"... So... Ma's in the hospital, but we got no fuckin' clue how we're gonna pay for it. I mean, hell, we can barely afford the monthly rent! Lucky for us, Joey's been datin' the Hospital Head's daughter for about a year, so they pull a couple strings for us. Thank God for Joey, man.
"Since Ma made all the money, we all had to start gettin' part-time jobs. Dad wound up landin' a job unloadin' stock crates for the local supermarket. Vince an' Mike wound up workin' at the local movie joint, and Derek got himself a spot at the ice cream parlor. Er, wait— no, I think Mike got the ice cream job an' Derek was with Vince at the theatre. Well, wait, that can't be right 'cuz Vince always came home with sticky hands. Although I guess that could've been from spillin' the slushies everywhere—"
"Scout, does it matter?"
"Hey, no, you. Koala-for-brains. Shut up. I'm tellin' the story he'e."
"..."
"Anywho, so... yeah. We're all bustin' our asses to pay Ma's medical bills. I tried my damnedest to get a job, but the best I got was workin' a register. Not much, but hell, it was somethin'.
"I didn't tell nobody, but I didn't get much sleep for about a week after I saw Ma's insides on the floor. When I did, I had nightmares. Bad ones, too. Like, the kind you wake up screamin' from. I think I actually did that once, too. Woke up the whole floor, I think. Wasn't a good day.
"But yeah. Things got rough for us. All the money we make's for Ma's bills, so we got next-to-nothin' to pay the rent with. Our landlord knows what happened and understands what we're goin' through, so he cuts us a little slack which we're grateful for, but that slack ain't gonna last forever and we know it. It's 'cuz Ma's a great person an' always manages to get the rent in on time, but it's only 'cuz'a dat.
"Mike an' I go back to the hospital to find out what happened. Doc tells us Ma has stomach ulcers."
Medic closed his eyes and shook his head knowingly, muttering, "Geschwüre. Tsk Tsk... Schreckliche Sachen."
Scout didn't pretend to know what he'd said and continued.
"Mike looked at me when he heard that, then got all head-in-hands depressed. Like he was expecting it to be ulcers, or some shit. I didn't know what the hell they were talkin' about, so the doc told me. Holes in her stomach. I didn't flip, but I almost did. Then he told us the rest. Ma had taken up smoking a couple months ago, which is what started the ulcers. Stress made 'em worse. Mike an' I did the math after our serious case of 'what the hell?' wore off. Sure enough, it was a month ago when she started gettin' the coughs. Seemed like the right amount of time for any smoke to start kickin' in. But we was confused as hell. We'd never seen Ma touch a cigarette once. Doc showed us the X-rays, though, in case we didn't buy it.
"He told us that it was curable, the ulcers, but it would take a ton of drugs. Ma could come home, but she'd be in bed for a long time. Mike an' I were glad to hear Ma was okay and comin' home an' all, but when we looked at each other, man, I could almost hear the fucks runnin' though his head. Drugs ain't cheap, and we needed a shit-ton of 'em.
"We bring Ma home, safe an' sound. First thing everyone does is smother her in hugs, 'cuz thank God she's alive, an' we all thought she was a goner. She kinda laughs, but it's real quiet 'cuz she's still hurtin'. Dad holds her, gets all gushy with her, an' she still looks tired as hell but she's happy, and so's Dad. I hadn't even realized how little time they get together. Ma's got us in the morning, an' work all night, an' Dad's always either at his job, or lookin' for one. With Ma home all the time, even if she's got a Swiss-cheese stomach, they'll finally get some quality time together. Stupid as it sounds, it actually made me feel pretty good. Ma won't be alone most of the day, now.
"Mrs. Gibus pays us a visit when she hears Ma's back an' alright. Old woman's been worried dizzy since she saw her puke blood. We let her in, an' when she sees Ma she hugs her and starts cryin', but without the tears. She grabs Ma's hand in her own, says somethin' about how pale she looks, how horrible it is that somethin' so awful should happen to Ma 'cuz she's a good woman an' works so hard for us. Mike tells her about the ulcers, an' she slaps a hand over her chest, all scared. She shakes her head an' says 'I knew it, lawd, I knew it! These boys have gotcho run ragged, Martha! They've done pushed you to yo wits end! Y'all should be ashamed'a yo'selves, runnin' yo poor mother straight to her death bed. Lawd Jesus.' But then she says somethin' else, an' I don't really hear, or maybe I did but I just don't know what the hell she meant, an' she waddles out of our apartment. She comes back with a little shiny purse; the kind that, like, shine every color of the rainbow everywhere when you put it in the sun an' move it. She opens that thing an' pulls out a wad of cash. I mean, I was like, 'holy shit, woman! That's a lot of cash!' But then she slapped me an' I had to shut up.
"She gives my Dad the roll an tells him that was her dead grandma's money, an' even though it wasn't much, grandma always believed in helpin' out friends any way she could. It was for the drugs, an' nothin' else. Told Ma to get plenty of rest, an' call if she needed anything. Then she left.
"We didn't say nothin'. Dad just stared at the money, all wide-eyed, an' brought it to Ma. They both looked at it, and then they hugged each other an' cried. We all cried, I think. We could afford Ma's drugs, an' she was gonna be okay.
"We had enough of each drug to last her a month, with a little left over. We kept workin' though. Barely had time for schoolwork, and baseball wasn't even in the picture anymore. Burned me up somethin' fierce, that did. Those Liberty fags were probably messin' up our diamond. Fuckin' pricks. It shouldn't have irritated me so bad in hindsight, but... goddamn, it was fuckin' Liberty! Any other high school, maybe, but not fuckin' Liberty.
"That ate my ass for days. I couldn't focus half the time. Takin' tests at school, ringin' up some guy at the store, homework, I couldn't shake it. Walkin' home was worst, though, 'cuz I had to pass our diamond on the way. It would always be empty, but I knew. I fuckin' knew who'd be there in a few hours. That diamond was everything to me, man. I learned how to swing on that thing! It was, like, where my life began. And those Liberty fags were just prancin' all over it. All over my life.
"Then, I finally snapped."