Free Rock Star by Adrian Chamberlain Page A

a lot. I put on her favorite song. It’s called “Here, There and Everywhere.” It’s a sappy ballad, but I like it. I think about Dad and this Terry lady, then about Mom. And then—I’m embarrassed to admit it—I start crying. For real. Blubbering all over the place. What a loser.
    My cell phone buzzes. It’s Jason’s number. I don’t answer. I don’t feel like talking. Instead, I go back to pretending I’m on that desert island. I’m facedown on the bed, pretending my ship has gone down. It’s late morning, and the sun’s killing my back. Pretty soon I’ve gotta get up and build my shelter. Maybe find some food. Like turtle eggs. I read once how some guy on a desert island had to eat turtle eggs. Would that be like chicken eggs? Probably not.
    I roll over, kind of slip-sliding off my bed onto the floor. Then I get my bass guitar out of the closet. Put the record player needle back to the beginning of “Here, There and Everywhere” and start to play along. It sounds all right. I got my bass about a year ago. Actually, Dad bought it for me. But for a long time I didn’t feel like learning to play it. I was pretty depressed. I even had to go to a psychiatrist for a while. Dad was worried about me because I got real sad after Mom died. For a while, I didn’t want to get out of bed. Maybe for, like, two weeks. After that, Dad made me go to that stupid shrink.
    After “Here, There and Everywhere,” I try to play along with some other songs on the Beatles record. But it doesn’t sound as good. Then I hear Dad yelling from downstairs for me to set the table. That’s one of my jobs. Also, I clean one of the bathrooms every weekend, take out the garbage and sometimes help Dad make dinner.
    Terry has gone home, so it’s just me and Dad at dinner.
    “Duncan,” he says, dabbing his lips with a napkin. “Did you know Terry is a bank teller?”
    “Nope,” I say.
    “Yes. She’s quite an interesting lady. We were, you know, talking about films. Movies. And her favorites are…let me remember. Oh yes. When Harry Met Sally . And that other one, you know, about that large ship that hits an iceberg.”
    “ Titanic ,” I say. I cram some peas into my mouth. How can Dad not know that?
    He goes on to tell me that Terry lives in Esquimalt, which is part of Victoria, where we live. I don’t ask Dad one thing about Terry. I’m kind of mad or confused or something, which is actually how I feel a lot of the time. It’s like my emotions boil up and it’s hard to control them. Weird, I know.
    I help do the dishes after supper. Dad talks a lot about some guys at his work, and who said what to who and what so-and-so thought about so-and-so. It sounds mean, but I wish he’d shut up, because it’s incredibly boring. But I don’t want to hurt his feelings, so I just dry the dishes and say nothing.
    I go back up to my room, leaving Dad to watch some dumb TV show. Something about monkeys. Dad is crazy about nature shows. If there’s a monkey or a giraffe or a lion or a koala bear on TV , he has to watch it. I like action movies—like James Bond movies or Collateral —or shows about police detectives trying to solve old murders. Cold cases, they’re called. I like it best when they dig up an old skull or hold up the rusty, crappy old hammer some maniac used to kill some poor guy, or when they look at a bloodstained pillowcase under a microscope. I guess that’s sort of weird. But I make no apologies.
    I put the Beatles record back on and play along to “Here, There and Everywhere” again. Then I get under my covers, not even taking my clothes off. I shut my eyes, sniff my smelly old corn-chip pillow and pretend I’m on that desert island again, thinking about those turtle eggs. They’d be all mushy inside, right? But, hey, you gotta eat to survive.
    After a while my thoughts get all confused. You know how it is just before you fall asleep, and your mind starts to go into free fall, where anything goes? From the