When we got outside, the wind whipped our hair back like we were on motorcycles.

“Maybe we should just go back inside,” I said.

“It’s just a few blocks away,” Jaden said.

Walking against the wind was like walking in sand out at one of the beaches in Gravesend. We struggled down the street, grabbing each other’s arms and holding on tight. We had walked a block and a half when all the streetlights went out. And the lights in the buildings. We stood there in total, pitch darkness. I don’t like the dark, ever since I was a kid. It’s not something you admit to people very often, but my sister used to think it was funny to put me down in front of horror movies when I was little and ever since, a dark corner is somewhere I imagine the world of terrible things emerging from—horrible faces, ghosts, twisted figures, the possessed. I wanted to go back, but I didn’t want to say it again. I didn’t want Jaden thinking I was a numptie of some kind. Most people believed I was nails, and that’s what I wanted them to think. Nobody fucks with you then.

“Scared?” I asked him, poking him in between the ribs.

“Come on,” he said, swatting me away, then poking me back.

I started feeling this flutter inside me and tried to ignore it.

When we got to the corner store, we saw that it was lit by candles. We were surprised to see a bunch of people in there, drinking beer and eating. They all had pints of ice cream in front of them, and they were shoveling away with spoons. As we walked in, the guy behind the counter motioned over to the freezer.

“That shit’s all going to melt,” he said. “Might as well grab some.”

Jaden and I looked at each other and then raced for the freezer like a couple of kids, pushing each other out of the way as we dug in there, looking for the best of what was left.

“Is the beer free, too?” Jaden asked, joking.

“Beer’s twice as expensive,” the guy said. “And don’t even ask about the batteries.”