Don't Go II

I don’t know whether I’m hallucinating this whole thing, whether Mickey is really here at the block party or whether some other guy in the line knows Thom and he’s helping him with his plate.  But it’s nice to imagine Thom sees Mickey too, and he’s come to make up for the awful thing he said about my hair and for being a ghost, or my illusion, or a handsome puff of smoke.  I mumble “thanks” and take off to find Julio and Adrianna and to wish them good luck. 

When I catch up to Julio and his plate of desserts I say, “There are too many minus signs.”  We are still hanging out by the beer when Aunt Ally kicks Grizzly out.

She says it radio announcer loud in front of all of our neighbors as they hang out in groups on the lawn eating cake and pie, sipping coffee, or drinking beer.  Everyone stops when the fight between the sisters starts.  Everyone stares at my mom and Aunt Ally and a few people pull out their phones and hold them up as if they’re witnessing some kind of major news event the world should know about, and as soon as the fight is over they’ll upload the video to the Internet and from there it will go viral.  CNN, FOX, and even BBC will be talking about what happened at Aunt Ally’s house in the front yard.

“Pack up now,” Ally says.

She waves something that looks like an old snack bag in front of Grizzly’s face.  Ally sounds like thunder and I panic.

I grab on to Julio’s hand.   “Let’s get out of here.”