Page 2 of The Rusalka and Mr. Right

Bros are good for two rounds.

Grandpas usually know what the hell they’re doing, not that it matters to me. They don’t need to be good.

I’m good enough for both of us.

Chapter Two

“Igot the job! Let’s go!”

“Let’s go!” My dad struts across the screen, Duke sweatshirt on display and Penn State baseball cap on his head, even though Mom keeps the house at like eighty degrees, even in August.

“Which job? Where?” My mother appears in front of him, fingers crossed. “Please not Florida, please not Florida...”

“New York!”

“Oh! Oh, baby, you’re going to be in one of those big cities?” Her face is instantly tortured. “You know that’s why your father and I didn’t want to live in Philly.”

I sigh. “Allentown’s big enough. I went to college in Philly, Mom.”

“But youcommuted! You lived at home until your junior year!”

“I think riding the train into Philly every day might have been more dangerous than living on campus, Mom.”

“Esther, he’s grown.”

I am. I’m six years older than my twin brothers who are at Duke and Penn State respectively, both on different athletic scholarships. I’m the odd man out. I went to Temple on a full ride—for chemistry, which soon became medicine, and then narrowed to physical therapy.

“Why are you moving to New Yorknow? You’ve got one year left before you have your doctorate!”

“It’s not a doctorate, Mom. Finishing the six-year program means I’ll be a doctor of physical therapy. It’s not gonna be Dr. Kev, M.D.”

“My son will still be called Dr. Kevin Bailey.”

I try not to roll my eyes in view of the camera—that’ll earn a lecture. Going to school for six years to get a DPT is faster than the typical seven-year program—but it’s also more expensive than just getting a four-year degree. “You know I have to afford that sixth and final year—here or somewhere else. Salaries around here are a joke compared to the rent.”

“Move home, baby!”

What is the politest way to tell your dear, sweet mother, “Hell, no?”

I try. “I found a private hospital that does full tuition reimbursement with NYU, and they have an NYU branch campus within five miles of the hospital complex. Not only that, NYU at Pine Ridge accepted all of my credits, and I’ll be able to enter the last year of their traditional seven-year DPT program. That’s a miracle, Mom.”

“Smells fishy. Something’s wrong. Pine Ridge NYU? That's the campus?”

“Mhm.”

“In the city?”

“No, in this little town called Pine Ridge. It’s actually in the mountains.”

My mother looks heavenward. “That’s the problem. It’s in the mountains? It’s a little town in the mountains of New York? That town is going to be all white people.”

“Ma!” I’m dying inside.

“Do they know you’re black?”

“Ma! Stop that.” Honestly, Icouldbe the only black dude on staff, but do I care?

Not as long as they pay well, treat me right, and throw in that tuition reimbursement!

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