The Middle Seat

Ages 12-15

Chapter 1: The Tape

There is a strip of masking tape on the headrest of the left window seat in the car. It says SORAH in black marker. She wrote it when she was eight.

Tonight she and her brother had an argument. It started with a borrowed scarf and ended with a door.

Tomorrow they are driving two hours to a cousin's wedding. The back seat is where they sit.

Sorah lies in bed and sees the whole drive. Her brother hums through his nose. He taps the glass. She asks him to stop and he says he is not doing anything. By the first rest stop they are not speaking, and Mama's eyes are in the mirror.

She knows this drive. She can already hear it.

Chapter 2: Three Lines

She gets a pencil and a scrap of paper.

She does not write an apology.

She writes three things.

1. Ask him once, in a normal voice, to stop the tapping. If he doesn't, don't ask again. 2. Bring the cards. 3. Sit in the middle.

She stares at the third line.

The middle seat has a hump in the floor, and the buckle is sunk in the cushion. It is nobody's seat. If she sits there, her brother gets the left window, her window, with her name on it.

She does not cross out the line.

Chapter 3: The Back Seat

In the morning, Mama checks the trunk. Totty checks the mirrors.

Sorah's brother comes out last, carrying a garment bag.

He looks at the left window. He looks at her.

She puts her bag on the floor of the middle seat, between her feet, and gets in. She digs out the buckle and clicks it shut.

He stops with one hand on the door.

"You're not sitting there?"

"I'm sitting here."

He gets in on the left. His shoulder is against the glass, under the tape that says her name.

The car pulls out.

Ten minutes later, he begins to hum.

Sorah's hands tighten on her knees.

"Could you do that a little quieter?" she says. "I'm trying to read."

He stops.

Chapter 4: The Hump in the Floor

The hump is under her feet the whole way. The belt is tight across her lap. At a turn, her bag slides against his shoe, and he pushes it back to her side.

Halfway, the humming starts again. Then the tapping, his thumb on the window.

She does not ask.

She looks at the road through the gap between the front seats. Her jaw hurts. The tapping goes on for ten minutes, one beat behind the car's own sounds.

Then she sets her hardcover book on her knees and lays the cards on it. Six cards, in two rows.

He looks at them. He keeps tapping.

A card slides off the book and lands by his foot. He picks it up. He puts it on the right row.

The tapping stops.

Chapter 5: The Left Window

At the wedding, they stand in different places.

On the way home, it is dark. Her brother stops at the car door with his hand on the handle.

The tape says SORAH on the left headrest.

"Take your seat," he says. "I'll sit in the middle. My legs are shorter."

Sorah looks at his legs. Then she takes the window.

He gets in beside the hump, and clicks his belt shut.

Halfway home, he begins to hum. Very quietly.

Sorah looks at the dark glass.