Brendan Buckley's Sixth-Grade Experiment by Sundee T. Frazier

Author:Sundee T. Frazier [Frazier, Sundee T.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-375-89930-0
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Published: 2012-01-10T05:00:00+00:00

Mom was so ecstatic about passing the home study, she either forgot about or just overlooked Dad’s being late. She got on the phone as soon as Mary left to tell Grandpa Ed the good news.

While Mom talked to Grandpa Ed, Gladys added her commentary. “They’ll put you behind the wheel of a car or hand you a lethal weapon with less scrutiny than what we got today. I’m telling you, Sam, any Jane, John, or JuLinda can have a baby, and they don’t have to go through everything short of a body-cavity search. But as soon as you say you want to adopt …” Gladys raised her voice. “Kate, did you tell Rock they even checked your crapper? Oh, and what about Mary’s face when she saw those bottles of dung! Tell him about that, Kate!” Gladys hooted.

“Mama, please. Quiet down already.” Dad left the room. I stayed to be entertained.

After dinner, Dad took Gladys home. When he returned, Mom and I were in the living room talking about what life would be like with a baby. Dad perched on the love seat. “Hey, I keep forgetting to ask. Can you take Brendan to Tae Kwon Do tomorrow night?”

“You said we were going to talk about it!” Now it was my turn to get mad at Dad.

“Wait a minute. What’s going on?” Mom looked back and forth between us.

“Tomorrow is the monthly rock club meeting,” I said.

“Master Rickman thinks Brendan needs some extra practice. And so do I,” said Dad. “I told him he needed to be in the dojang tomorrow.”

“You told me we’d talk about it at home.”

Mom frowned. “Couldn’t he put in an extra practice next week, Sam? The rock club’s just once a month.”

“The rock club’s not going anywhere,” Dad said.

“And Tae Kwon Do is?” I said. “It’s only been around like a thousand years!” I knew I was “giving him lip,” as he called it, but I didn’t care. He was going back on his word. He’d probably never intended to discuss it at all.

“Do you want to get your black belt or not?” he asked.

I did, but I had other interests, too. Couldn’t he understand that? Probably not. His whole life revolved around being a police officer. “Yes, but—”

“Then you need to earn it, and that means putting in the time. You’ve got to see it through, Brendan.”

“I will. I’ll go to the studio twice next week, like Mom said. I’ll go twice a week every week except for the weeks we have the rock club meeting, if that’s what you want.” I spit the words.

Mom’s mouth was all bunched up, as if she were trying to keep herself from speaking. I didn’t understand why. She knew Dad was being too hard about this.

“Fine,” Dad said.

Somehow it didn’t seem fine.

Later, after we’d all gone to bed, I came out of my room to get a drink from the bathroom. Mom and Dad’s bedroom door was cracked. “What was going on between you and Brendan earlier?” I heard Mom ask.

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