Part 19 (1/2)
”Hi, Mom! Hi, Dad!” he says brightly. ”Guess what just happened to me? I'll give you twenty guesses to figure it out!”
His father takes a deep breath, preparing to launch into the Great Unwinding Speech that every parent prepares for a wayward child. Even if they never use it, they still prepare it, running the words through their minds while on lunch break, or while sitting in traffic, or while listening to some moronic boss blather on about price points and distribution, and whatever other c.r.a.p that people in office buildings have meetings about.
What were the statistics? Starkey saw it on the news once. Every year the thought of unwinding pa.s.ses through the mind of one in ten parents. Of those, one in ten seriously considers it, and of those, one in twenty actually goes through with it-and the statistic doubles with every additional kid a family has. Crunch those juicy numbers, and one out of every two thousand kids between the ages of thirteen and seventeen will be unwound each year. Better odds than the lottery-and that doesn't even include the kids in state homes.
His father, keeping his distance, begins the speech. ”Mason, can't you see that you left us no choice?”
The Juvey-cops hold him firm at the bottom of the stairs, but they make no move to get him outside. They know they must allow the parental rite of pa.s.sage; the verbal boot out the door.
”The fights, the drugs, the stolen car-and now being expelled from yet another school. What's next, Mason?”
”Gee, I don't know, Dad. There are so many bad choices I can make.”
”Not anymore. We care enough about you to end your bad choices before they end you.”
That just makes him laugh out loud.
And then there's a voice from the top of the stairs.
”No! You can't do this!”
His sister, Jenna-his parents' biological daughter-stands at the top of the stairs in teddy bear pajamas that seem too old for her thirteen years.
”Go back to bed, Jenna,” their mother says.
”You're unwinding him just because he was storked, and that's unfair! And right before Christmas, too! What if I had come storked? Would you unwind me also?”
”We are not having this discussion!” yells their father, as their mother begins to cry. ”Go back to bed!”
But she doesn't. She folds her arms and sits at the top of the stairs in defiance, witnessing the whole thing. Good for her.
His mother's tears are genuine, but he's unsure whether she's crying for him or for the rest of the family. ”All these things you do, everyone told us they were a cry for help,” she says. ”So why didn't you let us help you?”
He wants to scream. How could he possibly explain it to them if they can't see? They don't know what it's like to go through sixteen years of life knowing you weren't wanted; a mystery baby of uncertain race storked on the doorstep of a couple so sienna-pale, they could have been vampires. Or to still remember that day when you were three years old and your mom, all doped up on pain medication from your sister's cesarean delivery, took you to a fire station and begged them to take you away and make you a ward of the state. Or how about knowing every Christmas morning that your gift is not a joy, but an obligation? And that your birthday isn't even real because they can't pinpoint when you were born, just the day you were left on a welcome mat that some new mother took too literally?
And what about the taunts from the other kids at school?
In fourth grade Mason's parents were called into the princ.i.p.al's office. He had flipped a boy off the top platform of the jungle gym. The kid had suffered a concussion and a broken arm.
”Why, Mason?” his parents had asked, right there in front of the princ.i.p.al. ”Why did you do it?”
He told them that the other kids were calling him ”Storky” instead of Starkey, and that this was the boy who had started it. He naively thought they'd rise to his defense, but they just dismissed it as if it didn't matter.
”You could have killed that boy,” his father had reprimanded. ”And why? Because of words? Words don't hurt you.” Which is one of the hugest criminal lies perpetrated by adults against children in this world. Because words hurt more than any physical pain. He would have gladly taken a concussion and a broken arm if he never had to be singled out as a storked child ever again.
In the end, he got sent to a different school and was ordered to have mandatory counseling.
”You think about what you did,” his old princ.i.p.al had told him.
And he did what he was told, like a good little boy. He gave it plenty of thought and decided he should have found a higher platform.
So how do you even begin to explain that? How do you explain a lifetime of injustice in the time it takes the Juvey-cops to herd you out the door? The answer is easy: You don't even try.
”I'm sorry, Mason,” his father says, tears in his eyes as well. ”But it's better for everyone this way. Including you.”
Starkey knows he'll never make his parents understand, but if nothing else, he'll have the last word.
”Hey, Mom, by the way . . . Dad's late nights at the office aren't really at the office. They're with your friend Nancy.”
But before he can begin to relish his parents' shocked expressions, it occurs to him that this secret knowledge could have been a bargaining chip. If he had told his father he knew, it could have been ironclad protection from unwinding! How could he be so stupid not to have thought of that when it mattered?
So in the end he can't even enjoy his bitter little victory as the Juvey-cops push him out into a cool December night.
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The Juvey squad car leaves the driveway with Starkey locked in the backseat behind a bulletproof barrier. Mouthpiece drives while Lady-Lips flips through a fat file folder. Starkey can't imagine his life could have that much data.
”It says here you scored in the top ten percentile in your early childhood exams.”
The mouthpiece shakes his head in disgust. ”What a waste.”
”Not really,” says Lady-Lips. ”Plenty of folks will get the benefit of your smarts, Mr. Starkey.”
The suggestion gives him an unpleasant chill, but he tries not to show it. ”Love the lip graft, dude,” Starkey says. ”What's the deal? Did your wife tell you she'd rather be kissed by a woman?”
Mouthpiece smirks, and Lady-Lips says nothing.
”But enough lip service,” says Starkey. ”You boys hungry? Because I could go for a midnight snack right about now. Some In-N-Out? Whaddaya say?”
No answer from the front seat. Not that he expects one, but it's always fun to mess with law enforcement and see how much it takes to irritate them. Because if they get ticked off, he wins. What's that story about the Akron AWOL? What did he always say? Oh yeah. ”Nice socks.” Simple, elegant, but it always undermined the confidence of any figure of false authority.