“Not yet,” he said defensively. “I hadn’t made up my mind until after meetin’ with their representatives.”
“Representatives?” I sprang back to my feet like I’d just sat on a live wire. “What representatives?”
The two representatives my father began describing exactly matched the two that sprang to mind. “Oh, Katie! I wish you could’ve seen the two young men that Elite Academy sent. They were both . . . uh, very handsome and well-spoken, and had a lotta confidence about ‘em. I could exactly picture Andrew growin’ up to be just like that,” he positively crowed with enthusiasm.
I swallowed my snarky retort to focus on the facts. “When did you meet with them?”
Daddy’s complexion turned ruddier. “Yest’rday afternoon. Over at Cannon Air Force Base. That’s why I was a little late gettin’ home,” he admitted. “I gotta tell ya, Katie. I never seen nothin’ like it in all my military years—those two were completely given the royal treatment. You’d a thought they were a couple of four-star generals the way they rolled out the red carpet for ‘em!”
Daddy trumpeted some more about them and their Elite Academy. How they convinced him it was the best place for a gifted boy like Andrew. About the strict standards and discipline, and how the world would be his oyster after graduating . . . blah, blah, blah. My thoughts whirled around in my head like a tornado, so I could only pick up a phrase here and there intermingled with my thoughts on Ranger’s bizarre hatefulness, Pete’s possible role in all of this, and Mama’s fear about “special” schools.
“Yep,” he droned on, “they came all the way out here from California to meet with me. The graduatin’ cadets have the recruitin’ duties for new members as part of their graduation requirement . . . kind of a neat tradition if you ask me, passin’ on the torch that way. Can you believe that Andrew is bein’ considered? And at such a young age? It’s very excitin’ news. You’ll see. I’d never forgive myself if I didn’t take advantage of this golden opp’rtunity for my son.”
I must’ve looked green around the gills, because Daddy stopped speaking like he was in an infomercial for that stupid school. “You feelin’ alright, Katie?”
No. I felt awful. My ears were ringing and my head was spinning. Too much was happening too fast, and way too much was at stake. I started hyperventilating.
“Katie-girl?” His voice seemed to be coming from far away.
I couldn’t speak yet and was sure that if I opened my mouth, I would end up either hurling the F-bomb or last night’s birthday cake all over Daddy. I’d only had a gut reaction this visceral once before . . . when Mama told us she was sick.
If Andrew was accepted—which he one hundred percent would be— (cause if they weren’t looking for Drews, I don’t know who they would be looking for) then my brother would be shipped off to that academy forever. I shuddered at the thought of what that would do to our little family. It wasn’t fair. We had so little. All we really had was each other. And now Daddy had decided, overnight, to change that.
Hot tears began trickling down my cheeks, the first drops in front of Daddy since Mama’s funeral. I knew he wouldn’t react right, unadept as he was with dealing with female emotions. Despite that, I was desperate for him to comfort me.
“Now Katie, you stop that nonsense!” He patted my arm in a gesture I took to be more warning than sympathy. “You gotta pull yerself together before we tell the boys. You gettin’ hysterical’s only gonna make it harder on ‘em.”
Sometimes I hate being right.
A timid knock on the door wrenched me from my misery. “Kadee?” Mikey said hesitantly, “Are you okay?”
A warm, fuzzy feeling enveloped me like a hug; he’d come to check on me, knowing full well he was risking Daddy’s wrath. I suddenly realized it was my four-year-old brother and not my forty-four-year-old father who always comforted me.
“Go away, Shadow, this does not concern you!” Daddy ordered.
“But I am co’cerned cause you’re makin’ Kadee cry.”
I knew I had to get him out of here fast, because Daddy was currently teetering along the thin line between boiling over into a rage . . . or just plain boiling over. Mikey’s meddling would definitely tip him onto the rage side.
“Actually, Mikey, we’re comin’ out in a minute to have a family meetin’,” I said, trying to stuff a sock in it. A pause. “So go on back and drag Drewy in from wherever he’s hidin’ and wait for us in the livin’ room.”
“Okay, Kadee.” He hesitated before running off to do my bidding.
I stifled my sobs until they were as intermittent as hiccups, calmed somewhat by the idea that if anyone could change Daddy’s mind, it would be his first-born son. When it seemed I’d calmed down to the point I was no longer a “hysterical female,” Daddy tried to reason with me again.
“Now Katie, you know that Andrew’s been bored outta his gourd in school for a long time now.”
“If that’s what that mentor’s for, I can do it myself!”
Daddy continued talking as if I hadn’t spoken: “This hereElite Academy is the best place for a boy like him to be challenged academically and to learn the discipline it takes to make somethin’ of himself in this world.”
I snorted. “I don’t really know how much more discipline an eight-year-old boy needs.”
“That’s right, young lady. You do not.” He pointed between my eyes like I’d just made a valid point for him. “Accordin’ to them two cadets, ninety percent of our brain power goes unused. If caught early enough, they can remedy that sit’eation in Andrew ‘fore his brain starts, uh . . . atrophyin’ on ‘im like everybody else. And account of him bein’ so smart and all, well . . . that would just be a cryin’ shame,” he finished, snapping his suspenders proudly after his little spiel.
I ignored the useless data he’d just babbled. “Have you even taken into account how Andrew feels about this? After all, it’s his life we’re talkin’ about here.”
“’O’ course I have!” Daddy became irate immediately. “I tried tellin’ him just last night with you gone . . .”
Convenient timing.
“But could only get so far as to let ‘im know that a mentor was gonna meet with him ever’ day after school for a while.” Daddy stopped to clench his jaw. “When I tried speakin’ with Andrew ‘bout the possibility of attendin’ an elite military school next semester . . . I couldn’t seem to tell ‘im.”
Next semester? That’s only a few months away! I probed his face for underlying meaning. Is he having second thoughts?
As if reading my mind he said, “I’m convinced it’s the right place for him.”
“Then what stopped you? He has a right to know.”
A pause stretched out so long I thought Daddy must not have heard me. I was about to repeat the question when he finally unglued his lips to spit out one word: “Mikey” then remained quiet as if that were explanation enough.
“What do you mean? Mikey’s gonna find out sooner or later, and it’s gonna be so much . . .” My voice quivered when I thought how painful it would be for him. “So much worse for him to wake up one mornin’ to find his big brother’s bags are packed to leave. For good.”