CHAPTER 13: MOM
This year, Valentine's Day was on a Saturday, the worst possible day for Valentine's if you were unattached and facing the prospect of a lonely evening at home, after spending the previous day at school watching your friends give each other balloons and cards and teddy bears as they discussed their romantic plans for the weekend.
Strangely, none of that bothered Gordo. The last few days his thoughts had been consumed by Meryl and what might happen before the end of this weekend. If not by the end of this weekend, perhaps the following weekend, or the weekend after that, he and Meryl would be together, celebrating their Valentine's, albeit a little late. Gordo didn't mind being late. All that mattered was that he felt sure it was going to happen. He and Meryl were going to happen. He was getting over Nicole, and realized now he had kind of always liked Meryl almost since the day he met her, so he knew this wasn't just the rebound effect. He was genuinely excited about getting together with Meryl.
Friday at school, Gordo pretended he was coming down with a cold, a convenient excuse to use on Parker, who was still bugging him to take her to the Dance that evening. He put on such a good show, he almost convinced himself he was actually sick. The more he "sneezed" and "coughed," the more he began to look forward to a quiet evening, hibernating at home.
Thinking about Tudge and Meryl, and what was imminently likely to happen, he decided to skip Saturday morning in the park. He couldn't face either of them right now; he didn't trust himself to act like nothing was going on. What if Tudge saw him and Meryl making goo-goo eyes at each other? He didn't want his friendship with Tudge to suffer over this. He knew he had to lay low for a while, so he stayed in the house, watching cartoons in his tee shirt and sweat pants.
The phone only rang once, around lunchtime. He "coughed" a few times as he picked up the receiver, in case it was Parker, but it was only Miranda wondering why he hadn't made it out to the park that morning. He gave an encore performance of his stage cough, letting Miranda know he had so far successfully avoided Parker and was keeping up the act, just in case that girl was crazy enough to stalk him in the park. She'd done it a few times already. Actually, it was getting out of hand, a little creepy.
Miranda understood Gordo's strategy and wished him a happy yet quiet Valentine's Day at home. He wished her a nice time tonight with her boyfriend Chris. Then he hung up the phone, went upstairs, lay down on his bed.
Naturally at first his thoughts flew to Meryl and Tudge. Now that he knew, it seemed so obvious. The spark was gone, they were both just going through the motions. All day Friday Tudge talked about the Dance that evening, but it was clear he was most excited about going to Boomer's Game Palace afterwards. Meryl didn't really care for the Game Palace. Yeah. Gordo could tell. Their days were numbered.
Even strange AnnaBelle had found someone with whom to celebrate Valentine's Day. She and Green Gus were a match made in Heaven, weren't they? Green Gus was so named for the color of his Mohawk, and his fingernail polish, which, it was rumored, glowed in the dark. AnnaBelle said she intended to find out if those rumors were true.
Gordo personally could think of nothing more disturbing than the idea of those two alone in the dark, so he let his mind wander again, and at last found his thoughts resting upon a pretty pink cashmere sweater. And wearing that sweater….Lizzie McGuire. Yes, she had looked stunning yesterday at school. Even glowing. Gordo couldn't help noticing. He wondered how any guy in school could help noticing. He hoped that Brad…Brett….Britt….whoever…he hoped that guy was treating her right.
With these thoughts in his mind, and cool but bright February sun filtering through the window, he fell into an uncharacteristically deep sleep for the rest of the afternoon. When he woke it was nearly 7:30, the sun had set and the first thing he noticed was the delightful smell of brisket. He followed his nose down the stairs into the kitchen and opened the oven door. Brisket! With roasted potatoes!
"All right, Mom!" he exclaimed. See? He might not have a date for Valentine's Day, but at least hismotherloved him.
But Mom wasn't there. Neither was Dad. But before he had time to wonder what in the heck was going on, he heard the sound of high heels clicking down the stairs. In a moment, his mother stood in the kitchen doorway. "Oh, good!" she exclaimed. "You found the brisket!"
"Mom!" Gordo exclaimed. "Wow!"
Mrs. Gordon smiled. "I felt so bad, Davey, thinking of you being all alone on Valentine's, so I made you a brisket, Grandma's recipe. I wanted to do something special for you—"
"It is special!" Gordo said. "But that's not why I'm saying 'Wow!' I mean….Mom! Look at you! Wow!"
His mother giggled, which was actually somewhat disturbing, and then she twirled around in the doorway, showing off her little red dress. Which was even more disturbing. "I know!" she exclaimed. "It's been ages since your father and I have really gone out, I mean for a romantic evening together, something that wasn't work-related. I thought it would be nice to dress up. You don't need to know how much I spent on this pretty little thing."
"No, I don't need to know," Gordo agreed.
"It's just….well, Dad and I were talking about it and we realized… you know, aren't we just the experts on telling everyone else how to run their lives, how to improve their relationships, how to be happy? But do we ever take our own advice? Not really. And doesn't that make us the worst kind of hypocrites? So now we've decided we're going to do everything we can to revitalize our marriage—"
"Okay," Gordo interrupted, holding up a hand. "Now Ireallydon't need to know."
Mrs. Gordon stepped forward and looked at her son. She smiled. But it was a sad smile. "I'm sorry we won't be here with you to enjoy the brisket, but you understand—"
"Of course I do. I understand. Go out and have a good time."
"And I'm also sorry how everything turned out for you these past couple of months, Davey. I know it's got to be troubling for you to be alone this Valentine's Day, so soon after losing Nicole. And if you ever want to talk about—"
"No, Mom. Really. I'm okay."
"Just remember. Your father and I are always here for you."
"Thanks, Mom. But I'll be okay. I'm just gonna stay in tonight and watch some movies. I kind of feel a cold coming on anyway…" And here he offered one of the fake coughs he had perfected earlier for Parker.
"Oh dear!" Mrs. Gordon exclaimed, pressing her hand against his forehead to feel for fever. "No, you don't feel hot. Thank goodness for that. Are you congested? If you're congested, you shouldn't have the ice cream I bought you."
"You bought me ice cream?" Gordo asked, his demeanor instantly brightening.
"Yes. Creamsicles. They're in the freezer."
"Creamsicles…" Gordo said dreamily. "Well, actually, I don't feelthatcongested. I think I could manage a few creamsicles."
"And have you been into the den yet? Did you see the movies?"
"What movies?" Gordo asked, his interest piqued.
"Those Die Hard movies."
"Mom!" Gordo exclaimed. "You rented the Die Hard movies for me?"
"No," she said, smiling. "We didn'trentthem. We bought them. I know it seems an odd kind of Valentine's present, these knock 'em down, shoot 'em up celebrations of macho violence, but your father and I—"
But Mrs. Gordon did not get to finish her thought, because she was suddenly overwhelmed by a bear hug from her teenage son. "Well!" was all she could get out in a surprised tone.
"No, it's not odd at all," Gordo said over his mother's shoulder. "It's just perfect, Mom. It's perfect. That's just what I needed this Valentine's. Thanks!"
"Hey! Hey! What's going on here?"
Mr. Gordon had just walked into kitchen, resplendent in his light gray suit, and now he was saying, "If this is a group hug, can I get in on it?"
Gordo let go of his mom and went over to hug his dad. It had been a long time since he had done this with either of his parents. It felt a little strange, but also good. "Thanks, Dad," he said. "Thanks for the movies."
"Oh, that!" Mr. Gordon said. "Well, don't enshrine me as a saint quite yet, David. You know, my motives were not entirely pure. I intend to sit down with you and watch every single one. Some night we'll order a couple of pizzas and do a double feature. A triple feature! We'll stay up all night. What do you say?
Gordo wasn't quite sure what to say. This was turning out to be a most unusual Valentine's Day.
Yet, as unusual as it was, nothing could compare with what happened next.
