The Madrona Heroes Register: Echoes of the Past (4 page)

Binny’s skateboarding heroes watched
over her as she slept. A good night’s sleep softened Binny’s
frustration and anger. But just a little.

Although Julie worked summers in the
same fashion she did all year, that is to say – a lot, for the rest
of the Jordan house it felt like one endless lazy weekend. Jay, who
did his drawing at home, was left in charge of the Jordan
children’s summer activities which were few. Once each summer there
was a day trip to the nearby islands for blackberry picking, but
the only other treks out of the neighborhood were pilgrimages to
the cineplexes downtown to take in every last summer blockbuster,
or the periodic mandated chess camp.

Chess camp was usually at the urging
of Binny’s mother. Julie Jordan desperately wanted her kids to love
chess the way she did. Jay had tried to play with her in the first
years of their marriage, but he didn’t really put his heart into it
after it became clear he was an infinite distance from beating
Julie with any regularity. Julie’s competitiveness wouldn’t allow
her to throw a game or two to keep Jay’s interest. She rationalized
that letting him win wouldn’t teach him the right skills anyway.
She was right, but ultimately it taught Jay that playing chess
against Julie was just not very much fun.

Zach didn’t mind chess camp, and while
the kids complained about taking the ferry to the islands, they all
loved Jay’s blackberry cobbler, made from the ridiculous number of
blackberries they would bring home from their trips. Cassie
especially loved these expeditions, ending up with a purple smile
for days until the fruit finally ran out.

Jay was not much of an outdoor person
or athlete, preferring the couch to his 20 year old still nearly
mint condition bicycle. And while he claimed to be vigilant against
letting his kids adopt his homebody tendencies, his effort at
getting them to play outside usually stopped short of a couple of
whiny requests. As a result, for the bulk of the summer, the kids
were on their own. And the Jordan kids mostly liked it that
way.

Binny easily surpassed her father’s
lack of athleticism with her newfound passion – skateboarding. For
all of his half-hearted attempts to get her to pick up an outdoor
activity, skateboarding wasn’t exactly what he had in mind. Jay
wasn’t particularly excited at the thought of his ten-year-old
daughter speeding down the Madrona hillside on four wheels and a
plank, unable to stop for oncoming traffic.

But with her mother’s
support, and countless promises to wear her helmet, skate only on
flat surfaces, and go
sloooooooow
, Jay relented and bought
Binny a skateboard. A few short months later, Binny was on her
fourth skateboard, having promised Jay repeatedly that she would
take better care of the latest replacement, and that the demise of
the three previous was not a result of her trying dangerous stunts.
Jay suspected that Binny wasn’t telling the entire truth, and yet
he relented. He liked to picture Binny as he’d drawn her, zipping
about Madrona with little wings sprouting from her helmet, and a
trail of smoke from her back wheels.

It was the sun that finally woke Binny
up. Jay and the other kids were already awake. Binny’s rage and
frustration from the previous night took a lot of energy to
maintain and demanded a large amount of sleep to keep it charged.
Rubbing her eyes, Binny smiled at the thought that summer vacation
had begun only recently, and this day was hers. But first things
first.

Binny picked some clothes that seemed
relatively clean off the floor and changed into them. Many of the
shelves in her closet where her clothes actually belonged remained
empty, unsure of their purpose.

She was about to head downstairs to
quell the rumbling in her stomach when she remembered to check on
her mirror that her sister had swiped the day before. Binny
backtracked into her room and to her bookshelf where it had a place
of honor – still there. It occurred to her that she should move the
place of honor to a higher shelf that Cassie couldn’t reach, but
there would be time for security improvements later. She was
getting really hungry now, and something in the house smelled
especially delicious.

§

Taking the steps two at a time, Binny
reached the first floor, galloping past her brother who was lying
on the floor of the living room, intently focused on his videogame.
Binny’s little sister was already engrossed in yet another TV show.
This was the one starring the girl who was secretly a rock star.
Binny, and Zach wouldn’t admit to liking the show, but they could
often be found slumped on the couch watching slack jawed along with
Cassie.

“
Hey Binana.” Jay greeted
Binny jovially in the kitchen. He looked particularly pleased with
himself.

“
I don’t like it when you
call me that.” A slight but noticeable echo of Binny’s surliness
from the previous evening resurfaced in her voice.

You could see the glint in Jay’s eye
as he continued to play with fire. “But sweetie, it’s banana, but
combined with you.”

“
Yeah, I got that.” Binny
was starting to rev up again. “And I TELL you that I don’t LIKE it
every time you call me that NAME.”

Jay cooed sweetly, “But this time is
different, this time I’m using that nickname as a way to notify you
of the delicious chocolate chip banana waffles I’ve made in your
honor.”

“
If Cassie and Zach ate
some then you didn’t make them in my honor,” grouched Binny,
casually eyeing the waffles, trying to hide her interest from her
father.

“
Beanie Baby?” Jay
offered.

“
I like that one even
less.” Binny spied the waffles longingly out of the corner of her
eye.

“
You know it’s not exactly
easy coming up with nicknames for Binah.” Jay placed a quartet of
waffles on a clean plate and paused looking at his daughter. “Would
you like some waffles darling?”

“
You and mom named me, so
you can blame yourself for that. And as for the waffles,” she added
not terribly convincingly, “I’m not really that hungry.” The only
thing stronger than Binny’s hunger was her sense of justice. Her
father’s teasing didn’t sit well with her after his shameful
inaction the previous night during dinner.

“
Good point. Can I make a
peace offering of these waffles? Everyone else has already had
their fill, so you’d really be doing me a big favor by eating them.
I’d hate to just throw them in the trash.” Binny’s eyes told Jay
all he needed to know as they tracked the waffle plate
carefully.

“
Doesn’t Mom want some?”
Binny made an effort to sound casual.

“
Your mother’s still
asleep, and you know she wouldn’t eat these anyway. They’re too
‘healthy.’” Jay raised his eyebrows as he said the word ‘healthy’.
He started walking the plate towards Binny. “She doesn’t share our
love for chocolate chip banana waffles. Crazy, I know.” Jay’s face
squinched up in mock confusion.

Binny paused, knowing she’d been had:
“Well, only because I don’t want them to go to waste.” Binny
grabbed the plate before Jay had a chance to place it in front of
her and started tearing at the waffles with her fork.

Jay spun a chair around, sat facing
his daughter, and smiled as he watched her eat. In his relationship
with his eldest daughter, he would count her enjoyment of the
waffles as a medium-sized victory. “Are they good?” He already knew
the answer.

“
They’re really good.”
Binny said, but it came out more like “Bear billy khood” as the
mouth full of waffles made it somewhat difficult for her to speak
clearly. Jay just kept smiling.

Towards the end of her second helping,
Binny seemed to slow down enough to catch her breath and be able to
respond to Jay’s comments.

“
So ‘Binny’ is still ok,
right?” Jay returned them to the topic of nicknames.

“
It’s the one I dislike
the least.” Binny responded, the waffles dampening her anger as
well as her hunger.

“
It means ‘understanding’
you know. Your name. Binah. ‘Understanding’,” Jay repeated, hoping
it might somehow impart the gift of patience and perspective to his
temperamental daughter.

“
Yes, you’ve told me that
a thousand times. I know what it means.” Binny responded by rote.
“What I don’t un-der-STAND is how you let Cassie and Zach get away
with everything, and I’m always the one getting in
trouble.”

Jay couldn’t help but smile at her
relentless sense of justice. It was hard to tell these days when
Binny would act like a normal child and when she would get one of
those flashes of insight that was mature beyond her years. But at
the moment, Jay knew he has better erase his smile before Binny
interpreted it as a lack of seriousness on his part. “I know you
had a hard night. And I’m sorry you felt like I wasn’t there for
you.” Jay offered earnestly.

“
But they were being
incredible jerks. It’s just not fair. Zach kept calling me a
dumbass and LYING about it, and Cassie keeps going into my room to
take stuff.”

“
I know. I know. In life,
there is no fair. Things just are.” Jay looked for a moment as if
his eyes might well up, but then the moment passed. “I’m not ok
with either of those things. But you need to understand, that you
erupting at them, screaming like a lunatic, does not help when I’m
trying to get everyone through dinner in a relatively peaceful
fashion, I don’t have the time or energy to settle every dispute.
And frankly, I just wanted you to stop yelling.”

Binny wasn’t having any of Jay’s
excuses. “Well sometimes I don’t like the way things JUST ARE!”
Binny mimicked Jay’s intonation on the last two words and then
continued, “Maybe you’d have more time to stop Zach and Cassie from
being incredibly mean to me if Mom was here to help you.” Binny
punctuated her statement by raising her eyebrows at the end in a
sign that she felt her point had been made. And irrefutably
so.

“
Binny, how many times do
I have to remind you? Your mother and I are superheroes. It keeps
us incredibly busy. Raising the three of you along with saving the
world, is no small set of responsibilities. And besides, if there’s
one thing I’ve learned fighting evil, it’s that you can’t solve
every problem in the world. Even when it seems like you have the
power to do so. Sometimes people have to figure stuff out for
themselves.”

Binny knew that Jay’s story was
patently ridiculous. But Binny also knew just as well that there
was no arguing with Jay on the premise that he and her mother led
secret double lives as superheroes. It was his favorite fiction.
But still, Binny couldn’t resist pushing back on this ridiculous
notion anyway. “You’re not superheroes. There’s no such thing as
superheroes. And you’re not even super parents. If you were, you’d
do your JOB and stop your kids from misbehaving.”

“
What I’m trying to say
Binny, is that even with all my powers – parenting or otherwise – I
don’t know if I can fix that for you completely. I can’t stop you
from misbehaving, so what makes you think I can stop your brother
and sister?” Jay reasoned.

“
I don’t need superheroes
for parents. Just actual parents who actually care.” Binny had lost
interest in her food and was now putting her main energy into
making her case to her father.

Jay smiled a bittersweet smile. He was
stinging a little from Binny’s accusation but tried not to let it
show. “Of course we care. And I suppose I could yell at your
brother and sister and maybe it would work and maybe it wouldn’t.
But in life honey, you are going to encounter people who mess with
your stuff, call you names, lie about what they did, and maybe even
worse.” Jay paused looking for some glimmer of understanding in his
daughter’s face.

“
No matter how powerful I
may or may not be,” Jay winked in a rare acknowledgement that he
may not in fact actually have superpowers, “you can’t spend your
life waiting for everyone to behave the way they should. You’ve got
to solve your own problems at some point despite the obstacles that
other people put in your way. Be your own hero.” Jay reached across
the table to hold Binny’s hands in his as if to emphasize the
importance of his message.

Trying to be a little more
conciliatory towards his daughter, Jay offered “Look, I think
you’re right. Your mother and I have been distracted lately and are
probably not giving you guys the attention you need. I’m sorry for
that. And so is your mother. We’ll work on it.” Jay paused lost in
his own thought for a moment and continued, “Sometimes I wonder if
the reason you kids fight in the first place is just to get more of
our attention.”

“
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. Do not change the channel! Stop
it!” Cassie’s screech could be heard loud and clear coming from the
other room.

Jay raised his eyebrows as if to say
“exactly”, and he and Binny shared a giggle as the screams
escalated from the room next door. With things mostly mended with
Binny, Jay paused for a moment shaking his head to himself and
gathering up his energy to deal with the next crisis.

“
I thought you were going
to try and stay out of it and let everyone solve their own
problems.” Binny teased her father, her eyes expressing her
sarcasm.