“Yeah, sometimes.”
“You desire the attention.”
“Is that bad, or does that make me selfish?”
“Not at all, Brandon. One of the most basic wants and needs of many people, whether they admit it or not, is to feel wanted and loved by their parents. It doesn’t make you selfish at all.”
“I’ve been the guy through high school that hasn’t had a parent show up to anything. My mom’s never there for my track meet stuff. I played soccer my freshman year, and she never came to one of those games. The track meets are every three weeks during the spring, so it’s not a huge commitment. Soccer was each week in the fall, so I understand she didn’t want to get involved in that.”
“What about academic events?”
“I haven’t really had too many of those yet. I had an Honor Society induction ceremony that she didn’t come to, but she was in New York that weekend.”
“Well, Brandon, your Uncle Eli will support you,” he said.
Uncle Eli? Was he serious?
“You’d come to my stuff? I mean, I don’t have much stuff. Just track stuff.”
I was shocked that he told me I could call him Uncle Eli, and I really wasn’t sure what else to say about that. That was so cool. I could say that my uncle would be coming to my track meets.
When the pizza came, I moved out from under the blanket and set the ice pack on the coffee table. We ate pizza using paper towels as plates and drank Coke from the foam cups his office used for the coffee maker. My mom would have a coronary if she saw this, but I was enjoying myself and wasn’t home alone.
“So, you mentioned Honor Society. You must have good grades for that. Are you in accelerated classes?”
“Yes, they’re not too hard. But sometimes I struggle with English Lit.”
“Not your thing, huh?”
“I’m too easily distracted. For other subjects, other than math, I can glance at the information, and then I can remember it.”
“Do you have a photographic memory?”
“I don’t know.”
“How long do you have to look at something before you memorize it?”
“Not very long.”
“And you can’t do it with math?”
“Well, I can memorize the formulas. Then I can plug in the info.”
“How long do you retain the info?”
“Usually as long as I need to until the test or quiz.”
“That sounds like you have a photographic memory. Out of curiosity, can you use it in all things? Like, street signs or directions?”
“Yeah, pretty much anything that can be recalled. Weird pieces to movies, sports stats that roll across the bottom of the screen.”
Elijah and I wrapped up our talk, and he was sending me home with the leftover pizza. My sweatshirt was nowhere near being dry, so I carried it by the hood.
“I have an umbrella, Brandon, so I’m going to walk out with you. I’m also going to follow you home to make sure you make it safely, okay?”
I nodded and thanked him. As we waited by the elevator, he sent my mom a text to let her know what the plan was. Carrying the pizza box and two-liter bottle, I walked under the umbrella he held above our heads. When we got to my car, I set the pizza box and soda in the backseat.
“Thank you again, Elijah,” I said.
