Authors: Rainbow Rowell
out of the freezer and headed out
there.
He
could
smell
the
permanent-wave solution as soon
as he opened the door.
Park’s dad had converted their
garage into a salon when Josh
started kindergarten and their
mom went to beauty school. She
even had a little sign hanging by
the side door. ‘Mindy’s Hair &
Nails.’
‘Min-Dae,’ it said on her
driver’s license.
Everyone in the neighborhood
who could afford a hair stylist
came
to
Park’s
mom.
On
homecoming and prom weekends,
she’d spend all day in the garage.
Both Park and Josh were recruited
from time to time to hold hot
curling irons.
Today, his mom had Tina
sitting in her chair. Tina’s hair was
wound tight in rollers, and Park’s
mom was squeezing something
onto them with a plastic bottle.
The smell burned his eyes.
‘Hey, Mom,’ he said. ‘Hey,
Tina.’
‘Hey, honey,’ his mom said.
She pronounced it with two ‘n’s.
Tina smiled broadly at him.
‘Close eyes, Ti-na,’ his mom said.
‘Stay close.’
‘Hey, Mrs Sheridan,’ Tina
said, holding a white washcloth
over her eyes, ‘have you met
Park’s girlfriend yet?’
His mom didn’t look up from
Tina’s head. ‘Nooo,’ she said,
clucking
her
tongue.
‘No
girlfriend. Not Park.’
‘Uh-huh,’ Tina said. ‘Tell her,
Park – her name is Eleanor, and
she’s new this year. We can’t keep
them apart on the bus.’
Park stared at Tina. Shocked
that she’d sell him out like this.
Startled by her rosy take on bus
life. Surprised that she was even
paying attention to him, and to
Eleanor. His mom looked over at
Park, but not for long; Tina’s hair
was at a critical stage.
‘I don’t know about any
girlfriend,’ his mom said.
‘I’ll bet you’ve seen her in the
neighborhood,’
Tina
said,
assuring. ‘She has really pretty,
red hair. Naturally curly.’
‘Is that right?’ his mom said.
‘No,’ Park said, anger and
everything else curdling in his
stomach.
‘You’re such a guy, Park,’
Tina said from behind the
washcloth. ‘I’m sure it’s natural.’
‘No,’ he said, ‘she’s not my
girlfriend.
I
don’t
have
a
girlfriend,’ he said to his mom.
‘Okay, okay,’ she said. ‘Too
much girl talk for you. Too much
girl talk, Ti-na. You go check on
dinner now,’ she said to Park.
He backed out of the garage,
still wanting to argue, feeling more
denial twitching in his throat. He
slammed the door, then went into
the kitchen and slammed as much
as he could in there. The oven.
The cabinets. The trash.
‘What the hell is wrong with
you?’ his dad said, walking into
the kitchen.
Park froze. He could
not
get
into trouble tonight.
‘Nothing,’ he said. ‘Sorry. I’m
sorry.’
‘Jesus, Park, take it out on the
bag …’ There was an old-school
punching bag in the garage,
hanging way out of Park’s reach.
‘Mindy!’ his dad shouted.
‘Out here!’
Eleanor didn’t call during dinner,
which was good. That got on his
dad’s nerves.
But she didn’t call after dinner
either. Park walked around the
house,
picking
things
up
randomly,
then
setting
them
down. Even though it didn’t make
sense, he worried that Eleanor
wasn’t
calling
because
he’d
betrayed her. That she knew
somehow, that she’d sensed a
disturbance in the Force.
The phone rang at 7:15, and
his mom answered it. He could tell
right away that it was his grandma.
Park tapped his fingers on a
bookshelf. Why didn’t his parents
want call waiting? Everyone had
call waiting. His
grandparents
had
call waiting. And why couldn’t his
grandma just come over, if she
wanted to talk? They lived right
next door.
‘No, I don’t think so,’ his
mother said. ‘
Sixty Minutes
always
on Sunday … Maybe you think of
Twenty-Twenty
? No? … John
Stos-sel? No? … Geraldo Rivera?
Di-anne Sawyer?’
Park gently banged his head
against the living room wall.
‘God damn it, Park,’ his dad
snapped, ‘
what
is wrong with
you?’
His dad and Josh were trying
to watch
The A-Team
.
‘Nothing,’ Park said, ‘nothing.
I’m sorry. I’m just waiting for a
phone call.’
‘Is your girlfriend calling?’
Josh asked. ‘Park’s dating Big
Red.’
‘She’s not—’ Park caught
himself shouting and clenched his
fists. ‘If I ever hear you call her
that again, I’ll kill you. I’ll literally
kill you. I’ll go to jail for the rest
of my life, and it’ll break Mom’s
heart, but I will. Kill. You.’
His dad looked at Park like he
always did, like he was trying to
figure out what the fuck was
wrong with him.
‘Park has a girlfriend?’ he
asked Josh. ‘Why do they call her
Big Red?’
‘I think it’s because she has
red hair and giant tits,’ Josh said.
‘No way, dirty mouth,’ their
mother said. She held her hand
over the phone. ‘You’ – she
pointed at Josh – ‘in your room.
Now
.’
‘But, Mom,
The A-Team
is
on.’
‘You heard your mother,’ their
dad said. ‘You don’t get to talk
like that in this house.’
‘You talk like that,’ Josh said,
dragging himself off the couch.
‘I’m thirty-nine years old,’
their dad said, ‘and a decorated
veteran. I’ll say whatever the hell I
want.’
Their mother jabbed a long
fingernail at his dad and covered
the phone again. ‘I’ll send you to
your room, too.’
‘Honey, I wish you would,’
their dad said, throwing a throw
pillow at her.
‘Hugh Downs?’ Park’s mom
said into the phone. The pillow
fell on the floor and she picked it
up. ‘No? … Okay, I’ll keep
thinking. Okay. Love you. Okay,
bye-bye.’
As soon as she hung up, the
phone rang. Park sprung away
from the wall. His dad grinned at
him. His mom answered the
phone.
‘Hello?’ she said. ‘Yes, one
moment please.’ She looked at
Park. ‘Telephone.’
‘Can I take it in my room?’
His mom nodded. His dad
mouthed, ‘Big Red.’
Park ran into his room, then
stopped to catch his breath before
he picked up the phone. He
couldn’t. He picked it up anyway.
‘I got it, Mom, thanks.’
He waited for the click.
‘Hello?’
‘Hi,’ Eleanor said. He felt all of
the tension rush out of him.
Without it, he could hardly stand
up.
‘Hi,’ he breathed.
She giggled.
‘What?’ he said.
‘I don’t know,’ she said. ‘Hi.’
‘I didn’t think you were going
to call.’
‘It’s not even 7:30.’
‘Yeah, well … is your brother
asleep?’
‘He’s not my brother,’ she
said. ‘I mean, not yet. I guess my
dad’s engaged to his mom. But,
no, he’s not asleep. He’s watching
Fraggle Rock
.’
Park carefully picked up the
phone and carried it to his bed. He
sat down gently. He didn’t want
her to hear anything. He didn’t
want her to know he had a twin-
sized waterbed and a phone
shaped like a Ferrari.
‘What time is your dad coming
home?’ he asked.
‘Late, I hope. They said they
almost never get a babysitter.’
‘Cool.’
She giggled again.
‘
What?
’ he asked.
‘I don’t know,’ she said, ‘I feel
like you’re whispering in my ear.’
‘I’m always whispering in
your ear,’ he said, lying back on
his pillows.
‘Yeah, but it’s usually about,
like, Magneto or something.’ Her
voice was higher on the phone,
and richer, like he was listening to
it on headphones.
‘I’m not going to say anything
tonight that I could say on the bus
or during English class,’ he said.
‘And I’m not going to say
anything that I can’t say in front of
a three-year-old.’
‘Nice.’
‘I’m just kidding. He’s in the
other room, and he’s totally
ignoring me.’
‘So …’ Park said.
‘So …’ she said, ‘… things we
can’t say on the bus.’
‘Things we can’t say on the
bus – go.’
‘I hate those people,’ she said.
He laughed, then thought of
Tina and was glad that Eleanor
couldn’t see his face. ‘Me, too,
sometimes. I mean, I guess I’m
used to them. I’ve known most of
them my whole life. Steve’s my
next-door neighbor.’
‘How did that happen?’
‘What do you mean?’ he
asked.
‘I mean, you don’t seem like
you’re from there …’
‘Because I’m Korean?’
‘You’re Korean?’
‘Half.’
‘I guess I don’t really know
what that means.’
‘Me neither,’ he said.
‘What do you mean? Are you
adopted?’
‘No. My mom’s from Korea.
She just doesn’t talk about it very
much.’
‘How did she end up in the
Flats?’
‘My dad. He served in Korea,
they fell in love, and he brought
her back.’
‘Wow, really?’
‘Yeah.’
‘That’s pretty romantic.’
Eleanor didn’t know the half
of it; his parents were probably
making out right now. ‘I guess
so,’ he said.
‘That’s not what I meant
though. I meant … that you’re
different from the other people in
the neighborhood, you know?’
Of course he knew. They’d all
been telling him so his whole life.
When Tina liked Park instead of
Steve in grade school, Steve had
said, ‘I think she feels safe with
you because you’re like half girl.’
Park hated football. He cried when
his dad took him pheasant
hunting.
Nobody
in
the
neighborhood could ever tell who
he was dressed as on Halloween.
(‘I’m Doctor Who.’ ‘I’m Harpo
Marx.’ ‘I’m Count Floyd.’) And
he kind of wanted his mom to
give him blond highlights. Park
knew
he was different.
‘No,’ he said. ‘I don’t know.’
‘You …’ she said, ‘you’re so
… cool.’
Eleanor
‘Cool?’ he said.
God. She couldn’t believe
she’d said that. Talk about uncool.
Like the opposite of cool. Like, if
you looked up ‘cool’ in the
dictionary, there’d be a photo of
some cool person there saying,
‘What the eff is wrong with you,
Eleanor?’
‘I’m not cool,’ he said.
‘You’re cool.’
‘Ha,’ she said. ‘I wish I were
drinking milk, and I wish you
were here, so that you could
watch it shoot out my nose in
response to that.’
‘Are you kidding me?’ he said.
‘You’re Dirty Harry.’
‘I’m dirty hairy?’
‘Like Clint Eastwood, you
know?’
‘No.’
‘You don’t care what anyone
thinks about you,’ he said.
‘That’s crazy,’ she said. ‘I care
what
everyone
thinks about me.’
‘I can’t tell,’ he said. ‘You just
seem like yourself, no matter
what’s happening around you. My
grandmother would say you’re
comfortable in your own skin.’
‘Why would she say that?’
‘Because that’s how she talks.’
‘I ’m
stuck
in my own skin,’
Eleanor said. ‘And why are we
even talking about me? We were
talking about you.’
‘I’d rather talk about you,’ he
said. His voice dropped a little. It
was nice to hear just his voice and
nothing else. (Nothing besides
Fraggle Rock
in the next room.)