Page 18 of Everything All at Once

For Abe’s sixteenth birthday, Aunt Helen had given him a first edition, first issue ofAlice’s Adventures in Wonderland.I’d walked past his room one night shortly after and saw him holding it with reverence. He wore white gloves, and the book itself was tucked inside a heavy plastic case.

“Really?” I said, stopping at his door.

“Do you know there are only two dozen surviving copies of this edition?” he asked without looking up. “I need a safety deposit box. I need a fireproof box. I need something really secure. It’s from 1865, Lottie. This is history.”

“Your popularity is history,” I said. I thought it was a pretty good comeback, but it prompted Abe to get up and shut his door.

“How long has he been at this?” I asked Amy.

“Oh, ever since I got here. He says there’s a really specific way you have to do it or else you’re basically playing bocce.”

“The poor man’s croquet!” Abe shouted from the other end of the lawn, where he was lying belly-down on the grass to check his work.

“Wow,” I said.

“You just have to go with it,” Amy said and knocked her shoulder against mine. “Are you doing okay, Lottie? It must have been tough to go back to her house.”

“I think everything will be tough for a while,” I said. “And then, I don’t know. Maybe it will get easier. Actually...” I lowered my voice, leaned a little closer to her. “Is my brother doing okay? He doesn’t really say.”

“Yeah, he doesn’t really say to me either. I think he was crying the other night, when he came to pick me up, but I knew he was trying to cover it, so I didn’t press him. I think I’m just waiting until he seems ready to talk about it. I hope that’s soon.”

“Abe is excellent at avoiding things he doesn’t want to talk about. He still won’t even acknowledge when the Doctor leaves Rose in that parallel universe.”

“Oh, I know,” Amy said. I could tell she was worried about him (the person currently licking his finger and holding it up to test wind direction, with not even the slightest bit of irony).

“He’ll open up eventually,” I said.

“I’ll let you know when he does.”

I left them to their afternoon shenanigans and went to pick up Em. I found her outside waiting for me, wearing anX-Filesshirt I’d bought her off eBay that she’d cut into a crop top (she cut most shirts into crop tops). Her hair was messy, and she was wearing red lipstick and aviators.

“Hiya,” she said, getting into the car.

“You look cute.”

“You’re going to make me blush,” she said, fanning herself with her fingers.

“Are you sure you’re okay with spending your Sunday afternoon in a bookstore?”

“Oh, is that what we’re doing?”

“Page & Ink!”

“Is this... one of your aunt’s things?” she asked after a second, nervously, like maybe she wasn’t sure she was supposed to bring it up.

“Yeah. And it’s okay, you don’t have to ask like that. I’m the one who told you about them.”

“Well, I don’t know. I mean, I know it’s personal.”

“Well, yes, it’s one of my aunt’s things. She wants me to buy some books.”

“That’s great. I read stuff.”

“When was the last time you read a book?”

“I read that one about the girl!”

“Oh, the one about the girl! That’s a good one.”