“I think I left my Discman in the car,” Michael lied. He loved his Discman, and the KMD, Massive Attack, and Sonic Youth CDs that he listened to constantly. He could tell by the look on Ed’s face that he was suspicious. Teachers had built-in bullshit detectors. Michael opened the passenger-side door so he could pretend to look for his stuff while he thought about his next move. That’s when he saw Connie in the front seat with a burning joint between her fingers. She was startled when she saw him. He heard the pfft of the lit end being snuffed out in her can of Diet Rite.

“Forget something?” she asked, trying hard not to exhale in front of him.

“You guys are getting stoned?”

“Just a little,” Connie said. Smoke trickled out of her nose. “It’s relaxing.”

It seemed to Michael that she should be more embarrassed than she was. Teachers always expected kids to explain themselves, but when they got busted? No big deal.

Ed came over to him. “Did you find it?”

“The joint? No, Connie wasted it. She didn’t even offer to share.”

“Very funny.”

“Everything’s funny because you’re high too, right Ed? Everything’s a fucking blast.”

A young family walked by toting beach bags and an inflatable-giraffe inner tube. The mother hustled her kids past when she heard Michael swear.

He knew he should drop it, but Michael felt like picking a fight, even if it meant proving Mr. Frederickson right. Ed and Connie weren’t supposed to do this stuff. They were supposed to be perfect, wholesome, clean, boring.

“So, this is what you do. You act like you’re so good, but you’re…”

“We’re just people, Michael,” Ed said. “And this is the first day of our vacation after a long school year and a very long car ride.”

“Yeah, right.”

“Look, I can see why you’re upset, but this is purely recreational. We don’t have a problem.”

“You don’t have a problem like my mom? Is that what you mean? You think you’re so different from her, but you’re not. You’re all the same.”

Michael could feel people staring at them, all the perfect families with their beach bags and goggles and coolers full of food.

“I never said we weren’t screwed up in our own way.”

It hadn’t even occurred to Michael until that moment that the Gordon family could have problems or issues of their own. The idea that the Gordons could be screwed up floored Michael. He couldn’t even consider it.