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Unraveling Excerpt: p.16-18 Malady and The Cap stayed at the pool, lingering and then eating dinner there at the bar. Later when they returned from their private time together, Malady said loudly from the other room, "You will not believe how great the burgers are here. Yum." Unlike me, Malady would do anything for The Captain’s attention. I was busy trying to stay under her radar. I had taken Paige’s advice and crawled into bed with Vanishing Acts by Jodi Picoult. My mother called "Manda" halfheartedly. "Are you hungry?" "No." "Do you want to talk about what happened?" "No, I’m reading," I murmured. I wanted to say, No, when I wanted to talk, you were out with Melody. She didn’t ask twice. She never did. I knew that calling me Manda signaled she felt a little guilty, but I had no intention of letting her off easy. We both had the tough, unforgiving gene. When I got tired, I turned off the light above my bed. I thought about the story. A woman learns that her father kidnapped her as a child to protect her from her alcoholic mother. I wondered whether I’d be mad at my dad for lying about my mother being dead, or if I’d be thankful that he put his life at risk to save mine. At that moment I wanted my dad to take me somewhere, anywhere, as long as it was away from her. Melody came into our room and flung my wrap and sunglasses onto my bed. She flipped on the light next to her bed, putting it on the brightest setting before dropping her wet towel and bikini to the floor. I was about to curse her out when our parents started going at it again. The hotel walls were as thin as the ones at home. "Amanda just doesn’t listen . . . or think." "Let it go, Susan." "Don’t tell me to let it go." "She’s been worked over enough today." The volume of the television went up. I guess Dad was attempting to save me from hearing her latest tirade. "When will she learn?" The Captain carried on. "C’mon. Christ, it was an accident." "Turn that brain killer down. Please. I want to read. Some of us like to expand our minds." "Okay, Ms. Smarty-Pants. Sorry this mere high school grad is only smart enough to rake in the dollars. Maybe with your guidance, our girls will be as accomplished as you one day." "You know full well why I can’t work full-time." I remembered when The Captain was working. Everything at home was better, and not because of the money. She didn’t obsess about me or my whereabouts as much. It seemed like she enjoyed her job, like she had a purpose outside of us. "What keeps you handcuffed to the house?" "Oh right, of course. You weren’t around when Amanda was failing eighth grade. Or when she was turning into a juvenile delinquent." "Right, you’re so right," my dad said. "What we should worry about is that Amanda’s much more you than me. That’s what we really have to worry about. Not whether either of them is as accomplished as I." "If we’re lucky, at least Amanda will stay that way, like me." "Well, you can rest easy. Don’t you worry . . . there’s not a sliver of me in her body!" "Susan, shhhhh! . . . Keep your voice down," he snapped. I lay there and let each of those words, not . . . a . . .sliver . . . of . . . me . . . Dad turned the television up louder. |