Still Life With Tornado by King A. S

Author:King, A. S. [King, A. S.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Young Adult, Contemporary, Fantasy
ISBN: 9781101994887
Amazon: 1101994886
Goodreads: 28588459
Publisher: Dutton Books for Young Readers
Published: 2016-10-11T07:00:00+00:00

The Movies

I said I’d call him back tomorrow. I nearly told him I was having an existential crisis, but it didn’t seem fair to him. He’s in Oregon and a stranger now. I’m in Philly and a stranger now, too.

Ten-year-old Sarah asks, “Wanna go find Earl?”

“I don’t follow Earl anymore.” I don’t tell her that I think I’ve become Earl.

“Okay.”

“I think I need a nap.”

“You were up all night,” she says.

“Do you want to come to dinner this week?” I ask.

“That’s weird.”

“Mom says we’re having tacos.”

“I love tacos.”

“I know. I’m you.”

“You don’t know who you are,” she says.

We walk back home and ten-year-old Sarah asks me how Bruce is. I tell her I’ll know more tomorrow. It’s getting near twilight and I feel like last night made me lose a day. Ten-year-old Sarah says she wants to come in and I let her come in because I know Mom will be working and Dad didn’t recognize her last time.

Mom is there when we walk in. She doesn’t look at first. Just says, “Sarah? Is that you?” Ten-year-old Sarah and I both say yes. “I got the night off—switched with Georgie for Tuesday. Your father got called into work today. Some weekend insurance emergency, I guess. Want to go see a movie or something?” She’s dusting the mantelpiece, her back to us. We stand there, twins but not twins, and she turns around.

“Hi,” we say.

She freezes. She puts her fingertips to her chest. She squints. She frowns. She concentrates. She crosses her eyes. She scratches her head. She finds her way to the couch and sits down, still staring. We stand there.

“Sarah?” she asks.

We both nod.

I say, “Dad said she could come for dinner this week but I forget which day.”

“This—this is your—friend? From around the block?”

“Hi!” ten-year-old Sarah says with a wave. Same wave I have. Same wave we’ve always had. The circular fun wave.

“He said we were going to have tacos,” I say.

Ten-year-old Sarah says, “I love tacos!”

Mom is speechless.

“And I love movies!” ten-year-old Sarah adds. “Can we go, Sarah?”

“I need a nap,” I say.

Mom says, “I need a glass of water.”

I go to the kitchen and get a glass and get her some water out of the water cooler we have because of trihalomethanes. Philadelphia water has some history with trihalomethanes, and Mom avoids cancer when she’s not in the ER. Who doesn’t?

As the water glup-glup-glups from the cooler into the glass, I hear ten-year-old Sarah talking to Mom, but I can’t hear what she’s saying. When I come back into the living room, they are both sitting on the couch.

“We’re going to a movie!” ten-year-old Sarah says. “You can come with us. Or you can take that nap if you want.”

I look at Mom. “Isn’t that a little weird?” I look at ten-year-old Sarah. “Don’t you have to be home by dark?”

“I know who she is,” Mom says.

I don’t answer.

“How could I not recognize my own daughter?”

This is all happening too fast. And I’ve stopped thinking about how unoriginal everything is because this is original.

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