Freedom [121]
“Well, for starters, I want you to be a more responsible boyfriend.”
“I’m not her boyfriend. We’re on hiatus.”
“What is hiatus? What does that mean?”
“It means we’re experimenting with being apart.”
“That’s not what Connie tells me. Connie tells me you want her to go to school so she can learn administrative skills and be your assistant in your endeavors.”
“Look,” Joey said. “Carol. I was stoned when I said that. I mistakenly said the wrong thing while stoned on the incredibly strong pot that Connie buys.”
“You think I don’t know she smokes pot? You think Blake and I don’t have noses? You’re not telling me anything I don’t know. All you do is make yourself look like a bad boyfriend when you try to snitch on her.”
“My point is that I said the wrong thing. And I haven’t had a chance to correct myself, because we agreed not to talk for a while.”
“And whose responsibility is that? You know you’re like a god to her. Literally like a god, Joey. You tell her to hold her breath, she’ll hold her breath until she faints. You tell her to sit in a corner, she’ll sit in a corner until she keels over with starvation.”
“Well, and whose fault is that?” Joey said.
“It’s yours.”
“No, Carol. It’s yours. You’re the parent. You’re the one whose house she’s living in. I just came along.”
“Yeah, and now you’re going your own way, without taking responsibility. After being all but married to her. After being part of our family.”
“Whoa. Whoa. Carol. I’m a freshman in college. Do you understand that? I mean, the weirdness of even having this conversation?”
“I understand that when I was one year older than you are now, I had a baby girl and was having to make my own way in the world.”
“And how’s that working out for you?”
“Not too bad, as a matter of fact. I wasn’t going to tell you this, because it’s still early on, but since you ask, Blake and I are going to have a little baby. Our little family’s about to get a little bigger.”
It took Joey a moment to compute that she was telling him that she was pregnant.
“Listen,” he said, “I’m still at work. I mean, congratulations and all. I’m just busy at this particular moment.”
“Busy. Right.”
“I promise I’ll call her tomorrow afternoon.”
“No, I’m sorry,” Carol said, “that won’t do it. You need to come out right away and spend some time with her.”
“That’s not an option.”
“Then come for a week at Thanksgiving. We’ll have a nice family Thanksgiving, all four of us. It’ll give her something to look forward to, and you can see for yourself how depressed she is.”
Joey had been planning to spend the holiday in Washington with his roommate, Jonathan, whose older sister, a junior at Duke, either photographed misleadingly well or was somebody not to miss meeting in person. The sister’s name was Jenna, which in Joey’s mind connected her to the Bush twins and all the partying and loose morals that the Bush name connoted.
“I don’t have money for a flight,” he said.
“You can take a bus, just like Connie. Or is the bus not good enough for Joey Berglund?”
“I also have other plans.”
“Well, you better change your plans,” Carol said. “Your girlfriend of the last four years is seriously depressed. She cries for hours, she doesn’t eat. I’ve had to talk to her boss at Frost’s to keep her from getting fired, because she can’t remember orders, she gets confused, she never smiles. She may be getting high at work, I wouldn’t be surprised. Then she comes home and goes straight to bed and stays there. When she has her afternoon shifts, I have to drive all the way home on my lunch break to make sure she’s up and gets dressed for work, because she won’t answer the phone. Then I have to drive her to Frost’s and make sure she goes inside. I tried to send Blake to do it for me, but she won’t talk to him anymore or do anything he says. Sometimes I think she’s trying to wreck my relationship with him, just to be spiteful, because you’re gone. When I tell her to see the doctor, she says she doesn’t need a doctor. When I ask her what she’s trying to prove, and what her plan is for