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Mikey is standing in line at the refreshment stand, deep in a game of Panda Ball Penguin on his phone. He's a panda this time, and he's crashing through the jungle pursued by a flock of enraged parrots and some monkeys, and if he doesn't make it to the river, he's doomed, but then the app pings to say another PBP player is nearby. It's never done that before. He hits pause and looks up and around.
The park is teeming with people, talking and calling to each other, everyone happy and excited: little kids with UFOs on their t-shirts or sparkly antennae on their heads; teenagers older than Mikey, mostly in couples; and thousands of adults drifting along the paths, carrying blankets and picnic baskets and glowsticks. A few people are looking at their phones or flexes, but most are here to hang out and see the UFOs. Overhead, the sky is the pale, endless blue of summer twilight, and bright colors sweep across the trees, turning them into leafy tropical parrots.
The PBP app pings again, and the line moves forward so he's three back from the counter, and he can smell the meat and tangy spices. One chicken with extra hot sauce, one beef with no onions, one regular beef, one vegetarian, he rehearses so he's ready to blurt it to the busy woman behind the counter, as he scans the people nearby for the other player.
There's a family off to the side—two grownups and a girl about Mikey's age who's holding her phone and slowly swiveling on her heel, looking around just like he is. Their eyes meet, and she tilts her head and raises her phone like a question.
Mikey gives a kind of goofy nod and waves his phone back, hoping she means what he thinks she means, and it's not some weird social-media misunderstanding. She grins and tugs sharply on the arm of the taller of the grownups, who bends to speak to her, and that's when Mikey notices both grownups are women, both with the same straight black hair as the girl, and they're holding hands. Maybe he's not the only one whose family is different.
The girl nods to the woman. She's obviously getting the safety speech—Mikey knows that one backward and forwards—and she holds up her wrist with its yellow locator band. And then she bounces over to him, and the line moves up so he's only one back from the counter now.
"Hi," she says. "I'm Seo-yun. I'm ten, how old are you? Are you playing Panda Ball Penguin? Where did you get it? No one I know has even heard of it. My sister gave me her old phone for my birthday, and I've been playing it nonstop ever since. I'm usually the penguin, because I like her hats. How about you?"
"What hats?" says Mikey, as the line moves again, and he's up to order, and his mind goes blank. "Two chicken. No. Uh, wait, one vegetarian, one chicken, two beef." He's missing something. He scrunches up his face, racking his brains and feeling like a knucklehead. "No onions on the beef." He swipes his phone to pay.
The woman behind the counter is already in motion, and he's not sure how much she was listening, but it's too late now. At least it gives him a chance to talk to Seo-yun. "I'm Michael," he says, because it sounds more impressive than Mikey. "I'm eleven. I'm playing the panda. I like how, when he's going really fast, he leaves, like, a trail of destruction." The penguin just slides under and around things, and the ball bounces around in a way that makes Mikey dizzy. "I'm in the jungle right now, and all these parrots and monkeys are after me."
"Ooh, the jungle. Did you find the mudslide? I love the slooshing sound, and how you get covered in mud and leave footprints after you."
"Yeah, I'm past that. I'm nearly at the river," says Mikey, only exaggerating a little. "What level are you on?"
"The tunnels in the moon," says Seo-yun. "With the moles and the little white moonflowers?"
"How do you get to the moon?" But if Seo-yun answers, he doesn't hear because the woman behind the counter is handing him a big grease-spotted paper bag, and the line behind him is muttering impatiently, and now he's going to have to run the food back to his parents before it gets cold. "Thank you," he tells the food lady, and he and Seo-yun move aside, to where her parents are standing.
"I told you we should've gotten here earlier," says the taller woman. "Now it's too late to find a good spot."
"The show doesn't start for another half hour, okay? There's plenty of time," says the shorter one, and between them, they sound enough like Dad and Papa, it makes Mikey grin—at least until the short one continues, "Or would you rather be one of those obsessive controlling types who turn up five hours early just to get a good seat?"
"Mom, this is Michael," says Seo-yun, interrupting. "He and I need to talk about Panda Ball Penguin, it's very important. How about you two go and find somewhere to watch the UFOs, and I'll come find you when we're done? Please?"
Her mother gives her a not-in-this-lifetime look, and Seo-yun holds up her yellow locator.
"I'm wearing the stupid wristband. It's not like you won't know where I am."
"I'm still not letting you disappear into a seething crowd of strangers with a kid you just met," says Seo-yun's mom. "Nice to meet you, Michael, but it's not happening, no. Why don't you exchange SplashBoard IDs, and you can talk online?"
"Mom, SplashBoard is for little kids!"
"Pleased to meet you." Mikey uses his polite, charming-the-adults smile and sees Seo-yun's mom relax slightly, but she's still not going to let Seo-yun hang out with him unsupervised, so he crosses his fingers under the bag of shawarma and adds earnestly, "My parents are waiting for me to get back, but you know, we have a really good spot. You could come and sit with us."
"What time did you get here?" says the shorter woman, suspiciously.
"A while ago." Mikey keeps it vague, but the truth is Dad wanted to arrive early to beat the crowds. Mid-afternoon early. They spread their blankets on the grassy rise by the lake, and even by then, there were lots of other families staking out their spots. And then they hung out in the sun for eons. Mom and Papa talked under the sun umbrella while Dad and Mikey played catch and roughhoused, then Mikey drew a sailing ship on Papa's fold-out solarflex, circled it with little animated sharks and whales and added a volcano island off in the distance. And then Mikey lay in the shade and listened to two podcasts. And then Mom got hungry, and Dad transferred some credit to Mikey's phone and sent him for shawarma.
"My dad's with the FBI," says Mikey now, partly to explain the obsessive controlling behavior, and partly because it's mega-respectable, and he desperately needs to know how to get to the moon, and about the penguin hats.
"Please, Mom?" says Seo-yun, jiggling on the spot.
Her mom is tempted. "You're sure your parents won't mind?"
"I'm sure," says Mikey. He has to close the deal before she has second thoughts, so he tucks the food bag under one arm, casually drawing attention to it and the fact it's getting cold, and says, "It's this way." He takes a couple of steps backward along the path toward the lake.
Seo-yun follows, and both her moms trail after, the decision made for them. Yes! Mikey and Seo-yun grin triumphantly at each other. On the way back to the lake, Mikey shows Seo-yun his Panda Ball Penguin wristband. It's not official merch, just some beads threaded on a leather thong, but it's cool, like something Mozzie would wear.
Seo-yun thinks it's awesome. "I need one," she says. "Need, need, need. Where'd you get it?"
"My father made it for me." Mikey switches the food to his other arm. "Tell me about the hats."
So Seo-yun shows him how the penguin can have a top hat or a beanie or a hat that's basically a pile of fruit. "You can dress up the panda too—vest, bow tie, glasses—and there are different faces for the ball. It's all in the settings."
The menus are in Japanese, and Mikey's had to find his way around by trial, error and asking Papa to translate—but Papa keeps trying to get Mikey to design his own game, not play someone else's, so they haven't got through everything. There's a worn, folded piece of paper in Mikey's pocket listing what the main menus do, but he doesn't show that to Seo-yun. "Do you read Japanese?"
"My aunt does," says Seo-yun, pointing to the shorter woman behind them. "So does my sister. I can read Hangul. That's Korean."
"Cool," says Mikey, distracted. They're nearly back to his parents, and Seo-yun's mom isn't a lesbian after all. "I thought they were both your moms."
"Nope." Seo-yun casts him a strange look, then goes back to talking about the game. "Did you know there's a multi-player option? You have to tether your phones, and there are three levels you can only get to with two or more players. I think one's in the desert, with camels, but I've never actually tried."
Mikey forgets about parents. "We have to do that!"
"I know, right?" Seo-yun twirls, the little lights in her sneakers twinkling like fireflies in the dark. "This is so cool! Have you read the manga? My sister has four volumes but none of them link up—she has four, seven, twelve and nineteen."
"I've got them all," says Mikey, a step ahead of her for once. "Mozzie got them for me. The first five are the best, when they're figuring out how to talk to the ball."
"You have all of them? All twenty-four?" Seo-yun's eyes go round and eager. "You'll lend them to me, right? I'll be really careful with them, I swear."
"I don't know," says Mikey, because he likes her but he's not sure if he'll see her again, especially once their parents have met. "It's weird they're not online."
"I know, but all the Panda Ball Penguin stuff online is in Japanese anyway, and it's such an old game—"
"I know. Everyone I know plays Epic SpaceBlaster 2100—" Mikey breaks off as they reach the grassy rise, which is crammed full of people like a noisy, colorful seal colony, and they have to pick their way through without stepping on anyone or anything, which is tricky but fun.
When they reach Mikey's parents, their blanket has been crowded in, leaving just a little fringe of grass between them and the people around them.
"Hey, sweetie, what took you so long?" says Mom, followed by, "Who's your friend?"
"There was a line." Mikey gives the shawarma bag to Dad. "This is Seo-yun and her mom and her aunt." And then he turns to Seo-yun's mom, and without really planning it, he says quickly, "These are my parents, Peter and Elizabeth Burke, and this is Victor."
Dad's digging food out of the greasy bag and doesn't notice, but Mom and Papa both do. They blink. Mom glances at Papa, then opens her mouth and shuts it again. And Papa's still smiling, but it's like a light's switched off behind his face, and Mikey feels terrible, but at the same time, he can't help pleading silently for them to go along with it.
"Seo-yun plays Panda Ball Penguin," he explains. "My phone pinged. She's going to show me how to get to the moon. And there's a two-player level with camels."
"I'm Hye-jin, and this is my sister Eun-ju," says Seo-yun's mom. "Michael said we might be able to sit with you, but you look pretty crowded already."
"Michael said that, huh?" Mom looks thoughtful, and she and Papa exchange glances.
"There's plenty of room if we scrunch up." Papa starts gathering their things together and shifting to make space, and Dad says, "What's going on? Why are we moving? This is the perfect spot and there's nowhere to—Oh, hi! I'm Peter."
"Mike—Michael brought us some guests," says Mom, smiling a welcome.
"We don't want to impose," says Seo-yun's mom, but Seo-yun just plonks herself on the corner of the picnic blanket and tugs Mikey down next to her so they can figure out how to tether their phones, and after a pause, her mom and aunt follow.
*
Mikey has lost count of the times his parents have talked to him about how their family isn't like other people's. One of his earliest memories is sitting on Mom's lap, helping her draw pictures of different kinds of families: kids with a mom and a dad and lots of brothers and sisters; kids with gay dads and lesbian moms; kids with divorced parents and step-fathers and -mothers and -brothers and -sisters; a kid with one mom and one grandmom; adults with no kids at all (Mikey insisted on giving them a dog). "It doesn't matter how many of us there are," Mom had said. "What matters is we love each other and we look after each other. Love is what makes a family. Love and commitment."
And one time when they were in Paris and Mikey had been sick, Papa was putting him to bed and said, "You know Mom and Dad made you, right, buddy? Mom talked to you about that? But I'm still your dad too, just like Will is Caitlin's dad. We don't have the same genes, but I chose you, and that means we're all your real parents, whatever anyone says, and we all love you. Forever."
And a few years later, when Caitlin told him his dads weren't really truly gay because of Mom, Dad came to his room and explained the difference between straight and gay and bisexual. "Most people figure out which they are when they're teenagers," he said, "but sometimes life surprises you even when you're older, and that's okay. That can be really great. So it's a good idea to keep an open mind, and make the world a fun, safe place for everyone, because you never know."
And just before Mikey started middle school, one day when they'd been flying kites at the park, all of them went for ice cream and talked about coming out. "We get that it's not always going to be easy for you to tell people about having three parents," said Papa. "And it's up to you how much you say. You don't have to answer all their questions. You can just say, 'That's private.'"
"But if you treat it as normal, most other people will too," said Dad, reaching across and wiping chocolate ice cream off Mikey's chin with his thumb.
Of course, Mom said, like she always did, "We're all lucky to have a family who loves us." Then she rubbed Mikey's shoulder and added, "You know it's important to be honest with people, right? Well, sometimes—not telling someone that your family is different isn't the same as regular lying. It's called being in the closet."
"It makes some things easier and some things harder," said Dad, nodding. "If people are being jerks, or you think they might be, maybe you'll decide not to tell them about us. But the more you hide who you are, the more you start to feel ashamed of it. And if they find out later, they'll wonder why you kept it a secret."
"Is there anyone you don't tell?" Mikey couldn't imagine Dad keeping secrets. He's really into being honest and admitting when you mess up, and it's obvious how proud he is of Mom and Papa.
"I don't tell everyone at work," said Dad. "Just the people I know well. But it's not a secret, and if the others asked, I'd tell them."
"We don't usually tell our clients," said Mom. "It's not really any of their business."
"The important thing is if you want to be friends with someone, you tell them the truth," said Papa. "Otherwise you find yourself really lying. And then you won't know if they like you for who you really are, or for who you're pretending to be."
Mikey nodded. It had never been a big deal before. Everyone in the neighborhood and at school knew about his parents, and nearly everyone was cool about it. The ones who weren't were jerks to a lot of people, not just him. "Sure, okay. Can I have more ice cream?"
And that was that. He's always been open about his family. Even after Laura D'Aquino's mom wouldn't let her come to his birthday party, and when his English teacher Ms. Balsmeyer asked which of his dads he lives with, after parent-teacher day, it was easier to just tell the truth. Plus it's a useful test to see whether he can trust people about other stuff.
He has three parents: it's actually pretty cool, and he doesn't care who knows. Until now.
*
"Have you been to the UFO show before?" Seo-yun's mom asks Mikey's parents.
Mikey's going cross-eyed trying to keep track of what the grownups are saying and follow Seo-yun's instructions at the same time. She grabs his phone and starts whizzing through the menus, and he doesn't stop her.
"It's our third," says Mom. "Michael's fourth. They're great, but I still kind of miss fireworks, you know? Are you hungry? These are pretty big servings—we'd be happy to share." She gestures to her shawarma.
"Chicken for you," says Dad, handing a greasy bundle to Papa, and Mikey suddenly remembers what he forgot from the order: Papa's hot sauce. Another betrayal. Mikey bites his lip and sneaks a look at Papa, but he's digging around in the picnic cooler for a drink. He hasn't started eating yet.
The clasp of the wristband he made digs into Mikey's arm.
"That's very kind, but we're good. We already ate," says Seo-yun's mom.
"We're vatmeatarians anyway," says Seo-yun over her shoulder. She gives Mikey his phone back. "They're tethered now. We just have to get through the first three levels, that's easy, and we should get to the desert. This is our first UFO show. I wanted to come last year, but I was staying with my dad and sister in Boston. But this year I put my foot down, though it would be cooler if it was Penguins Over New York."
"No, 'cause penguins would all be the same," says Mikey, but he feels bad for arguing. By lying, he's already made it so they can't be friends. He won't be able to lend her the PBP manga. But she's still wrong. "There's lots of different kinds of UFOs—that's what makes it amazing."
"There are different kinds of penguins—Emperor penguins and Rockhoppers and Chinstrap penguins. And they could wear different outfits." Seo-yun shrugs and looks at her phone. "Are you ready? We have to both get to the portal at the same time."
"I'm ready." Mikey's played the first three levels a million times. He can zip through them, no trouble, and impress her.
"Mikey, here's yours." Dad plonks the vegetarian shawarma by Mikey's foot.
"In a minute," says Mikey. "We're playing Panda Ball Penguin." The first level is in the house. The panda wakes up in bed—only Seo-yun must have done something to Mikey's phone, because this time the panda's wearing a purple vest—and squeezes out the bedroom door, just as the penguin arrives further along the hall in a green hat. "Hey, there you are. I can see you!"
They wave at each other, then both go in the bathroom and brush their teeth, and then Mikey's panda runs for the stairs, determined to beat her, but Seo-yun's penguin leaps onto the banister and slides down with a whistling sound, so Mikey curls up and rolls down, bounce-bounce-bounce, in a whirl of black and white and purple. He knocks over the fern at the bottom of the stairs, and a little vacuum-bot comes and cleans up after him. They both scramble for the living room. Mikey gets there first by a whisker and grabs the atlas from the shelf.
"Come on, kiddo. Pause the game and eat your food before it gets cold," says Dad, with his mouth full.
Mikey rolls his eyes and huffs, but he doesn't want to argue in front of the others, in case Mom or Papa tells his secret. "Wait for me," he tells Seo-yun.
Mom and Seo-yun's mom and aunt are reminiscing about fireworks.
"They didn't really want to come," Seo-yun tells Mikey. "I said I'd come by myself, but they wouldn't let me, even though I'm wearing this." She holds up her locator band. "It's not like I can get lost."
"Baby's first tracking anklet," mutters Papa, nudging Dad's knee.
Mikey doesn't get it, but Dad smirks like it's a joke. "They're practical. In this day and age—"
Papa shakes his head. "I'm still exercising my right of veto." And Dad laughs, and says, "I know." And they're acting so married, Mikey glances at Seo-yun's family to make sure they haven't noticed.
Seo-yun's aunt is eyeing Papa curiously. "Nice shirt."
Even with his hands full of greasy messy food, Mikey nearly face-palms. He'd forgotten Papa was wearing his t-shirt from this year's Pride parade.
"Thanks." Papa smiles at her. "Did you go?"
"I watched from the sidelines," she says. "It was spectacular. Did you see that gorgeous phoenix float? You must have—it was on the front of the Times."
His smile widens. "I designed it."
"Oh, wow." Seo-yun's aunt leans forward. "Are you a professional artist?"
"I'm in event management," says Papa. "El and I work together."
She nods. "You know, our brother is gay. He's actually single right now—"
Mikey forgets to swallow his mouthful and nearly chokes. He's made a mess of everything. Papa is playing along to keep Mikey's secret, even though he obviously didn't want to, but what if he has to date someone else to prove he's not one of Mikey's dads? He wouldn't really do that, right? Mikey just wanted to get to the moon on Panda Ball Penguin—he didn't want to ruin everything and make it complicated. And now Mom and Dad are going to be pissed too. It feels like someone's poured the missing hot sauce onto Mikey's face.
Then Papa raises his left hand with the wedding ring on it, and Seo-yun's aunt says, "Ah. And you're married. Your husband's not here tonight?"
"Right here," says Dad, casually. "We're in a triad, ten years now."
"He's my other dad," says Mikey, to make sure, and it sounds quiet and ashamed when he says it, but Papa winks at him, so he's still glad he did.
Seo-yun's aunt's eyebrows disappear under her bangs, and Seo-yun's mom is listening too, and Mikey doesn't know if this is going to be like Laura D'Aquino's mom, but right now he really doesn't care, even if he never gets to the moon and meets the moon moles. Right now he just feels mega-relieved the secret is out. And lucky to have a family who love each other.
Seo-yun elbows him. "Two dads is cool. I used to have two uncles. Have you finished eating yet? Because the show's going to start soon, and we haven't even got to the supermarket level."
"Nearly," says Mikey, and Papa gives him a wet-wipe for his hands without asking, and Mikey wants to hug him, but they really are running out of time. They get through the supermarket and halfway across the train station platform, with all the fruit and balloon and flower vendors chasing them, and then the park lights dim, and a booming voice says, "Welcome to the fifth annual UFOs Over NYC holo-laser display, sponsored by IKEA, with your host, Neil deGrasse Tyson!"
"Save the game, it's starting!" says Mikey, stabbing the Save button on his screen, just as a one-man gyrocopter covered in glowy lights flies down, fwhp-fwhp-fwhp-fwhp. It lands on the grassy arena in the middle, and Neil deGrasse Tyson gets out and shouts into a microphone, "Good evening, New York!"
Everyone cheers, and Neil deGrasse Tyson explains how they're going to see all different kinds of spaceships this evening, some with aliens and some without, designed by some of the world's greatest laser artists and designers. Mom leans against Dad, and Papa says, "Come here, Monster," and pulls Mikey to sit between his legs so Papa can hug him from behind, and the last little bit of uneasiness melts out of Mikey's chest just as the first awesome spaceship soars into view.
*
The UFO show is the best ever—colorful and loud, and even a little scary—and afterward, Mikey and Seo-yun do swap SplashBoard IDs, and it's late, so by the time Mikey and his parents get home, he's nearly forgotten what happened before the show. It was only for a little while, and it's fixed now. No big deal.
Mom warms some milk for hot chocolate while Dad takes Tootie out and Papa puts the picnic things in the dishwasher, and Mikey sits at the counter, uploading his photos of the spaceships and tagging them as he goes. Some of them came out amazing, so he tags those "badass," and he's relaxed and happy, and then Dad and Papa sit down too, and Mom puts four mugs of hot chocolate on the counter, and the jar of little marshmallows, and says, "I think someone owes Papa an apology."
Mikey's heart nearly stops in his chest. He flushes with anger that she's making a fuss about it, and shame that it happened in the first place.
And then Dad says, "What for?" and that's the worst out of everything, because Dad didn't notice what was going on at the time, and now he's going to find out, and Mikey can already picture his disappointment. Dad is always so proud of Papa. He said that's why they called it a Pride parade.
And it's not fair, because it was Mikey's parents who said he didn't have to always tell people about them. Being in the closet isn't like regular lying, that's what Mom said in the ice cream parlor, but now he's getting in trouble for exactly that! He wants to stomp upstairs and slam his bedroom door so hard the whole house shakes.
But if he does that, Mom and Papa will definitely tell Dad. And his parents are all looking at him, and Papa doesn't look mad, or even sad anymore, just kind, and that's not really fair either. Mikey deserves for Papa to be mad. He probably thinks Mikey chose him because he's not a "real" dad, when it was just that Mikey had already said his father worked for the FBI, and anyway, Papa was more likely to go along with the lie than Dad was.
It turns out that being in the closet isn't just lying to a stranger—it's also lying to your family that you don't love them. So Mikey swallows and says quickly, "Sorry, Papa. I love you."
"That's okay, buddy. I love you too." Papa gives his shoulder a squeeze, and says to Mom and Dad, "Let's leave it at that."
"Leave what at that?" says Dad, still confused.
Papa grins and shakes his head. "Field report later." And Mom gets her organizer look and says, "Group hug," and they all get up and huddle around. Papa lifts him up like he used to when Mikey was little, so he's the same height as the others, and Tootie barks and dances like she wants in on the hug too.
"Did you at least find out how to get to the moon?" asks Papa, in Mikey's ear, and Mikey yawns and says, "Not yet. Seo-yun's going to call me tomorrow."
"You'll get there," says Papa, full of confidence. He yawns too. "Now you know it's there, you'll figure it out."
END