Authors: Rainbow Rowell
lame,’ he said.
‘I did.’
‘Lame and fantastic?’
‘Those are both your middle
names …’
‘I want to try again.’
‘Try what again? Your
Karate
Kid
thing? I think that would be
less fantastic. You’ve got to know
when to walk away …’
‘No, I want you to come over
again. Would you?’
‘It doesn’t matter,’ she said.
‘You’re grounded.’
‘Yeah …’
Eleanor
Everybody at school knew that
Eleanor was the reason Park
Sheridan kicked Steve Dixon in
the mouth.
There was a new kind of
whispering when she walked
down the halls.
Somebody in geography asked
her if it was true that they were
fighting
over
her. ‘No!’ Eleanor
said. ‘For Christ’s sake.’
Later she wished that she
would have said ‘Yes!’ – because
if that had gotten back to Tina, oh
my God, it would have made her
furious.
On the day of the fight,
DeNice and Beebi wanted Eleanor
to tell them every gory detail.
Especially the gory details. DeNice
even bought Eleanor an ice cream
cone to celebrate.
‘Anyone who whups Steve
Dixon’s sorry ass deserves a
medal,’ DeNice said.
‘I didn’t go near Steve’s ass,’
Eleanor said.
‘But you were the cause of the
ass-whupping,’ DeNice said. ‘I
heard your boy kicked him so
hard, Steve cried blood.’
‘That’s not true,’ Eleanor said.
‘Girl, you need to learn a
lesson about standing in your own
light,’ DeNice said. ‘If my Jonesy
kicked Steve’s ass, I’d be walking
around this place singing that song
f r o m
Rocky
. Nuh-nuh, nuhhh,
nuh-nuh, nuhhh …’
That
made
Beebi
giggle.
Everything DeNice said made
Beebi giggle. They’d been best
friends since grade school, and the
better she got to know them, the
more Eleanor felt like it was an
honor that they’d let her into their
club.
Granted, it was a weird club.
DeNice was wearing her
overalls today with a pink T-shirt,
pink and yellow hair ribbons and
a pink bandana tied around her
leg. When they were standing in
line for ice cream, some boy
walked by and told DeNice that
she looked like a black Punky
Brewster.
DeNice didn’t even flinch. ‘I
don’t need to worry about that
riffraff,’ she said to Eleanor. ‘I got
a man.’
Jonesy and DeNice were
engaged. He’d already graduated
and was working as an assistant
manager at ShopKo. They were
getting married as soon as DeNice
was legal.
‘And your man’s fine,’ Beebi
said, giggling.
When Beebi giggled, Eleanor
giggled, too. Beebi’s laugh was
that contagious. And she always
had a manic, surprised look in her
eyes – that look people get when
they can’t keep a straight face.
‘Eleanor wouldn’t think he’s
fine,’ DeNice teased. ‘She’s only
interested in stone-cold killers.’
Park
‘How long am I grounded?’ Park
asked his father.
‘That’s not up to me, that’s up
to your mother.’
His dad was sitting on the
couch, reading
Soldier of Fortune
.
‘She says forever,’ Park said.
‘I guess it’s forever then.’
It was almost Christmas break.
If Park was grounded during
Christmas break, he’d have to go
three
weeks
without
seeing
Eleanor.
‘Dad …’
‘I’ve got an idea,’ his dad said,
setting down the magazine. ‘You
can be ungrounded as soon as you
learn to drive a stick. Then you
can drive your girlfriend around
…’
‘What girlfriend?’ his mother
said. She came in the front door,
carrying groceries. Park got up to
help her. His dad got up to give
her a welcome-home tongue kiss.
‘I told Park I’d unground him
if he learned how to drive.’
‘I know how to drive,’ Park
shouted from the kitchen.
‘Learning how to drive an
automatic is like learning how to
do a girl pushup,’ his dad said.
‘No girl,’ his mother said.
‘Grounded.’
‘But for how long?’ Park
asked, walking back into the
living room. His parents were
sitting on the couch. ‘You can’t
ground me forever.’
‘Sure we can,’ his dad said.
‘Why?’ Park asked.
His mother looked agitated.
‘You’re grounded until you stop
thinking about that trouble girl.’
Park and his dad both broke
character to look at her.
‘What trouble girl?’ Park
asked.
‘Big Red?’ his dad asked.
‘I don’t like her,’ his mother
said, adamantly. ‘She comes to my
house and cries, very weird girl,
and then next thing I know, you’re
kicking friends and school is
calling, face broken … And
everybody, everybody, tell me that
family is trouble. Just trouble. I
don’t want it.’
Park took a breath and held it.
Everything inside of him felt too
hot to let out.
‘Mindy …’ his dad said,
holding a wait-a-minute hand up
to Park.
‘No,’ she said, ‘
no
. No weird
white girl in my house.’
‘I don’t know if you’ve
noticed, but weird white girls are
my only option,’ Park said as
loudly as he could. Even this
angry, he couldn’t yell at his
mother.
‘There are other girls,’ his
mother said. ‘Good girls.’
‘She
is
a good girl,’ Park said.
‘You don’t even know her.’
His dad was standing, pushing
Park toward the door. ‘Go,’ he
said sternly. ‘Go play basketball or
something.’
‘Good girls don’t dress like
boys,’ his mother said.
‘Go,’ his dad said.
Park didn’t feel like playing
basketball, and it was too cold
outside without his coat. He stood
in front of his house for a few
minutes, then stomped over to his
grandparents’ house. He knocked,
then opened the door; they never
locked it.
They were both in the kitchen,
w a t c h i n g
Family
Feud
.
His
grandmother was making Polish
sausage.
‘Park!’ she said. ‘I must have
known you were coming. I made
way too many Tater Tots.’
‘I
thought
you
were
grounded,’ his grandpa said.
‘Hush, Harold, you can’t be
grounded
from
your
own
grandparents … Are you feeling
okay, honey? You look flushed.’
‘I’m just cold,’ Park said.
‘Are you staying for dinner?’
‘Yeah,’ he said.
After dinner, they watched
Matlock
.
His
grandmother
crocheted. She was working on a
blanket for somebody’s baby
shower. Park stared at the TV, but
didn’t take anything in.
His grandmother had filled the
wall behind the TV with framed
eight-by-ten photographs. There
were pictures of his dad and his
dad’s older brother who died in
Vietnam, and pictures of Park and
Josh from every school year.
There was a smaller photo of his
parents, on their wedding day. His
dad was in his dress uniform, and
his mom was wearing a pink
miniskirt. Somebody had written
‘Seoul, 1970’ in the corner. His
dad was twenty-three. His mom
was eighteen, only two years older
than Park.
Everybody had thought she
must be pregnant, his dad had told
him. But she wasn’t. ‘Practically
pregnant,’ his dad said, ‘but that’s
a different thing … We were just
in love.’
Park hadn’t expected his mom
to like Eleanor, not right away –
but he hadn’t expected her to
reject her, either. His mom was so
nice to everybody. ‘Your mother’s
an angel,’ his grandma always
said. It’s what everyone always
said.
His grandparents sent him
home after
Hill Street Blues
.
His mom had gone to bed, but
his dad was sitting on the couch,
waiting for him. Park tried to walk
past.
‘Sit down,’ his dad said.
Park sat down.
‘You’re
not
grounded
anymore.’
‘Why not?’
‘It doesn’t matter why not.
You’re not grounded, and your
mother is sorry, you know, for
everything she said.’
‘You’re just saying that,’ Park
said.
His dad sighed. ‘Well, maybe I
am. But that doesn’t matter either.
Your mother wants what’s best
for you, right? Hasn’t she always
wanted what’s best for you?’
‘I guess …’
‘So she’s just worried about
you. She thinks she can help you
pick out a girlfriend the same way
she helps you pick out your
classes and your clothes …’
‘She doesn’t pick out my
clothes.’
‘Jesus, Park, could you just
shut up and listen?’
Park sat quietly in the blue
easy chair.
‘This is new to us, you know?
Your mother’s sorry. She’s sorry
that she hurt your feelings, and
she wants you to invite your
girlfriend over to dinner.’
‘So that she can make her feel
bad and weird?’
‘Well, she is kind of weird,
isn’t she?’
Park didn’t have the energy to
be angry. He sighed and let his
head fall back on the chair. His
dad kept talking.
‘Isn’t that why you like her?’
Park knew he should still be mad.
He knew there were big
chunks of this situation that were
completely uncool and out of
order.
But
he
wasn’t
grounded
anymore, he was going to get to
spend more time with Eleanor …
Maybe they’d even find a way to
be alone. Park couldn’t wait to tell
her. He couldn’t wait for morning.
CHAPTER 24
Eleanor
It was a terrible thing to admit. But
sometimes Eleanor slept right
through the yelling.
Especially after she’d been
back a couple months. If she were
to wake up every time Richie got
angry … If she got scared every
time she heard him yelling in the
back room …
Sometimes Maisie would wake
her up, crawling into the top
bunk. Maisie wouldn’t let Eleanor
see her cry during the day, but she
shook like a little baby and sucked
her thumb at night. All five of
them had learned to cry without
making any noise. ‘It’s okay,’
Eleanor would say, hugging her.
‘It’s okay.’
Tonight, when Eleanor woke
up, she knew something was
different.
She heard the back door slam
open. And she realized that,
before she’d been quite awake,
she’d heard men’s voices outside.
Men cursing.
There was more slamming in
the kitchen – and then gunshots.
Eleanor knew they were gunshots,
even though she’d never heard
any before.
Gang members, she thought.
Drug
dealers.
Rapists.
Gang
members who were also drug-
dealing rapists. She could imagine
a thousand heinous people who
might have some bone to pick out
of Richie’s skull – even his
friends were scary.
She must have started to get
out of bed as soon as she heard
the gunshots. She was already on
the bottom bunk, crawling over
Maisie.
‘Don’t
move,’
she
whispered, not sure whether
Maisie was awake.
Eleanor opened the window
just enough to fit through. There
wasn’t any screen. She climbed
out and ran as lightly as she could
off the porch. She stopped at the
house next door – an old guy
named Gil lived there. He wore
suspenders with T-shirts and gave
them dirty looks when he was
sweeping his sidewalk.
Gil took forever to answer the
door, and when he did, Eleanor