Are We There Yet? Read Free

will carry over to Cal, to the Camaro, to the state of Connecticut.
    He will go with his brother. He will have a good time. Life will be waiting for him when he gets back. Not a bad deal.
    Elijah smiles at Cal. But Cal isn't looking. Then she turns to him as if she knows. She smiles back and blasts the music louder.

Danny's mother drives him. He lives in New York City. Therefore, he doesn't have a car of his own. When he wants to travel far, he signs out a company car. But this time, his mother won't hear of it. Those are her exact words—“I won't hear of it”—as if it's news of an ignoble death.
    “Just be nice to him,” his mother is saying now. He's heard this before.
Just be nice to him.
He heard it after he dared Elijah to poke the hanger in the socket. After he put glue in Elijah's socks, telling him it was foot lotion. After he turned off the hot water while Elijah was in the shower. For the fifth time.
    Elijah could have retaliated. But he never even tattled. Elijah has always taken his mother's words to heart. Elijah can just be nice. Sometimes, Danny thinks this is all Elijah can be.
    “
I mean it,”
his mother stresses. Then her tone shifts and Danny thinks,
Yes, she does mean it.
    “I worry about you.” She looks straight ahead while turning the radio down. Danny thinks it remarkable that she still doesn't look old. “Really, I do worry about you. I worry about you both, and that you won't have each other. There aren't many times that I wish you were younger. But when I remember the way the two of you would get along—you cared about him
so much
. When he was a baby, you were always feeling his head and coming to me and saying he had a fever. Or you'd wake us up, worrying he'd been kidnapped. All night, I had to reassure you that he was okay. Staying up with the older son instead of the baby. But it was worth it. In the middle of the night, when you couldn't sleep, you'd beg me to take you to Eli's room. And whenI did, you would sing to him. He was already asleep, and still you wanted to sing him a lullaby. I would whisper with you. It was so wonderful, even if it was three in the morning. For a few years after, you watched over him. And then something happened. And I wish I knew what it was. Because I'd undo it in a second.”
    “But, Mom—”
    “Don't interrupt.” She holds up her hand.“You know it's important to your father. It's important to me. It's also important to
you
. I don't think you realize it yet. You both can be so nice and so smart and so generous. I just don't understand why you can't be that way with each other.”
    Danny wants to say something to assure his mother. He wants to tell her he loves Elijah, but he's afraid it won't sound convincing.
    So they remain silent. Eventually, Danny turns the radio up a little and Mrs. Silver shifts lanes to make the airport turnoff. She asks Danny if he's remembered his traveler's checks, his passport, his guidebooks.
    “Of course I remembered them,” Danny responds.“I'm your son, after all.”
    That gets a smile. And Danny is happy, because even if he can't do anything else right, at least he can still make his mother smile.

Cal doesn't want to stay for the Silver family reunion. After she speeds away in the bitchin' Camaro, Elijah waves goodbye for a full minute before entering the airport.
    He finds his mother and brother easily enough.
    “So where's your girlfriend?” Danny asks as Mrs. Silver hugs Elijah tightly.
    “She's not my girlfriend.”
    “So where is she?” Danny is wearing a suit. For the airplane.
    “She had to go.” Elijah can't stand still. His sneakers keep squeaking on the linoleum. He doesn't know whether it's the suit that makes Danny look old or whether it's just life. He is
filling out
, as their mother would say, as if the outline of his adult self was always there, waiting. Elijah thinks this is scary.
    “I brought you danish,” Mrs. Silver says, handing Elijah a white box tied with bakery