, real sweet, “You shut up, boy. Ain’t you had enough? Think your sister wants s’more? Huh?”
    “No ma’am,” Micah said.
    “Say you’re sorry for all the worry you done caused me.”
    I hoped he wouldn’t. I wanted him to tell her to shut up and to stomp his feet to shake the house down, even though my stomach did eighty-nine flops about it.
    She said, “I’m waiting, little shitter.”
    “I’m sorry for causing all the worry.”
    Her big fat feet turned towards me. “You next, Fattie mae.”
    I didn’t say a thing.
    “Well, then maybe brother needs a hair-styling. Maybe I’ll cut his head off’n