American Nerd by Benjamin Nugent

Author:Benjamin Nugent
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2018-06-12T16:00:00+00:00

In eighth grade, Darren moved back in with his mother, who was trying to clean up. (“Junkies are always trying to clean up,” he said.) The gang from the oak table at the Jones Library celebrated his birthday at her little tan-carpeted living room/kitchen area, and I gave Darren a cassette of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, which played on the stereo while he led us through a D&D adventure. His mother looked like an ethnicity I had never seen before, gaunt with brown hair pulled back in a tight ponytail, skin faintly yellow. I didn’t know anything about her condition. A popcorn popper with a translucent yellow mouth was sitting in the sink and a bowl of popcorn was on the table.

“Where’s the popper, Darren?” she demanded.

“In the sink, Ma,” he said.

“Why’d you put it there?” Her voice rose to what sounded like its straining point, not very loud. “You’re such an idiot.” Darren looked at her for a moment, and she folded her arms, and stared down at the sink, and was silent for a while. The chain of imaginary skirmishes Darren had arranged rolled over his mother’s silence, and she remained distant, insofar as the apartment would allow, lingering by the dishes and the fridge, away from the table and our embarrassed laughter.

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