Hey, Kiddo: How I Lost My Mother, Found My Father, and Dealt with Family Addiction

The story begins with Jarrett getting driving lessons from his Grandpa Joe. Jarrett draws them in a loose, brushy style, mostly in black and white, with grey wash and burnt orange accents. Joe has taken Jarrett to a graveyard to practice, joking that it’s safe because “everybody is already dead” (4). Jarrett’s internal monologue includes: He can’t wait to learn to drive, because his grandparents don’t like to get in the car, his aunts are busy with their own young families, and he hates to have to ask his mother for rides (for reasons that remain, for the moment, mysterious).

Joe has Jarrett pull the car over so he can go say a prayer over his parents’ grave. Joe complains that he wants his grave close to them, but he couldn’t get the plot next door; when Jarrett objects that he’s not dying any time soon, Joe says, “But it’s unavoidable in the end” (9). Jarrett wonders where his own body might end up—and adds that it’s amazing his mother isn’t dead already.

The chapter ends with a collage of family memorabilia: a wedding invitation for Joe’s marriage to Jarrett’s Grandma