Page 26 of The Black Flamingo

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and together

again.

The next day, after school,

Uncle B’s BMW is waiting

outside the gate.

When I get in, he says,

“Your mum tells me

you’ve been fighting at school

and you want to move.”

“Yeah, that’s right.”

I sink in my seat. “People are looking.

Can we get out of here, please?”

Uncle B starts his engine.

“Are you being bullied?”

He takes a hand off the wheel

and places it on my shoulder.

“No.” I shrug him off. But I want it to stay.

“But I don’t want to stay here.

It’s all just fighting and soccer.

I want to go to a school with girls.”

In Uncle B’s rearview mirror,

I watch that school disappear.

The second year of middle school,

I move

to a Catholic school

closer to home.

A change from the all-boys

school last year.

God grants me girls again.

On my first day, I’m told by Mr. Casey

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