"The Addams Family"

Meeka follows me into my bedroom and says “cute,” for the fourth time since she’s arrived at Meadowview. The word is like a high-pitched sound a dog hears—painful and in need of a good growling at. She eyes the drawn Addams Family curtain in the middle of the room.


“Did you know that the total population of Long Island in 1900 was 1,452,611? And only five years later it jumped to 1,718,056! That’s 265,445 more people in only five years! Can you believe that, Amelia? I mean, can you believe it?” Jack asks from his bed.


“Who’s that?” Meeka asks and Jack yanks the Addams Family curtain back.


“I’m Jack, like Jack and the Beanstalk. Who are you?” He is suddenly a bee and Meeka is clearly his nectar.


“Meeka. What are you reading there?” She nods her head at the Atlas Jack fiercely hugs to his scrawny chest.


He doesn’t answer. His bug eyes bulge further from his sockets. “What I’m reading is none of your business, none of your business at all.” With trembling fingers he yanks the curtain closed, again.


I point to the Whatever t-shirt I’m wearing and roll my eyes. My cheeks are burning and I’m hoping it doesn’t show.


Meeka shrugs her shoulders and says “Who are all these people on here?” She gestures to the curtain.


Jack yanks the curtain back once again, and jabs at it while he says, “Gomez Addams, Morticia, his wife, Pugsley and Wednesday, their children. Don’t you go to the movies? Don’t you know anything? You obviously don’t because you wouldn’t have done something so stupid and mean to my sister. You think you’re so pretty, well you’re not. My sister is much, much prettier than you by far. You look like nothing more than a, a gazelle—no a giraffe with a ridiculous neck that doesn’t end!”


My brother is shaking. I am shaking for the both of us.


Meeka is smiling, trying to hold back a good chuckle. But her eyes are a little shiny when she says, “You’re absolutely right. I was stupid and mean.”


Jack nods his head several times. “Good, yes that’s good.”


“Thank you.”


“Because my sister isn’t ugly—you need to take this back, you know. You must admit it isn’t true and apologize because it isn’t true.” He is clenching his Atlas as if Courage lived inside its pages. Despite a racing heart, something inside of me is softening.


“Listen, I’m sorry Amelia, but I never—“


A rap on our door and Mr. McGee’s freckled face pops into our room and—blissfully—interrupts. “Pizza delivery, I gotta pizza delivery here. Is this the…” he pretends to read from a piece of paper, “Shorty and Clark Kent residence?”


“Vinny!” Jack races to the door and throws his scrawny body against Mr. McGee’s legs.


Meeka’s face reminds me of those cheesy Kodak commercials where the kid wakes up to a real Santa Claus. She is all smiles and eager anticipation. “Great!” she says. Clearly, we have moved past “cute.”


“Mr. McGee, pleasure to meet you,” he nods his shaggy head her way.


“The pleasure is all mine,” she nods back, barely hearing him. She is too busy watching Jack pull Vinny from the bedroom.


“Ooh, you’ve got one of those fancy accents. Where are you from?” Vinny asks before he is yanked into the kitchen.


“Trinidad,” she calls back.


“Ooh, fancy!” Mr. McGee says between the sounds of our soul-less china hitting the table. “The pizza’s nice and hot! Come and get it girls!”


I start to follow Mr. McGee into the kitchen when Meeka grabs my arm. “You know I never called you ugly.” She is looking at me as if my answer matters.


“I know. It’s a long story. I’ll fill you in later.”


“Your brother really loves you.” She nods her head towards the kitchen. “So does your dad.”


I do not correct her. My heart is too busy softening to know what to say.


“Amelia, Meeka, the pizza’s getting cold,” my mother sings.


Meeka raises her finely-tweezed eyebrows. “She doesn’t sound like a murderer to me.” She slinks out the door past me so I am left alone with her words. For the first time since After, the jury of my heart and mind is divided.