Chương 11
For months, every milestone had produced another task.
This one produced silence.
His hands shook.
He laughed once, quietly, because there was nobody there to hear it.
Then he called Ethan.
“You pass?”
“Yes.”
Ethan shouted so loudly Daniel held the phone away from his ear.
A voice in the background yelled at him to keep it down.
Ethan came back on.
“Sorry, study hall.”
“You’re an idiot.”
“You passed.”
“I passed.”
Daniel closed his eyes.
For the first time, he let himself believe Annapolis might actually be waiting for him.
Christmas came without an appointment.
Then New Year’s.
January brought another stretch of waiting.
Daniel turned eighteen in February.
Elaine made a chocolate cake.
Richard gave him a small tool set.
Ethan gave him running shoes that cost more than Daniel wanted to know.
“You can’t afford these.”
“I have a job.”
“You work six hours a week.”
“I have excellent credit.”
“You do not have credit.”
“I have charisma.”
Daniel kept the shoes.
The appointment arrived on a Wednesday.
There was no dramatic phone call.
No district director.
No audience.
Daniel was in the school library during study hall when his academy portal changed.
Offer of Appointment.
He stared at the screen.
Then he stood so abruptly his chair rolled backward.
The librarian looked up.
Daniel covered his mouth with one hand.
Mrs. Patel was across the building.
He ran anyway.
He reached her office out of breath.
She looked alarmed.
“What happened?”
Daniel could not get the sentence out.
He handed her his phone.
Mrs. Patel read the screen.
Her eyes filled.
She stood.
For one second, Daniel thought she might hug him.
Instead she held out her hand.
He laughed.
Then he shook it.
“Mr. Mercer,” she said, “I believe you have a decision to make.”
Daniel looked at the acceptance button.
For months, everyone had treated Annapolis as something being done to him, denied to him, granted to him, taken from him, or offered to him.
Now the last step belonged only to him.
His thumb hovered over the screen.
Then he pressed Accept.
The acceptance screen changed almost immediately, replacing the button with a line of text that looked too ordinary for the moment.
Daniel read it twice.
Mrs. Patel stood beside him with one hand pressed against the edge of her desk.
“Do you want to call your parents?”
He looked at the phone.
“Eventually.”
She nodded as if that answer made perfect sense.
For another minute, they simply stood there while students passed outside the office and the bell rang for the next period.
Daniel had imagined this moment too many times.
In some versions, he had called Richard immediately and listened to stunned silence.
In others, he had walked through the front door carrying the appointment packet like evidence.
Once, after a particularly bad argument, he had pictured saying nothing until the day he left.
None of those scenes fit anymore.
The anger was still there, but it had stopped being the only thing holding him upright.
He texted Ethan first.
Got it.
The reply arrived before Daniel could lock his phone.
GOT WHAT.
Daniel stared at the capital letters.
Appointment.
Three dots appeared.
Then disappeared.
Then appeared again.
CALL ME RIGHT NOW YOU ABSOLUTE PSYCHOPATH.
Daniel laughed loudly enough that Mrs. Patel smiled.
“I assume that’s your brother.”
“He has a subtle emotional range.”
Daniel called.
Ethan answered on the first ring.
“You’re in?”
“I’m in.”
There was a thump on the other end.
“What was that?”
“I hit my locker.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know.”
Daniel could hear people talking around him.
Ethan lowered his voice.
“You actually did it.”
“Yeah.”
“Holy crap.”
“Language.”
“Shut up.”
Daniel leaned against the wall.
For several seconds, neither brother said anything.
Then Ethan said, “You telling Mom and Dad?”
“Yeah.”
“When?”
“After school.”
“I can be there.”
Daniel looked through the counseling office window.
“You don’t have to.”
“I know.”
That answer mattered.
“Okay.”
They met in the student parking lot at three fifteen.
Ethan was already leaning against his truck, still wearing a school hoodie, when Daniel walked out.
He held up both hands.
“Before you say anything, I didn’t dent the locker.”
“Congratulations.”
“Thank you.”
“I meant on your restraint.”
“Also thank you.”
Daniel tossed his backpack into the truck.
Ethan did not start the engine.
“You nervous?”
Daniel looked at him.
“To tell them?”
“Yeah.”
“No.”
Ethan waited.
Daniel exhaled.
“Maybe.”
“Good.”
“Why is that good?”
“Because if you said no, I’d know you were lying.”
They drove home without music.
Richard’s Honda was already in the driveway.
Elaine’s car sat beside it.
Daniel noticed both and felt the appointment suddenly become less real than the front door.
Inside, Richard was at the kitchen table paying bills.
Elaine stood at the stove stirring something in a saucepan.
The television in the living room was on low.
Ethan walked in first.
“Everybody stop.”
Richard looked up.
“What?”
Elaine turned.
“Did something happen?”
Daniel stepped into the kitchen.
His mother’s hand tightened around the wooden spoon.
Something in her face changed before he spoke.
“The appointment came.”
Elaine stared.
Richard pushed back from the table.
Daniel took out his phone and opened the screen.
“I accepted it.”
No one moved.
Then Elaine crossed the kitchen and hugged him.
It happened so quickly that Daniel’s arms remained at his sides for a second.
His mother held on tightly.
He could smell tomato sauce and the hand lotion she kept beside the sink.
Daniel closed his eyes.
Then he hugged her back.
When she let go, she wiped beneath one eye with her thumb.
“You accepted already.”
“Yes.”
“You didn’t want to talk to us first?”
The old question was there, but the accusation was weaker.
Daniel answered carefully.
“No.”
Elaine nodded.
“That makes sense.”
Richard stood on the other side of the table.
He looked at Daniel for a long moment.
Then he held out his hand.
May you like
Daniel stared at it.
Richard’s mouth tightened.
