Dark Night

Pod brother

I jumped up and got my coat. "Yep," I said, and we went out into the chilly night air. We were silent as we drove to the drive in, where we both ordered diet cherry Cokes and fried cheese sticks with marinara. Yum, even though I wasn't really hungry after dinner. Apparently Starry was giving up calorie counting for tonight.

"I couldn't help overhearing," Starry said rather apologetically. "I don't know what Mom's thinking, and Dad seems clueless. I've never seen them like that. They're usually on the ball."

"With you maybe," I said without heat. "With me, they seem to think that I'm some diva from another planet."

"So now I've got to ask, what schools did you apply to?" he asked. "It's embarrassing that I didn't ask before, and it kind of shows what a tool I've been." I smiled slightly.

"University of California-San Diego, USC, UCLA, Pomona, Stanford, Santa Clara, that's my option that's less competitive in terms of admissions, but they still have environmental science programs and great study abroad options."

"Where do you want to go?"

"San Diego. The farther away from here the better, and I really like their program. No offense."

"None taken. So climate science is what you want to major in?"

"Yeah, it's a really broad field. I can find a lot of things to specialize in, and depending on how much I like college, go to grad school. But primarily, I just want to wring out everything I can from the entire college experience. Social and cultural as well as academic. I'm a little worried about going overboard on the social side. Because I'm going to be financing this myself, I'll finally be free to be selfish." I brooded briefly. "The first year is likely to be the hardest in terms of financial aid because Mom and Dad will be claiming me on their taxes for this year. But from the next year out it will be better. I've been working with my guidance counselor and she's going to help me navigate the financial aid office. She has contacts at some of the universities."

'That sounds pretty amazing," he said. "I want to apologize for being such a dick. Watching the Tangs, I can see what could have been in terms of a sibling relationship, and we missed out on that because of me. We could have been closer, like when we were kids and the studio interview wouldn't have been just for looks and the camera. I could have insisted that Mom and Dad pay more attention to you, included you more. But I was selfish. I'm sorry I didn't."

I leaned over to test his forehead for fever. "Damn. Wish you'd have gone to China sooner."

He laughed a little. "I've been, actually, couple years ago. It wasn't the country. It was the bomb at your school. I wasn't lying during the interview when I said that it prompted a real reassessment of my life. I didn't know you had Instagram until a skeleton athlete from Sweden came up to me at dinner one night and asked if we were related, and I'm ashamed to admit that I was surprised that you were so funny and knowledgeable, and I should have known better. You and Grandpa were an enormous hit, you're great partners in crime. I was afraid I'd lost this, but I found it in my skate bag." He handed me a small blank book with the Olympic rings on the cover. Inside were a couple pages of Cyrillic writing, followed by pages and pages of names and comments in different languages and alphabets. I looked at my brother in confusion.

"Mikhal came up with the idea on the spot when he heard what the Swede had to say, had the guy sign this book for you that he was making notes in, and a couple of his teammates came up too and signed. So then I just kept it, Mikhal said he didn't need the notes, and I had everybody who came up about you sign. Some people found me just because they wanted to sign and comment. Some coaches and support staff too. One guy who waxed the Norwegian team's skis said your posts kept him entertained while he was waiting to hear back on adjustments he needed to make."