Family Ties by Gary Paulsen

Author:Gary Paulsen [Paulsen, Gary]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-385-37382-1
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Published: 2014-07-21T16:00:00+00:00

Tuesday afternoon I bounced home, eager to see Papa and hoping he’d be in the mood for a little midafternoon snack. When Papa’s in town, we go to Ruby’s Shake Shack for hand-churned French vanilla ice cream with homemade hot fudge sauce, sliced bananas, slivered almonds and a tower of fluffy whipped cream.

And I knew that some ice cream, maybe a ten-spot slipped in my pocket and a good talk with Papa would calm me down.

Papa’s usually waiting on the front step for me when I get home after school. Tuesday, however, some hippy-dippy bald guy wearing combat boots, baggy fatigue pants and a peace sign T-shirt was sitting on the top step, playing the guitar. Lola sat next to him, softly patting a set of bongo drums.

“Kevin! Honey! This is my grandson, Brad.”

Brad, still strumming, nodded at me and spelled, “S-N-O-W-P-H-I-S-H.”

“Excuse me?”

“My old name was Brad. My new name is Snowphish. Snowphish Om.”

“Really.”

Lola smiled and shrugged.

“Yeah.” Snowphish started twisting the pegs on his guitar and plucking the strings. I’m not musical, but even I could tell he was doing the opposite of tuning his instrument, because the fillings in my molars started to vibrate from the sound. “My chosen nomenclature is more aligned with where I am artistically, you know?”

“No, not at all.”

“Few do. It’s a learned process. Daring. Not many take the risk to open themselves in search of the purpose and meaning of the universe and then seek the name meant for them rather than blindly taking what was randomly assigned.”

“I’ve always been good with Kevin.”

“Kevin. Keeeeeeeeeeevin. Kevvvvvvvvvvvin. Kevinnnnnnnnnnn.” Snowphish tried out my name in several different ways to get a feel for it, I guess. “Yeah, you know, I dig that. It’s very wah.”

“Wah?”

“Yeah. Wah is the cosmic flow and universal energy that pervades and fuels every living cell. Wah is very peaceful and yet inspiring. Wah makes you want to take a nap and then save the world.”

“Uh … huh.” I like Lola, and she was sitting right there listening to us, so I tried to be polite and stop myself from asking how many concussions he’d suffered. One of the guys on Daniel’s hockey team sounded like this after he’d been checked into the boards super hard during regionals last year.

“Hi, Dutchdeefuddy.” That’s my name according to Markie. At least in his mind, it means best, most favorite buddy in the world forever. Markie stood beside me, beaming.

I hadn’t noticed Markie’s mother dropping Sparky and him off in the driveway after preschool and then zooming away so I could babysit.

Sparky took one look at Snowphish and hurried to hide behind Lola. Markie stood in front of Snowphish, staring at his shiny scalp.

“Where’s your hair?”

“Hair is death,” Snowphish told Markie, nodding solemnly.

Markie looked horrified, gently patting the top of his head.

“Hair is nothing more than dead cells. Bad energy, little guy. Blocks the flow of wisdom free-floating in the atmosphere from permeating your head. Hair is a buffer between you and the truth. Hair keeps you ignorant and downtrodden.

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