Read Online The Great Perhaps by Joe Meno - Free Book Online Page B

sits there looking haughty.
    “Are you finished?” he asks, and she nods. He waves to the petite waitress, who comes to deliver the check. Jonathan reaches for his wallet and finds it’s empty. He places his credit card down next to the bill. Spotting it, Amelia leans across the table, alarmed.
    “Mom said not to use the credit card anymore.”
    “I know what she said. I don’t have any money.”
    “You guys really don’t communicate very well, do you?”
    “Amelia. Give it a rest.”
    Amelia nods, laying her chin on top of her hands.
    “Do you think you’ll get separated again?”
    “Do you?”
    “It doesn’t look good,” Amelia says with a sigh.
     
     
    M ADELINE, IT TURNS OUT , is a lot less sympathetic to the whole Amelia/protest/Chinese food situation. She does not care what Amelia’s motivations actually were. In the kitchen, when she gets home from work, she calls Amelia snotty. She calls Amelia totally spoiled. She tells Amelia to go to her room so she and her dad can talk in private.
    “I am not eight years old anymore!” Amelia shouts.
    “Really? Because this, this all sounds like something an eight-year-old would do.”
    Amelia storms off to her room, then stops at the top of the stairs to listen. Her dad does a good job of explaining the situation, but when he gets to the part about the Chinese food, Madeline begins to whisper angrily, “What is wrong with you? What kind of lesson are you trying to teach her?”
    “I don’t know,” Jonathan says. “It’s a pretty complicated situation. I thought you and I could talk about it and figure something out. As a team. That’s what parents are supposed to do. Work as a team.”
    “Jonathan, I don’t even know what I’m supposed to say to you right now. I can’t believe you’re actually proud of her for writing that shit.”
    “She’s a great kid, Maddie. She just did something stupid.”
    “So she shouldn’t get rewarded for doing something stupid.”
    “Maybe she should. Maybe my way is not so bad. I let her know I was disappointed. Maybe your way isn’t necessarily the only way to do things.”
    “You’re an idiot.”
    “Awesome.” Jonathan turns and begins to walk off, shaking his head.
    “Where are you going?”
    “Back to the den. It’s quiet in there. Nobody’s in there shouting all the time about nothing.”
    “Great. So how long is this going to last?”
    “I don’t know. I’m beginning to like it.”
    Madeline nods, hurt, her eyes already wet with tears. “Wonderful.”
    Amelia quietly creeps from the top of the stairs, then goes to lie in her bed.
     
     
    A ROUND MIDNIGHT, Amelia comes downstairs to eat some yogurt. She sneaks down the hallway and sees her father has indeed moved into the den—he has made a bed out of the tiny sofa and has his clothes hanging from the bookshelves. She peeks in and sees her dad holding a magnifying glass up to a large color photo, a photo of what looks to be a squid tentacle, and he is mumbling. “Not so fast, my old friend. You thought you could trick me with your seizing tentacles. But you can’t. I now believe you may be an Architeuthis. Ha, ha.”
     
     
    A MELIA DOES NOT sleep much. Instead, she stays up, searching the Internet, trying to learn how to build various types of bombs. She has already figured out how to construct three different kinds: for her science project, she is trying to learn how to build a pipe bomb with a timer. Already she has plans. Already she is thinking of blowing something up—like the principal’s office at her high school or the new Starbucks in her neighborhood or maybe an SUV dealership. Just like the Earth Liberation Front. Or just like the Weathermen. She will take every precaution not to injure anyone. It will be a spectacular show of force, a moment to remind people that they are alive and that their lives need to be more meaningful. They will see the dazzling explosion and reconsider what it means to live in a world with other people