likely to take Gretyl to the E.R. if
Hansa had asked them not to. She
understands that Hansa does not un-
derstand this. Whenever Piece of Shit
speaks to the parents, they announce
that Hansa is a bossy harridan. How
her husband stands it they don’t know!
What the parents say about her, she
guesses.
She understands, well enough, why
their parents won’t take Gretyl to the
hospital. But she can’t fathom how to
make them do it.
I’ll try, she says.
Don’t wait, Hansa says. Do it now.I
n her capacious, light-filled apart-
ment, Piece of Shit sits at her dining-
room table and shuffles tarot cards.
She cuts the deck and selects: Death.
She shuffles and draws: Failure.
Shuffles again and draws: Agony,
ten swords in the back.
She recalls how, when she ran away,
at fifteen, to live with an aunt, she threw
her belongings into trash bags.
Meanwhile, Gretyl sat nearby. Gre-
tyl had a bowl-shaped haircut. She was
five. She looked up at Piece of Shit and
said, Please don’t go.
Don’t leave me, Gretyl said. Please.
Piece of Shit left her sister in the
house by the woods.- Piece of Shit edits a classmate’s story.
In the story, the narrator’s kind, loving,
late-fifties mother has cancer, and do-
nates her eyes to a lady with bad vision.
Piece of Shit circles phrases like “blind-
ing light” and writes This is a cliché all
over the manuscript. She also writes,
What is the conflict??? Everyone in class
will love this story. A year later, the au-
thor publishes a book about the mother
who donates the eyeballs, and it sells
millions of copies.
At seven, Piece of Shit’s kind boy-
friend comes over. She relays all.
Call now, he says.
He sits nearby.
Gretyl answers.
She says the mother’s at Bible study.
Piece of Shit asks how Gretyl’s feeling.
Gretyl says she felt an explosive pain
the night before, and now, if she doesn’t
move, the discomfort’s bearable.
Listen, Piece of Shit says.
She says Gretyl needs to go to the
E.R. She reminds Gretyl that she
had appendicitis, which Hansa diag-
nosed; that Hansa had appendicitis;
that, if Gretyl doesn’t get help now,
she will die.
I’ll be O.K., Gretyl says. I’m taking
worm medication.
Piece of Shit says that worm medi-
cation won’t help. She tells Gretyl that
she should just dial 911 and get an am-
bulance to come.
Gretyl whispers, I can’t.
Why?
Gretyl says she doesn’t want to upset
their parents.
Why not?
I’m tired, Gretyl says. I need to sleep.
Don’t worry, I’ll be fine.
The instant Piece of Shit hangs up
the phone, Kind Boyfriend says, You
should call 911.
Piece of Shit blinks.
She should call, give her parents’ ad-
dress, and order an ambulance for her
sister.
Piece of Shit says slowly, Nooo.
Why not?
Piece of Shit considers. A white wall
fills her vision.She feels far away from herself, as if
she cannot move.
Because, she says ... It’s their house.
But Gretyl’s sick, Kind Boyfriend
points out, and might die! His voice
cracks. Two actual tears roll down his
face. He’s six-four, extremely muscular,
and often mistaken for a pro wrestler.
The white wall has black, unread-
able scribbles all over it. The scrib-
bles dance. Piece of Shit observes her
boyfriend.
Young for you, she says, isn’t she?
Kind Boyfriend’s eyes widen. Jesus!
he says. He’s known Gretyl, he says, since
she was eleven! He just doesn’t want her
to die!
Piece of Shit says she’s not calling 911.
It wouldn’t be right. Someone adds, Be-
sides, Gretyl’s taking worm medication.
In later years, no day will pass in which
Piece of Shit doesn’t fly backward to this
moment and pick up the phone and dial- Every day until her death, she or-
ders an ambulance to carry her sister
away from the house.
-At eight, the mother discovers that
the girl has shit the couch. She’s asleep,
clean bowl beside her, but a dark creek