The Sunspacers Trilogy Read Free Page B

seemed to suggest, so it doesn’t matter what you say . Well, maybe he wasn’t thinking exactly that, but I was sure that he had no energy left to worry about me or my feelings. A small, distant part of me wondered if I had ever listened enough to understand their problems; but it was too late for me to care. In ten days I would be free.
    “You probably didn’t have any breakfast,” Mom said.
    “I’m not hungry.”
    “I’ll make lunch,” Dad said as he got to his feet. I sympathized with him for a moment. Why should he bother listening to me, or facing up to anything, when in two weeks we would all be apart?
    Clouds covered the sun in the window, and we became shadows in the pale daylight. Mom followed Dad into the kitchenette. I watched them going through old, familiar motions, and remembered those times when I had felt warm and secure, knowing that little would change for a long time to come, and maybe never. Those bright, endless afternoons seemed far away now. An awful fear rushed through me. In a few years Mom and Dad would only be people who had once been parents. Would we like each other as adults? There was no way to know, so I tried hard not to care, and pushed the problem away.
    Mom swore as she dropped something. I heard Dad take a deep breath. “Eva …” he started to say.
    “Don’t begin, John,” she shot back. There was a long silence, as if they were standing perfectly still. “Joe!” Mom called to me. “We’ll have lunch in here on the counter.”
    The sun came out and filled the room with light. I got up, realizing that not much would have been different even if they had come to graduation. I would still have wanted to get away. Their problems were not about to disappear overnight, and my being around wouldn’t help much.
    “Joe?” Mom called again.
    “Coming,” I managed to say. Maybe we all needed to lose each other for a while.
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3
    Going
    “Are you very sure?” Mom asked me.
    “I’m sure,” I answered without looking at her. It was almost time for me to go. I knew that they were relieved about my going, but it made them feel guilty, so they were repeating their old questions to make themselves feel better. I had gotten my way because they were too wrapped up in their problems to worry about me. If they had tried to force me to go to college while I lived at home, I would have complained against them under the Youth Rights Act of 2004.
    “It’s what he wants,” Dad said as firmly as he could, more to settle Mom down than to support me. And you’ll be stuck with however it turns out . He didn’t say it out loud, but it was there in the tone of his voice.
    We wandered toward the door. Mom held her hands together and tried to smile. “Are you sure the scholarship will cover everything?”
    She knew it would, so why was she asking again? I had to admit that it couldn’t just be guilt. She cared about me, as much as she could, I realized. “He’s had expert help in the choice and planning,” Dad said, standing there, hands deep in his loose pants.
    Mom looked at him, then at me, unable to speak.
    “Just a kid,” Dad muttered. “Sitting on my arm only yesterday.”
    The lump in my throat surprised me as I picked up my small bag.
    “All set with your trunk?” Dad asked in a quavering voice.
    “Three days ago,” I croaked. “You were here when they took it away.”
    He gave a strained laugh. “Right.”
    Mom sniffled, ready to cry.
    “Well, good luck, son,” Dad said loudly and held out his hand. It was no time to think or make judgments. I shook it and tried to smile, then gave Mom a long kiss on her wet cheek. Slowly I turned away.
    It took forever for the door to slide open.
    I walked down the hall to the open elevator, stepped inside, and turned around to look back. Dad had his arm around Mom, and suddenly I wished very hard that they would solve their problems and stay together.
    “Sure you don’t want us to come to the airport