As Brown As I Want

The summer of 1952 Lawton Oklahoma...Eight-year-old Glory has a father who's taken out a $50000 accidental death insurance policy on her--now he's spending the summer trying to collect.</p><p>In his first attempt he throws Glory to the snakes but a giant alligator snapping turtle scares the snakes away.</p><p>Glory writes in her diary: Well Powwow Pete drove us home to talk to Mom but we didn't get very far. Mom thinks I just have a wild imagination. At least Powwow Pete believes me. I think it was the turtle that killed it for Mom.</p><p>How could there be a turtle that big? she scoffed. They talked some more and Powwow Pete got kind of mad and got up to leave.</p><p>This was one of those times when a kid thinks they're talking about a turtle but the grown-ups are really talking about something else entirely. In this case I think Powwow Pete was accusing Mom of still loving my dad but he never said that he just kept talking about the turtle. Mom was doing the same thing: talking about the turtle but meaning that she didn't want to get messed up with some guy who was a pathological liar.</p>