One Lonely Degree by C. K. Kelly Martin

Author:C. K. Kelly Martin [martin, c. k. kelly]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 978-0-375-85392-0
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Published: 2009-08-21T04:00:00+00:00

MOm DOeSn’T TeLL me I have to take Dad’s phone calls. Most of the time she’s too tired to care what I do. I think some small part of her is also relieved to have me on her side. Not that I ever really took sides before. It was just easier for Dad and me to understand each other. We’re both back-of-the-room people, while Mom usually prefers the spotlight. I say “usually” because she’s spent the majority of the past two weeks sequestered in her bedroom. If it weren’t for me, Daniel would be massacring soldiers until midnight.

Mom’s new eight o’clock bedtime doesn’t help her get out of bed any. She hits snooze five times every morning, and when she finally leaves for work she looks unfinished, like the same raw version of herself that emerges from the bathroom at seven in the evening after her shower. It’s obvious she’s depressed, but I don’t know what to do about it. How are my parents supposed to work things out when they’re never around each other?

Maybe if Dad would spend more time with Mom on the phone instead of letting Daniel monopolize the conversation, we’d get somewhere. Maybe I wouldn’t feel like a third-class passenger on the Titanic. Because right now that’s what it seems like.

I’m sinking.

And no one’s around to stop me. Dad’s drinking beer on a lawn chair up north, ripping through a stack of nonfiction, Audrey’s playing sleepover with her French cousins, and Mom’s hiding out under a queen-sized pillow.

If it weren’t for Play Country, I’d go insane. That sounds certifiable, I know. Suzanne keeps doling out impossibly long lists and I have a ladder phobia that makes the high stuff a nightmare and Nishani still isn’t on cash like she’s supposed to be and this nineteen-year-old guy named Kevin constantly stands too close to you like he’s about to smack his lips against yours. It’s terrible, but it’s there.

Gerald Goldmann flashes smiles at everyone, afraid to come off like a big bad boss. Suzanne thinks he’s a wuss and rides everyone extra hard to make up for it. That makes all the employees hate her, especially the cute customer-service-booth girls with the tiny Play Country shirts that Gerald smiles at the widest. Actually, I don’t even think he knows he’s doing it. I think Gerald’s one of those guys who never got near a pretty girl in high school and is still in awe of them.

Nishani laughs when I explain my theories. “You should be a psychoanalyst. You’ve got it all figured out.” She tosses her thick black hair back and hurls a bundle of M&M’s into the candy bin. “So what’s Kevin’s story? Let me guess.” Her teeth poke out from between her lips. “His mother didn’t breastfeed him.”

“Exactly.” I shudder and look over my shoulder. Kevin loves to sneak up behind you and earwig. I don’t know what he thinks he’s going to do with the information. Nobody in Play Country has anything useful to say.

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