Kay got up out of bed and went to his bedroom light. He flicked it on and had to squint his way over to his shelf to get his glasses. The shaded lens protected his eyes from the caustic light. His irritated peepers could have cried. Once his eyes settled a bit, he took a look out the window into the early morning. Not much of night’s darkness had alleviated with shining windows dotting the deep morning blue– people rising to the world with Kay.

  He slipped on some clothes and went out into the main room where his mother and sister were getting ready. Mom was heading to the kitchen whilst putting on some earrings. Aubrey was cleaning up some dishes she left out by the couch the night before.

  “Good morning, Mick,” said Mom.

  “G’morning,” said Kay, his throat dry. He looked around. “Urban not around?” Kay asked but he didn’t really care.

  Mom stopped and turned to Kay as she straightened the collar on her sweater. “Herb had to go into work early. They were having a meeting.”

  Kay didn’t know much about Urban’s job. All he knew was that his stepdad worked at a bus depot. He had heard Urban talk about his job hear and there but without context, there wasn’t much of a picture to put together.

  The three took to the kitchen; Aubrey putting her dishes in the sink, Kay getting a glass of water, and Mom getting their lunches out.

  Mom waited for Aubrey to go into the other room before she and Kay could have a private conversation. Mom put on a sincere face. “Mick, could we talk for a second?”

  A chill went up Kay’s spine. “Sure,” he said.

  When Mom said, “About the other day...”

  And just like that, Kay knew it was about the employment talk they had last week. Mom continued, “I’m sorry I ambushed you with that conversation. I know you’re trying very hard. I just want you to take more responsibility.”

  Responsibility, thought Kay. He moonlit as a liquid cryptid and was in the middle of playing the detective game to figure out which gang was trying to assassinate him; to see if he could fix the issue by playing diplomat. He had more responsibility than anyone around!

  “I’ll try to get my grades up,” said Kay. “I think I can do it. I can get straight As.”

  Mom nodded. “That would be nice, but have you considered the job thing?”

  “Yeah,” said Kay. “Sorta.” His voice and face dropped. He shrugged. “Not really...”

  “Just give it some thought,” said Mom.

  Translation: that meant Mom wanted Kay to get a job. Ugh, Kay’s itinerary was full and there was no time to look let alone do a part-time job but at least his mom was giving him some time before Kay had to show he was at least trying to look for a one. His current focus was on the gang. Looking for a job was a problem for future Kay.

  “I know I’m hard on you,” said Mom, “but it’s because...” She let her eyes wilt with a kind of perennial sorrow, and she sighed. “I wonder what your father would do in this situation. Am I giving you enough discipline? Am I pushing you in the right direction?”

  Kay sensed this moment was an opportunity to get some leeway. His mother was unsure about how hard she was on him. It was an opening to push back. Shuffling some words in his head, though, Kay couldn’t put together any good words to plead his case. Mentioning his dad got Kay thinking about how his father actually behaved as a father.

  “Dad wasn’t hard on me,” said Kay. It was the truth, too. “I mean, he wasn’t soft...” Kay stammered, trying to find the right words. “He was just... a dad. He was a parent and he... behaved like a parent. You guys both did that. You guys were pretty similar in how you parented me.”

  The words might have been awkward but Mom got the message.

  “It wasn’t that long ago,” said Kay. “Have you already forgotten what it was like with him around?”

  Mom dropped her brow into something of a scowl. “I haven’t forgotten, Mick. I never saw it that way; that’s all. I was the mother and he was the father. That’s how I saw it.”

  Kay couldn’t resist digging up dad’s past. “Did you ever talk about it? How to raise your children?”

  Mom brushed some fingers across her forehead. “I don’t think so. It was a collaborative thing. We played off each other and learned from each other. That’s how a married couple works.”

  Then Kay frowned. “Do you... ever think about him?”

  “He’s the father to my children,” said Mom, a formal annunciation in her voice. “I think about him.”

  “But you don’t love him?” asked Kay.

  The boy was reaching the end of Mom’s patience. Mom let out an exacerbated sighed and cleared her throat. “I care about him. Just because I stopped loving him doesn’t mean I feel nothing about him.” She checked her watch, rotating the face to the top of her wrist. “And that’s all I have to say for now. I need to get ready for work and you need to get ready for school.”

  Kay let out the most dismissive “Okay” he could muster and went to the fridge to get his lunch. As he hung over the fridge and collected some food items, he thought about his mom and dad being together. It was five years ago that they got divorced. In that very kitchen they displayed signs of affection. Kay looked around the room and could almost picture phantoms of his mother and father sharing hugs and affection around the room.

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  But five years was forever ago.

  Was Mom going to stay with Urban in the long run? How long would Mom keep with Urban? Was he going to leave the apartment just like Dad? Would their marriage end up being temporary? Kay couldn’t remember the specific memory, but Mom once implied to him that she loved Urban more than Dad and that their love would last.

  Not many things weren’t temporary, though.

  What a bummer start to a Thursday, but Kay tried to shake it off through the school day. He had bigger problems! A couple days ago, he scoped Leslieville for gang activity (whatever that looked liked) and couldn’t find anything. Then last night he went out as Ghost Thing to check out another neighbourhood and nothing happened. Was there some kind of method that made exploring places more efficient? There had to be, right?

  Kay got so lost in thought that he spent a majority of school staring into space. In class, Huxley looked over and saw his pal gazing a hole towards the front of the classroom. He gave Kay a little shove. “You okay, bud?”

  That was enough to get Kay to snap out of it. He blinked, and looked around, almost having to remind himself which class he was in. A glimpse at Jia, Lana, and Huxley informed him he was in the only class he had with that crew: Media Studies.

  “Uh... yeah,” said Kay, straightening up his back and straightening up his shirt.

  Lana was preoccupied as well, the girl choosing to stare down at her lap instead of across the room like Kay. Jia looked over to see her friend miles away. She giggled. “Is everyone sleepy today or something?”

  Lana noticed that. She roused and looked over at Jia. “Uh... I’m not sleepy. I mean, I am sleepy. But it’s not that.”

  “What’s eating ya?” asked Huxley.

  Lana’s eyes fluttered and she rolled around her seat, uncomfortable in answering the question, but she sighed and relaxed. She was among friends and could have a serious conversation about it. Because she didn’t want other kids taking in their conversation, Lana kept her voice low, though. “I’m pretty sure my parents are getting divorced.”

  “Oh crap, really?” Jia took Lana’s wrist.

  Lana nodded. “I mean... it was inevitable. Or it seemed inevitable.”

  Huxley dropped his grin, looking serious. “It’s been going on for awhile?”

  “They went to marriage counselling,” said Lana. “For a while. I guess they stopped going on. And the fighting returned and I don’t think they want to be together anymore. They spent all night fighting last night.”

  “That sucks,” said Huxley. “I’m sorry.”

  Lana shrugged, her voice quieter than ever. “What can you do?”

  There was a moment of silence– expressing sympathy for Lana’s predicament. For Kay, though? He didn’t need to try very hard to imagine what Lana was going through. He was a child of divorce. He had been through it. And since everyone’s tongues were idle and there was a space to be filled, Kay thought he would contribute.

  Cutting through the silence, he said, “My parents are divorced.”

  “Really?” said Huxley, then he took a couple fingers to his chin. “Ah, yeah. I remember you saying your dad lived in another country.”

  “Lithuania,” said Kay.

  “Lithuania...” Jia said it out loud and then tried to picture the country on a world map. “Is that in Europe?”

  Kay nodded. “Yeah. Northeastern Europe; around Poland and stuff.”

  “Was it hard going through that?” asked Lana, feeling dumb for asking an obvious question.

  Kay gave a slight smirk. “It happened five years ago.”

  With the way Kay mentioned in such solemn tone, Lana assumed it was recent. She said, “Oh, so you were young.”

  “Yeah,” said Kay. He was talking because he wanted to make conversation. He had relevant experience to the topic at hand. But talking about it forced him to remember what it was like. Images appeared in his mind and feelings trembled in his heart as he recited for his classmates. “I woke up one night and I could hear my parents fighting. I wasn’t sure what it was about. I couldn’t imagine that they were thinking of splitting.”

  Lana scoffed, although it wasn’t aimed at Kay but at her own situation. “I know exactly where it’s going with my folks.”

  The others kept quiet and let Kay speak. Kay huffed a warm chuckle. “I didn’t... get it. When Mom and Dad told me they were getting divorced, I was upset, but I think I got over it quickly because I didn’t think it was real.” Kay shifted down into his seat and tensed his brow looking down in thought. “It wasn’t until Dad moved out that it started to sink in.”

  He could feel an echo of the emotions he felt back then. Sadness, disbelief, despair, and uncertainty; emotions he hadn’t felt in some time. Had it really been so long since Kay thought about the divorce itself– the process of his parents breaking up? Even five years gone from Dad leaving from Lithuania, that “beat” of emotion, felt dense inside Kay’s mind. The outrage, something he felt as a child, was something he still believed.

  And as his thoughts lingered on it, other tiny emotions sailed by– things Kay had to consider. Did he still believe one day Dad would come back to Canada and reenter his life? No. That would never happen. But did Kay, underneath all layers of logic and understanding, secretly believe it would?

  Kay lost his breath. What was he doing believing stuff like that? Five years had past.

  Grow up, Kay, he told himself.

  “I–” Unexpectedly, something had caught Kay’s throat. He took a breath in. “I guess it happened so fast I didn’t know how to react. I was just a kid.” He groaned, crunching his lips. “They didn’t ask me– uh, me or my sister– if we wanted them to get divorced. They didn’t ask how we felt. It happened so fast. They said they were getting divorced and then Dad was out of the apartment and a couple weeks later he was in Lithuania.”

  Describing it like that made it sound like a murder, razor sharp and within record time.

  Kay blew air like a steam engine. “There wasn’t any discussion about it. It happened and then Mom never talked about it. It’s like she was never married to Dad.”

  “Geez, Kay,” said Huxley, almost ready to take a hand to Kay’s back in sympathy. “That’s rough.”

  Kay looked around at three pairs of eyes gazing at him with deep sympathy, a kind of sympathy he didn’t think he ever had received before. It was the kind of look one would get waking up in a hospital bed. Did Kay do something wrong?

  Kay thought, Wow, they really care about me.

  “So you’re living with your Mom?” asked Jia.

  The sadness deflated out of everyone. They loosened up, Huxley relaxing in his seat.

  “Yeah,” said Kay. “I had the option to move to Lithuania with my dad but I...” His breath got shaky.

  “Hey,” Lana took Kay’s hand and chuckled nervously. “I’m sorry. I-I didn’t mean to dig up your feelings like that.”

  Kay retracted his hand slowly, feeling embarrassed. “It’s fine. I guess... it’s been awhile, uh, since I thought about it.”

  “Did your mom remarry?” asked Huxley.

  Kay didn’t want to say the truth. He didn’t want to acknowledge that his mom did remarry and subjected Kay to a bunch of Greek culture.

  “Yeah,” said Kay. “To a guy named Urban. He moved in with us.”

  And that was as good a place to end the conversation. The others moved onto another topic at hand while Kay sat there and stewed in his emotions. All he was doing was chronicling his friends with a bit of personal history. Why was his heart beating so hard? Why was his fingers trembling? He ducked them under the table and tried to calm himself down before his neighbours noticed.

  There was still a good twenty minutes before the end of class, so he shook off his melancholy and got to work on the assignment. He had barely done any of his work.