Katlin I jumped up He and Dillon were standing beyond a spittoon and some potted ferns Dad hadn’t seen me yet but Dillon good brother had He doesn’t miss a thing Kat he said Let’s go The kid said to me Wait Here Dad I said crawling over the couch Wait It’s not fair The kid started pulling my shoe the one with the floppy sole Dad looked in our direction Hotel guests looked in our direction A walrus of a woman draped in fur and holding a little dog looked in our direction Lucas she bellowed Lucas no wonder he hadn’t told me his name let go of my shoe I tumbled off the couch got to my feet and with Lucas trotting behind went to Dillon and Dad Lucas went to the woman who apparently was his mom and said I gave her some money to fix her old shoe What I blurted The woman patted his head Good boy To us she said proudly He’ll make a great philanthropist He’ll make a great liar I muttered tugging Dad’s arm for us to go The woman blinked at me from behind her tortoiseshell
glasses while her silky little dog who wore a gold-and jeweled collar that read duchess yip-yipped Katlin said Dad as he headed us toward the stairs what were you doing behind that couch I know what she was doing said Dillon I glared arrows and other projectiles at him Did he give you money asked Dad Um not exactly Kat we’re not beggars We’re not subject to charity Somebody’s got to make money in this family haven’t they I said it loud enough to put Dad on the spot which wasn’t difficult considering he’d been developing this guilt fret for a long time and considering several ears were aimed our direction Hush he said Up the stairs we went I’M REALLY NOT THAT KIND OF PERSON TO embarrass my dad in public But I didn’t want to give the money back or part with my dice and I could see it was coming to that We hadn’t always been poor We used to have two cars that were nice and new
We used to live in a nice big house I called it my castle I used to go to a private school where I had the best teachers best books computers programs even the best schoolmates Anyway they acted as if they were the best I used to have a horse He wasn’t a purebred but that didn’t matter to me as long as he had a pure heart He did and I named him Angel All my friends liked to ride him I used to have friends I used to invite one along when we went on vacations Now it was Dillon and Dad and me But this wasn’t a vacation I was just trying to make it one We were outside Colorado Springs when Dillon fanned his fingers in front of my face saying Don’t look Kat But I’d already seen the sign
No apologies I had this craze for gold As a kid once I figured that gold wasn’t just the color of my hair I wanted everything gold Gold bed gold walls gold shoes Gold-rimmed glasses gold jewelry I got a golden haired pony on my golden birthday I had turned four on the fourth of April and named her Goldie In the fifth grade I saw the Tutankhamen exhibit and it sent me soaring All that molten wealth formed into bugs and beasts and figures and faces While we studied economics I tracked the price of gold and if you don’t think reading tiny numbers is exciting to a twelve-year-old you haven’t done it yourself When those numbers inch up inch up almost double then sink like a stone it does something to your pulse There was only one exception to my total gold thing Mom’s pearl ring I’d worn it night and day from the moment she pressed it into my hands Some things mean the world to you no matter what So there we were rolling west south actually because Dad had got sleepy and taken the wrong interstate and here was a real gold mine I wouldn’t miss it for a year’s worth of fine-free weeks at the library I begged Dad to go He said his new employer wouldn’t pay for frivolities That had become a pet word with him frivolities ever since we’d turned poor It kept us from asking for too much
