Highly Illogical Behavior - John Corey Whaley Page 0,27

on the sofa. When he was done, he stood up and fell backward right into the center of it.

“Looks comfortable,” Grandma said. “Your father broke his tailbone in middle school and had to sit on something very similar. Only smaller, of course. You remember that, Jason?”

“I broke my ass, Mom. Of course I remember.”

“I felt like the worst mother in the world,” she said, laughing so hard tears were coming out of her eyes. “I lost it every time I saw that little cushion. I couldn’t help it.”

“You see, Sol?” his dad said. “This is why we never let you stay at Grandma’s when you were younger.”

“That’s not true,” she said. “I kept you all the time. You were my little sidekick.”

“She used you to sell houses,” his dad added. “Dressed you in a little suit and tie and took you with her to show properties.”

“Resourcefulness is not something I’ll apologize for,” she defended. “That’s how you build a business.”

“Joan Reed Realty,” Solomon’s dad said. “We’ll take you home . . . after you give us your life’s savings.”

“I miss grounding you,” Grandma said, scowling at her son. “Sol, tell me all about this Lisa girl.”

“She’s nice,” he said.

“Nice?” she asked, looking over toward her son and daughter-in-law. “This kid of yours, he’s so . . . expressive, you know?”

“We’ve worked very hard on him,” Solomon’s dad joked.

“C’mon, spill it, kid,” Grandma said.

“Okay, umm . . . she’s funny, too. And, I don’t know, laid back, I guess. It just wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be.”

“That’s good to hear,” she said, looking around to each person in the room and nodding her head.

“Yeah,” he agreed. “She came over Saturday night, too.”

“And yesterday,” his dad added.

“Really?” Grandma asked. “Solomon, do you have a girlfriend?”

“No. It’s not like that,” he said.

“Okay, so what did you and your friend do then, with all that time together?”

“We watched movies and played chess mostly.”

“Speaking of,” Grandma said. “Let’s you and me go play a game so I can get the real gossip, okay?”

“Sure.”

Once they were in the den, he set up a little folding table and they both started shuffling without a word. Skip-Bo was no joke to Solomon and his grandmother and since he’d been on a winning streak lately, he knew she’d be out for blood. But as soon as the cards were dealt and they started playing, all she wanted to do was talk about Lisa.

“Wow,” she said. “You’re really doing it, aren’t you?”

“What?”

“You’ve made a new friend. You say you’re going in the backyard soon. You’re getting better, kiddo.”

“Please don’t say that.”

“Why not? Why shouldn’t we celebrate it?”

“Because it’s just too much, okay? It’s not that big a deal.”

“It’s big enough,” she said. “Who knows, in a few years, you could be ready to face the world again.”

“Trust me,” he said. “It’s not a switch I can turn on and off, Grandma.”

“Slow and steady wins the race,” she said.

“I’m not sure that applies here.”

“Even so,” she said, “don’t shut out the possibility of getting better, okay?”

“I’ll try not to,” he said.

When she went to leave that night, his grandma hugged him a little tighter than usual and he knew why. She was proud of him. And that was something very new. He knew how to be pitied and misunderstood, but being admired wasn’t in his wheelhouse quite yet. Though, it was certainly something he could get used to.

• • •

He got his schoolwork done super early the next day so he could relax a little bit before Lisa came over. He didn’t really know what they were going to do, but he’d thought about teaching her to play Munchkin, which was this strategy card game his parents had bought him, but didn’t really like playing. He couldn’t even get past explaining the rules to his grandma before she said, “This sounds too hard for someone my age.” It’s funny how she only ever mentioned her age when she didn’t feel like doing something.

But he knew Lisa would catch on quick, especially after seeing her play chess. He wanted a rematch but decided to challenge her to something she wasn’t so familiar with first. You know, remind her whose house it was and all. This was his territory. His fortress of solitude, impenetrable to the outside world.

Only, that wasn’t so true anymore, was it? Something new was here, in the form of this surprisingly familiar seventeen-year-old girl. And as soon as Solomon opened the front door that afternoon, Lisa