Only Child(44)

“So everyone is going to see us there, on the news?” I asked Daddy, and that was not good because I didn’t want that, to be in the video so everyone could look at me on TV.

“Well, not everyone. Look, this is important to Mommy, so…but let’s not get worked up about this right now, OK? I just wanted to give you the heads-up that that’s what’s happening tomorrow. We can talk about it later. Hey, maybe it will be exciting to see how they make the news!”

We got to the school and Daddy parked the car in front but didn’t turn it off.

“OK, but, Daddy?”

“Uh-huh?”

“What are the things the news lady’s going to ask us on the interview? About Andy?”

“Um, well, I think she’s going to ask us to talk about your brother and how we feel after he got…after he died. I think Mommy is going to answer most of the questions and do most of the talking. And maybe Miss Wanda will ask you a question or two. Why don’t we wait and see, OK?” Daddy turned sideways in his seat and looked at me. “Are you going in today?”

I shook my head no.

“Didn’t think so,” Daddy said, and pulled away from the school.

“On the interview, are we supposed to say the truth?” I asked.

“The truth? The truth about what?”

“About Andy.”

Daddy looked at me quickly and then back at the road. “What do you mean?”

“I mean like at the funeral you said Andy made us laugh and that he made you proud every day, but that wasn’t the truth.”

Daddy stared straight ahead at the road and didn’t say anything for a long time. We got to our house. “Go ahead and go inside, OK?” That was all he said, and his voice sounded like something was stuck in his throat.

Today after breakfast I went upstairs to put on a handsome shirt like Mommy said, and I was about to go in my room when I heard Daddy talking in his and Mommy’s room. I went closer to the door because it was a little bit open. I saw Daddy standing by the window, talking on his phone: “…I know that. I don’t think it’s right either. I tried to talk her out of it, but there’s no reasoning with her right now…No…Yes, I know that, Mom. Look, I already told you that I agree, Zach shouldn’t be included in this interview. I’ll see what I can do. Listen, I should go. They will probably be here soon.”

I could tell Daddy was about to hang up, so I backed up from the door and went in my room with very quiet steps. I put on the shirt and then I sat by my window to be on the lookout for the news van. The sky was still gray and the rain was still pouring down, making rivers on the side of the road. In all the days since the gunman came, every time I looked out the window or went outside it rained.

I kept an eye out for the news van and watched the raindrops coming down, down, down and that made me think about a story I heard one time about when it rained for a really long time and it never stopped. The whole earth was going to get a big flood, and all the people and animals were going to drown. A man decided to build a big boat, and it fit only two of every type of animal on it, a boy and a girl, so they could have a new life with a new family after the flood and not be extinct. I looked at the rivers running down our road and I wondered how much more it had to rain before it got so much that maybe we were all going to drown. Or maybe we could build a boat and then start a new life after the flood.

The news van was supposed to come right after breakfast, but it didn’t. I had to wait for a long time and I started to hope that maybe it wasn’t going to come, but then it did. I could see it coming up our road, and I knew it was the news van right away because it had that big standing-up bowl on the roof. It stopped in front of our house and it said LOCAL 4 on the side of it in big red letters, and some other cars pulled up behind the van. I watched two doors on the side of the van pop open, and some people came out and walked to the house, and a second later the doorbell rang.

I wanted to stay upstairs and hide so I wouldn’t have to be on the interview, but I also wanted to see how they make the news. Daddy said maybe it was going to be exciting. I had a curious feeling—that’s when you want to find out more about things—and it was funny that I was having a curious feeling today, because I just read about that a couple of days ago. In Magic Tree House #38, Monday with a Mad Genius, at the end Jack and Annie find out that to be curious is the second secret of happiness for Merlin.

Earlier on the phone Daddy said that maybe I wouldn’t get included in the interview and my curious feeling told me to go downstairs to see what the news people were going to do in our house. Downstairs, Daddy made me do handshakes with a woman with short, really red hair. Her name was Tina, and she had headphones around her neck like a big necklace. Daddy said Tina was the producer, and I didn’t know what that meant, but she acted like the boss and told everyone where to put things. I stood by the living room door and watched.

“Dude, this shit’s heavy.” A man with all black clothes on and long black hair in a ponytail and a long skinny beard on his chin was trying to push our coffee table to the end of the living room. The table really is heavy, it has a big rectangle stone on the top. I can’t even move it a tiny bit. Tina waved her hand over to me where I was standing by the door. “Dexter, could you…?”

“Oh, sorry, man, sorry,” the man gave me a wink and went back to pushing. “Son of a bitch!” I heard him say very quiet, and that made me smile.