You love it here. You've got to stay. (The Kooks)

My father put his arms around my shoulders as I sat at the kitchen table across from my mother. He kissed the top of my head. “This girl is brilliant. She’s so smart and grounded. I can’t believe this is my daughter.”

My mother smile meekly. “Let’s go.”

“Where are we going?” asked Uncle Tony when he walked in.

“We’re moving,” I told him with excitement. “We’re going to live with Uncle Rider.”

“In his bachelor apartment?” Uncle Tony asked.

“As it turns out he bought that whole building.”

“No? Since when is Rider a slumlord?” asked Uncle Tony.

My father shrugged.

“I don’t know about this,” said Uncle Tony.

“Going to miss us?” I chided.

“No,” he said looking away thoughtfully. “I’m just trying to figure out what I’m going to do with all the spare room.”

“Uncle Tony,” I cried.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah, I’ll miss you. I’ll have to get Scotch to move in or something just to keep the place from getting depressing.”

“A ball of dust blows through the empty kitchen,” I envisioned. “Grass starts growing through the tiles. Spiders will be dangling from cobwebs in the corners.”

“When do you think this move will be?” asked Uncle Tony.

My father looked to my mother, who promptly informed him that it wouldn’t be until I finished school for the year. I sighed because that was my main motivation for getting out of Philadelphia.

“But that’s only another couple months,” complained Uncle Tony. “Have you even told Senior yet?”

“Told me what?” he asked as if speaking his name aloud had summoned him into the room.

“Tommy’s moving,” Uncle Tony said as if he was tattle-telling on his older brother.

“Where?”

“West,” my father said proudly, “with Rider.”

Senior considered this for a moment then walked away.

Everyone exchanged anxious looks. My mother opted to go for a walk about the grounds. As soon as she was out the door Uncle Tony reached for the heroin. The three of us got sufficiently high. Who says families don’t do anything together anymore? Then Senior returned with his jacket on.

“Come on,” he heckled and the boys jumped. We piled into his Mercedes and drove to an airstrip at the end of town.

“What are we doing here?” asked Uncle Tony.

“Making an acquisition,” Senior said with a sly smile.

“Are you buying me a new brother? I was getting sick of this one anyway. It’s for the best that he’s leaving.”

“Shut up, Tony,” my father said in tandem with Senior.

I giggled and touched my hand to Uncle Tony’s shoulder sympathetically. He shook his head at me as if to say: the stuff I put up with. I responded with a smile that said: I know.