“I just want to go home.”
“Okay.”
Okay, okay, okay.He heard himself like he was stuck on repeat.
He tried to shift into drive, but the car wasn’t on.He started it, and the headlights painted the bumper ahead of them, and for a moment, it seemed unreal how ordinary everything looked.He sat there a moment, the vibrations from the engine working their way through the car and into him.And then he tried to shift into drive again, and this time it worked, and he started home.
Jem slumped in his seat, staring up at the headliner, and didn’t speak.
Tean’s phone vibrated a few times as he drove, but he didn’t take it out.If itwasAmmon, he didn’t have the mental energy to deal with him tonight.Or with anyone else.
You’re always busy.
Tean pushed the thought away and focused on the road.
As always, Scipio was happy to see them.The Lab had been asleep on the couch, and he was still waking up as Tean followed Jem into the house.Jem stood there, staring at nothing, as Scipio eased his front legs off the couch and stretched.When the Lab padded across the room and nuzzled into Jem’s hand, Jem flinched.He turned his head like he wasn’t sure where he was, and then his hand turned, cupping one of Scipio’s ears, and in a rough voice, he said, “Hey.Hi.Catch any bad guys while we were gone?”
In answer, Scipio rubbed against Jem’s legs, sniffed his shoes, and eventually decided Tean was worth greeting as well.Then the Lab cocked his head at Jem, his whole body suddenly on alert.
“I’ll take him,” Tean said.
But Jem shook his head and said, “Yeah, buddy.Come on.”
He let Scipio out the back and disappeared after him.Out through another of those black rectangles.A doorway to another dimension.
Tean turned on the porch light.Scipio was sprinting after a ball.Jem stood in the center of the yard, hands in his pockets.
Tean sat on the steps.
Jem threw another ball.
Scipio ran.
The sounds of his paws on the grass, and of the Lab breathing hard, and the chain-link fence rattling when one of the balls got past him and smacked into it.
No moon tonight.The stars small and sharp, packed deep until only the points showed.
And Jem.Silent.
Eventually, Scipio ran himself out.He was drooling when he carried a ball over to Tean, and Tean scruffed his ears and told him quietly, “Good job.You got all those balls, didn’t you?”
Jem dropped down next to Tean.The little light that came through the kitchen window left most of his face in shadow, but along the contour of his cheek, his beard glimmered gold and silver.“I’m sorry.”
Tean scooted closer until their knees bumped.Closer again until thigh was pressed to thigh.And he remembered, like it had been someone else, Jem’s idea of a secret handshake, and how they were supposed to bump butts.
“I had to lock the bathroom door the first day I was in his house.Theonlyday.”He held up a single finger, barely visible in the dark.His finger floated there for one second, and then another.And then Jem blew out a breath.“I can’t remember if I already told you about that.”
“You bit him.”
“Yeah.”Jem laughed softly.He flopped one of Scipio’s ears to the side and then twitched it back again, and the Lab rolled onto his side, head rubbing against Jem’s leg.“Down to the fucking bone.He had to get a million stitches.”
And you were nine, Tean almost said.You were nine years old.
“Just some piece of shit,” Jem said.“They pulled me out of there the same afternoon.”
“That was him?That man, Wendell?”
Jem nodded.He rubbed his nose.“Fucking Grey Flannel.”
