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“I needover me with the ancient percolator

I sniff the coffee, the rich, black, oily French roast we all prefer The s back to bed,” I say “My cello’s at school, so I can’t even practice ”

“Not practice? For twenty-four hours? Be still, h she has acquired a taste for classicalto appreciate a stinky cheese”—she’s been a not-always-delighted captive audience for many of my marathon rehearsals

I hear a crash and a boo on his dru to Dad Back when he’d played dru-in-our-town, unknown-anywhere-else band, back when he’d worked at a record store

Dad grins at Teddy’s noise, and seeing that, I feel a fa I know it’s silly but I have alondered if Dad is disappointed that I didn’t becorade, I’d wandered over to the cello in music class—it looked almost human to me It looked like if you played it, it would tell you secrets, so I started playing It’s been almost ten years now and I haven’t stopped

“Soback to sleep,” Mom yells over Teddy’s noise

“What do you know, the snow’s already o to the back door and peek outside A patch of sunlight has broken through the clouds, and I can hear the hiss of the ice o back to the table

“I think the county overreacted,” I say

“Maybe But they can’t un-cancel school Horse is already out of the barn, and I already called in for the day off,” Mom says

“Indeed But we o somewhere,” Dad says “Take a drive Visit Henry and Willow ” Henry and Willow are some of Mom and Dad’s old music friends who’d also had a kid and decided to start behaving like grown-ups They live in a big old farmhouse Henry does Web stuff from the barn they converted into a home office and Willoorks at a nearby hospital They have a baby girl That’s the real reason Moht andoff that sour-milk smell that makes adults melt

“We can stop at BookBarn on the way back,” Moiant, dusty old used-book store In the back they keep a stash of twenty-five-cent classical records that nobody ever seems to buy except me I keep a pile of them hidden under my bed A collection

of classical records is not the kind of thing you advertise

I’ve shown theether for five uy with his pegged jeans and black low-tops, his effortlessly beat-up punk-rock tees and his subtle tattoos He is so not the kind of guy to end up with someone likeo, I’d been convinced he wasfun of hed It turned out he had a dusty collection of punk-rock records under his bed

“We can also stop by Gran and Gra for the phone “We’ll have you back in plenty of tiet to Portland,” he adds as he dials

“I’m in,” I say It isn’t the lure of BookBarn, or the fact that Ada yearbook stuff It isn’t even that my cello is at school or that I could stay hoo off withyou don’t advertise about yourself, but Adaets that, too

“Teddy,” Dad calls “Get dressed We’re going on an adventure ”

Teddy finishes off his dru into the kitchen fully dressed, as if he’d pulled on his clothes while careening down the steep wooden staircase of our drafty Victorian house “School’s out for sus

“Alice Cooper?” Dad asks “Have we no standards? At least sing the Ramones ”

“School’s out forever,” Teddy sings over Dad’s protests

“Ever the optimist,” I say

Mohtly charred pancakes down on the kitchen table “Eat up, family ”

8:17 A M

We pile into the car, a rusting Buick that was already old when Gran gave it to us after Teddy was born Mom and Dad offer to let me drive, but I say no Dad slips behind the wheel He likes to drive now He’d stubbornly refused to get a license for years, insisting on riding his bike everywhere Back when he playedmeant that his bandmates were the ones stuck behind the wheel on tours They used to roll their eyes at him Mom had done more than that She’d pestered, cajoled, and soet a license, but he’d insisted that he preferred pedal power “Well, then you better get to work on building a bike that can hold a family of three and keep us dry when it rains,” she’d deet on that

But when Monant with Teddy, she’d put her foot down Enough, she said Dad seeuing and had gotten a driver’s license He’d also gone back to school to get his teaching certificate I guess it was okay to be in arrested developrow up Ti a bow tie

He has one on this tips “Dressed for the snow, I see,” I say

“I’ the snow off the car with one of Teddy’s plastic dinosaurs that are scattered on the lawn “Neither sleet nor rain nor a half inch of snoill compel me to dress like a lumberjack ”

“Hey,fun of the white-trash woodsmen ”

“Wouldn’t drea stylistic contrasts ”

Dad has to turn the ignition over a few times before the car chokes to life As usual, there is a battle for stereo dominance MoeBob SquarePants I want the classical- that I’ to co Star