Free Sweetie's Diamonds by Raymond Benson Page A

been saying anything negative to him.   You have in the past, you know.”
    Greg cursed under his breath.   “Diane, you’re too much.   I’ll talk to you later.   Tell David hello for me.   Good night.”
    â€œYeah, okay, run away.”
    â€œYou know it’s not like that.   I didn’t pick up the phone to have a fight.”
    â€œFine.   Goodbye.”
    â€œGoodbye.”
    She waited for him to hang up first.   When he did, she slammed down the phone.  
    â€œBastard,” she muttered.
    She reached for her wine and sipped it, sitting and staring at the blank television.   She lost herself in the dark screen, unaware that David was peeking around the corner of the hallway and watching her.

DAVID’S JOURNAL
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    M om did her spacing out trick again tonight.   She had another fight with Dad on the phone and now she’s sitting with her wine and staring at the TV.   It isn’t on.
    I think I understand now what her big dark secret is.  
    Today Billy and I watched one of his dad’s porno tapes that he found in his crawl space.   I couldn’t believe it.   I’ve seen porno before, but this one shocked me more than what I’ve seen in the past.   You know why?   I swear the girl in the movie was my Mom.  
    I can’t believe it and I don’t want to believe it.   But if it’s true, then I guess that’s it.   That’s the big secret.   My Mom was a porno star.   I wonder which one she was?   I saw the names in the credits but I didn’t know which one was my Mom.   This requires some more research.  
    I wonder if Dad knew about this.   Probably not.   Unless that’s why they got divorced.   But probably not.   I’ll bet I’m the first one who’s discovered the big secret.  
    There are also these strange newspaper clippings that she has in a box we found when we were moving.   The box is still in the kitchen.   There’s another box on top so I bet she just forgot about them.   She said she was going to get rid of them but she hasn’t yet.   Sometimes she gets that way.   Sometimes Mom forgets to do something, like she’s absent-minded or something.   Sometimes I don’t know how she teaches the classes she does at school, because at home she can be pretty flaky.  
    What would my friends do if they all find out my Mom was once a porn star?   I sure hope Billy doesn’t say anything.   I’ll have to tell him tomorrow at school to keep quiet about it.   It might hurt her job at school.  
    Actually, I hate to say this, but it’s kind of cool, in a way.   “My Mom, the Porn Star.”   How many other kids can say that?   How many other kids can look at their Moms and say, “Hey, I’ve seen her doing the nasty on film.”  
    Probably not many.

9
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    I t was past Billy Davis’ bedtime.   Nevertheless, he was anxious to watch another videotape from his father’s stash.   Earlier he had replaced the one he had watched with David and taken a different cassette from the box in the crawl space.   Even though he was not yet a teenager, his body had begun to respond to erotic stimuli and this made the anticipation even more compelling.   He understood, in theory, what was happening to him, and he enjoyed testing the boundaries of his newly discovered adolescence.  
    He waited in his room until he thought his father had gone to bed.   The television in his dad’s bedroom was broadcasting the ten o’clock news.   It was a nightly ritual for his dad to watch the news until ten-thirty and then turn off the light.   As a teacher at the high school, his dad had to be out of the house before Billy.
    Billy figured it was safe.   Surely his dad wouldn’t hear the TV in the living room if the volume was low.   Billy got out of bed and