Good Kids: A Novel by Benjamin Nugent Read Free Book Online

oscillating between Nancy and my father. She spoke very slowly now. “ Gee, I wonder why you guys just happened to be hanging out when I called.” She looked at me pointedly before she turned back to the parents. “Speaking of petty rebellion, ” she continued, “you two are obviously sleeping together.”
    “That’s ridiculous,” said Nancy. “We work at the same college. They called me out of the meeting and told me you were in the custody of the police.”
    “I found your time line,” said Khadijah.
    “I found your ring,” I blurted at my father. When I said ring I made quotation marks with my hands.
    Things went silent for what seemed like quite a long time. Brian tucked his head into his overcoat like a turtle, slapped his business card on the table, and left the room. “I’m fine,” he called behind him, as he turned in to the hallway, whisking his scarf from his chair. “You’ll get a call from our insurers. Thanks, everyone.” The bicycle patrolmen looked at each other and followed him out.
    Nancy and my father stood with their hands on their chins. It’s really happening, I thought. Dad’s intent was to use a cock ring on Khadijah’s mom.
    My father dropped into a chair. He let his head thump on the table, once, twice, three times. It was not the same as if Khadijah had presented his dick to my mother on a sword, but it was close.
    With my father publicly humiliated, my world—consisting at the moment of the conference room—was new. His beard was not a revolutionary beard anymore. The revolution now belonged to somebody else. Khadijah sat, her eyes demure, picking at her cuticles as she had the day in Gaia Foods. She had cracked things.
    So this was love. Here was our rite of spring.

6.
Almost More Like Poems
    R achel raised her hand as soon as we were assembled at the kitchen table for the family meeting. “Divorce,” she said. My parents stared at her and I knew she was right.
    “An experiment,” my mother said.
    “That’s just about right, trying something new,” my father corrected. “An experiment in living separately.” He cleared his throat, switching to lighter news. “I’m moving to New York. On some weekends I’ll come here and stay at an apartment I’m going to rent, and on some you’ll come down on the train.”
    I thought, Good . Since Gaia Foods, it had been difficult to watch my parents speak to each other, so I was glad they’d live far apart. The euphoria that had accompanied the revelation that my father slept with Nancy was gone. What remained was the knowledge that for a long time—I didn’t know how long—my parents’ marriage had been a carcass walking upright. Now they were talking and listening with no expression on their faces, upright carcasses themselves.
    He still doesn’t know we saw him kissing Nancy in Gaia, I thought. He thinks he got away with it for a long time. I looked at Rachel and my mother. Did they know what I had seen in the police station last night? Did anyone know that Khadijah and I had been on the verge of a kiss?
    “Josh, your father and I have talked about what happened at the station,” my mother said, her voice drained of character.“We’d appreciate it if you’d not discuss it right now.” With her eyes, she indicated Rachel.
    Rachel came to understand that she was being left out of something secret and horrible. She began to cry. “What is she talking about?” she asked my father. “Why do you want to move to New York?”
    “I’m still going to see you every weekend, sweetie. But I’ve never been fully at home in the ecosystem of a political science professor. I wish I could give you a better explanation, because I love you so much, but please understand, I’m a different person than the one I’ve been acting like I am.” His voice went high. “I’m going to try to make some connections down there, my love. I want to find some people I can talk to about the kinds of essays I want to write, essays that are