Seal of Approval
Chapter Four, "The Mistake" by Jason Freeman
"Mom! Come quick! Something’s wrong with Ben!” I cried. My mom strolled in with a look of disgust on her face. “What is it Will? I’m busy.” Typical. Why does she assume everything I do is stupid and unimportant and everything she does is critical to the success of the world? Sorry, back to Ben.
Mom looked at Ben, made a confused face, and then said “He’s fine, don’t worry about him.” I knew she was lying. He looked sick, and was sweating and shaking. I blurted out “You’re lying! He’s sick!” There. I had gone way too far with that one. I knew I was close to punishment when she exclaimed “Stop it! Don’t talk back to your mother.” Although I could have fought back, I decided it wasn’t worth it just yet. I figured I could sneak back into his room later to check on him. I mean, come on he’s my brother, I would risk getting spanked to make sure he was ok. At that point, I decided to leave, and as I closed the door behind me I caught a glimpse of my mom staring at Ben with wonder in her eyes.
I forgot to check on Ben that night, but the next morning he seemed fine. When I thought about it, there had been no time to check up on him. Though I went to bed at eight, I never heard my mom leave his room. That meant she had been in there for at least a couple hours. You would think someone who was so disgusted with him wouldn’t spend that much time with him.
The next couple of days and weeks passed without much excitement. Mom and Dad weren’t really talking, but that wasn’t new. The only good thing about that is they seemed to forget about their threat of getting rid of Ben the “next” day. Ben stayed mostly in his room, but nothing exciting happened to him either. Strangely enough, I would sometimes see my mom walk into his room, close the door and stay for a couple of hours. Sometimes she would be crying and other times I would hear her laughing and playing with Ben. That’s the thing with girls, you can never understand them. But anyways, let’s keep talking about Ben- this part is exciting.
It was show and tell at school. Everyone always brings in boring stuff, like their doll or their teddy bear. But I wanted to bring something a little more exciting, like Ben. I asked mom and she told me not to be ridiculous and that Ben would be leaving us soon. I had gotten used to her saying this empty threat, and focused more on show and tell. “But I have nothing to bring.” She wasn’t paying attention. “Mommmm” Darn she was still ignoring me. I added in a couple shirt tugs and a little whimper, finally getting her attention. Of course, she told me to just bring in Fluffy, my stuffed bear. Well that would be exciting. Not. Instead, I grabbed my plastic cheap camera and took a picture a Ben. I shoved the camera in my pocket, stuffed Fluffy in my bag and left for school.
When it was my turn to present, the class was dead. Hey, when you’re six years old, you think this kind of thing is a big deal. I wanted people to listen so I screamed “MY SEAL-BROTHER!!” when our teacher asked what I had brought. A couple kids laughed, a couple looked scared, but they were all listening. The teacher looked a little nervous and made one of those uneasy laughs. I dug into my pocket, pulled out the camera, and screamed “Look!” I have to admit, the effect was a little weak. I was expecting “oohs” and “ahhs” but instead got confused looks. The camera wasn’t good quality, the picture was dark and small, and the class was too far away to see. So I passed the camera around to everyone, watching their scared faces as I explained everything from his slippery skin and wet tail. When our teacher saw it, I thought she was gonna faint. She screamed and fell back in her chair, much to the classes’ amusement.
All of a sudden, my mom appeared in the door, and I decided it was safest to instantly leave. I grabbed my bag, and ran to the door. I practically had to push her out the door as she caught a glimpse of our teacher, now getting up with a look of shock in her face. Phew. I had done it; I had amused the class and at the same time, wasn’t caught by my mom. Except there was one thing I forgot. The camera. If I was allowed to, I would have said some of those words Dad says when he gets mad. Instead, I hoped that no one would touch my camera, and that I could pick it up the next day without harm. Boy was I wrong.
The next morning, I woke up excited that it was finally the weekend. I walked into the kitchen, expecting the usual smell of bacon cooking and eggs frying on a Saturday. Instead, I found my mom and dad sitting at the table silently. My mom was all red eyed and my dad was staring at the newspaper blankly. “What’s wrong Mommy?” I asked. “Nothing Will, why don’t you go get some pancake mix from downstairs?” I could tell she was trying to get rid of me, so of course I stayed. I sat at the table glimpsed to the section dad was reading and saw in big letters “HALF SEAL HALF BOY BABY HERE IN MEDFORD” Underneath that was the picture I had taken of Ben the day before. I felt awful, I really did. I realized this was a huge mistake, and that Ben would now definitely be taken away. I blurted out “I’m sorry, it’s not my fault!” That was a stupid thing to say; of course it was my fault. Instantly my mom started screaming to me, berating me for everything I had ever done. My dad tried to calm her down, but she was too heated. She screamed about everything: what the neighbors would think, what would happen to their family and a bunch of other boring things that seemed unimportant to me. She was in the middle of screaming “What could you have been thinking?!” when the door bell rang. We all ran to the front door, seeing about thirty people on our front lawn. They were holding big cameras and some were wearing suits. They were also getting out of big vans with numbers on them. I was only six, but I wasn’t that stupid. I knew this meant trouble. My mom looked furious as she slowly opened the door to screaming and shouting of “Is it true?! Do you have a seal baby?!”
That may have been the worst day of my life. Besides feeling responsible for destroying Ben’s chances of staying with us, I had gotten my family into a huge mess, and had received the most spankings ever. Basically, my family was forced to stay inside for the next couple days, though the crowd outside did not diminish. My parents were going crazy. They would start screaming things out randomly to the windows, though the people outside couldn’t hear them. That would only make them start fighting again. Meanwhile, I mostly stayed in Ben’s room. I had given up crying to get attention or pity, and instead chose to play with Ben. He looked so peaceful. I bet he couldn’t even imagine the trouble he had caused or what was going to happen to him next.
On the fourth day, when the crowd outside had finally diminished, the phone started ringing. My mom picked it up when she saw “California call” come up on the caller id, thinking it was her sister. I could tell right away it wasn’t her sister. Mom didn’t seem too happy, but all of a sudden gave a shy smile and ran upstairs talking quickly. When she was done talking, I asked her who it was but as usual, she didn’t answer saying “Don’t worry about it. But, we are going to be having a visitor who will come talk to us in the next couple days.” A visitor? I instantly assumed it was someone who would take Ben away and was filled with fear. I thought about running away again, but realized that idea hadn’t worked out the first time, and would work out even worse now that everyone was curious about this strange baby. I guess there was nothing else to do but wait.
Today was the day. My mom had told me to dress “nicely” and be downstairs right when the door bell rung. I hate dressing up. I hate combing my hair to one side and wearing those stupid clip on ties. Apparently though, when I get older, I’m gonna have to wear a “real” tie, maybe one that actually ties? My mom and dad were dressed up too; mom was wearing a dress and dad a suit. Mom told me to fix my hair and tuck in my shirt. I was not happy. So, I snuck into Ben’s room to see how he was doing. He looked at me with his piercing eyes and seemed to be trying to communicate through them. I swear he was trying to tell me that something bad was about to happen. Right then, the door bell rang and I ran to the door.
Mom opened the door, and this fat man with long brown hair came in. Behind him were a couple of other guys, one holding a camera. He introduced himself, saying he was from something called “People” and we all sat down in the family room. He started asking mom and dad a bunch of questions about Ben. They were being taping as the answered nervously. They asked me a couple of questions, like what did Ben like to do and what he looked like. Then, my mom got up, and went to his room to get him. The men gasped when the first glimpsed Ben. One swore loudly and the others looked shocked. Ben looked scared. After a while, they started taking lots of pictures of Ben. I could tell the flashes were scaring Ben and he seemed to gurgle a cry. At the end, they made my mom and dad sign some paper, shook hands with them, and then left.
Instantly, mom and dad were in a much better mood. They wouldn’t tell me what the men were going to do with the pictures or information, but told me that I would see soon. They seemed to be a lot nicer to Ben too, which I guess was good. They bought him a lot of new stuff, and even got me some things. Eventually, the day came when all would be revealed. My mom had gone to get the mail, and when she came back in exclaimed “It’s here! Dave, the magazine! It’s here!” Of course, I ran in to see what all the noise was. My mom and dad started hugging and jumping up and down. I asked what it was, and for once my mom told me. “It’s the magazine! The magazine’s here! Ben’s in it!” She held up the cover for me to see Ben’s picture. I was so excited until I read the words below “FREAK BABY EXPOSED!”