“None!” Mrs. Huberman said, slapping the handle of her walker with a trembling hand. “Because nobody you invite to your wedding gives a good goddamn about table decorations!”
I nodded in agreement.
“Of course, back then, a wedding was about the couple getting married, not about…” She waved her hand vaguely. “About how many likes you get on Facetagram!”
I nodded again and tried not to laugh.
“Oh, well, here we are,” she said when we reached the door of the rec room. “I’m playing bridge with the girls. Thank you for walking me here, Cash. You’re a nice young man.”
I smiled again, and she wheeled her way inside.
When I had the corridor to myself, I put my earbuds back in and kept working. I liked listening to audiobooks when I worked, and Grandma Jane, Danny’s grandma, had set me up with a library account that meant I could listen to as many as I wanted. I listened to podcasts too, mostly ones about science and history because I liked that they both told interesting stories. I didn’t listen to much fiction, but when I did I liked science fiction. I liked things that made me think about worlds much bigger than this one, and planets and stars and galaxies, and the entire universe, and what all of thatmeant. Sometimes even just thinking on a scale that large was dizzying, but then I could just take my earbuds out and I’d be in Goose Run or Brodnax again, same as always, where everything was small and familiar and safe.
Today, though, it was hard to lose myself in an audiobook the way I usually did. I was thinking too hard about the dog, and about Mason the vet as well. I hated that when he’d touched me on the shoulder this morning, I’d jumped like a scalded cat. It was bad enough—weirdenough—that I didn’t talk, but the jumping thing was even worse. And it wasn’t as though I’d thought Mason was going to beat the hell out of me or anything. I knew he wasn’t. But it had nothing to do with what I did or didn’t know. It had nothing to do with thinking at all. It was instinctive.
Like Mr. Conrad said, I had a whole lifetime of unlearning to do.
I was worried about the dog too. What if I couldn’t find him a home? Or worse, what if his real owners turned up and claimedhim back, and he ended up in that yard again? It wasn’t like I’d be able to rescue him a second time.
My gut tightened at the thought of the dog being chained to that post and nobody coming to save him.
I scowled at the ground as I tried to figure out a way to make sure that never happened, and I was still deep in thought when I reached the end of the corridor, shoving the polisher forward harder than I needed to and making it bounce off the baseboards.
“Everything okay, Cash?”
I looked up to find Mr. Conrad standing in the doorway of the visitors’ lounge. I stopped the polisher and tugged one earbud out.
“Did you work things out with the vet?”
I nodded.
“Then why do you look like someone stole your lunch money?”
Please. Like I’d ever had any lunch money to begin with. I huffed out a frustrated sigh, because I wasn’t sure wehadworked things out. We’d figured out the bill, sure, and the dog had somewhere to stay for now, but after that, who knew?
“Did you wanna talk about it?”
I nodded again. Mr. Conrad was good at helping me untangle my feelings, and it felt like I needed that help today.
“Okay,” he said. “Come see me when you’re free. I’ll be in my apartment.”
I nodded and mustered up a smile for him.
By the time I’d put the buffer away, it was time for my break, so I headed to Mr. Conrad’s room. When I knocked on the doorframe, he looked up from where he was working on his model at the big table and held out a section of the Colosseum in silent invitation. I slid into my usual seat and took it, fiddling with a loose brick while I gathered my thoughts. One of thethings I liked best about Mr. Conrad was that I never felt like I had to rush.
I’d added three rows of bricks to the wall before I said, “The vet was okay.”
Mr. Conrad nodded. “Well, that’s good, right?”
I nodded and pressed another brick into place, the familiarclick-clicksettling the itch under my skin. “I’m gonna help out there in the mornings, pay the bill that way.”
Mr. Conrad hummed. “And the dog?”
I fiddled with a section of archway and whispered, “He can keep it for now, while we find it a home.”
“Got anyone in mind?” Mr. Conrad asked.
I shook my head. I didn’t like thinking of someone else taking the dog.
