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Gorillas and Much More
By Tina Cho
“Aft er this, are we going to the zoo?” she asks, her hand dipped in the pool as her brother cranks
up the garden hose.
“No, your friends are coming soon.” He points at the piñata. “You’re going to crack that thing
open and all the candy’s going to fall out and your friends are going to scream their heads off .”
“I don’t want them to scream at my party.”
“It’s a scream of delight. You get to watch them drop to the ground and rake through the candy
like they’re crazy.”
Caddie takes her hand out of the water and walks toward the plastic table set with brownies,
cream puff s, a pitcher of milk, and her favorite cake, red velvet with vanilla ruffl es. She looks down
at her dress.
“Do you have your new swimsuit on under that, Caddie?” he asks.
She answers no.
“Why not?”
“I like my old one better.”
“What?” He sounds harsher than he has intended. “Do you have any idea how long I had to
walk around the mall by myself to fi nd that bikini? Do you think a junior in high school likes buying
training bras? If it wasn’t for Mom, I would’ve tied that eye mask around you and shoved your face
down the pool half an hour ago. Besides, I bet all your friends have passed that one-piece stage.”
“Why don’t you go put it on?” She plops onto one of the chairs.
“Caddie, why are you shitting on your own party?”
“I don’t want a party. I don’t like my friends.” She pauses. “But don’t tell me that I should pretend
to like them, because I know your scheme. You just want to leave me and go off with Anna.”
“Anna moved to fucking Texas,” he says, squinting at the sun, “you know that. But I guess your
only friend is that girl from church, the fat, metal-teethed virg—”
Caddie picks up a cream puff and crushes it in her palm. Th e white cream oozes down her
wrist. “You think this is not a big deal. You think this is funny. But I know your secret. You actually
like taping ‘Caddie’s ninth birthday’ kind of crap. Mom asked you to order my cake but you couldn’t
resist, you had to bake it.” She looks at the brownies, the piñata, her brother. “You like doing this,
don’t you?” He searches for a good comeback but fi nds none. She walks toward him and washes her
magus ~ 29 ~ mabus