The school days started to fall into a set routine for Andrew. Each day on the bus he would sit with Shawn and talk about popular music, movies, and their classes. In homeroom, Andrew would chat with Darren, who did most of the talking about how their football team was really practicing hard. At lunch, all the boys sat together and had random conversations about anything on their minds. They often talked about girls—mostly about their looks than anything else. After school they would hang out at Darren’s house and listen to edgy music while goofing around.
One night, Carson surprised the group with a horror movie. At first, Andrew felt uncomfortable about watching it. He had asked what it was about and Carson replied that it was a slasher flick where a psychopath kills people off. Andrew’s parents had never let them watch movies that contained those kinds of elements. He had tried to get out of it by telling the guys that he had just remembered about a test he had the next day that he needed to study for, but they just teased him. To avoid further ridicule, Andrew finally agreed to watch it. Among many disturbing images of death, there was profanity and sexual scenes too.
Initially, Andrew had felt uncomfortable hanging out with the boys, but overall he preferred that over staying at home with Billy. With Angela constantly out late with her friends after school, Andrew would end up being the first one home. He would sometimes find Billy asleep on the retro sofa with the old television set still playing tasteless television shows.
Many times Andrew would turn it off immediately because it was loud and offensive. But, sometimes as he would enter the room to do so, something on the screen would catch his attention such as violent action scenes or attractive women. Often, Andrew would watch the shows and movies for a while before finally deciding to turn the television off. He would never watch those types of things in front of Angela. He knew they were things his parents would have classified as provocative and sinful, but it was similar to the stuff that his friends showed him at their house.
Its just entertainment, Andrew had told himself on many occasions trying to knock his conscience back into hiding. It’s not like I do that stuff too. It’s not hurting anyone. Plus, I am not a child anymore and watching stuff like that makes me feel more like a man.
When Billy wasn’t in a drunken stupor he would be very short and bossy with Andrew. “Hey Andrew, get me a drink.” This was his favorite line. Andrew became used to being a beer caddy. He promised himself never to drink simply on the basis of never wanting to be a lazy slob like Billy. Occasionally Darren and the boys would drink beer while watching movies, but they never seemed to notice or care that Andrew didn’t join them. Other than calling for more beer, Billy didn’t say much else to Andrew besides, “I’m going out tonight.”
Uncle Billy seemed to be eating out at restaurants more and more each week. Sometimes he said it was at buffets, other times he would eat out at fancy restaurants which served steak or expensive seafood. Any leftovers he brought home he said that he would eat the next day for lunch. Andrew and Angela would always make their own dinners, constantly the cheapest meals available for the stove or microwave.
As Andrew returned home one day, the house was even louder than usual. He shut the front door and followed the blaring sounds to the living room, where he found a large flat screen television mounted to the wall in place of the tube TV. The sound bar beneath the high-definition television was extremely loud. The couch across from it was empty, but was not the same retro one from before. This new leather sofa was the cleanest thing in the house, and really stood out of place against the old striped wallpaper. Andrew was confused by it all, so he turned off the television and took a seat to check out the new couch.
“Hey kid,” Billy shouted as he stormed down the hallway, “I was watching that.” As he appeared, he saw Andrew on the sofa and said threateningly, “Get up, now.”
“I’m sorry,” Andrew said out of reflex as he stood up. “It’s very nice.”
“Sure is,” Billy said as he checked the sofa out as if Andrew had damaged it, “it’s the best around.”
“You must be doing pretty well at work,” Andrew said impressed. “Did you get promoted or something?”
Billy hesitated to answer, and then said, “Yeah, something like that.”
“What exactly do you do again?” he inquired.
“You don’t remember?” Billy asked. “It doesn’t matter anyways. It’s good to finally get what’s coming to me.”
“Must be nice,” Andrew said. “My friend’s house doesn’t even have a television that big, and his parents are pretty well off. Man, if the kids at school saw this, they would—”
“Okay, that’s enough,” Billy said hurriedly and with a hint of worry in his voice. “No need to go on about it. Hey, if you keep this between us, I could always buy you a nice thirty-two inch TV for your room.”
“What?” Andrew said astonished. “You would do that?”
Uncle Billy grinned and said, “Sure, you know, share the wealth and all. Why not? We can talk more about this later. My favorite show is about to start. I bet you have homework to do.”
“Yeah,” Andrew agreed, his mind spinning with the thought of his own TV. “We definitely can talk later.”
As he went to his room, he turned on his clock radio and listened to some alternative rock. He started to work on homework, but he could not stop wondering about the expensive things his uncle had just purchased.
We’ve been living here in this dump for a while now, Andrew thought. Uncle Billy has been wasting more and more money on overpriced dinners and now a super pricey television, sound bar, and leather sofa that would make my friends jealous. I never see him work anymore, so how is he able to afford all of this?
He continued on his homework for a while, but as he looked across the room to an empty wall, he imagined what it would look like with a television there. He thought about how amazing it would be if the TV also had a built-in DVD player. Then he could borrow movies from his friends and watch them without Angela seeing them.
She wouldn’t understand, Andrew thought.
As he tried to continue on his homework, he leaned back against the wall and muttered, “Where’s the money coming from? Should I really question it, or just take the free TV?”
Frustrated about it all, he turned his music up louder. Moments later, he thought, I’ll just have to see what the boys think about all this.
10
Finding Faith Page 9