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My grandfather looks at him for a minute, then quietly says, “Juli's father has a retarded
brother, and—”
My father interrupts him with a laugh. “Well, that explains a lot, doesn't it!”
“Explains…a lot?” my grandfather asks. Quietly. Calmly.
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“Sure! It explains why those people are the way they are … !” He grins around the table at us.
“Must run in the family.”
Everyone looks at him. Lynetta's jaw drops, and for once she's speechless. My mother says,
“Rick!” but all my father can do is laugh a nervous
kind of laugh and say, “It was just a joke! I mean, obviously something's wrong with those
people. Oh, excuse me, Chet. I forgot. The girl reminds
you of Renée.”
“Rick!” my mother says again, only this time she's mad.
“Oh, Patsy, please. Your father's being overly dramatic, trying to make me feel bad for
criticizing our neighbors because there's a retarded
relative someplace. Other people have family troubles and still manage to mow their lawn.
They should have a little pride in ownership, for cryin' out
loud!”
My grandfather's cheeks are seriously flushed, but his voice is rock-steady as he says, “They
don't own that house, Rick. The landlord is
supposed to maintain the premises, but he doesn't. And since Juli's father is responsible for
his brother, all their reserves go to his care, and
obviously it doesn't come cheap.”
Very quietly my mom asks, “Don't they have government facilities for that kind of thing?”
“I don't know the details, Patsy. Maybe there are no government facilities nearby. Maybe they
thought a private facility was a better place for him
to be.”
“Still,” my dad says, “there are government facilities available, and if they don't want to go
that route, that's their choice. It's not our fault their
family had some sort of chromosomal abnormality, and I refuse to feel guilty for wanting — ”
My grandfather slams his hand on the table and half-stands as he says, “It had nothing to do
with chromosomes, Rick! It was caused by a lack of
oxygen at birth.” He brings his voice down, but it makes his words seem even more forceful.
“Juli's uncle had the umbilical cord wrapped around his
neck. Twice. One minute he was a perfect little baby, just like your son, Bryce, and the next
he was irreversibly damaged.”
My mother was suddenly hysterical. In seconds she was bawling her eyes out, wailing, and
my father was all over her, trying to calm her down. It
was no use. She basically dissolved right there on the spot.
Lynetta threw her napkin down and muttered, “This family is a joke,” and took off. Then my
mother bolted out of the room, sobbing into her hands,
and my father raced after her, throwing my grandfather the wickedest look I'd ever seen.
That left Granddad and me and a table full of cold food. “Wow,” I finally said. “I had no idea.”
“You still don't,” he told me.
“What do you mean?”
He sat there like granite for a minute, then leaned across the table toward me and said, “Why
do you suppose that upset your mother so much?”
“I…I don't know.” I gave a halfhearted grin and said, “Because she's female?”
He smiled, but just barely. “No. She's upset because she knows that she could very well be
standing in Mr. Baker's shoes right now.”
