Taking Off Read Online Free Page B

imagine it.
    “What’s the thrust of those engines, Mark?” Dad asked, a kidlike grin on his face. Dad really got excited about things. I liked that about him.
    Mark fingered my new charm, now hooked permanently to my bracelet. “I’m not that interested in the space program, Jesse. I have to be around those NASA kids all day. They’re full of themselves.”
    “Lea isn’t,” I said defensively.
    “Lea’s different,” said Mark. “But a lot of them don’t like hanging out with blue-collar kids. To them, you’re not as good as they are if your parents didn’t go to college. You didn’t go to college, Jesse. You didn’t need that.” Mark glanced at me, like he was checking for my response.
    “Damn, Mark, I am an idiot,” Dad said, letting out a loud laugh.
    “You’re not either,” I said, irritated with both of them. “You can tear up a car and put it back together. You can fix anything that breaks at all. That’s not stupid.”
    “Well, thanks, Annie,” he said, looking pleased.
    “And your art car is very cool, Dad.”
    His ears blushed pink, and he gave a shy grin to the floor.
    My dad was an odd combination of Texan and beatnik hippie. He fished, he hunted, he read Beat poetry, and he’d protested against the war. He loved the poem “Howl,” which many labeled profane, but he didn’t like women swearing.
    I heard the jangle of keys.
    Dad’s eyes swung to the door. “Uh-oh.”
    He said that, but I knew he could’ve left a while ago. My dad was still hung up on my mom. She’d wanted the divorce, not him. But I knew from my aunts that he’d run around on her.
    In some ways, he’d never really left, though. With his odd work schedule, he’d been able to look after me when my mom or my grandma couldn’t, keeping me company after school.
    Mom stopped in the doorway, wearing the high heels and nylon hose she hated, looking at Dad. She hadn’t seemed to mind him hanging around all these years, until recently. Donald was bringing lots of changes into our lives.
    “Hi, Mags,” Dad said, gazing at her warily.
    “Hi,” Mom said, clutching a bunch of purple tulips in one hand.
    Good , I thought. Flowers usually cheered her. Maybe she wouldn’t get annoyed with Dad .
    She threw her keys on the table by the door. “Nowhere to be, Jesse?”
    “Just visiting with my daughter,” Dad told her.
    “And eating my food?” she asked, glancing at his plate.
    “Gotta go.” He stood. “See ya, Annie.”
    “Bye, Dad,” I said.
    The door slammed as Mark yelled out a good-bye.
    “It’s so hot in here,” Mom said. “Annie, turn the heat down. I can’t afford to pay for beach weather. And put these tulips in water, please.” She laid them down on the coffee table.
    I didn’t like being ordered around, so I waited an extra two beats before getting up and grabbing the flowers.
    “Start peeling potatoes,” Mom yelled from the hallway.
    Mark followed me into the kitchen.
    I chose a ceramic glazed vase from the many under the sink and began filling it with water. Mom used to make ceramics in the garage, hoping to escape secretary work by opening up her own business. She just ended up exhausted.
    “What’s with your parents?” Mark asked quietly. “They’re usually friendly.”
    I shrugged. “Things change.”
    I put the vase on the table and the flowers into the vase. Mom was right. Fresh flowers did brighten the kitchen. Mark sat down while I arranged the tulips.
    “Was basketball really canceled?” I asked, rubbing one of the petals, so pretty, the purple so rich. “Or did you skip again?”
    He gave me a look.
    “You’re going to get thrown off the team,” I told him. He didn’t say anything. I stared at him. “You want to get thrown off the team, don’t you?”
    “What does it matter?” he asked.
    I sat down beside him, taking his hand. “But you love basketball. You’ve been on the school team since, what, the seventh grade?”
    “Sixth.” He shrugged. “I don’t like