Just Beneath My Skin by Darren Greer

that is, isn’t it?”
    â€œI didn’t watch the stories today,” Mom says, and tells Irene all about Jake being back in town and me seeing him with Johnny and Charlie at Douglas’s. They forget all about Another World . I go out and sit on the floor in a corner and listen to them. Irene is curious why Jake has come back.
    â€œHas he left anything here?” she says. “Clothes, or the like, that needs to be picked up?”
    â€œHe ain’t left a thing, as far as I know,” Mom says.
    â€œDoes he owe anything? Anything that couldn’t be paid by cheque?”
    â€œNot that I know.”
    â€œMaybe he’s come back to see his father?”
    â€œJake? He’ll see him all right, but he wouldn’t make a trip special to see that old coot. The two of them get along about as well as fire and water.”
    Irene looks sideways at me, sitting in the corner looking up at them, and bites her tongue. It’s clear as day Mom thinks Jake’s come back to see her and clear as two days Irene doesn’t. When the kettle is hot Mom pours them both a cup of tea and Irene goes on about her nephew.
    â€œWell, if he does have any money, like Nathan says, it’s a sure bet he’ll be broke by the time he gets in tonight. Johnny’ll have him sucked dry as a Baptist supper come evening.”
    â€œJake can handle himself next to the likes of Johnny Lang,” Mom says. “He’ll come with money, don’t you worry.”
    â€œWell, I certainly hope so. But that Johnny has all the ways of the devil and then some for getting what he wants. I’ve not seen the beat of him for using and abusing other people. Just like his father, he is. God knows what ever possessed me to go and marry Tom and tie us up with a family like that for all time.”
    Mom isn’t listening. She’s staring out the window into the driveway as if she expects Jake’s purple Pinto to turn into it at any time. Irene settles her eye on me.
    â€œYou glad to see Jake again, Nathan?”
    â€œYup,” I tell her. “Jake says he’s gonna take me to Halifax to visit him sometime.”
    â€œDon’t count on that,” Mom says without turning from the window. “Jake’s none too good on keeping promises.”
    Then Irene does something strange. She winks at me. It’s strange seeing an old woman like Irene wink, especially ’cause she goes to Bible class and all. I don’t know what she means. She looks away before I can ask. “Well, I should be getting back. I’ve got a load of clothes in the wash, and Tom’ll be wanting his supper when he gets home.”
    â€œWhat you having?” Mom asks, but like she doesn’t care about the answer.
    â€œCorned beef and cabbage,” says Irene, sighing and getting to her feet. “Picked up the beef on special from the IGA last week. Tom’s favourite.”
    â€œAy-yuh,” Mom says, and Irene turns to go. But before she does she looks at me again and nods, like she knows something Mom and I don’t. “Come on up and see me sometime, Alexander,” she says. “I’ve got a tin of biscuits in the cupboard with your name on it.”
    â€œI will,” I tell her.
    Irene leaves, though Mom hardly seems to notice. She sits and stares out the window from the kitchen table and I slink back to my room to read comics. But my heart is beating fast and I’m excited. Mom didn’t notice that Irene called me by my secret name, by Jake’s name. That is the first time anyone besides Jake called me that. It’s as if Irene knows — knows that some great storm is coming to tear me out of Macedonia and into the great wide world.

CHARLIE IS STILL ASLEEP AND mumbling away to himself and twitching like a crazy man on the sofa. Suddenly he wakes up again and looks at me. He looks halfways sober this time. “Where’s Johnny?” he