Null Pointer

CWE24: Fixed It!

Why is Dan referred to as Mr. Maypenny’s nephew in Bob-White Cave? (#11)

“Hey, Pops, what about this?” Dan asked. He’d finally gotten comfortable enough with his guardian to call him Pops. It didn’t feel as awkward as he thought, since he’d never had a dad in his life. Honestly, calling Uncle Bill “Uncle” was harder.

Dan hid a smile at Mr. Maypenny’s awkwardness in the big store in White Plains. It warmed his heart more than his tough-guy persona wanted to admit that Mr. Maypenny was willing to brave White Plains to get Dan some additional furniture and things to make his bedroom his own.

As he and Mr. Maypenny looked over the desk, to make sure it met Mr. Maypenny’s high craftsmanship standards, Dan heard some of the other teens in the store gossiping. “Did you hear that? The wannabe punk called that old geezer ‘Pops’. Can you imagine that old guy snagging a woman that young? Gotta be half his age!”

Dan flinched. He didn’t care what they thought of him. Wannabe punk was not as inaccurate as some of the things he’d heard people say about him since he got out of New York City. But Mr. Maypenny had never done anything but good for Dan, and Uncle Bill, and honestly anyone else. He was good. He didn’t deserve kids who knew nothing about anything thinking he was some kind of old perv, hooking up with a woman half his age, having a kid young enough to be his grandson.

But it wasn’t any more fair to Mr. M to go back to calling him that when he’d earned “Pops”. And everyone in Sleepyside knew the whole story, so this sort of judgment would only be a thing when they went out of town, which Mr. M wasn’t going to do any more often than he absolutely had to, and Dan could only do so often until he finished probation.

Mr. Maypenny sank into his chair beside the fire with a contented sigh. “Alright, Daniel, what’s on your mind? Having doubts about any of the purchases we made today? Or was there something else you needed that we didn’t get today? This is going to be your home for the next few years. I want you to be comfortable here.”

“I am, Pops. It’s not that.”

“Then what?”

Dan relayed what he’d heard the other teens saying.

“Daniel, if I cared a lick about what other people thought of me, I wouldn’t be sitting right here right now.”

“I know that. And I don’t care about what they said about me. People are going to assume; it’s what we’re best at. You told me that when I first came to Sleepyside, and things were rocky with Trixie and, …and everyone.”

“But something is still bothering you.”

“Even though I know you don’t care what they think of you, and I don’t care what they think of me, I do care what they think of you because of me.”

“Other people’s ignorance is not your fault, Daniel.”

“I know,” Dan said again, with a sigh.

Mr. Maypenny let that linger for a minute. “We’ve talked about the difference between being problem-minded and solution-minded. So which mindset is this coming from?”

Dan sighed. “I’m trying to be solution-minded, but I don’t know that I’ve come up with the right thing yet.”

“Sometimes solutions take time to come into focus. Do you want to keep working on it, or would you like to talk about it?”

Talking about things was still a little foreign to Dan, so he wasn’t really sure of his answer. “You’re the closest thing to a father I’ve ever had in my life. You didn’t ask me to call you Pops, but it feels right. Honest, you know?”

“And I am honored.”

“Sleepyside gossip has spread the whole story around the whole town. Something like that would never happen here, but I’m thinking….I don’t know. Maybe when we’re not in Sleepyside, I’ll say I’m your nephew. Then when people assume, they’ll assume your sibling, my parent, is a lot younger, maybe even a half-sibling or something, but they won’t assume poorly of you.”

“If that’s what feels most comfortable to you, I understand,” Mr. Maypenny told him. “Are you planning to speak with your uncle about this?”

“Yeah, I will, first thing in the morning after patrol. As complicated as things are between us, I don’t want him to think I’m trying to replace him with you. It’s not like that.” Dan thought for a minute. “And the Bob-Whites. Jim’ll understand the complications of non-traditional family in public, Honey’ll do whatever just because I asked, Di’ll probably go along, but the Beldens are bound to twitch and want to set the record straight, thinking I misspoke or someone else misheard. Or they’ll just launch into the intro themselves.”

… “Di is out in California right now with her parents and twin brothers and twin sisters. Di is simply beautiful,” Trixie explained to Linnie, trying to swallow down her own insecurities so she could explain about the Bob-Whites. “Oh yes, there’s Dan—Dan Mangan.” Trixie caught herself, just as she was about to add her usual description of Dan’s situation. She’d never really been able to bring herself to call Dan Mr. Maypenny’s nephew, but she understood Dan’s reasoning for not calling him “Pops” around outsiders, so she opted for another variation on the truth. “He’s at home in Sleepyside working for Honey’s father’s gamekeeper.”