girlfriend,’ he said to his mom.
‘Okay, okay,’ she said. ‘Too much girl talk for you. Too much girl talk, Ti-na. You go check on dinner now,’ she said to Park.
He backed out of the garage, still wanting to argue, feeling more denial twitching in his throat. He slammed the door, then went into the kitchen and slammed as much as he could in there. The oven.
The cabinets. The trash.
‘What the hell is wrong with you?’ his dad said, walking into the kitchen.
Park froze. He could not get into trouble tonight.
‘Nothing,’ he said. ‘Sorry. I’m sorry.’
‘Jesus, Park, take it out on the bag …’ There was an old-school punching bag in the garage, hanging way out of Park’s reach.
‘Mindy!’ his dad shouted.
‘Out here!’
Eleanor didn’t call during dinner, which was good. That got on his dad’s nerves.
But she didn’t call after dinner either. Park walked around the house,
picking
things
up
randomly,
then
setting
them
down. Even though it didn’t make sense, he worried that Eleanor wasn’t
calling
because
he’d
betrayed her. That she knew somehow, that she’d sensed a disturbance in the Force.
The phone rang at 7:15, and his mom answered it. He could tell right away that it was his grandma.
Park tapped his fingers on a bookshelf. Why didn’t his parents want call waiting? Everyone had call waiting. His grandparents had call waiting. And why couldn’t his grandma just come over, if she wanted to talk? They lived right next door.
‘No, I don’t think so,’ his mother said. ‘ Sixty Minutes always on Sunday … Maybe you think of Twenty-Twenty? No? … John Stos-sel? No? … Geraldo Rivera?
Di-anne Sawyer?’
Park gently banged his head against the living room wall.
‘God damn it, Park,’ his dad snapped, ‘ what is wrong with you?’
His dad and Josh were trying to watch The A-Team.
‘Nothing,’ Park said, ‘nothing.
I’m sorry. I’m just waiting for a phone call.’
‘Is your girlfriend calling?’
Josh asked. ‘Park’s dating Big Red.’
‘She’s not—’ Park caught himself shouting and clenched his fists. ‘If I ever hear you call her that again, I’ll kill you. I’ll literally kill you. I’ll go to jail for the rest of my life, and it’ll break Mom’s heart, but I will. Kill. You.’
His dad looked at Park like he always did, like he was trying to figure out what the fuck was wrong with him.
‘Park has a girlfriend?’ he asked Josh. ‘Why do they call her Big Red?’
‘I think it’s because she has red hair and giant tits,’ Josh said.
‘No way, dirty mouth,’ their mother said. She held her hand over the phone. ‘You’ – she pointed at Josh – ‘in your room.
Now.’
‘But, Mom, The A-Team is on.’
‘You heard your mother,’ their dad said. ‘You don’t get to talk like that in this house.’
‘You talk like that,’ Josh said, dragging himself off the couch.
‘I’m thirty-nine years old,’
their dad said, ‘and a decorated veteran. I’ll say whatever the hell I want.’
Their mother jabbed a long fingernail at his dad and covered the phone again. ‘I’ll send you to your room, too.’
‘Honey, I wish you would,’
their dad said, throwing a throw pillow at her.
‘Hugh Downs?’ Park’s mom said into the phone. The pillow fell on the floor and she picked it up. ‘No? … Okay, I’ll keep thinking. Okay. Love you. Okay, bye-bye.’
As soon as she hung up, the phone rang. Park sprung away from the wall. His dad grinned at him. His mom answered the phone.
‘Hello?’ she said. ‘Yes, one moment please.’ She looked at Park. ‘Telephone.’
‘Can I take it in my room?’
His mom nodded. His dad mouthed, ‘Big Red.’
Park ran into his room, then stopped to catch his breath before he picked up the phone. He couldn’t. He picked it up anyway.
‘I got it, Mom, thanks.’
He waited for the click.
‘Hello?’
‘Hi,’ Eleanor said. He felt all of the tension rush out of him.
Without it, he could hardly stand up.
‘Hi,’ he breathed.
She giggled.
‘What?’ he said.
‘I don’t know,’ she said. ‘Hi.’
‘I didn’t think you were going to call.’
‘It’s not even 7:30.’
‘Yeah, well … is your brother asleep?’
‘He’s not my brother,’ she said. ‘I mean, not yet. I guess my dad’s engaged to his mom. But, no, he’s not asleep. He’s watching Fraggle Rock.’
Park carefully picked up the phone and carried it to his bed. He sat down gently. He didn’t want her to hear anything. He didn’t want her to know he had a twin-sized waterbed and a phone shaped like a Ferrari.
‘What time is your dad coming home?’ he asked.
‘Late, I hope. They said they almost never get a babysitter.’
‘Cool.’
She giggled again.
‘ What? ’ he asked.
‘I don’t know,’ she said, ‘I feel like you’re whispering in my ear.’