Chapter 24
A feverish chill washed over me as I entered my mother’s house, Philip close behind me, carrying the extra grocery bags with this evening’s dinner.
Something was amiss.
My sister’s boyfriend, Marshall, was slumped in one of the two chairs by the TV, watching a football game. He looked scruffy, unshaven, a tangled mess of greasy strands of hair covering his eyes. His bulging stomach hung over his stained, too-tight white T-shirt. He slugged down a beer and belched. When he leaned forward to burp a second time, I glimpsed his gaping, hairy butt crack, and turned to erase the image from my mind. No such luck.
I looked to where my mother sat at the butcher-block island, drinking something hot, the curly wisps of steam clouding her glasses. She was struggling over last week’s cro
