Only Child(45)

Other news people were walking in and out of the house, to the news van and back, bringing in big black boxes that had little wheels at the bottom and tables that also had wheels and a bunch of stuff on them. They brought everything in our living room, and the wheels made wet lines on our floor. All our furniture had to get pushed to the side—that was Dexter’s job.

“Hey, man, wanna come check this out?” After he got the coffee table moved, Dexter started putting up cameras in front of the couch that was still where it was supposed to be, and he waved me over. There were two cameras, and Dexter was putting them on stands that had three legs.

“Look, you put the camera on sideways like this and then turn until it clicks in. You try.” He took the camera back off and handed it to me. It was a big camera, much bigger than our picture camera, and I’m not really allowed to hold our camera, only when the strap is around my neck. This camera had a long thing on the front and tons of buttons on the side. I tried to lift it up on the stand, but it was too heavy. I could feel it falling out of my hands, but Dexter grabbed it quickly. “Ooookay, let me help you!”

Dexter was nice. He said I was his setup assistant, and he told me what all the things were for. There were high stands with microphones, and the microphones looked like furry squirrels at the end. We put up lights, there were three different kinds, and Dexter said you had to put them in the right spots for the interview so the light looks perfect. There were a ton of cables everywhere. I was in charge of taping them to the floor so no one would trip over them. Dexter sat next to me on the floor and ripped off pieces of black tape and gave them to me.

“Hey, I’m sorry about your brother, man,” Dexter said. He kept ripping off tape pieces, and I kept sticking them on the cables.

“Me too,” I said.

“That really sucks, huh?” Dexter said.

“Yeah,” I said.

Then we were done and stood up and looked at the living room. It looked totally different now.

“What do you think?” Dexter asked.

“Looks cool.”

“Very cool,” Dexter said, and he slapped his hand on my back.

Then Tina came in and Mommy and the lady from the news, Miss Wanda, and I knew it was her because I saw her on TV before and it was the first time I ever saw a person in real life that I saw on TV. Mommy was wearing one of her old fancy outfits, and she had on a lot of makeup and lipstick and usually she doesn’t wear lipstick because she knows I don’t like it when people have lipstick on, like Grandma. Mommy sat down on the couch.

Dexter changed the lights around a little bit, and some of the other people did stuff on the cameras and microphones that me and Dexter set up. Miss Wanda sat down on a chair in front of the couch, close by the one camera.

“OK, Melissa, I think we’re ready to begin. Remember, please look at me and not directly at the camera, OK?”

Mommy squeezed her hands tight in her lap.

“Do me a favor and slide right into the very center of the couch. Then we can have Jim and Zach join you on either side later on, OK?” I wanted to tell Mommy that I didn’t want to sit on the couch later, with the cameras pointing right at me and the lights, and I didn’t want to be on the interview, and Daddy said maybe I didn’t have to.

“Mommy?” I said.

Mommy looked up, but one of the lights got in her eyes and she couldn’t see me.

“Mommy?” I said again. I felt a hand on my shoulder, and when I turned around, I saw Tina smiling at me.

“Hey, buddy, can you come with me and maybe you can hang out with your dad in the kitchen for a little while?”

Me and Daddy sat in the kitchen when Miss Wanda started giving Mommy the interview. We could hear a loud man’s voice say, “Picture’s up! Quiet, please!” and all the people in the house said “Ssshhhhh” together. Daddy sat up very straight on the barstool, like Grandma, and made a fake serious face at me and pretended to use a zipper to close his mouth.





[ 27 ]


    Breaking News


I LIKED SITTING IN THE KITCHEN with Daddy. It was like we were in trouble together so we had to take a time-away in the kitchen. We had to sit and be quiet for a long time and weren’t allowed to come out from our time-away. A couple times Daddy pretended like he was falling asleep from being bored, and it made me laugh. I put my face in my elbow on the counter really quick so I wouldn’t make a sound.

Tina came back in the kitchen and ruined Daddy’s and my fun. “All right, guys, you’re up!” Daddy followed Tina into the living room, and I waited for him to tell her that I wasn’t going to get included in the interview, but he didn’t say anything.

In the living room, Mommy’s face had red dots on it like she cried, but she wasn’t crying now.

“Let’s have Jim sit right here, and Zach, can you sit next to your mom right there?” Tina pointed on the couch next to Mommy.

Daddy sat down and I sat down. I could feel the eyes of everyone in the living room on me, and the cameras were like extra-big eyes staring at me.

“Zach, honey, can you please not look at the cameras? Can you please look at me?” Miss Wanda said to me. I looked at her and I noticed her curly black hair was very shiny in the lights like it was wet, and then my eyes went back to the cameras. “Can you…can he please not look at the cameras?” she said to Mommy, and it didn’t sound friendly, and her face didn’t look friendly.