1 Big News IT’S REALLY NOTHING to worry about Danny’s mother said Think of it as an adventure Danny’s father said That’s what life really is right Full of surprises Danny and his older brother Doug sat in the two matching armchairs in the living room All around them were cardboard boxes The boxes were full of their stuff books framed pictures shoes and baseball mitts The boxes hadn’t been there that morning Doug was slumped in his chair plucking his ukulele But Danny was sitting bolt upright His hands were holding onto the armrests as if the chair might start to buck like a wild horse His parents were sitting on the sofa holding hands and looking at Danny and his brother with the exact same faces Danny knew those expressions well Usually they meant that his parents had volunteered them all to paint an outdoor mural or perform in an amateur theater festival or engage in some other artistic happening But nothing had prepared him for this
Doug began to strum his ukulele and mumble some lyrics he was working on His brother was almost finished high school and was already taking driving lessons He and Danny used to be best buddies They used to go to movies and build forts Doug even used to call him Dannio Then his brother didn’t want to hang around together anymore He stayed in his room listening to weird music and drawing pictures All his pictures were of cars crashing or buses crashing or trains or planes or spaceships crashing There was always lots of flames and blood Danny’s parents said the pictures were brilliant expressive and honest and they stuck them up on the walls When he wasn’t drawing Doug was making up songs on his ukulele They were mostly about cars and planes crashing too and how even while crashing he could only think about some girl or other When Doug’s friends came over they did pointless stuff like stare at the covers of old vinyl record albums Or they would lie on their backs on the floor and look up at the ceiling Danny remembered all this now because he wondered what Doug was thinking What his parents had just said made absolutely no sense They might as well have been talking in Serbian or some
other language he didn’t have a clue about So let me get this straight Doug said pulling a stick of gum from his pocket and folding it into his mouth You’re getting a divorce No no absolutely not Danny’s father said quickly That’s not it at all We are not getting a divorce We’re not even separating Your mom and I love each other Did you hear me We’re just going to live apart For a year Or maybe two You know how much we’ve always valued our creativity Danny’s mother said Your father and I have dreams Artistic dreams We want to pursue them before it’s too late Before we’re too old Those dreams are taking us to different places for a while You understand the need to fulfill yourself After all you both have dreams too Doug you want to be a songwriter Doug rolled his eyes And Danny you want to be an actuary I never said that My teacher did because I’m good at math I don’t even know what an actuary is The point is his father said we want to be good role models for our two great sons We want you to know that you can be whatever you want And the best way to show that is to do it ourselves Right Sheila
