Everything Changes

out from the undergrowth, trembling on its haunches as it surveys the area nervously. Its eyes lock on mine, and we stare at each other for a long moment, each of us contemplating issues of survival in the manner of our respective species. I pull my cell phone off my belt, flipping it open to search through the memory until it comes to Rael’s cell phone number, which I could never bring myself to delete. Still watching the rabbit, I push Send, an eerie breeze blowing through my gut. The display indicates no active cells, but after a few seconds the phone rings.
This is Miguel. I’m not available right now. Please leave a message and I’ll get back to you when I can. Adiós.
    “Hi, Miguel,” I say. “This used to be my buddy’s phone number. He died in a car crash about two years ago. You’d think I would have erased his number by now, but there it is. I guess I was kind of hoping that maybe, if I pressed the button at just the right time, I might have gotten him, but I guess not. Anyway, I hope things are fine with you, and that the number’s working out for you. His name was Rael, by the way. Whatever. I’m sure you’ve got your own problems. I’ll let you go. ’Bye.”
    I look down at the glowing screen and hit the requisite buttons to delete Rael’s number.
Are you sure you want to delete Rael’s cell?
the phone asks me. I click Delete again, and the number disappears. The next number that comes up is Rael’s home. Tamara picks up on the second ring. “Hey,” I say, but it’s one of those one-way connections where I can hear her, but she can’t hear me. “Hello?” she says. “Hello?” I say hello back, but she doesn’t hear me, so all I can do is listen to her say hello a few more times, sounding mildly irked, before she hangs up, which is fine, because I don’t know what I would have said to her even if she could hear me.

Chapter 41
    Matt is in the living room, covering
Sesame Street
songs on his electric guitar, putting some punk into them, while Henry, dressed in a Buzz Lightyear costume, sits on the floor, laughing hysterically. They stop to look me over when I enter the room, dressed in an old monk’s habit and a rubber goblin mask. Henry looks a bit nervous about the mask, so I pull it off, my hair tingling with static electricity. “It’s just me,” I say sheepishly.
    “I knew it was you,” he says, but he still looks relieved.
    Matt plays a distorted version of “Elmo’s World” on his guitar.
    “You ready?” I say to Henry.
    He stands up. “Don’t wear the mask.”
    “Deal.”
    Matt gives Henry a kiss on the top of his head as he gets off the couch. “Gotta go,” he says. “We’re playing the Halloween Ball at Irving Plaza tonight.”
    “That’s a step up,” I say, impressed.
    “There was a last-minute cancellation,” Matt says with a shrug. “Jed knew a guy.”
    “Good luck.”
    “Don’t need it.” He throws his guitar over his shoulder and heads for the door, stopping to point an admonishing finger at Henry. “No drugs and no underage women, you hear me?”
    Henry nods seriously, in a way that makes us smile.
    The streets are filled with roving gangs of pint-size trick-or-treaters and their accompanying chaperons. Henry holds my hand tightly, stopping every so often to marvel at the ghosts, monsters, ’droids, and hobbits moving past us on the street in the dim glow of the porch lights. After only two weeks, his trust in me is absolute, like a longtime burden he’s finally found a safe place to deposit. For probably the thousandth time since we picked him up from Tommyknockers, I silently vow that I will be worthy. Making this vow in the dark, in my hooded monk’s attire, seems to lend it some added weight.
    “Why didn’t Pete come?” Henry asks me.
    “He likes to stay home and scare the trick-or-treaters.”
    “Oh.”
    We brought Henry directly back to Lela’s house and turned my old room into his. We still haven’t figured out exactly how we’re going to configure everything, but in the interim, the prevailing idea is to surround Henry with family at all times. I’ve been staying there, sleeping downstairs on the sofa bed recently evacuated by Norm, and Matt comes by pretty much every day as well. A few days ago, Jed arrived in a rented van, introduced himself solemnly to Henry as Uncle Jed, and then proceeded to unload what appeared to be the entire inventory of the local Toys “R” Us while Henry looked on with unconcealed