Katie broke off a banana from a bunch in a ceramic bowl and, leaning up against the counter, started to peel it. Her mother had to move around her to get to the sink to rinse out her cup.
“Could you get a little more in the way?” Sandra asked.
Katie tossed the peel into the sink. “I want to book my test. The DMV is open today. I don’t see why—”
Sandra looked visibly pained. “I’m done talking about this.”
“Yeah, well, maybe you are, but I’m not. I want to take the test. I want to be able to drive. Barry has his license, and Raj and Naveen, and they aren’t any older than I am and—”
“It’s different,” Sandra said. “They’re b—”
She stopped herself. Archie whipped his head around, as if he’d just heard a truck slam into the house.
“Whoa,” he said.
“Oh my God, I can’t believe you said that,” Katie said.
“I didn’t say anything.”
“You were going to say it was okay because they’re boys. That is, like, totally unbelievable, coming from you.”
“I didn’t mean that. I don’t know what I was thinking.”
“Because if you want the names of my girlfriends who have their license, there’s Pamela, and—”
“You don’t have to tell me. I get it. Just because they’re ready — male or female — doesn’t mean you are. Katie, you know how—”
“So what, I never get a driver’s license? Is that what you’re saying? I know what this is about. This is because—”
“Don’t go there,” her mother said. “I’m not having this conversation again.” Her eyes started to mist.
“Look, I know,” Katie said, her voice pleading. “Things can happen. But you still drive. I don’t see you—”
Sandra raised a hand. “Not for long. I mean, well, look what’s happening.”
Sandra reached over to the end of the kitchen counter, where she had left a stack of press kits in bright blue folders with pictures of the Arrival cars on the cover. She held one up.
“You’re not even going to need a driver’s license,” she said. “This is the future. This right here.”
Katie rolled her eyes. “Mom, save your PR stuff for the event, okay? It’s going to be, like, years before those kinds of cars are actually everywhere. In another couple of weeks, they’re going to clear the island of these jelly beans with wheels and probably ninety percent of everyone here is going back to what they were driving. What am I supposed to do? Ask you to drive me around until I’m thirty, when all the regular cars are finally gone? That’ll be fun. Especially on dates. You okay sitting up front while I make out in the back?”
Archie made a gagging sound.
“It could be sooner than you think,” Sandra persisted. “The world is changing so fast now no one can keep up.” She took a breath, steeling herself. “The truth is, what happened to this family — to us — would never have happened in a car that—”
Katie raised her hands as if surrendering to the police. “Fine, fine, okay. Never mind.” She turned and started walking out of the kitchen.
“Katie!” her mother said. “Come back—”
Katie could already be heard stomping up the stairs.
Sandra’s shoulders sank. “Shit.”
Archie said, without looking her way, “That’s a buck for the swear jar.”
“We don’t have a swear jar.”
“But if we did,” he said, “you’d have to put a dollar in.”
“Get moving. You’ll be late to school.”
“Uh, earth to Mom. There’s no school today, remember?”
Sandra put the heel of her hand to her forehead, remembering. “It’s teacher prep day or something.”
“Yup.”
“Then what are you even doing up? On weekends you’re in bed till noon.” She took a deep breath through her nose and fixed her eyes on him. “All tuckered out from climbing tall buildings and masts and whatever?”
He let that one go by without comment. “I’m doing stuff with the guys.”
“What guys?”
“The guys? The guys I always hang out with?”
Sandra shook her head. “You and your friends have a special talent for getting into things you shouldn’t.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Mom.”
If only the tall ship incident were Archie’s only experiment in danger. “You started a grass fire at the Jamesons’.”
Archie looked hurt. “That was a science experiment that got out of hand.”
“You were using a magnifying glass to kill a bug and it set the grass on fire.”
“We were harnessing the power of the sun to eradicate a potentially dangerous spider.”
“And no more exploring rooftops.”
“We were just trying to get a ball back.”
“That’s a load of sh — You know that’s not true. How’d you even get up there?”
Archie shrugged. “It’s not hard. You just use the whaddyacallit, the drainpipe. And coming down, if you aim for the soft bushes, you can jump.”
Sandra momentarily closed her eyes and tilted her head back, as though looking for a higher power to guide her. She opened her eyes, but held her head in the same position and shouted: “Katie!”
From upstairs, a muffled: “What?”
“Conference!”
“So talk!”
“In the kitchen!”
Katie stomped her way back downstairs and stood framed in the kitchen doorway. “You rang?”
“You’re watching Archie today.”
“Excuse me?” cried Archie.
“There’s no school. You’re in charge.”
“No way!” Archie said.
“You gotta be kidding,” Katie said. “I’ve got stuff I’m gonna do.”
“Like?”
“Stuff. Stuff that does not include looking after a baby brother.”
“I do not need a babysitter,” Archie said. “Since when does she have to keep her eye on me?”
“Since you became a pyromaniac and house-climbing chimpanzee,” Sandra said.
Katie wrinkled her nose. “That first one, is that some sort of sex thing?”
“Look,” Sandra said, bringing her voice down a notch, “I need a favor. From both of you. Hear me out.”
The two kids waited.
“Today is the biggest professional day of my career. This could—”
Katie said, “I’m just saying that he’s too old to baby—”
“Please listen to me,” Sandra said, cutting her off. “I have never had a day where it was more important that things do not go wrong. This Arrival gig is huge, and if I can pull it off, there’s no telling what it might lead to. What I need more than anything” — and at this point, her voice began to break — “is support from the home team. All this stupid bickering, this has to stop. We have to pull together or I’m telling you right now, we are not going to make it. This is a one-income family right now, in case you haven’t noticed, and this is a make-it or break-it day. Am I getting through?”
Katie and Archie slowly nodded.
“So what I do not need today, when I am in the middle of choreographing an AV display for a multi-million-dollar company and dealing with care and feeding of a bunch of media types, is a call on my cell saying that you” — and she looked at Archie — “and your anarchist buddies have flown a drone into the flight path of Air Force One, or you” — and she fixed her eyes on Katie — “calling me from the mall to say your card has been declined and store security have detained you.”
Katie blinked. “When has that ever—”
Sandra raised a hand. “Do you guys get what I’m saying?”