FIND YOURSELF DANCING
Chapter 2: Anywhere But Here
91 Freeway, Eastbound • Saturday, July 21, 1990
The Nintendo Game Boy came out in 1989, and it was well known for two key features:
- It was the first portable video game system with interchangeable games that saw serious popularity. Before then, handheld games existed in the form of crude liquid crystal displays that would play single, simple games. Before that, there were playing cards. Consumers fell in love with the idea of one video game system that could play multiple different games simply by inserting a different cartridge.
- To save battery power, the Game Boy had no back light. This let Nintendo build a handheld video game system with a battery that lasted hours, but it would work best during the day. Millions of children struggled to play at night, and Danny Wright in 1990 was one of them.
In the back seat of his parent’s car, the ten-year-old again adjusted himself into a pretzel trying to find the right angle to get the passing streetlights or tailing cars to grant him enough light to play Tetris. It was not working out well. Grace looked behind her and saw the different positions her son was contorting himself into just to play a video game.
“Danny, put that thing down. Your father can’t see through the rear view mirror.”
“Can we turn the interior light on?”
“No. Stop trying to distract the driver.”
“Yeah, kid.” John glanced over to his son’s seat. “You don’t want me getting into any accidents when you’re not wearing your seat belt.”
Danny got the message. He turned off the Game Boy, sat up straight and put on his seat belt. Soon he was asleep against the window, snoring just loudly enough for his parents to hear. Grace looked behind her to confirm that her son was asleep, then turned to her husband.
“I have no idea how that kid does it.”
“What? Find a way to play Tetris in any environment?”
“No, how he sleeps. I feel like we were just talking and he’s out like a light.”
“Didn’t you know? He taught me how to do it. Here, look.” John rolled his head back and exaggerated a fake snore. His hands fell from the steering wheel, and the car began to list gently out of its lane.
“Cut it out!” Grace shoved her husband out of his fake-sleep. He sat up and righted the car’s alignment in the lane.
John laughed. After a moment, he tilted his head towards Grace. “Guess what? I think I convinced Danny to start taking dance lessons.”
“You’re kidding me. I must have asked that kid a thousand times about learning to dance. What changed his mind?”
“Honestly, I think we badgered him into it.”
“That kid.” Grace paused and smiled at the thought of her son becoming a dancer. “I hope he likes it.”
“Me, too.”
Danny snored again, this time a quick, startling jolt of a noise that caused both of his parents to turn to the back seat and make sure he’s okay.
“That kid,” John said, “I wonder what he’s dreaming about?”
As his father drove, Danny dreamed of home.
The Wrights live in the small community of Grand Terrace, 60 miles northeast from the Regnal Orange Hotel. John, Grace, and Danny have lived there for the last eight years, with Jack and Kym moving in three months ago.
When Jack came back home, Danny had not seen the man in seven years. Danny looked at the young man and couldn’t believe that a person could be so skinny. Jack’s Guns and Roses sleeveless t-shirt hung off his bones like it was two sizes too large. His ripped jeans revealed toothpicks for legs, with bruised knees that matched his knuckles, opened from some recent fight before coming back home. His dirty blonde hair fell everywhere from his head down to his shoulders. Danny could see the outline of his brother’s skeleton poking out through his skin.
Somehow hiding behind the toothpick of a man was a smaller toothpick of a woman. Kym looked like she was wearing clothes she borrowed from her boyfriend: a dingy gray sweatshirt and pair of jeans that looked so large that it was a mystery how they could hang onto her body. Her long, blonde hair was lightly teased, with dark roots barely visible from her scalp.
Danny’s dreaming took him to Jack’s room. The two of them were sitting on the edge of the older brother’s bed, playing One-on-One Basketball against each other on an old Atari video game system. Since moving in Jack has put meat on his bones, but the 23-year-old was still tremendously skinny.
“How is Kym liking California?”
“You know, she’s still getting used to it, but I think being here is a good move for both of us.”
“I think so. I like having a big brother.”
“I like having a little brother … that I can dunk on.”
Jack’s digital version of Larry Bird scored against Danny’s Dr. J.
“No!” Danny groaned at the play. “If this was real, I’d so beat you!”
Jack looked at his younger brother, who was a full foot shorter than him. “You sure about that?” Jack pinched his little brother in his side. Danny pinched him back. The pinching escalated into shoving and slapping until the Atari beeped a reminder that the game was still running. The brothers sit back up and continue playing.
“Hey Danny, what do you want to be when you grow up?”
“I don’t know, but I hope it’s something with computers.”
“Why?”
“I like playing with them. Dad got me into them when I was a kid.”
“That makes sense, you gotta play your strengths.”
“How about you, Jack? What do you want to be when you grow up?”
“When I grow up?” The older Wright brother laughed and thought about it for a second. “You know, Grace and Dad offered me a job at the warehouse when I came back. I think I’ll take them up on it.” Jack paused to focus on the game. “I never thought I’d be working for my parents. After that ... I don’t know.”
“You don’t know what?”
“I don’t know what I want to be when I grow up.”
“Huh. Well, I hope you find out. Because it isn’t playing video games!”
Dr. J circled around Larry Bird and scored the winning basket for the younger brother. Jack laughed.
“Nice! Way to go, kid. To be honest, I never really thought I’d make it this far.”
“Really?”
“Really. A year ago, I was sleeping next to a dumpster outside of a convenience store.”
“No!”
“Yeah. Things weren’t great for me, but I guess that’s it. I’m here now. You never know where life is going to take you.”
“I guess not.”
In Danny’s dream, the two brothers continue playing One-on-one Basketball.
As John pulls in to the family driveway, he notices his son still asleep in the back seat. He taps Grace on the shoulder and points his thumb to Danny.
“What do we do with the kid?” whispered John. “He’s getting too big to carry.”
“Let him be for a bit, he’s had a long day.”
“We all have. It’s been a long week.” John gets out of the car and stretches. “How can those competitions be so exhausting when we didn’t even compete on the last day?”
“It beats me.” Grace followed out of the passenger seat. “You know, that kid is glued to that Game Boy.”
“I hope the batteries are okay, they’re the third set I’ve bought this month.”
“I think he sleeps with it, when Jack lets him.”
“I’ll go to Radio Shack on Monday, buy some rechargeable AAs for the boys.”
“Yeah, but just the rechargeables. Every time you go there, you spend a hundred dollars on random electronics stuff.”
“Hey, you know who you married.” John gave his wife a kiss. “I’ll be good.”
“Yeah, next time you’ll be good. You start with the bags, I’ll see if I can get Jack to come down and help.”
From the outside, Grace could see all the lights were off except the one in Jack’s room on the second floor. She unlocked the front door and walked in. “Jack! We’re home!”
There was no response from the older Wright son. Grace walked upstairs to her stepson’s room, looking to turn the bedroom light off.
John made it to inside the front door of the house and dropped off the first load of bags. Turning back to the car, John could barely see a sleeping Danny in the back seat. Looks like I’m carrying that kid inside, he thought to himself. John sighed. While he walked back to the car, he heard screaming from inside the house.
It was coming from upstairs.
It was coming from his wife.
Introduction
Chapter 1: Last Night
Chapter 2: Anywhere But Here
Chapter 3: Wet Paper Bag
Chapter 4: Harry, Cliff
Chapter 5: The Morning After
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