Free The Great Santini by Pat Conroy

tears filled the spoon to overflowing, when the edge of the spoon brimmed with the trembling residue of her grief, Mary Anne carefully flicked her wrist and the warm liquid flew the length of the car, only slightly dispersed, and splashed against Bull's head.
    "I ain't believing somebody spit on me," Bull bellowed in disbelief, his hand feeling his hair. "Has someone gone nuts?"
    "Excuse me, Daddy dear. The spoon slipped," Mary Anne protested innocently. Three more tears lit into the spoon. Aiming carefully, Mary Anne flicked them on her father's neck.
    Lillian broke in," Remember, darling, what I told you. If you have a lemon, make lemonade. You have to give a town a chance to grow on you. You have to open yourself up to a town. Be willing to take chances. You've been in the Corps long enough to know that."
    "I am not in the Corps," Mary Anne said to her mother, tossing another sun-bright tear at her father's head; it missed, passing over his right ear and splashing down on his arm where it lay trapped on the dense red hairs of his arm.
    "I ain't believing she's bombing me with tears, Lillian, and you can't stop her," Bull said. "You want me to stop her?"
    "Stop hitting your father this very instant, young lady," Lillian flared. But there was not much menace behind Lillian's attempts at discipline.
    The next tear hit Matthew on the forehead.
    "Weirdo just hit me with a tear, Mama."
    "I'm gonna mix those tears with a little blood if she isn't careful," Bull said.
    "I said stop, Mary Anne, and I mean it. Remember who you are.
    "I'm a weirdo," Mary Anne answered.
    "You are a lady," Lillian said imperiously. "And ladies don't catch their tears in spoons and hurl them at their families. A lady grieves in silence. She always has a smile on the outside. She waits until she is alone to express her sorrow."
    "I like to do it in full public view. I'd like to draw huge crowds of people and weep all day. I'd flick tears at the crowd until each one of them was hit with a tear. I like people to share in my misery. I like them to feel it when I feel bad. God, I feel miserable."
    "Don't take the Lord's name in vain," Lillian admonished her daughter. "Ladies . . ."
    "I know, Mama. Ladies don't speak with vulgar tongues. How do ladies talk? I'd really like to know."
    "A lady just knows how to talk. It's not something she is taught. It is something within her, something inherently gentle and refined. She says nothing that offends or upsets. A lady speaks softly, kindly, and the world spreads out before her and fights to do her favors. If a woman is not a lady at birth, no amount of money or education can make her one. A lady just is. "
    Mary Anne sang with false joy," What a perfect description of me. Yes. That's how a dictionary would define me."
    "Boy, what a joke that is, huh, Mom?" Matthew said.
    "Was that a voice?" Mary Anne answered cupping her hand to her ear. "I thought I heard a tiny voice coming from a little insect body. It sounded almost human."
    "Cut that out, Mary Anne. Quit teasing Matthew."
    "Yeah, because you're gonna die real young if you tease me one more time, freckles," Matthew huffed.
    Mary Anne retorted," The only way you could kill me, little one, would be to enter my bloodstream."
    "Let's cut it out," Ben said firmly.
    "Ah," Mary Anne mocked," the voice of sublime perfection. Was that the godly one? The sainted brother? The perfect son?"
    Before Ben could answer, Bull thundered out at all of them, "I'm gonna give you hogs about five seconds to cut the yappin' then I'm gonna pull this car over to the side of the road and I bet I can shut your yaps even if your mother can't."
    "Hush," Lillian hissed at her children. "Not another sound. "Her eyes cast a stern, desperate communiqué to her children.
    But this time there was no need. Bull's tone had registered. Each child knew the exact danger signals in the meteorology of their father's temperament; they were adroit weathermen who charted the clouds, winds, and high