The Perks of Being a Freak (Editing)

22. The Day That Juliana Died

I’m sorry about your family, Rajeev said, sincere and sympathetic. Truly a gentleman.

I don’t know why I expected anything different, I thought, tightening my hold on the steering wheel. Did I ever tell you how I got my nickname?

No, Rajeev said, shaking his head. What happened?

Well, it was my tenth birthday, I told him. And I was super excited coming home from swim practice. When my carpool pulled up to my house, it was all dark. I figured that maybe it was a surprise party. I told myself to act surprised and ran inside. There was no one in the living room, so I ran into the kitchen. There was a cake on the counter.

I was really excited at first, y’know? Then I saw that most of the cake had been eaten. I assume that it had said “Happy Birthday Juliana,” but the only part of my name left was “Lia.” There was a sticky note next to the cake with a bunch of cards. It said something like, “Happy birthday, we went out to dinner, there’s food in the fridge.” The cards were all store bought, and they hadn’t even bothered signing them.

That was when I decided that Juliana was dead, and Lia was born. I pulled to a stop outside of Rajeev’s house. Sometimes having access to people’s memories, knowing where they lived and the names of their parents was really useful.

“I’m sorry,” he said, and then Rajeev left as well.

Thank you, I thought, staring down at the wheel. From the corner of my eye, I saw Rajeev knock at the door, and his mother opened it, looking tired and tear-stained. She stared at Rajeev for a long moment, and then yanked him into an embrace that looked painfully tight.

What was it like? I wondered. Maybe Rajeev didn’t have much, but what he did have was genuine and happy. Maybe he didn’t have a father, but he had a mother who loved him more than anything.

I didn’t even have that.

All I had was a family who didn’t care if I vanished for days on end, and a pair of wings sewn into my back.