Free The Laughing Matter by William Saroyan

gets
very
angry.”
    â€œDoes she
make
him angry?” Flora said.
    â€œI don’t know,” Red said, “but when he, gets angry, he
tries
not to hit her. I know when he’s trying. Sometimes he tries a long time, then all of a sudden he hits her. She cries, and he hits her some more. Then, I hit
him
for hitting
her
. That’s when I want to be alone. When do you?”
    â€œWell,” Flora said. “My father
never
hits my mother, but sometimes my mother slaps
him.”
    â€œYour mother slaps your
father?”
    â€œYes. She slapped him this afternoon.”
    â€œWhat did
he
do?”
    â€œHe walked out of the house. He went to the olive tree in the yard and did some work there. He’s trimming it. Taking off the dead branches. Then he walked in the vineyard. He didn’t talk to her for a long time.”
    â€œWhy did she slap him? Why do they do things like that?”
    â€œI don’t know. I’ve thought about it, but I just don’t know. Do you know?”
    â€œWell,” Red said, “I know my father gets angry. I guess my mother makes him angry. Sometimes she makes
me
angry, too. Sometimes she makes me
very
angry.”
    â€œDo
you
hit her, too?”
    â€œOh, no,” Red said. He stopped to think again, then said, “But I wish I could believe the things she tells me. I never know what to believe.”
    The girl listened and thought a moment, then turned to look at him. He saw that she liked him, which he hadn’t been thinking about at all. But he felt glad about it, and knew he liked her, and that she was his favorite.
    â€œWe’d better go back,” he said suddenly.
    â€œAll right,” Flora said. She took her feet out of the water,put on her socks, then her shoes. She reached out to Red and said, “Will you help me up, please?”
    Red took her hand and helped her up, feeling more elated than he’d ever before felt. Her hand was so good to hold. She got to her feet, saying almost in a whisper, “I almost
hate
to go back.”
    They began to walk through the vineyard.
    â€œWhy?” Red said.
    â€œOh,” Flora said. “If you only knew how awful I feel when I see my mother and father unhappy with each other.”
    â€œAre they unhappy with each other?”
    â€œVery
. Aren’t yours?”
    â€œI don’t know,” Red said. “I guess so. But they’re happy, too. Most of the time they’re happy. Aren’t yours?”
    â€œNever,” Flora said. “They only pretend. I think they hate each other. They think we don’t know. They think we don’t understand, but every one of us understands, especially Fanny. She understands the most. Fay understands, too, but she
hates
to understand. Fanny tells me everything she understands. ‘They hate each other,’ Fanny says. ‘They just
loathe
each other. I don’t think they even know it, they’re so used to each other.’ Fanny knows the most. They
do
hate each other!”
    â€œNo, they don’t,” Red said.
    â€œOh, yes, they do,” Flora said. “And we always pretend we don’t know, especially Fanny. She’s the one who takes Mama’s side. We take Papa’s, Fay and me, but Fanny takes Mama’s. Whose side do you take?”
    â€œI don’t take anybody’s side,” Red said. “They don’t hate each other, do they?”
    He had never talked this way with anyone before in hislife. He felt a profound anguish that this beautiful girl’s mother and father didn’t love one another, that perhaps, as she said, they even hated one another.
    â€œFanny just told you that as a joke, didn’t she?” he said.
    â€œNo, it’s not a joke,” Flora said. “It’s the truth. Well, we’re almost there. I think we’d better start racing for the tree.”
    â€œAll right,” Red said.
    He let her run ahead a little, then