What Passes For Normal

Chapter 20

"Quick word, lovey, before we go?"

We've said our goodbyes and my mom is already in the car. Dad has just done this awkward thing where he pretended he was ready to leave in order to make Mom get in the car, then dashed back to where Neea and I are standing at the bottom of the front steps, clearly not wanting my mother to hear what he was going to say.

It's a Tuesday morning that threatens to rain. Mrs. Hammond across the street is doing some pre-winter tidying in her garden while Bigley sits bored on the sidewalk.

"Darwin, sweetie," Dad says in this conspiratorial half-whisper, "you'll be glad to hear that your mother and I have started seeing a marriage counsellor."

I don't know what I expected him to say, but it sure as hell wasn't this. I'm as blindsided by what he's saying as I was when Kodi punched me. I stare stunned at him for a second, then, "What? Why?" I say. "Why the hell would I be glad to hear that?"

I'm almost yelling and Geoffrey shoots a quick, nervous look back at the car with Mom in it. "Should I go?" Neea asks quietly.

"No, it's quite all right," Dad says to Neea, then turns back to me. "Well," he goes on, "I know that, um, for a long time you've felt that there were... issues..."

"Yeah with her!" I shout, pointing toward the car and not caring if Pat hears me.

"I know, sweetie, I know. We're trying to work it out, and I'm certain we will. Please don't worry."

He wants me to calm down, not make a scene here out on the street, but I don't want to calm down. "This is the first I've ever heard of this, Dad! What the hell's going on? I don't understand why you guys are doing this! And why now? Why does it have to be right now?"

I'm shaking and I start to cry and I don't even know why. I think I might be about to collapse when I feel arms around me and a soothing voice in my ear. I don't know what Neea is saying but it calms me and, though my instinct is usually to push everyone away, this time I sink into her arms.

"It's OK," Neea says firmly to Geoffrey. "She'll be fine. You should get on your way. Feel free to call us later."

She takes me inside before my dad can say anything else.

• • • •

"It's just that I'm really into movies, right? You got that. It's not that I, you know, like you or anything."

C. J. Stover had a big grin on her face.

"Um, sure," Teddy said.

"No one wants to go to a movie alone, right? You're just a movie companion. Could be anyone. Doesn't matter."

"OK."

"In the least."

"Right."

She laughed, and when she was finished laughing she just smiled at Teddy. This was like those times in high school when a girl was obviously into him and he still wasn't sure what he should do or say, as if taking any action at all might make her change her mind about him. Even though light rain had begun to fall they were walking over to the Arts Building because, C. J. assured Teddy, the coffee shop there was better than the one in the Schuler Building.

"So when?" she asked. "Is tomorrow night too soon? I don't want to wait and give you time to reconsider... Oh damn. I really meant to not do that."

"Do what?" Teddy asked, dodging someone's umbrella.

"The self-deprecating humour thing. I'm always doing that. Joking with people... well, guys generally... that I'm not worth their attention. It's obviously a coping mechanism to prepare myself for the inevitable rejection."