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“Bullshit!”
My curse rolled down the hallway like a boulder chasing an interloper through a temple. It had so much heft to it that it made my throat sore as it came out.
There were probably repercussions for swearing in front of a goddess, but that didn’t stop me. “You can do anything!” I yelled, keeping it under my breath this time. “You can step between planes! You can bend the laws of physics! You fixed Androu, didn’t you!?”
I was referring to the past incident where the Six-Eared Macaque had infiltrated my school and kidnapped another of my classmates alongside Yunie. Poor Androu had suffered very real injuries. And Guanyin had fixed him.
“Androu was a healthy young person,” Guanyin said. “I undid some damage that never should have happened in the first place and sent him on his way. Your mother can’t be ‘fixed.’ She has a bad case of having lived life.”
There was hardly any arguing with that. My parents were older than most of my classmates’. Mom had always been pretty upfront about the fact that they’d had a hard time having children; I’d snuck in under the deadline.
But Guanyin’s statement was true in a different, more punishing way. For some people, living meant growth, becoming stronger, happier, fuller over time. In my mother’s and father’s cases, life had stripped their flesh down to the bone. The addition of health problems was like putting away the carving knife and bringing out the grinder.
“Your mother will always be vulnerable, Genie,” Guanyin said softly. “Neither you nor I can change that.”
I wondered how much of an atrocity it would be considered if I leveled this hospital around us.
“Genie,” Quentin said, prodding my arm as I imagined air raid sirens and the National Guard rolling up to stop my rampage. “Your parents are calling for us.”
Neither Mom nor Dad had met Guanyin, and they weren’t going to. It had always seemed strategic to hold back that introduction, plus her general maturity made it harder to come up with cover stories. She could pass as my what, really? Teacher? Guidance counselor? Supermodel I befriended at the train station?
Quentin and I left her and went back to the lobby. Mom hadn’t moved from her chair, and the way Dad stood off to the side made her seem like an empress on her throne. It was so typical of her. She wouldn’t admit that she was sick, but she was willing to milk the moment for everything it was worth.
What I wouldn’t admit was how painful it was to see my mom and dad as a unit. It was always accidents or impending doom that brought them in close proximity, as if their very existences were like naked wires. When they crossed, bad things happened.
The two of them deserved better. They should have been allowed to look at their daughter’s face at the same time, in the same room, and be happy. Would it be such a friggin’ problem for the Universe to let them be carefree together for once?
“Genie,” Mom said. “I have something I need to tell you.”
I tried to banish my gloomy thoughts and failed. “What, that you’re fine?” I snapped.
“No. Something else. Promise me you’ll listen, won’t you?”
Huh. Hold on. There was a faintness in her voice that said for once, she’d dropped the act. She was letting herself be tired. Maybe she’d accepted the facts. This close call had pierced the reality distortion bubble that she normally generated around herself.
I always had the fantasy that one day my mother and I would lay bare our souls and finally say everything we meant to each other, with perfect understanding and ultimate sincerity. But not like this. I didn’t want to buy a moment of revelation from her with a health scare.
“Genie . . .”
I steeled myself as best I could. I wasn’t ready for this.
“Genie, I want you to go on your trip this weekend.”
“. . . WHAT!?” I shrieked.
“Keep it down,” she muttered. “I don’t want you to cancel it on my account. And don’t you dare tell Yunie about this. She’ll be worried sick.”
A fake-out. I thought this was going to be her epiphany. That things had the infinitesimal chance of changing between us. Instead, surprise! There was another mask under the first mask the whole time!
“The trip is the last thing that should be on anyone’s mind! How could you even say that to me right now?”
“Genie, just . . .” my dad said, a veteran soldier scarred by more battles than I, the newbie, could ever imagine. “I’m going to take a few days off to look after her.”
“Even though I’m fine,” Mom said.
“Yes,” Dad said, playing both sides. “Even though she’s fine. While you’re visiting the school, there’ll be someone at home.”
I was skeptical. “Work’ll let you do that?”
