Kids of Appetite Read online

  ALSO BY DAVID ARNOLD

  Mosquitoland

  VIKING

  An imprint of Penguin Random House LLC

  375 Hudson Street

  New York, New York 10014

  First published in the United States of America by Viking, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC, 2016

  Copyright © 2016 by David Arnold

  “Coming Up Roses”

  Words and Music by Elliott Smith

  Copyright © 1995 by Universal Music—Careers and Spent Bullets Music All Rights Administered by Universal Music—Careers

  International Copyright Secured All Rights Reserved

  Reprinted by Permission of Hal Leonard Corporation

  Penguin supports copyright. Copyright fuels creativity, encourages diverse voices, promotes free speech, and creates a vibrant culture. Thank you for buying an authorized edition of this book and for complying with copyright laws by not reproducing, scanning, or distributing any part of it in any form without permission. You are supporting writers and allowing Penguin to continue to publish books for every reader.

  Ebook ISBN 9780698165410

  LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA

  Names: Arnold, David, date– author.

  Title: Kids of appetite / David Arnold.

  Description: New York : Viking Childrens Books, [2016] | Summary: Teens Victor Benucci and Madeline Falco sit in separate police interrogation rooms telling about the misfits who brought them together and their journey sparked by a message in an urn.

  Identifiers: LCCN 2015042375 | ISBN 9780451470782 (hardback)

  Subjects: | CYAC: Friendship—Fiction. | Voyages and travels—Fiction. | Death—Fiction. | Love—Fiction. | Facial paralysis—Fiction. | People with disabilities—Fiction. | Congolese (Democratic Republic)—United States—Fiction. | BISAC: JUVENILE FICTION / Social Issues / Adolescence. | JUVENILE FICTION / Social Issues / Friendship. | JUVENILE FICTION / Social Issues / Death & Dying.

  Classification: LCC PZ7.A7349 Kid 2016 | DDC [Fic]—dc23

  LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2015042375

  Version_1

  For my brothers, Jeremy and AJ, the original KOA.

  * * *

  And in memory of my two grandfathers, a couple of real Super Racehorses.

  Contents

  Also by David Arnold

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Dedication

  KIDS OF APPETITE

  (or, They Lived and They Laughed and They Saw That It Was Good) Cast of Characters

  Epigraph

  ONE: THE MOMENTOUS MULTITUDES

  (or, Gird Thy Silly, Futile Selves)

  TWO: IMPROBABLE THINGS

  (or, The Sedative Properties of Green Bean Casseroles and Sideways Hugs)

  THREE: OUR PAST TENSES

  (or, The Inevitability of Corresponding Units)

  FOUR: OUTWARD SYMBOLS

  (or, Cool in the Traditional Sense)

  FIVE: INWARD TRANSFORMATIONS

  (or, The Magnificent Enigma of Simultaneous Extreme Opposites)

  SIX: THE BUS, THE BELL, & THE TWO RED ROOMS

  (or, It Was Not His Fucking Orange Juice)

  SEVEN: THE MANY CHUMPS OF SUBURBAN JERSEY

  (or, Be the Racehorse)

  EIGHT: COMING UP ROSES

  (or, As I Opened the Door)

  NINE: COCA-COLA

  (or, This Is How It Ends)

  TEN: AND DONE SO MIGHTILY

  (or, Those Tenacious Molecules of Chance)

  ELEVEN: THINGS ARE DIFFERENT, THINGS ARE THE SAME

  (or, The Biggest Thing Is Letting Go)

  THEY LIVED and THEY LAUGHED and THEY SAW THAT IT WAS GOOD

  (or, Kids of Appetite) Dedication

  Prologue

  Author’s Note

  Acknowledgments

  (or, They Lived and They Laughed and They Saw That It Was Good)

  Cast of Characters

  * * *

  The Kids of Appetite

  BRUNO VICTOR BENUCCI III, sixteen (VIC): Current Chapter. Opera, Matisse, Mad. Super Racehorse.

  MADELINE FALCO, seventeen (MAD): New Year’s darling. Punk cut, Elliott Smith, Venn diagrams, realness.

  MBEMBA BAHIZIRE KABONGO, twenty-seven (BAZ): Collector of stories & tattoos. Anti-bread. Praise God.

  NZUZI KABONGO, twenty (ZUZ): Baz’s little brother. Jigs & Journey & snaps. Speaks in other ways.

  COCO BLYTHE, eleven: Songwriter. Redhead. Ice cream & Queens & faux cussing. Frak yeah.

  The Hackensack Police

  SERGEANT S. MENDES: Coffee addict. Reluctant girlfriend. Clever & weary. More than meets the eye.

  DETECTIVE H. BUNDLE: Atomic cloud. Paperwork & forms. Proud member of the bountiful bourgeoisie.

  DETECTIVE RONALD: Weasley doppelgänger. Eager boyfriend. Sitting skills. Lost poodle.

  The Family, Etc.

  DORIS JACOBY BENUCCI: Vic’s mother. Widow. Baking & family & moving on. Trying her best.

  BRUNO VICTOR BENUCCI JR.: Vic’s father. Heart-thinker. Mets fan. Wearer of sweatpants. Deceased.

  THE SELF-PORTRAIT MAN (UNCLE LESTER): Mad’s uncle. Whiskey & yelling & crying. Owner of guns.

  JAMMA: Mad’s grandmother. Dementia sufferer. Slippers & pj’s & double-fisted Coca-Cola.

  FRANK THE BOYFRIEND: Lawyer. Widower. Green-bean eater & literary novice. Wearer of suits.

  KLINT & KORY: Frank’s sons. Hot Topic & Batman. The Orchestra of Lost Soulz. Kids of No Appetite.

  FATHER RAINES: Priest, sage, good-deed doer. Married Vic’s parents. Iron Maiden superfan.

  RACHEL GRIMES: Baz’s current girlfriend. Daring nurse. Thunder & running & pancakes.

  The Early Chapters

  CHRISTOPHER (TOPHER): Tattoo artist. Battlestar Galactica & sobriety & resourcefulness. Bald.

  MARGO BONAPARTE: Waitress, smuggler, flirt. Cheese fries. Rum. Bonjour, mes petits gourmands!

  NORM: Russian butcher. Misunderstood. Meat. Bloody pigs. Not KGB. Nyet.

  GUNTHER MAYWOOD: Hermit. Landlord. Owner of the Maywood Orchard.

  The Goldfish

  HARRY CONNICK JR., JR.: Survivor. Swimmer. Cold-weather enthusiast. Will not quit. But hey.

  * * *

  * * *

  “It seemed funny to me that the sunset she saw from her patio and the one I saw from the back steps was the same one. Maybe the two different worlds we lived in weren’t so different. We saw the same sunset.”

  — THE OUTSIDERS, S. E. HINTON

  * * *

  ONE

  THE MOMENTOUS MULTITUDES

  (or, Gird Thy Silly, Futile Selves)

  Interrogation Room #3

  Bruno Victor Benucci III & Sergeant S. Mendes

  December 19 // 3:12 p.m.

  Consider this: billions of people in the world, each with billions of I ams. I am a quiet observer, a champion wallflower. I am a lover of art, the Mets, the memory of Dad. I represent approximately one seven-billionth of the population; these are my momentous multitudes, and that’s just for starters.

  “It begins with my friends.”

  “What does?”

  “My story,” I say.

  Only that’s not quite right. I have to go back further than that, before we were friends, back when it was just . . .

  . . .

  Okay, got it.

  “I’ve fallen in love something like a thousand times.”

  Mendes smiles a little, nud
ges the digital recorder closer. “I’m sorry—you said . . . you’ve fallen in love?”

  “A thousand times,” I say, running both hands through my hair.

  I used to think love was bound by numbers: first kisses, second dances, infinite heartbreaks. I used to think numbers outlasted the love itself, surviving in the dark corners of the demolished heart. I used to think love was heavy and hard.

  I don’t think those things anymore.

  “I am a Super Racehorse.”

  “You’re a what?” asks Mendes, her eyes at once tough and tired.

  “Nothing. Where’s your uniform?”

  She wears a tweed skirt with a fitted jacket and flowy blouse. I quietly observe her brown eyes, very intense, and—were it not for the baggy pillows, and the crow’s feet framing her features like facial parentheses—quite pretty. I quietly observe the slight creases on her hands and neck, indicative of premature aging. I quietly observe the absence of a wedding ring. I quietly observe her dark hair, shoulder-length with just a lingering shadow of shape and style.

  Parenthetical, slight, absence, lingering: the momentous multitudes of Mendes, it seems, are found in the hushed footnote.

  “Technically I’m off duty,” she says. “Plus, I’m a sergeant, so I don’t always have to wear a uniform.”

  “So you’re the one in charge, right?”

  “I report to Lieutenant Bell, but this is my case if that’s what you’re asking.”

  I reach under my chair, pull my Visine out of the front pocket of my backpack, and apply a quick drop in each eye.

  “Victor, you’ve been missing eight days. Then this morning you and”—she shuffles through papers until finding the one she’s looking for—“Madeline Falco march in here, practically holding hands with Mbemba Bahizire Kabongo, aka Baz, the primary suspect in our murder investigation.”

  “I wasn’t holding hands with Baz. And he’s no murderer.”

  “You don’t think so?”

  “I know so.”

  Mendes gives me a pity-smile, the kind of smile that frowns. “He just turned himself in, Vic. That, plus his DNA is on the murder weapon. We have more than enough to put Kabongo behind bars for a very long time. What I’m hoping you might shed some light on is how you go from running out the front door of your own home eight days ago to walking in here this morning. You said you have a story to tell. So tell it.”

  This morning’s memory is fresh, Baz’s voice ingrained in my brain. Diversion tactics, Vic. They will need time. And we must give it to them.

  “Every girl who wears eyeliner,” I say.

  . . .

  . . .

  Sergeant Mendes squints. “What?”

  “Every girl who plays an instrument, except—maybe not bassoon.”

  “I’m sorry, I don’t unders—”

  “Every girl who wears old Nikes. Every girl who draws on them. Every girl who shrugs or bakes or reads.” Tell them about all the girls you thought you loved, the ones from before. I smile on the inside, the only place I can. “Every girl who rides a bike.”

  I pull out my handkerchief and dab the drool from the corner of my mouth. Dad called it my “leaky mug.” I used to hate that. Now I miss it.

  Sometimes . . . yes, I think I miss the hated things most.

  Mendes leans back in her chair. “Shortly after you left, your mom reported you missing. I’ve been in your room, Vic. It’s all Whitman and Salinger and Matisse. You’re smart. And kind of a nerd, if you don’t mind my saying.”

  “What’s your point?”

  “My point is, you’re no hard-ass. So why are you acting like one?”

  Under the metal table, I pick at the fabric of my KOA wristband. “‘I am large, I contain multitudes.’”

  Mendes picks up: “‘I concentrate toward them that are nigh, I wait on the door-slab. Who has done his day’s work? Who will soonest be through with his supper? Who wishes to walk with me?’”

  . . .

  I try to hide my shock, but I can’t be sure my eyes didn’t just give me away.

  “Whitman balanced out the criminal justice classes,” says Mendes. “You know what the next line is, don’t you?”

  I don’t. So I say nothing at all.

  “‘Will you speak before I am gone?’” she says quietly. “‘Will you prove already too late?’”

  . . .

  “Due respect, Miss Mendes. You don’t know me.”

  She looks back at the file in front of her. “Bruno Victor Benucci III, sixteen, son of Doris Jacoby Benucci and the late Bruno Benucci Jr., deceased two years. Only child. Five foot six. Dark hair. Suffers from the rare Moebius syndrome. Obsession with abstract art—”

  “Do you know what that is?”

  “Oh, I’ve had my share of Picasso-obsessed crooks, lemme tell you, it’s no picnic.”

  “That’s not what I meant.”

  “I know what you meant.” Mendes flips the file shut. “And yeah, I did some research. Moebius is a rare neurological disorder affecting the sixth and seventh cranial nerves, present from birth, causing facial paralysis. I understand it’s been difficult for you.”

  Mendes’s tone suggests a hint of self-satisfaction, as if she’s been sitting on this definition, just waiting for me to ask if she knew what was wrong with my face. I’ve had Moebius syndrome my whole life, and here is what I’ve learned: the only people arrogant enough to use the words I understand are the ones who can’t possibly understand. People who truly get it never say much of anything.

  “You did some research,” I say, barely above a whisper.

  “A little.”

  “So you know what it feels like to have sand shoved up your eyelids.”

  . . .

  “What?”

  “That’s what it’s like sometimes, not being able to blink,” I say. “Dry eye doesn’t begin to describe it. More like desert eye.”

  “Vic—”

  “Did your research offer insight into the night terrors that come from sleeping with your eyes half shut? Or how drinking from a cup feels about as possible as lassoing the moon? Or how the best I can hope for is that kids just leave me alone? Or how certain teachers slow down when talking to me because they assume I’m stupid?”

  Mendes shifts uncomfortably in her chair.

  “Don’t get me wrong,” I say. “I’m not complaining. Lots of people with Moebius have it worse than me. I used to wish I was someone else, but then . . .”

  But then Dad introduced me to Henri Matisse, an artist who believed each face had its own rhythm. Matisse looked for what he called “particular asymmetry” in his portraits. I liked that. I wondered about the rhythm of my own face, and about my particular asymmetry. I told Dad this once. He said there was beauty in my asymmetry. This made me feel better. Not un-alone, just less alone.

  Accompanied by art, at least.

  “But then . . . ?” says Mendes.

  I almost forgot I’d started a sentence. “Nothing.”

  “Vic, I know you’ve had it tough.”

  I point both index fingers at my unflinching face. “You mean my . . . ‘affliction’?”

  “I never used the word afflicted.”

  “Oh right. Suffers from. You’re a humanitarian.”

  Underneath my KOA wristband, I feel my tiny paths going nowhere. My fingers have always been a force to be reckoned with, scratching and clawing and pinching. The wristband is an effective reminder, but it’s no match for my fingers, with their tiny little fingerbrains, determined to test my pain threshold.

  I ask, “You ever hear that a person has to go through fire to become who they’re meant to be?”

  Mendes sips her coffee, nods. “Sure.”

  “I’ve always wanted to be strong, Miss Mendes. I just wish there wasn’t so much fire.”

 
. . .

  “Victor.” It’s a whisper, barely even there. Mendes leans in, her entire presence shifting from defense to offense. “Vic, look at me.”

  I can’t.

  “Look at me,” she repeats.

  I do.

  “Did Baz Kabongo put you up to this?” She nods slowly. “It’s okay. He did, right?”

  Still, nothing.

  “Let me tell you what I think happened,” she says. “Kabongo gets nervous, sees his face posted all over town, decides he’s done hiding. He talks you and your girlfriend into lying to us, saying you were in places you weren’t, at times you weren’t, with people you weren’t. He knows his only chance is an alibi, or an eyewitness saying someone else did it. And who better than two innocent kids? Am I warm?”

  I say nothing. I am an absolute ace at nonverbals, and every minute that passes is a win, a victory, no matter how small.

  “I’m pretty good at my job,” she continues, “and while I don’t know where you were on the night of December seventeenth, I know where you weren’t. You weren’t in that house. You didn’t see that pool of blood. You didn’t see that man’s eyes go out, Victor. You know how I know this is true? If you’d seen all that, there’s no way in hell you’d be sitting in that chair right now, dicking around with me. You’d piss your pants, is what you’d do. You’d be fucking terrified.”

  . . .

  . . .

  Those fingerbrains are ruthless animals, munching on my multitudes.

  “Kabongo is counting on you to lie, Vic. But do you know what he forgot? He forgot about Matisse. He forgot about Whitman. He forgot about art. And you know what all good art has in common, right? Honesty. It’s the part of you that knows what’s what. And that’s the part that’s gonna tell me the truth.”

  I count to ten in my head, where Baz’s voice plays over and over like a scratched record. Let them think what they want. But do not lie.

  “We’ll protect you,” says Mendes. “You don’t have to be afraid. Just tell me what happened.”

  Diversion tactics, Vic. They will need time. And we must give it to them.