Full Circle by Susan Rogers Cooper

Americans to ever live, even if my parents don’t like his politics!), when in walks my sister and her skater-dude. Now I’ve gotta wonder if my mom knows about this. Surely she wouldn’t allow Megan to hang out with this dude? And was this like a real date? Megan’s like fourteen, isn’t that kind of young to be dating? Is Mom setting her up for all sorts of trauma and misguidance? Is that a word? So I excuse myself and go out to the lobby and use my cell phone to call home.
    Mom answers on the second ring. ‘Hey, Mom,’ I said. ‘It’s me, Graham.’
    ‘Oh, I thought it was one of my other sons,’ she said. She thinks that kind of thing is cute. Someone, other than me, needs to tell her it’s not.
    ‘I’m here at the movies with Lotta—’
    ‘Oh? What are you seeing?’
    ‘That new Bruce Willis. That’s not—’
    ‘You know I don’t like Bruce Willis. Well, his politics. I thought he was great in Die Hard with a Vengeance —’
    ‘Mom, that’s not the point! Megan’s here! With that skater-dude!’ I finally managed to get out.
    ‘Is Margi Compton there with her?’ Mom asked.
    ‘I didn’t see her,’ I said.
    ‘Go in and make sure Margi’s not there,’ she said.
    ‘Hold on,’ I said with a sigh. I’m not sure what Margi Compton had to do with it.
    I went back in the theater and had a look. There was a family sitting on the other side of Megan, and it wasn’t Margi Compton’s family, and skater-dude was sitting on the aisle. I went back into the hall. ‘No, Mom. I don’t see Margi.’
    ‘Well, then it was an out-and-out lie,’ Mom said.
    ‘Hell, Mom, even if Margi was there, what difference would it make?’ I asked.
    ‘She said she was going to the movies with Margi—’
    ‘Mom, even if Margi was here, she still made plans to meet up with this asshole—’
    ‘Graham, stop cussing. Just stop. I don’t need it.’
    ‘Yes, ma’am,’ I said.
    ‘Don’t call me ma’am,’ she said.
    ‘So what do you want me to do? About Megan and skater-dude?’ I asked.
    ‘You? Nothing!’
    ‘I can go get her and make her go home—’
    ‘Graham, you’re not the parent. I am. I’ll deal with her when she gets home.’
    ‘You mean you just want me to sit here and watch her lip-suckin’ that a-hole?’
    ‘Watch your movie. Unless you can find a Tommy Lee Jones movie to watch,’ she added. Tommy Lee Jones used to be Al Gore’s roommate, so that made him politically correct in my mother’s eyes.
    ‘Nothing. You want me to do nothing.’
    ‘Graham. Do not warn her.’
    ‘Oh,’ I said, realizing my mother had plans to catch my sister.
    I went back into the theater and sat next to Lotta. ‘Let’s get out of here,’ I whispered in her ear. I had plans for a little one-on-one, and besides, I didn’t want to take the chance that Megan would see me and blow my mother’s torture to come.
    ELIZABETH, APRIL, 2009
    It was Friday afternoon and the girls were home alone again, Dad still at work, Mom still at her convention. Elizabeth had gone straight to her room. She’d been in there less than five minutes when there came a knock on the door.
    ‘Who is it?’ she called.
    ‘Who do you think it is?’ Megan said, coming in without permission.
    ‘I want to be alone right now—’
    ‘Uh uh,’ Megan said, flopping down on Elizabeth’s bed. ‘You’re going to tell me what’s going on. Don’t deny that something is, because you haven’t been riding my ass in two days, and that’s just not you. So I know something’s up and you’re going to tell me what it is.’
    ‘Nothing’s up—’ Elizabeth started.
    Megan rolled on to her stomach and stared up at her sister who sat cross-legged on the bed. ‘Tell me.’
    Elizabeth began to cry.
    BLACK CAT RIDGE, TEXAS, 1999
    I drove to the church for my meeting with Berry Rush. His office was plush: a teak-wood desk, a six-foot silver and teakwood cross on the wall between rows of built-in bookshelves, an antique settee, and a winged