Suddenly I remember that even though I’d gotten my grandmother water and slurree, I hadn’t gotten her any batteries. I thought of her alone in her apartment, with a bunch of the religious candles she keeps around lit and glowing. I thought of her knocking one over and starting a fire. My hand went a little slack on the pint of ice cream. I had to pull my mind out of the hole it started to slip down then, because there was nothing I could do about it. Things get like that sometimes. Everything goes dark and I have to struggle to keep some sort of light and hope in my head. I often think of my grandmother, or my friends like Jaden. But sometimes there’s nothing I can think of that will pull me out of the pit I can go down in my head.

Jaden was up at the counter ordering our sandwich. The guy behind the counter made it extra thick, with lots of turkey and lots of cheese. I guess those were going to go bad soon, too.

“Hey, I got my Mixplayer,” a guy drinking a beer next to the potato chips said, pulling a tiny square out of his pocket. “You got speakers back there?”

Before I knew it, music was thumping through the store, and people were dancing with their beer cans in their hands. A guy came up to me and held out his hand. Giggling a little, I let him take mine, and soon we were dancing around the store. Jaden watched, smiling. The dance lasted the whole song, and then another. Pretty soon I was out of breath from moving around the cramped space so much. Damn oussies must be catching up to me.

“Come on,” Jaden said. “We should get back.” Now he held his hand out to me, and I grabbed it, and giggling, we walked back into the night. As we walked, we dug into our ice cream with plastic spoons.

“I like your new boyfriend there,” Jaden said. The guy had been in his sixties, with gray hair and a stomach that hung over his belt. “Neighborhood guy? Known him for long?”

I laughed. “Get hoddered,” I said, pushing him with one hand.

“Okay, okay. I won’t tease you. I just better get an invite to your wedding.”

“Shut up,” I said. I was still laughing, shoving ice cream in my mouth.

“Want to take a walk?” Jaden asked. The wind was blowing like crazy. I was going to walk with him, even though I was scared shitless to do it, but then the rain started coming down. And not a drop or two here and there, like the beginning of a thundershower. The rain started coming down like someone had torn off a seal. Without a word, we ran back for Jaden’s place. Our boots splashed through the wet streets, and the rain soaked through the hoodie I was wearing.