Chasing the Bear: A Young Spenser Novel - By Robert B. Parker Page 0,2
do I know I'm being raised right?" I said.
My father looked at my uncles. All three of them smiled.
"None of us knows that," my father said.
I nodded. It was a lot to think about.
"How 'bout, what's right is what feels good afterwards," my father said. "It's in a book, by a famous writer."
My father wasn't educated. Neither were my uncles. And they didn't know what they were supposed to read. So they read everything. Not long after I was born, my father bought a secondhand set of great books, bound in red leather, and he and Patrick and Cash used to take turns reading to me every night before bed. None of them had any idea what was considered appropriate for a little kid. They just took turns plowing on through the classics of Western literature in half-hour chunks every night. I didn't understand most of it, and I was bored with a lot of it. But I loved my father and my uncles, and I liked getting their full attention.
Chapter 5
"Were you scared?" Susan said. "After the fight in the barroom?"
"No," I said. "I was never scared with them."
"And you felt important to them," Susan said.
"Very."
The swan boats, escorted by ducks, moved slowly around the small lagoon, under the small bridge, around the other small lagoon, and back.
"Much of what you know," Susan said, "you learned at home."
I nodded.
"Where you felt safe."
"Sure."
"With people who loved you," Susan said.
"Absolutely."
"And they took turns," Susan said. "Reading to you and all."
"They took turns with everything," I said. "So none of them got ground down, so to speak, by being the only parent."
"And all of them trusted each other to look out for you," Susan said.
"Yes."
"Did you like the books they read to you?" Susan asked.
"I guess," I said. "Sometimes I remember something and understand it in retrospect."
"Probably better than you would if it had been taught to you in school."
"Remember the Paul Simon song?" I said.
Susan smiled and sang. Badly.
" âWhen I think back on all the crap I learned in high school, it's a wonder I can think at all.' "
"How come someone as perfect as you can't sing a lick?" I said.
"It's the flaw that highlights perfection," Susan said.
"Like a beauty mark," I said.
"Exactly," she said.
A squirrel darted toward us and stopped hopefully.
"Do you have anything to give him?" Susan said.
"No."
"Sorry," Susan said.
The squirrel lingered until it was clear we were a waste of time. Then he darted off.
"So it wasn't all about being tough guys," Susan said to me.
"It was never all about being tough guys," I said. "It was more about knowing what to do. They were big on knowing how to do what you needed to do. Read, fish, hunt, fight, carpenter, cook."
"Better to know than not know," Susan said.
I grinned. "They taught me about sex, quite early too."
"And well," Susan said.
Chapter 6
They'd read to me after supper.
Before supper, every other day, one of them boxed with me. They would put on the mitts and let me hammer away with one of them, my father or one of my uncles, calling out the punches.
"Left jab, jab, right cross, left jab. Jab. Jab. Left hook to the head . . . left hook to the body . . . right uppercut . . . hammer punch off the uppercut . . . right back fist."
The workout was exhausting, but it got me in shape pretty quick.
"Too many bullies in the world," Patrick used to say. "It's good to know what you're doing."
I liked the boxing. I was an energetic kid and they were all careful not to hurt me. And I liked the feeling that I might win a fight if I had one.
"This has got nothing to do with pushing people around," my father used to say. "This is all about a sound mind in a strong body. It's about being as complete as you can be, you know?"
I sort of knew.
Chapter 7
"And were you able to make use of your sex education?" Susan said.
"Nowhere near as soon as I wanted to," I said.
"But you had girlfriends," Susan said.
"I guess," I said. "Once I asked my father why he never got married again. âYour mother was the one,' he told me. âI met her early and lost her early. But I was with her for a while. I never met anyone else who was the one.' "
"But he dated a lot," Susan said.
"Sure," I said. "He liked women. He just never loved another one."
"So while you're growing