Monday Required Reading. I like this story. I like it a lot. I like the characters, the brother and sister who are best friends, who tell stories about the houses they walk past, who have secret games, who are, perhaps, both a little crazy. "She sometimes thinks her brother is crazy, and this greatly endears him to her. She knows that she's crazy. He's her only true friend in the world." My brother and I haven't always been the closest people in the world, but as we've gotten older, we have gotten closer. He never fails to encourage me to pursue my dreams, is always willing to listen to me rant or vent about whatever, and we both share the family penchant for bad jokes/puns and sci-fi. Anyway. Because of this, I really enjoy stories about siblings who are a little bit crazy, and totally there for each other. Tom Kealey, the author, apparently has a book of stories coming out in September, and I am excited to check it out. For now, enjoy "Nobody."

Nights at the store, the brother and sister bagged the groceries that tumbled down the conveyors, rarely looking up, a simple nod of the head at a thanks from a customer. The girl, Merrill, was fifteen and quite tall for her age. The brother, Nate, was sixteen and trying to grow a moustache. He often wore a green knit hat. They didn't talk much with the cashiers or the manager. A yes sir, no ma'am here and there. When the store was slow, they brought in the carts, held contests between each other: who could bring in the most. Other times, one of them would take the push broom and move down the aisles, collecting the candy wrappers, the spilled sugar, the vegetable leaves in the produce corner, while the other rotated stock, made the shelves look full. They had a rubber ball, the size of a tennis ball, but bright red that they played a game with, sometimes down an empty aisle and sometimes in the parking lot. There were rules involved in the game, it was clear to the manager the times he watched them: the number of bounces, the left or right hand that they sometimes grabbed with, sometimes slapped back. Often enough, they simply rolled the ball to each other, set it to strange spins, and after, they would hold up fingers - between two and five, he could never predict. When he asked the girl about the rules, she simply blushed and looked at the floor, like she's been caught stealing something. 

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