Election by Tom Perrotta

Author:Tom Perrotta [Perrotta, Tom]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Published: 2009-02-27T06:00:00+00:00

TAMMY WARREN

I WAS WATCHING my yoga program when Mom got home from work. She shot me a dirty look, then stormed into the kitchen. It was hard for me to imagine my heart as an unfolding flower with her slamming cabinets, banging pots, and heaving those bottomless sighs of exasperation.

She opted for the silent treatment when we sat down to eat. Paul was dining elsewhere, so the meal was quiet as a chess match, two grand masters puzzling over a chicken casserole. After a while I got tired of listening to myself masticate.

“I didn't do it,” I told her.

She stabbed angrily at a little green brain of broccoli.

“Mr. Hendricks said you admitted it.”

“I lied.”

Confusion softened her features.

“Were you covering for someone?”

“Nope.”

“Then why would you lie?”

“Because I felt like getting suspended.”

I'd underestimated my power to shock my mother. I thought she'd be happy to know I hadn't destroyed images of her son's face.

“But why?” Her question was barely audible, her eyes big and pleading.

A strange pressure gathered in my throat. I shut my eyes and searched for the unfolding flower, but all I came up with was that weird illustration in my Biology textbook, the one that makes the human heart look like a cleanly plucked chicken.

“Because,” I told her.

That was the best I could do.

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