Ship It(10)

“Not overnight you haven’t,” he says.

“It’s fine! I’m old enough!” I take a breath and straighten up and focus on making my voice as serious and calm and adult as possible. “This is Demon Heart, Dad.”

He looks like he’s about to say something else when Mom interrupts him. “I’ll take her,” she says.

“Hon…”

I stare at her. “Really?” I literally can’t picture my mother, Trudi Strupke, at a convention.

“What? A grown woman can’t enjoy herself at Comic-Con?” Mom asks, puffing up.

“Yeah, cool! Cool!” I’m not gonna argue with her when she’s trying to help. I can feel my heart starting to pound because it looks like this might happen.

“When your father moved us to this town, he promised it would be more relaxing than the city. That we’d get so much work done,” Mom says. She gestures at the wall in the living room where a bunch of her self-portrait oil paintings hang, and, like, half of them are of her, naked, just like the sculptures in the front yard. It’s humiliating. Or it would be, if I ever had anyone over. If I had anyone to have over.

“And you know what?” she continues. “Your father was right, I have gotten a lot of work done. But Mama misses her Vietnamese food. I’m coming with you.”

“Fine!” I say. As long as I get to go, that’s the important thing.

“S’okay with me,” Dad mutters.

“Woooooooooo!” I holler and punch the air. It’s happening!

“I’m going to the city!” Mom squeals as Dad grumbles and waves his hand dismissively. High emotion isn’t his strong suit. But he’ll be all alone for the weekend—I’m sure he’s excited to get some poems written without us around. Mom French-kisses him.

“Gross,” I say out of habit, but my heart’s not in it. I’m soaring right now.

Back up in my room, I go to one of the posters on the wall—the one where the characters are in profile, just inches from each other. Carefully, I unpin one side and fold the poster along a worn crease down the middle, bringing the sides together so that Smokey and Heart can kiss.

I get to see Forest and Rico. In person.

SmokeHeart.

My heart swells just thinking about it.


“So Heart is the hero, he’s the demon with a heart.”

“Demon Heart,” Mom says, piecing it together.

“Exactly. But Smokey’s the one everyone really likes,” I explain. “We’re supposed to root against him because he’s Heart’s antagonist or whatever, but who could hate that face?”

We’re in the car coming into Boise, and I’m trying to give Mom a crash course in Demon Heart so she doesn’t humiliate me when we get there.

“So why does Smokey hate Heart if he’s a good guy?”

“Well, because Smokey’s a demon hunter, and Heart is a demon. But Smokey just won’t believe that Heart isn’t like other demons just because he has a…?” I raise my eyebrows and wait.

“Heart?”

“Ding, ding, ding. Basically Smokey’s discriminating against all demons without thinking of them as individuals. And yeah, most of them are evil, but he already knows Heart isn’t like the others, he just doesn’t trust Heart yet. But they’d actually be really good partners, if Smokey would ever get his life together and learn to trust another person.” I sigh. This show is just so good. “You know, that classic thing where the guy acts all tough because he doesn’t want to let anyone in, and the person he’s pushing away the hardest is actually the one who’d be best for him? Yeah, that. That’s why everyone ships them.”

“Ships them?” Mom asks.

“You know, it’s, like, short for relationship.”

“Okay…” Mom nods, keeping her eyes on the road, but I don’t think she really gets it.

“Like how some people might ship Harry and Hermione, because they want them to be together forever and ever. It’s like that, only I ship Smokey and Heart.”

“Well, I ship myself with your dad,” Mom says. “Or maybe Barack Obama.”

“Okay, ew, and also that’s not really how shipping works.”

“I wouldn’t want to split up him and Michelle, though,” she says.

Very considerate. “I’d join your ship, but I’m really just focused on slash at the moment.”

“And slash is…”

“The gay stuff.”

“Right.” She takes her eyes off the road for a second to look at me. “So these guys, Smokey and Heart, they’re gay?”

“On the show? Well, no. Maybe. We don’t know. So far they’ve only dated women, but some people think they’re going to get together in the season finale,” I tell her. “They should, anyway. It’s the only obvious thing to do with all the sexual tension they have.”

“Oh.” She frowns. “So you ship them, but they’re not even gay?”

“They might be bisexual!”

“But they haven’t said so?”

“Mom, you don’t understand, they’re meant to be together.”

Mom gives me a look out of the side of her eyes. “Hon, is there anything you want to tell me?”