jealous. My father owned the park in those days, and because I felt no need to seek out the acceptance of my peers, I was labeled stuck up from the very first day of high school. I really wasn’t full of myself back then, just uninterested in everyone’s immature social politics. After freshman year, however, I definitely looked down on most of them. It was the natural result of them stooping as incredibly low as they did to terrorize my family and me after ‘the rent thing’.
I was absentmindedly twirling a pen between my fingers when the principal’s voice came over the intercom system. “Emanuel and Elaine Roberts please report immediately to the principal’s office. Emanuel and Elaine Roberts. Thank you.”
I’d never been called out of class to go the principal’s office in my life, and not only did he call me, he called my brother, too. Everyone in class looked at me curiously. The pen I was twirling ceremoniously fell from my hand, rolled down the surface of the desk, and fell at my boots.
“Um, I guess that’s me,” I murmured. My teacher Mrs. Warson nodded. I shoved my things into my backpack and left the room, almost slipping on my pen on the ground, and went down the hallway in the direction of Manny’s class. As I neared the door, Manny came walking out with his backpack dragging along the ground. His worried brown eyes were a mirror image of mine. We proceeded to the other side of the school and to the principal’s office. Principal Wright, an unfortunate pot-bellied man who was probably colorblind because he wore lime green ties with burgundy shirts, was standing behind his desk. He scratched at his chins.
“Your father called. I think its best you guys get home as fast as you can. It sounded like an emergency.”
“What happened?” Emanuel asked.
Principal Wright shrugged and shook his head, blinking. “He just said they took her away, they took her. He kept repeating that.”
My stomach was in knots but it didn’t slow my pace. Manny and I raced to his truck in the student parking lot and sped to Merjoy . “It’s Mom, isn’t it?” I asked during the ride.
“Let’s pray, okay?” Manny suggested.
So I bowed my head. I said my ‘Amen’ just as we pulled up to the house. My dad was pacing the living room and wringing the hem of his shirt. “Elaine! Manny! You’re okay! Oh man, They took her!” He ran to me and grabbed me by my black jean vest. He searched my eyes as if not sure I was really his daughter. “Did They talk to you?”
Manny and I were in such shock over our father’s behavior that neither of us made a move to get his hands off of me.
“I said did They talk to you? Did They brief you!” Afraid, I could only shake my head. He calmed and his grip loosened. “Okay. I figure they would try to coerce my baby girl but you stayed strong. I have to stay one step ahead. One step ahead.”
“Dad?” Manny finally spoke. “Let go of Elaine now.”
“Oh,” he removed his hands, “There you are, Sweetie. All better.”
“Where’s Mom?” Manny asked.
I tensed as Dad neared me again. This time he put his arm around both of us and wept. “She collapsed and the EMT impersonators took her away! I didn’t go with her because I knew what they wanted to do to me and I was afraid they came and took you guys too. I had to stay to make sure you guys were safe.”
The silence as Manny drove was crushing. The quiet gave me too much opportunity to think the worst.
My mother always made sure the whole family ate dinner together. She cooked the best dinners and she always baked the gooiest desserts. It’s a wonder our family wasn’t all overweight. I guess since the whole family helped out in keeping the trailer park clean and in working order we burned those calories off. Over dinner, Mom would get us to talk about our day, Dad talking about work and Manny and I talking about school. She