Free How Evan Broke His Head and Other Secrets by Garth Stein Page A

home, and then, once they commit, announces to them that he can’t sleep after a show so they all have to go to Denny’s for ice cream. Lars and Dean have banana splits. Evan has a fruit salad.
    After they indulge, Lars hands Dean a five-dollar bill.
    “Go play a video game for a few minutes, ” he says, referring to the half dozen games in the front of the restaurant. “I need to talk to your dad. Then I’m gonna come and kick your ass.”
    “You wish, ” Dean says, scooping up the bill.
    “You’re gonna wish you hadn’t just said ‘you wish’ by the time I’m done with you.”
    “I have no idea what that means, ” Dean says with a devilish grin as he walks away.
    When he’s safely out of earshot, Lars focuses on Evan.
    “So, ” he says, “his mother died.”
    “Yes.”
    “And now you have custody.”
    “Custody?” Evan asks, startled.“No, not custody. He’s just staying with me for a few days. He’s living with his grandparents.”
    “His grandparents.”
    “Yes.”
    “His maternal grandparents.”
    “Right.”
    “And they live? . . .”
    “Walla Walla.”
    “Walla Walla. Nice. And how much time, exactly, have you spent with him before this time?”
    Evan doesn’t like being questioned like this. He fiddles with his fork and squirms in his seat.
    “None, ” he confesses.
    “None. None at all. So you’d have to say you’ve never seen him before.”
    Evan thinks about telling Lars that he has seen Dean before, back when he was just a day old, but he knows it would make him sound even worse: if you’re going to abandon your kid, do it as an act of passion; stand behind it; don’t do it half-assed.
    “So let me get this straight, ” Lars says.“You’ve never met this kid before. You find out his mother dies. You go to her funeral and end up taking the kid home with you—but you don’t want custody of the kid or anything, he’s just visiting for a few days . Is that about right?”
    “I don’t really feel comfortable discussing this at the present time, ” Evan says.
    “Really. Well, then let me ask you this: why the hell did you go to her funeral in the first place if you didn’t want the kid?”
    Evan nervously looks around the restaurant. It’s almost empty. Leave it to Lars to stick it to him in an empty Denny’s.
    “I mean, seriously, Ev, ” Lars continues. “You had to know that the second he saw you he’d want to be with you.”
    “He doesn’t want to be with me. He hates me. He told me—”
    “Really? He’d rather hang with his loser grandparents in Walla Walla than his cooler-than-life musician dad who jams with Lucky Strike on any given night and takes him out late for banana splits?”
    Evan checks his watch. It’s almost midnight.
    “I should get him home.”
    Lars nods. “It’s past his bedtime.”
    “Yeah.”
    Lars slides over on the banquette and rises.
    “Let me play a couple of games with him first, okay? I promised him.”
    “Okay, ” Evan says.
    Lars starts to go, then stops, “You know, Ev . . .”
    But he doesn’t say anything else. He just walks away. And Evan knows what Lars was going to say. He knows. So he waits a significant amount of time—more than he normally would have waited—and then he pays the bill and goes to collect Dean.
    DEAN STANDS OVER the unblinking answering machine on the floor next to Evan’s bed.
    “Grandma didn’t call.”
    Evan locks the door and heads toward the sound of Dean’s voice.
    “I’m sure she’ll call tomorrow, ” he says.
    Dean shrugs, pulls off his shirt.“Do you have a washing machine in here?”
    “In the basement. Why?”
    “I should wash this stuff before I wear it.”
    “You’re already wearing it.”
    “My mom always said to wash clothes before you wear them, ” Dean says.“To take off the chemicals in the dye and pesticides they spray on the cotton plants.”
    Evan’s never heard of such a clean concept. But it sounds like something a well-read, concerned mother would