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Authors: Carol Plum-Ucci
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didn't seem like enough. She hadn't lived through it.
"My senior year, I got a girlfriend. Finally. For about a week. That was the last straw. You should have seen my mother carrying on. She said Sydney wasn't a nice girl, she was from a bad family, all this stuff, but the truth was, it could have been
any
girl. Sorry it's not any juicier than that."
"You felt strangulated." She finally got it.
"Exactly. I could see the rest of my life unfolding ... I would take care of her until I was seventy and she was ninety-five, and she'd still be dishing out orders in her 'once a cop, always a cop' tone. So, in my case, I didn't mind leaving my brother and sister. She never had that sort of relationship with them. Besides, they were scrappy and feisty. I didn't have that nature. I was a peaceful guy. Better to just ... make like a tree and leaf, before she chopped me down like that...
Giving Tree
story." I was stumbling. I hadn't exactly tried this aloud too often.
"And she has no idea where you are?" she asked.
"Nope. But she's still trying. She got my cell phone number once." I chuckled.
"How do you know? Did you talk to her?"
"No. It was last fall. I was walking to campus one morning and my cell rang. I looked down, and there was my old phone number. I jumped nine feet in the air."
"You didn't pick up?"
"It was all gut instinct. Over in a flash. I connected the call so she wouldn't hear my voice on voice mail, and I was walking past this duck pond. I heaved the phone straight into the pond. I cut class, zipped on over to Verizon Wireless, and had a new phone, new number, and a hacker friend destroying the history of my file, all within half an hour."
RayAnn cracked up. She had heard this part of the story. She went on, "A lot of people were walking to campus and saw him throw the phone into the pond. We had just met. They thought it was me, and that I was hot for Mike, which I was. But they thought I was, like, stalking him or something."
I tossed an arm over her shoulder as they laughed.
"Do you have an assumed name?" Mary Ellen asked.
"Mike is really mine. The Mavic I picked up in Tijuana, Mexico, for two hundred bucks, along with a fake driver's license, fake Social."
"Mavic is really not your last name?" RayAnn asked incredulously.
"How could I keep my real last name with an ex-cop for a mom?"
They sat quietly, absorbing all of this, I guess. "So, are you going to get Justin for me?"
"I'll really try, honestly," Kobe said, though I sensed strongly that their inability to get him right now, right in front of me, was bull. I hoped at least they would start punching a cell number as soon as we left.
Mary Ellen shuddered. She noted accurately, "I was such a jerk when you first came out here."
RayAnn laced her fingers through mine.
I supposed that was a Steepleton version of an apology. "That's okay," I said cheerfully. "It's not like I'm inexperienced. Do you mind if I ask... Why do you act like that?"
"I don't know." Her head disappeared as she lay flat again with a sigh. "I'm the only girl in a family of four older brothers. I get picked on too."
"But somehow that doesn't make you sympathetic," I said in what I hoped was a journalistically neutral way.
"You would think. I don't know why I hate on people. I never really thought about it before, but I do it ... because I
have
to. If I sense weakness in another person, it infuriates me," Mary Ellen confessed.
"Why?"
"I don't know. Maybe I'm like a dog. Do you ever watch that show
The Dog Whisperer?
Cesar Millan, the dog expert guy, says that dogs bite weak energy. That's why you should never run from them or show fear."
I loved the show. Cesar Millan talked about energy all the time. With him in mind, I actually felt Mary Ellen's energy shift from curiosity to fear.
She finally continued. "Wow. What am I? Some, like,
primate?
"
Kobe bolted upright. "She's King Kong! She's ... a raptor! A fire-farting Tyrannosaurus rex!"
They banged into my right shoulder
"My senior year, I got a girlfriend. Finally. For about a week. That was the last straw. You should have seen my mother carrying on. She said Sydney wasn't a nice girl, she was from a bad family, all this stuff, but the truth was, it could have been
any
girl. Sorry it's not any juicier than that."
"You felt strangulated." She finally got it.
"Exactly. I could see the rest of my life unfolding ... I would take care of her until I was seventy and she was ninety-five, and she'd still be dishing out orders in her 'once a cop, always a cop' tone. So, in my case, I didn't mind leaving my brother and sister. She never had that sort of relationship with them. Besides, they were scrappy and feisty. I didn't have that nature. I was a peaceful guy. Better to just ... make like a tree and leaf, before she chopped me down like that...
Giving Tree
story." I was stumbling. I hadn't exactly tried this aloud too often.
"And she has no idea where you are?" she asked.
"Nope. But she's still trying. She got my cell phone number once." I chuckled.
"How do you know? Did you talk to her?"
"No. It was last fall. I was walking to campus one morning and my cell rang. I looked down, and there was my old phone number. I jumped nine feet in the air."
"You didn't pick up?"
"It was all gut instinct. Over in a flash. I connected the call so she wouldn't hear my voice on voice mail, and I was walking past this duck pond. I heaved the phone straight into the pond. I cut class, zipped on over to Verizon Wireless, and had a new phone, new number, and a hacker friend destroying the history of my file, all within half an hour."
RayAnn cracked up. She had heard this part of the story. She went on, "A lot of people were walking to campus and saw him throw the phone into the pond. We had just met. They thought it was me, and that I was hot for Mike, which I was. But they thought I was, like, stalking him or something."
I tossed an arm over her shoulder as they laughed.
"Do you have an assumed name?" Mary Ellen asked.
"Mike is really mine. The Mavic I picked up in Tijuana, Mexico, for two hundred bucks, along with a fake driver's license, fake Social."
"Mavic is really not your last name?" RayAnn asked incredulously.
"How could I keep my real last name with an ex-cop for a mom?"
They sat quietly, absorbing all of this, I guess. "So, are you going to get Justin for me?"
"I'll really try, honestly," Kobe said, though I sensed strongly that their inability to get him right now, right in front of me, was bull. I hoped at least they would start punching a cell number as soon as we left.
Mary Ellen shuddered. She noted accurately, "I was such a jerk when you first came out here."
RayAnn laced her fingers through mine.
I supposed that was a Steepleton version of an apology. "That's okay," I said cheerfully. "It's not like I'm inexperienced. Do you mind if I ask... Why do you act like that?"
"I don't know." Her head disappeared as she lay flat again with a sigh. "I'm the only girl in a family of four older brothers. I get picked on too."
"But somehow that doesn't make you sympathetic," I said in what I hoped was a journalistically neutral way.
"You would think. I don't know why I hate on people. I never really thought about it before, but I do it ... because I
have
to. If I sense weakness in another person, it infuriates me," Mary Ellen confessed.
"Why?"
"I don't know. Maybe I'm like a dog. Do you ever watch that show
The Dog Whisperer?
Cesar Millan, the dog expert guy, says that dogs bite weak energy. That's why you should never run from them or show fear."
I loved the show. Cesar Millan talked about energy all the time. With him in mind, I actually felt Mary Ellen's energy shift from curiosity to fear.
She finally continued. "Wow. What am I? Some, like,
primate?
"
Kobe bolted upright. "She's King Kong! She's ... a raptor! A fire-farting Tyrannosaurus rex!"
They banged into my right shoulder
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