19

 

I heard my dad put his briefcase on the floor. Then I heard his footsteps. He was coming my way.

Maddie jumped off the couch and left the room. She didn’t want any part of what was about to happen. Neither did I, frankly, but I didn’t have much choice.

Nana came in first. She always had my back.

Dad was right behind her.

“How was your day?” he said, trying to be nice.

“Awesome.”

“Great.”

He loosened his tie and rubbed his eyes. Looking at him, it occurred to me how tired he was, how tired he always was, and how hard he worked. I suddenly felt a little guilty for adding more stress to his life.

“You need to stop this nonsense,” said my dad.

“I will,” I said, “as soon as you let me drop some of my activities.”

“That’s ridiculous,” said my dad.

“You’re ridiculous.” Something about the last couple of days was making me a little too brave for my own good.

He looked at me like he didn’t quite recognize me. “You’re not quitting anything.”

“Who said anything about quitting?” Nana butted in. “It’s not quitting if you stop doing things you never want to do.”

“Rose, stay out of this please!” my dad snapped. Nana looked shocked. At first I thought she was going to yell back at him, but then I think she remembered she was living in his house and backed off.

My mom brought my dad a beer, and he took a big swig. “I’ll let you quit—sorry, give up—one thing,” he offered.

I shook my head. “You don’t get it, Dad. I just want to do the stuff I like. I like the cello. In fact, I plan on practicing right here on the couch! And I guess I do like baseball, even though I’m not very good at it. But everything else, forget it.”

Dad shook his head slowly. “Well then, I guess we’ve got nothing else to talk about.” He got up. “Have a nice life on the couch.”

“Thanks,” I said. “I plan on it.”

I tried to eavesdrop on my parents and Nana while my dad ate dinner, but they shut the door. Afterward, my parents went upstairs to read and watch TV in their bedroom.

Nana stayed downstairs with me, got me some ice cream, and we played gin rummy, her favorite card game. After a while my mom came back down with my cello. “I heard you say you planned on practicing?”

“Tomorrow.”

Mom looked like she was about to leave the room, but then she stopped and turned back.

“You do realize how lucky you are, right?” she said. “How many opportunities you have, and how wonderful your life is, all because of how hard your dad works?”

“And how hard you work,” Nana said, looking at my mother.

I put down my cards. “I know, Mom.”

“There are families who would kill to have what you have,” she continued, bending down to look me square in the eye. “Ninety-nine percent of the families in the world, in fact. Please don’t ever forget that.”

I tried to stare back at her but couldn’t quite pull it off. “I won’t. I promise.”

She kissed the top of my head. “Don’t forget to brush your teeth,” she said, and headed upstairs.

Nana and I kept playing, but neither of us talked for a while. I think we were both thinking about what my mom had said. She was absolutely right, of course.

But that didn’t mean I was wrong.

When I went to the bathroom before bed, I looked around the hall like I’d never seen it before. There was a nice family photo that I looked at for a while. There was a cool painting of a guy fishing. The light had an interesting glow. The houses across the street were interesting if you really stopped to look at them.

Then I peeked up the stairs. I could see the door to my room. I wondered how long it would be before I slept in my own bed again. I was tempted to go up and see if my room looked the same as it did yesterday, but I didn’t. That would have been breaking the rules. My rules.

When Nana got up to go to bed, she kissed the top of my head, too.

“Same time tomorrow?” she asked.

I nodded. “I’ll be here.”

She shook her head. “Oh, boy. This is going to get hairy.”

I turned out the lights and went to sleep.