My Chemical Mountain by Corina Vacco

Author:Corina Vacco [Vacco, Corina]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 978-0-307-97504-1
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Published: 2013-06-11T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 15

SHOCK

THE argument is hard to follow. Gramps says something about experimental surgery. Cornpup says something about Dr. Gupta, who knows how to make burn victims look a lot better than lizards, who understands skin the way steelworkers understand hot metal. Gramps says Cornpup is gonna end up deformed. And Cornpup says, “Look at me. I’m already deformed.” They shout back and forth about detox tea, skin cream, and the difference between a plastic surgeon and a witch doctor. Gramps says there’s no way Cornpup’s mom is gonna give him two hundred dollars. And Cornpup says he just needs her to sign the consent forms; he’ll find a way to come up with the money on his own.

Me and Charlie look at each other. Cornpup has been hiding things.

It’s hard to breathe in this stuffy room, surrounded by maple syrup and piles of random junk. There is a tuba in the kitchen sink, a heap of books spilling out of the coat closet, a gooey pile of Scrabble squares and Monopoly hotels at my feet. Viper is the only peaceful thing. He just met me today, and already he is sleeping soundly in my lap.

Gramps shuffles across the sticky floor. No one would ever look at him and think, Steelworker, lost two fingers saving another man’s arm, could work an open-hearth furnace in his sleep. “I’m not paying you to do the syrup anymore. If you want to stop coming here, that’s fine. At least you know where I stand.”

Cornpup drops the syrup tub. He looks up at us, like he’s just now remembering we’re here. He says, “I’m getting my skin fixed for real this time. And no one is going to stop me.” Then he runs out the door.

I wish I had a pencil and a piece of scrap paper. I’d sketch a picture of Gramps as a carnivorous plant, growing out of a steel bucket of maple syrup.

“He’s a fool,” Gramps says to us. “I know you boys think you know everything, but experimental surgery is no joke. He could die. For what? For pretty skin! And you two are no better. Self-absorbed fools is what you are.”

Charlie says, “You don’t know us. You don’t know anything about us,” and storms out the front door.

Now me and Viper are stuck dealing with Gramps, who is clearly insane. I would explain our world to him, but he would never understand. We cross a landfill on our way to school. We swim in creek water that smells like nail polish remover. Charlie can convert a third and twenty-six situation into a touchdown. I can create a world of uranium monsters and blind creek serpents on a sheet of blank paper. Cornpup can transform a pile of broken metal parts into a four-foot-tall robot. We are not fools. We are brave and brilliant.

Gramps touches my arm. There are tears in his eyes. “Will you talk to him for me?” he says. “Will you tell him not to do the surgery?”

“I don’t know.

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