The Children and the Wolves (9 page)

I haven’t seen Kara and Dapper Dan in a few weeks. They just returned from Rome, where they were on a business retreat. To learn how to sell more pills. How to identify sadness from Europe, from across oceans, from outer space. They sent me iPhone pictures of them posing with each other in front of statues, waterfalls, distant Italian hills. I mostly delete them. The ones I keep are for my amusement. I print them out and draw bugs on their faces.

I have dreams in which I remove their insides with large forceps and hang them on a clothesline in front of wild dogs chained to telephone poles.

Dapper Dan says, How’s school, Carla?
I say, School’s been done for over a month, Dad-o. Don’t you remember graduation?
Of course we remember, Kara says. We took all those pictures with the Sony DSLR fourteen-point-two megapixel. You graduated top of your class. You got that creative writing award. For that story you wrote about the alligator.
It was a crocodile, I say. A congregation of crocs.
Of course we remember, Dapper Dan assures me.

Then he says, Are you enjoying your summer?
Yes, I say. Are you enjoying yours?
He says, Your mother and I have been having a wonderful time.
I say, Traveling the globe must be rad.

Dapper Dan catalogs the tour.

He says, Italy, Istanbul, Marrakesh . . .
We even spent a few days in Paris, Kara adds.
I say, But there aren’t any sad people in Paris.
And Dapper Dan says, But they love popping pills!
Kara takes a forkful of chicken madras and says, Next week we’re going to Tahiti, right, Dan?
Before he can answer, I say, Can I come?
But Kara says, Oh, Carla, it’s for business.
And I say, Oh, Mom, I’m just joshing, and I say it just like her because I’m her daughter after all. I sure as shit don’t look like it but the fact is I pried myself loose from her perfectly waxed, aerobicizedly tightened, now surgically repaired bod fourteen years ago.
Why Tahiti? I ask.
Plaxco’s opening up a division there, Dapper Dan explains. They’re flying us out to meet the new hires.

Eating.

Utensils on plates.

The expensive Bangalore wine being sipped.

Dapper Dan says, Carla, honey, can you pass the
badami gosht
?
I say, Dad, you say that with such a charmingly informed accent.
He says, Why, thank you, Carla, that’s very sweet. You learn so much traveling. You should hear the things your mother can say in Spanish.
Mi casa es su casa.
That’s awesome, Mom.
Dapper Dan: She can say the Lord’s prayer too, right, Kara?
Kara says, I sure can.
Padre nuestro
and all that. Then to me she says, Carla, have you been losing weight?
I’ve actually been gaining, I say. I’ve put on fifteen to twenty. Mostly on my ass and tits. Wanna see?
Carla!, Dapper Dan protests.
Dad! I protest back.
He says, Since when have you talked like that to us?
Kara says, Oh, she’s just teasing, Dan.
I say, I’m totally just teasing, Dan — I mean Dad. By the way, I think I’m gonna change my name.
Dapper Dan says, Oh, yeah?
Yeah, Dad, I say, yeah.

Mom has to spit something in her napkin and set it in her lap.

She says, Change your name to what, honey?
I say, Rebote, and I pronounce it correctly, with a perfect Latina accent.
Dapper Dan says, That sounds Spanish.
I say, It is, Dad. It’s totally Spanish.
He says, What does it mean?
It means Bounce, I tell him.
Kara says, You want to change your name to Bounce?
I say, I do, Mom, yes. But in Spanish. Rebote.
But why? she cries. Carla is such a pretty name.
And I say, Because Rebote suits me, don’t you think, team?

Then we’re all quiet and the music takes over.

I imagine Savi undulating in the kitchen. Dancing to her reflection in our state-of-the-art enormous fucking refrigerator.

Karla: Would you change your last name too? Because we’d hate for you to lose Reuschel.
I say, I would become Rebote Cravenslot.

Cravenslot, Dapper Dan says in a confused manner, hmmm.
I say, It has an infectious musicality, wouldn’t you agree?

They don’t answer. Instead they simply watch each other. They share unspoken information. The fabrics in their matching Armani suits send conspiratorial information across the table.

With a sweeping change of subject, Kara says, By the way, we received an exciting letter today.
Dapper Dan adds, Very exciting indeed.
Kara says, A letter about you.
Oh, Mom, what is it? I ask.

They place our carefully bought silverware down on our carefully bought plates.

Their movements are synchronized, ceremonious, almost religious.

You’ve been accepted to Groton! Mom cries through her perfect lips.
And to Canterbury! Dad squeals through his glam-rocker eyes.
And to the Kent School, for that matter! Mom sings from the top of her herb-soothed throat.
Congratulations, Carla!
We’re so proud of you!

I smile for their benefit.

Savi enters and clears a silver tin, then replaces it with another containing what appears to be yogurt with raisins in it.

Congratulations, she says in her silky voice, and returns to the kitchen.

Inside me there is a tree falling and it is on fire.

I will climb inside myself and ride this tree to wherever it lands.

I woke up with a tail

I growed it in the night like a tooth

brighty got jealous and pulled on it and I felled out of the tree and broke my hand and it felled off and now I only got one hand

the wolves didnt get me cause they was sleeping and the shewolf was busy eating dingdong

she tricked him down with her song and he was weak and stupid

raheem helped me back up into the tree and pulled his hand off and gave it to me for a present

he said he would grow a new one cause he ate the right bird egg

but dingdong and shane are dead and the wolves are getting stronger

tomorrow raheem said the snows coming
he knows cause the shewolf tells him secrets that he can feel in his belly

the shewolf makes the snow come with her song
it snows for as long as she sings
it will be freezing and one of us will fall

the one with the orange hair came in and gave me some medicine
they were little orange and blue pills
orange like his hair and blue like his eyes
he put a bunch in his hand and held it out

what are them I asked
wabbit teef he said
widdle baby wabbit teef

At the mall next to the Pinkberry there’s a church with a digital Jesus. It’s called PlasmaFaith. You can have a digital conversation with Jesus, Allah, Buddha, Jimmy Buffet, or this old bald man called Ben Kingsley. PlasmaFaith’s got five private booths and the spiritual magician of your choice comes to visit you on a high-def TV screen.

At Aladdin’s Castle I told Bounce I needed money for food. I still had the forty dollars Dirty Diana gave me but I didn’t want to spend it, just in case I needed it for a emergency, like if I got bit by a poisonous spider or I had to buy something for the Frog.

Bounce was playing Punch- Out!! She was busting Bald Bull’s ass and all these little nigger gangbangers were watching her techniques. Some Mexicans were watching her too. In between rounds she gave me ten dollars.

That’s Alexander Hamilton, she said pointing to the man’s face on the money. He was a Founding Father.
What did he find? I asked.
Debt, she said. The national debt. He was a genius.

She asked me where I was going and I told her Sbarro’s but I went to go see Digital Jesus instead.

When you walk into PlasmaFaith there’s this old lady in a white robe handing out brochures. She don’t say nothing to you, she just smiles. The carpet is purple. When I walked in, the woman in the robe was eating chicken McNuggets and playing Space Ninja on her iPhone.

The brochure says Jesus was the Son of God and that he died for our sins and that he could come relieve me of my burdens in digital form. I think burden means body pain, like pain from shitting or maybe pain from blindness, but I figured he would do other stuff too.

What you do is you type in questions on a keyboard and he answers them and gives you blessings. It costs a token a question. Each token costs fifty cents.

All the booths were taken, but after a minute, this woman came out of the middle one. She was holding a bucket of caramel corn and trying to wipe her eyes and eat the caramel corn at the same time.

The booth was small and smelled like those blue triangles they put in the urinals at Tom Toomer.

After I dropped the token in the slot there was all this music and then Digital Jesus appeared out of pure blackness.

Bless you, Digital Jesus said. What is your name?

I typed Wiggins.

Hello, Wiggins, he said.
I typed, Hello, Digital Jesus.

I’m not so good at typing. I don’t got no computer at home. Dirty Diana used to have one but she spilled a Red Bull on it. The only one I ever get to use is the one in Language Arts. Sometimes Miss Kimsey lets me stay after class to practice. She has a free period and I have fifteen minutes to get to Science Lab, so she gives me special treatment. She’s the youngest teacher at Tom Toomer and I like the way she smells. Like flowers and hot chili peppers.

Digital Jesus said, Wiggins, Would you care for a blessing or would you like to ask me a question?

His voice sounded like it was coming from all around you.

I typed, A blessing please.

Then he said, For whom would you like a blessing?
I typed, For the Frog please. Please Bless the Frog, Digital Jesus.

Digital Jesus looks like this guy in a rock video. From this band called Blueblack Window. Bounce likes them cause she says they’re psycho-punk. For someone who died for all the sins of the world Digital Jesus looked pretty fit and well rested.

Then this little piece of paper came out of a slot.

It said, GOD BLESS YOU, THE FROG. MAY GOD BLESS YOU AND KEEP YOU.

Then Digital Jesus said, For an additional token I’d be happy to bestow another blessing. Or perhaps you’d like to pose a question about your personal faith.

I just stared at him.

He said, Are you there, Wiggins?

My mom took me to church once. It was when I was maybe four or five. We went after my dad didn’t come back from the war. I remember we had to pray for a long time. I remember all the candles and the statues and how the priest kept wiping his face cause he was sweating so much.

Bless you, Wiggins, Digital Jesus said. Bless you, my son.

Then this music came on. Like violins and pianos and something that sounded like a rocket ship landing on a rainbow. There were doves and butterflies and little naked angels flying. I think I saw that leprechaun from the Lucky Charms commercial, too. That made me feel better for some reason. Then Digital Jesus floated backwards into a pink cloud of bumblebees and got smaller and smaller and disappeared and the screen went black.

And then there was this commercial for Tombstone pizza.

I had eight bucks left so I went to Taco Bell and got a taco supreme and a extra large Mountain Dew.

Lyde was there eating a pretzel. He was standing near the trash. He’s so fat he can’t fit in the foodcourt chairs.

He said, Wiggins.
I went, Hey, Lyde.
Where’s your boy Orange?
I don’t know, I said. Prolly at home.

Orange was at French Connection, at the other end of the mall. He was gonna steal this hoody with Shakira’s face on it. I think he’s trying to make Bounce jealous cause she won’t take his nuts.

Lyde said, Tell him to give a brotha a shout.

I nodded.

Then he asked me if I wanted to smoke some weed with him.

He was like, It’s the same shit Snoop Dogg smokes. Shit is mad heavenly, yo.

I told him I couldn’t and he made a face and kept eating his pretzel. He ate about half of it in one bite.

He went, What the fuck is you kids up to anyway? Copy machine. Digital camera. Computer cables. You startin a business or some shit? Tryin to jumpstart the economy?

No, I said.
He said, Come on, go get blunted with me. There’s this little room in the back of Best Buy.

I shook my head and kept eating my taco supreme.

He went, Mysterious little bitch, and headed to Boston Market.