It Chooses You (6 page)

I nodded, pretending I was relaxed. I watched the sunlight sparkling on the water and practiced mind-body integration for a few seconds by quietly hyperventilating.

Miranda: Had you ever put an ad in the
PennySaver
before?

Andrew: I never really tried it. It arrives every Wednesday or Thursday. I just started looking at it and said, “Let me try that.” I just wanted to try it out to see. It actually kind of did work out.

Miranda: Oh, really? Have people bought the tadpoles?

Andrew: Yeah. People enjoy them. They were kind of shocked, because nobody could really find a bullfrog tadpole.

Miranda: So the tadpoles are here?

Andrew: Let me take this plant out and you’ll see.

He lifted a pile of dripping plants and scooped up a tadpole in a handful of water.

Miranda: Wow, they’re really getting pretty froglike. I thought they’d be smaller. It must be kind of exciting, because suddenly you’re going to have a lot of — I mean, how quickly is this happening?

Andrew: The transformation?

Miranda: Yeah.

Andrew: It’s pretty fast. I’d say there are a couple of weeks left for this one.

Miranda: Am I picturing the right kind, with the big white thing that’ll make a noise like — well, I’m not gonna make the noise.

Andrew: Yeah.

Miranda: So that’ll be kind of amazing — you’ll have this sound.

Andrew: Everywhere, yeah. It’s really loud.

Miranda: That’ll be kind of surprising in the neighborhood.

Andrew watched carefully as a pigeon tried to decide where to land and then nervously perched next to the pond.

Andrew: Look at the pigeon. I’ve never seen that before. The pond attracts wildlife. It attracts all kinds of animals.

Miranda: Like what other kinds?

Andrew: Lizards too.

Miranda: I guess most of the city must not seem very welcoming for an animal, so this is like a little…

Andrew: Yeah, their habitat.

Miranda: What if, as we stand here, like, lions and antelopes start to come?

Andrew: That’d be crazy.

Miranda: And what do your parents do? Are they at work now?

Andrew: My dad just got laid off from the district. He used to work in Buena Park next to Knott’s Berry Farm. He was a custodian. He got laid off, so now he’s at home. We’re spending more time with him now. My mother, she works at Kaiser.

I was burning in the sun, so we went inside, tiptoeing past the father watching TV and into Andrew’s room. I instinctively shut the door behind us, because what teenager leaves their bedroom door open, ever? But then that seemed weird — I was a total stranger — so I reopened it a crack.

Miranda: Do your parents have ideas of what you should do now that you’ve graduated? Do you have a plan?

Andrew: Go to college, get a good education, get a career started.

Miranda: Where are you going to go?

Andrew: Long Beach. I already registered. I have the booklets and stuff.

Miranda: And what do you want to study?

Andrew: I want to get into engineering with airplanes and stuff, work with the engine or something like that. I don’t know. Something using my hands, like a mechanic.

Miranda: And, besides a job, besides school and then a job, what things do you picture in your future?

Andrew: Picture?

Miranda: What do you imagine?

Andrew: Like in the future?

Miranda: Yeah, anything.

He looked at the ceiling, summoning a vision as if I had asked him to actually see his own future.

Andrew: I probably imagine myself, I guess, being in the forest and stuff like that — in the mountains, something like that, around wildlife.

Miranda: So maybe not here.

Andrew: No, not here.

Something moved in Andrew’s terrarium; I thought it was a turtle but then I looked again.

Miranda: Whoa.

Andrew: Yeah. That’s my pet spider.

Miranda: Is it a tarantula?

Andrew: Yeah. He doesn’t bite. It’s all right.

Miranda: Okay. Good to know there’s a tarantula behind me. Okay, what’s been the happiest time of your life so far?

Andrew: The happiest time? I would have to say it was the graduation party my mom and my father had for me.

Miranda: I bet they were really proud.

Andrew: Yeah. They’re proud. One of my goals was getting out of high school.

Miranda: Was it hard?

Andrew: Well, to me it wasn’t really that hard. I was in Special Ed, so the teachers don’t try to take out effort from you. It’s easy.