“Iknow. Here, you can sit up front.” Mikey got in the back seat, and Shiloh got in the front.
“Hey,” she said to Cary. He nodded at her.
“There’s my crew!” Mikey said, slinging an arm around each of their necks.
Cary shook him off. “Buckle your seat belt. You’re a father.”
“How’s Otis?” Shiloh asked.
“He’s perfect,” Cary said.
Mikey moaned. “He’s trying to kill me. Jesus Christ!”
Shiloh turned in her seat. “That bad?”
“He never sleeps. So Janine never sleeps. She cries all the time. She’s losing her hair. She sends me articles about postpartum psychosis.”
Cary frowned. “Maybe we should go back to your house...”
“It’s fine.” Mikey laid his hand on Shiloh’s shoulder. “It’s fine, Shiloh—her mother’s there. But also it’s afucking nightmare!”
“I’m sorry,” she said. “It gets better, I promise.”
“I don’t know how you did this alone. There are two of us, and neither of us is working. We’re just in his thrall. I’d say he was the son of Satan, but my mom says he looks just like me.”
Shiloh laughed.
“He’s a good baby,” Cary said. “He’s very stout.”
“From draining my life force,” Mikey said. “Thank god Cary showed up to spirit me away.”
“He is a good baby,” Shiloh agreed. “All babies are good babies.”
Cary smiled at the road.
“Shiloh, get off your phone. Be present.” Mikey and Cary were playingDouble Dragon.
Family Fun Time was a two-story arcade owned by some religious people. The tokens were stamped withPraise the Lord. It hadn’t changed much since high school. There was laser tag now, plus a bunch of new games—a whole corner was dedicated toDance Dance Revolution.
Shiloh had been texting Tom about a work thing. (Tom had a BlackBerry and sent extravagant texts.) “What am I supposed to do?” she said. “What did I do in 1991?”
Cary reached into his pocket and pulled out a roll of tokens. “Go playCentipede.”
“I do likeCentipede...”
She found the machine at the other end of the floor—all the “retro” games were up here—and quickly dropped half her tokens into it. Shiloh wasn’t any good atCentipede. She never had been. After that, she tried to remember how to playBurgerTime. She couldn’t. She spent the rest of the tokens onSpace Invaders.
Cary and Mikey were still playingDouble Dragon. Shiloh stood behind Cary and tried to watch.
It was incredibly boring.
It had been boring in high school, too. But back then she was just happy to get out of the house.
Shiloh reached up and pulled Cary’s hair. It was only long enough to pull at the very top. He shook his head.
She did it again.
“Stop,” he said.
