Half-truths and non-truths

I picked up on two things last night when I dropped my kid brother off at the house. First, Rob is jealous of my relationship with Shane, which only exists because there was such a void for a male role model in his life that I felt obligated to step in and fill it. How different things might have been for me if someone had done the same when I was his age. Second, Rob is dying to know what I said about him in the book. He may even be desperate enough to read it. If I'd had enough money to make an audio version, he'd give it a listen, no doubt.

He was out in the driveway with his partner-in-moronity Pat Donovan. In a sense, nothing has changed since I was Shane's age. Well, there's one significant difference. Nowadays they smoke the occasional blunt while knocking back their Olympias. Donovan's kid runs the High and Tight Dispensary over in West Seattle. Donovan helps out by sampling the merchandise. When Shane got out of the car, Rob came up to my window and said, "Shane tells me you wrote a book." I was caught a little off guard. I mean, I never asked Shane to keep it a secret, but it would have been nice if he'd warned me. I didn't figure the odds were too great Rob would ever stumble onto it on his own, considering he hasn't done much reading since his Dick & Jane days.

While I was still mulling over my best response, Rob asked, "Am I in it?" Again I paused to think before responding. "Well," I finally said, "it would be kind of hard to write a memoir without mentioning my family." Through his glassy eyes, I could see the wheels of his tiny mouse brain spinning. After about 15 seconds, he blew out a cloud of skunk and said, "Only good stuff, right?" Perhaps I should have warned him when I was in kindergarten that some day I'd write a book. If he cared so much about being immortalized in the printed page (okay, on the ebook page), maybe he would have gone about things differently. "Yeah," I said. "It's nothing big. Don't worry about it." Judging by the way he glared at me as I backed out, that didn't satisfy him.