“I don’t know. My dad, maybe? Myself. I just wanted to destroy things and, I don’t know, get put away.”

I wished I hadn’t asked. I remembered Marie saying about his dad beating him senseless, and I didn’t want to know the side of him that raged.

“It’s messed up,” I said.

“Yeah. I’ve been to plenty of shrinks. They think so, too.”

“Do they think you can get better?”

“Maybe. They say I would do better away from here, away from my dad—and I did when I was at military school. I don’t know . . . I can’t leave my mom.”

I wanted to ask if it was because he was protecting her from his dad, but another part of me didn’t want to know more.

I made a pillow of my jacket and lay back on the hillside of dirt. Wilson did the same, having to lie back first on his elbows, and then ease himself down. We lay there like washed-up living creatures on a strange planet.

“Wilson?”

“What?”

“Have you seen Sage?”

“Yeah. A few days ago she and Tony De Martino came to my house.”

“Oh.” Sage was still hanging around with Tony. I wanted to ask how she was but didn’t.

The sun was warm, and I could tell by Wilson’s breathing that he had fallen asleep. I lay on my side, facing him. It was true, what Sage had said; he was handsome. Strong-featured, tanned, and when he laughed, a series of lines appeared either side of his mouth. His dark hair was tipped with blond from the sun. His face was slack with sleep, but you could see the fullness of his lips and, even though it was swollen, the line of his jaw. A man, not a boy, as Sage would say. He was good-looking, but because he was crazy, girls steered away from him. I wondered if he’d ever had a girlfriend. I was still cautious about him. I knew something wasn’t right, but at the same time I trusted him with my life. I wondered who he’d be if he’d had a different father.

I dozed, too, and woke to a rumbling that I could feel all around me. I sat up. Wilson was down by the bike, and I felt and heard it a second time. Almost like thunder, and waves of vibrations beneath me, except the sun was shining. Was it an earthquake? I grabbed my jacket and ran down the hill to Wilson. It was like running down a snowbank.

“What is that?”

“Explosives.”

“Are they near? The sign said we shouldn’t be here.”

“No. It’s like a mile away. But we should head out anyway.”