Read You Will Call Me Drog for Free Online Page B

see.”
    “He’s bossy. And rude. And he’s conceited.” Drog crunched my hand.
    Dr. M. nodded. “And a friend would be someone who—”
    I thought about Wren. Before.
    “—someone you like who likes to do the things you do, someone you trust, someone who believes what you—”
    No! I wasn’t going to start bawling right there. I stuck Drog back in my pocket and swallowed hard.
    If Dr. Mann noticed, he pretended he didn’t. “Parker, do you think it’s important that Drog is a man?”
    I shrugged. I didn’t even want to think about a girl Drog. Yuck.
    “Have you ever been in a play?” he said. “At school, maybe?”
    “No. I’ve seen some plays, though.”
    “Good. When someone acts in a play they pretend they’re somebody else, right?”
    I nodded.
    He leaned forward and rested his hands on the table. His fingernails were perfect moons.
    “Let’s pretend for a minute that you and I are in a play that has two characters: a boy and his father. Why don’t you be the father and I’ll be the boy? What would the father say to the boy?”
    “I don’t know. It depends.”
    It was starting to feel too warm in the room.
    “Well, suppose he hasn’t seen the boy for a while, and he calls him on the telephone.”
    That was easy. “Hello, Son.”
    “Hello, Dad,” the doctor said. “When are you coming to see me?”
    “I don’t think the boy would say that,” I said.
    “Why not?”
    “Because he knows the dad’s not coming.”
    “I see. And that’s because—”
    Suddenly I started chattering about how my dad moved to Moline when I was seven and how I hated going back and forth between my parents and got sick every time and how after a couple of years they said I could stay home except every other weekend in the summer when I would go to Dad’s. How I used to have this daydream that our house on Prairie Street actually belonged to me and if Mom and Dad couldn’t get along,
they
could take turns coming and going. Or else we could all live in the house, but Dad would have a separate room with an outside door and we could visit back and forth and maybe all have supper together sometimes.
    I even told how Dad got married again, and how he and his other wife, who was nice enough but nothing like Mom, had a little baby called Shanna I’d only seen a few times, and how even I had to admit it was all over between Mom and Dad.
    I sank back in my chair. “So the boy knows the dad’s not coming.”
    That was a sad thing to say out loud, but I felt like a rubber band let go when I said it. And all the time Dr. M. gave me his complete attention.
    “It’s natural to blame your father for the divorce,” he said.
    “What?” I said. “I mean, what’s divorce got to do with this puppet?”
    “Maybe nothing. Maybe a lot. What do you think?”
    “I don’t see how.”
    “Maybe you could take Drog off now?”
    “I don’t know.”
    “Let’s try.”
    “He’ll yell at me.”
    “But once we get him off, maybe he won’t be able to say anything. Try it?”
    I slid my pointer finger inside and pulled, but nothing happened.
    “Boy,” Drog said, “let’s get out of here.”
    The doctor cleared his throat. “We won’t be much longer, Parker. Here, let me help you.”
    He circled my wrist with his thumb and finger and tugged on Drog’s head and hands with his other hand. His grip was gentle.
    “Just relax, Parker. Relax your hand.”
    “I am. It’s Drog who won’t let go.”
    Dr. M. sat back.
    “I see. Apparently this is one determined puppet. Well, don’t worry about it. In fact, try not to worry about anything at all. For now, just ignore Drog and do the things you want with or without him, all right? Ah, our time’s up. I’ll see you next week.”
    “How’d it go?” Mom asked on the way out.
    “He seemed nice,” was all I said. I’d blabbed enough for one day.

    “You know what makes your life such a zero, Boy?” Drog said when we got home. “You spend your days with