Thousand Words by Jennifer Brown Read Free Book Online Page B

wanted it to, he’d say, “I’mfine, but my dandy could sure use a tune-up.” It had always made Mom giggle. So she passed it on to me. She always asked, “Everything fine?” and I was supposed to answer either “Frog fur” or “Dandy needs a tune-up.”
    “I’m just tired,” I continued. “Didn’t get much sleep last night.”
    “Ah,” she said. “Well, neither did I.” She put her glasses on and turned back to her computer. “Trying to finalize this budget, and it is not coming together. I don’t suppose your father would be willing to trade places with me this week—he can manage the preschool and I’ll run the academic world?”
    I wrinkled my nose at her. “Doubt it.”
    Dad and Mom had met in college, both of them majoring in education. They’d graduated, gotten married, and Dad had started teaching fifth grade while Mom got a job directing a preschool. After I was born, she took me to preschool with her every day while Dad worked his way up to principal at his elementary school. He’d been principal for almost as long as I could remember, but then last year, when the superintendent had some sort of public breakdown and it was discovered that the school district needed a whole lot of cleaning up, Dad threw his hat in the ring and got the position. Mom loved her job, even though it didn’t pay much, and she loved the little kids she worked with. She always said she was glad it was Dad and not her working for the school district, but she called him Superintendentman and said he was forever “busy saving the world,” and whenshe said those things there was an air of… something behind her voice. Sarcasm? Jealousy, maybe? Dad’s job was important, and it seemed like we couldn’t go anywhere without someone recognizing him and wanting to talk to him about an issue or a change he’d made.
    “Well, then. I suppose I’d better get this budget figured out,” she said now. “Eating dinner with us?”
    “Sure. I’m going to take another shower first. And maybe a nap.”
    She wrinkled her forehead and slipped the glasses off again. “You sure you’re fine?”
    “Frog fur, Mom. Totally.”
    In fact, I was better than frog fur. After the day I’d had with Kaleb, I was so much better.
    I trudged up the stairs to my room, my thighs aching from yesterday’s run, my whole body feeling wrung out and dehydrated, but I totally didn’t care. I kicked off my flip-flops as I shut the door, then fired up my laptop to check my email.
    I had a message from my friend Sarah, whose brother Nate was on Kaleb’s baseball team.
    It was one sentence.
    A sentence I would never forget, no matter how long I lived.
    HEY NATE SAID HE SAW A PIC OF YOU NAKED YESTERDAY.

DAY 10
COMMUNITY SERVICE
    “Tina wants you to meet with Kaleb,” Dad said by way of greeting when I slid into his car after school. I paused, one leg still hanging out the door.
    “What?” I hadn’t heard my lawyer’s name since my court date.
    Dad put the car into drive, and I pulled my leg in and shut the door, wrapping the seat belt around myself.
    “But I thought the judge wanted us all to stay away from each other,” I said. “I’m not supposed to have anything to do with him. Did something happen?”
    Dad checked his rearview mirror and pulled into traffic. “Apparently, there is an apology involved. I believe Kaleb’s attorney is looking to set it up. I don’t know if maybe he’s trying to work a plea in his case or something.”
    My heart thudded in my chest. I hadn’t seen Kaleb since the day I slammed his truck door and walked away. I hadn’t heard from him since that last, ugly phone call. I’d thought about him lots of times, about how his life had changed, about whether or not he’d decided if everything that had happened was worth it. I’d wondered if he was happy with the way this had all turned out.
    Happy.
    I remembered when Kaleb and I were happy. Before all the fighting, before all the… everything.
    I thought