Page 108 of Things I Read About
Nate and Dean nod awkwardly, clearly required to agree with their boss.
“Well great.” Samantha breaks up the tension. “Hi, by the way. We never officially met before and we know everyone else pretty well, all but you.” She marches up to Nate, hand outstretched. “I’m of course Samantha, which you know. Or, uh, Canton Four as Fergus says!”
“Nate Brenner.” He shakes her hand.
“Wait, what did you say?” Samantha holds his hand hostage.
“Oh no,” Skye says from the back of the room and Sadie starts laughing.
Susan walks up beside them, her mouth hanging open.
What the heck?
“Brenner?” Sam screeches. “Did you say, Brenner? Like B-R-E-N-N-E-R?”
“Yes?” Nate says, suddenly unsure of his own name. As am I.
“Angel?” Emerson walks up, ready to diffuse the SamBomb that’s about to explode all over all of us.
Samantha looks back at me. “As in Yul, Sally! Yul Brenner!”
“What?”
“Bob, we’re going to need you to calm yourself,” Skye says.
Sadie starts, “It’s not a—”
“It is! It is a sign!” Samantha’s voice has lifted up, beyond the roof of the house. Any higher and only dogs will be able to hear her.
Bob.
Oh no. No! I have to get Nate out of here.
“Nate, I need help with some boxes. Book box… Boxes books…To load in the car. Take back Dallas. With us.” I start saying words. I grab his wrist and lead him away from my sister who is now jumping up and down.
Skye has her head in her hands, Sadie and Shep are shaking with the laughs they’re holding in.
Dean and Fergus look concerned.
Dad is shaking his head.
I am getting us out.
“Yes, save yourselves,” Skye mutters as we zoom past, out of the room and up the stairs.
“Sally?” Nate asks quietly behind me on the stairs. “What the hell was that?”
I drag him into my old room and shut the door behind him. I lean against it.
“My sister. Is obsessed. With Cool Runnings.”
Nate’s eyes go to the side and then back to me. “The movie?”
I nod. “Correct. Yul Brenner is a character in that movie. She was so obsessed with bobsledding as a kid my sisters sometimes call her Bob.”
“Ok, well, you were wrong about being the weirdest. Clearly.”
I laugh. A real laugh, long and hard. Letting out all of my feelings, week’s worth of feelings, maybe.
