“He seems lost,” I told Brandi.
She sighed and sat back a little in her chair. “That makes sense. Whatever happened, it can’t be easy to come back. It’s like he needs what the astronauts had—two weeks in quarantine to settle back into our world and into their own heads after the adrenaline wore off. A decompression chamber. There’s a lot of compression going on here, I’m sure.”
“I’m not sure what you mean,” I told her. “If we’re being honest.”
She laughed. “I guess what I’m saying is that whatever happened to Aidan, he went through it alone. And he’s going to have to adjust to the idea that he’s not alone anymore.”
“I don’t think he was alone there. In Aveinieu. It wasn’t like that.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, there was this woman he lived with, Cordelia. And there were other people too. And animals. Only they weren’t like our animals.”
And just like that, I found myself saying too much. I hadn’t meant for what Aidan said to me at night to leave our room. Mostly because I knew that if he found out I’d blabbed, he wouldn’t tell me anything else.
“You can’t let anyone know I said that!” I quickly told Brandi. “If you want him to keep talking to me. And I’m the only one he’s talking to!”
“It’s okay, Lucas. Really, it’s okay. Your secret is safe with me.” She crossed her heart, then for good measure locked her mouth with an invisible key and threw the key my way. I caught it and put it in my pocket.
“Thanks,” I said.
“No—thank you, for being there for him. As I told you before, he needs you in his corner.”
As if to emphasize this, Mom and Dad came storming back into the kitchen, Dad in the lead this time, Mom following.
“You shouldn’t have said that!” Mom was yelling at Dad. “Did you see how he reacted? It was like you were a monster.”
“All I said was that if that stupid dresser was the problem, then the obvious solution was to get rid of it! I wasn’t actually throwing it to the curb at that very moment!”
“Well, you might as well have! We all know the last thing we should do right now is make him more upset. But you just managed to do that beautifully. With an assist from my sister!”
“Whoa!” Brandi said. “How did this get to be my fault?”
“It’s nobody’s fault,” Dad said. “Nobody’s. Not mine. Not yours. Not Laura’s. Not Aidan’s. Nobody’s.”
“Well, it’s not the dresser’s fault either!” Mom added. Dad didn’t seem to appreciate this.
I wasn’t really a part of the conversation, so I left. I went up to the attic and found Aidan sitting on the floor, facing the dresser. Its doors were closed.
“I know it isn’t going to work again,” Aidan said to me. “I know they cut the connection. But I still want it here. Just in case.”
“Makes sense,” I said, sitting down next to him.
We sat there in silence for about three minutes.
It was getting pretty boring. At least for me.
“Look,” I said, “do you want to go see a movie? Let’s make them take us to a movie.”
“Alright,” Aidan said. Then he stood up and left the room without looking back.
26
Although she wouldn’t say it, I think Mom was glad to get the rest of us out of the house. She said she still had a lot of phone calls to make and thank-you cards to write. I tried to imagine what the cards said: Thank you for trying to find my son, even though it ended up he was nowhere you could’ve reached. Next time we’ll have to send you inside the furniture to get him!
We went to our usual movie theater, downtown. Dad had gone there when he was a kid, and my grandmother had gone there when she was a kid. Our family and the movie theater had been in town a long time, and knew each other well.
Still, we weren’t prepared for the reaction we got when we showed up. Louie, the owner, came out of the ticket office and exclaimed, “Here they are!” like we were the stars of the movie we were seeing. He gave Dad and Aidan bearish hugs.
“We looked everywhere for you!” he said to Aidan while Aidan was still enfolded in his arms. “Everywhere!”
“I’m sorry?” Aidan said with an actual smile.
Louie laughed and released him. “Don’t be ridiculous. It’s a hero’s return! Whatever movie you’re seeing, it’s on me!”
Dad smiled and took out his wallet. “You don’t have to do that, Louie. We’re grateful for your help.”
“No, no, no!” Louie exclaimed, waving Dad’s wallet away. “I won’t hear of it.”
“Really,” Dad said. “I insist.”
I could see why Dad was uncomfortable. I was uncomfortable. Why should we be rewarded for Aidan disappearing on us?
Louie didn’t see it this way, though. He saw it as something to celebrate, and eventually Dad gave in. Though once we were inside, he slipped Brandi some money and she went and bought tickets from the person at the window while Louie was busy with the popcorn.
So I guess nobody won.
As more and more people came into the theater, Aidan ducked lower and lower. It was only when the lights went down and the previews came on that he looked a little comfortable. But not as comfortable as before.
I wondered if we’d ever be as comfortable as before.
* * *
—
When we got home, Mom was already starting on dinner. (“An early dinner so Brandi can make an early start,” she explained.)
Mom must have said something to Brandi while they set the table, because after that, Brandi didn’t ask any more questions about Aidan’s disappearance. Instead, we talked about the movie and about Brandi’s projects at work and about wayward cousins of Mom’s and Brandi’s that I barely knew. When the phone rang, we didn’t think much of it—the house phone had rung more in the past week than it had for probably the previous five years combined.
Mom looked at the caller ID and said, “Oh, it’s Denise. I’ll just tell her I’ll call back.”
Denise was Glenn’s mom.
Mom picked up the phone. “Hi, Denise—we’re in the middle of dinner. Can I call you back?…Oh, okay. What’s going on?…I see….” Mom leaned against the counter like she needed its support. “And who told you this?…And she heard it from?…Okay. I see….Well, of course it isn’t true, Denise. How could it be true?…I know. We all react in different ways, right?…Of course….Absolutely. I appreciate you telling me….Thank you, Denise. I’ll call them right away. And I’ll call you back later, okay?”