I said, "But Idowant to know. I wouldn't have asked otherwise."
"Alright," he said, not sounding too happy about it. "You wanna know why? It's because my parents were fuck-ups."
"Oh." Now, I hardly knew what to say. From watching the TV show, I already knew that both of his parents had died in separate accidents sometime within the last few years – his dad in a car crash and his mom in a house fire.
At the time, both of them had been living in different states – away from their childrenandfrom each other.
Brody never wanted to talk about it, and I could totally see why. But until just now, I hadn't realized that Brody harbored such hard feelings for them.
After a long moment, I said, "How so?"
"Let's just say, family wasn't important to them."
"But what about your grandparents?"
"Dead."
I winced. "All of them?"
His voice was quiet. "Yup."
"Gosh, I'm really sorry."
"Don't be. Like I said, I never knew them, so…" His words trailed off into silence – the kind that didn't welcome further discussion.
Still, I persisted, "So you're saying you never met them at all?"
"Never," he confirmed. "So hey, they could be fuck-ups, too, for all I know."
The more he talked, the less I liked what I was hearing.Did he seriously just call his dead grandparents fuck-ups?
And earlier, his parents, too?
I felt my eyebrows furrow. It was true that I had plenty of issues with my own parents, but I still loved them, even in spite of their flaws.
And, as far as Brody's grandparents, his pronouncement seemed terribly unfair.
Hoping to get him thinking, I said, "But about your grandparents, if you've never met them, how can you truly know anything?"
"I don't." His voice hardened. "And that's the point."
"I know," I said. "But I'm just saying, maybe they were wonderful people."
With a low scoff, he said, "And you think that's better?"
"I don't know," I admitted. "Maybe."
"Well it's not," he said.
"Why?"
With a new edge in his voice, he replied, "Because the wayIsee it, I'm better off if they weren't worth knowing."
I still didn't get it."But why?"
"Because then I wasn't missing anything."
Finally, I saw what he meant. Still, the whole thing made me feel strange and sad – and even sadder when Brody announced, "I'm gonna head out, alright?"
