Five Flavors of Dumb - Antony John [39]
Suddenly Mom whipped around and gazed at Grace, then at Dad. Before I could catch up, Mom had jumped out of her seat and was showering Grace with kisses.
“Did you hear that?” Mom grinned, her hands cradling her face in wonderment. I shook my head. “Grace said ‘Mama’!” Mom kissed her again for good measure. “She said her first word. My beautiful, perfect little Gracie said her first word.”
Dad was already out of his seat and hugging Mom, while Grace beamed to the delight of her parents.
“Say it again, Gracie,” shouted Dad, practically begging her to repeat her death-defying feat of pure awesomeness. “Say it again, you amazing little—”
“I crashed the car today!” The words tumbled out of my mouth so quickly they caught even me by surprise. Mom and Dad turned away from Grace and gave me their full attention. “I left it in gear. I don’t know how it happened. I’ve never done it before.”
Dad sat down again, so slow and controlled. “Is it damaged?”
“It still drives.”
“That’s not what your father asked,” snapped Mom, carefully signing every word to be sure I didn’t miss anything. “Is it damaged?”
“I think it needs a new front bumper,” I said quietly.
Dad slammed his fist on the table. “Well, that’s just god-damned wonderful.”
Mom touched his arm gently. “Language, Ryan.” She feigned a smile, pointed at Grace. “Little ears, you know.”
“But I’m insured, right?” I asked hurriedly. “That’s what insurance is for.”
“You’re eighteen, Piper. The best insurance your mom and I could get for you has a five-hundred-dollar deductible. No matter what happens, we come out of this five hundred dollars down.”
“I—I’m sorry. It was an accident.”
Dad shoved his chair back, threw his napkin on the table.
Mom grabbed his hand before he could leave. “Grace said Mama, honey. She said her first word.”
Dad forced a smile and nodded curtly, but when he walked out of the room he didn’t look back—not even at Grace.
I stared at my plate, but I couldn’t eat. In my peripheral vision I saw Mom glaring at me, like she’d just seen a terrible side of me she hadn’t known existed.
Why did you do that? she signed.
I couldn’t move, couldn’t speak.
We’ve been waiting for this ever since Grace was born, wondering if it could really happen.
I shook my head, and a moment later Mom clattered her cutlery onto her plate and left the table. When I glanced up again, Grace’s lower lip was quivering—she’d obviously sensed the sudden change in mood, and feared she was the cause of it.
When the inevitable flood of baby tears came a few seconds later, Grace wasn’t the only one crying. Caught between his inconsolable sisters, Finn reached over and lifted Grace out of her high chair, held her tight against him. I didn’t even blame him for choosing her side.
But then he came over and squeezed me too. And I swear, I bawled like a baby.
CHAPTER 25
I had to get out of the house. I didn’t care where I went as long as I couldn’t be found by anyone with the last name Vaughan, so I just threw myself into USS Immovable and started driving. It occurred to me that if Kallie were with me, she’d have been amused to see how quickly my bad karma had come back to haunt me.
I tried to calm myself by remembering that fall semester at Gallaudet began in ten months, but then I remembered The Case of the Amazing Disappearing College Fund. I might not be going to Gallaudet in the next ten years, let alone ten months. And it was looking increasingly unlikely that Dumb was going to be able to change that at all.
I wasn’t really conscious of where I was heading, but when I found myself pulling up outside Coffee Crew, I wasn’t completely surprised either. Unfortunately, Ed was just turning off the neon OPEN sign as I got out of the car, and he locked the door as I approached. I would have taken it personally, only then he saw me and hurried back to the door, unlocking it and holding it open for me.
“You’re closed,” I said.
“Closing,” he corrected.
“There’s a difference?”
Ed swept his arm across his body in a gesture of