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There was snickering at dinner. "What is it?" I demanded. The
snickering continued. "Alright kids, you're not living under an iron curtain, spill it!"
"Our curtains are made from fabrics." Rebecca quipped, forking a chip and avoiding any of the fish head
I had served up, which incidentally, Mandy had told me to throw out - as is common practice- but dammit, fishheads
build character. The curtain joke killed everyone, but the laughter soon died when I explained the ramifications
of the iron curtain to those countries under the soviet, and I just might have mentioned potatoes again. I knew
Annie would snap like a twig under pressure so I grabbed the overheat light dangling above the dining table and
shone it directly in her eyes, "Spill the beans sister."
She coughed on her fish, and snorted with giddy laughter, then said: "Billy said you look like a skinny Uncle
Buck." And the all guffawed heartily.
"Oh does he." I mumbled, dammit, I really couldn't think of anything to say. I didn't really even get
the joke, it made no sense.
After dinner everyone loosened up, and I thought about raiding the liquor cabinet, except then I remembered I had
to drive Billy to his football game in the morning and also my stomach was still a little gloopy from the drinks
I had had earlier in the day. It was suggested that we play some video games in the living room, in particular
some driving game. Billy was skilled and drove like he was channelling Fangio, posting high scores like it was
going out of fashion. When it was my turn I crashed on the first turn, the hood of my video game car buckling as
it hit a fence and I found myself in a farmers field where I proceeded to hit a cow. "You just killed a cow!"
Billy screamed, calling my transgression re: what I said earlier about the sacredness of cows and such.
"That's called a sacrifice...now shutup and let me get some practice driving. I'm even worse in a real car,
and if you're not helpful we'll never make it to that football game in the morning, never."
The time at which the older two, Rebecca and Billy got to bed wasn't important, they could roam around and fall
down when fatigue set in as far as I was concerned, Annie, rather, needed to be in bed by 8:30pm - this had been
stressed. She weaselled an extra half an hour after out of me, but eventually I mustered her too her room. I let
her get changed then came back and to find her wearing a large dental plate, one of those ones with all the straps
and things. She's a pretty girl and it seemed like a travesty to have these tacky leather tendrils groping her
face, I tried not to act to shocked, but I could see in her big puppy dog eyes, that she could see that I was taken
aback. I felt like a heel. "How about a story?" I asked, her face lit up, and I felt a tinge of redemption.
"Um, let me see, ok I got one. There was once this really nice family that lived out in the suburbs. Hell,
they were just so nice, probably the nicest people you're every likely to meet. It was a nice lady, her husband
and their newborn. Everything was going great guns for them, and everyone in the new neighbourhood that they had
just moved into thought they were super." Annie moved from a reclining position to a kneeling one, and paid
keen attention, "Sort of like you guys." I said, petting her on the head. "Well, anyhow, the mother
and father were invited to this big shindig that the boss of the mans company put on every year and held at his
mansion, it's the biggest most grandest mansion, you know I've actually driven past it a few times, it's out on
arcasia boulevard, so I can attest to that. The only problem was, that being new to the neighbourhood, they didn't
have a regular baby-sitter who they could call to look after their newborn. So they call one of those agencies
and the agency gets their name and address and says that they'll send a nice young girl straight over. Well, this
girl, she's not evil or anything but she's a bit of a tear-away, and before she arrived she had taken large doses
of PCP -"
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