but not at me, I think.

They are in the moment,

me with my shirt off,

swinging it around my head,

the chaos and screech of the seagulls.

My body shudders

in the sudden wonder

of a decision finally made.

What if I’m not alone?

What if Pick and Lisa

and maybe others might help me?

What if all this matters less than I think it does?

Let’s do this! I cry out.

I pump my fist in the air

because I don’t know what else to do.

Without asking,

Pick and Lisa step onto the deck with me,

stand next to me on either side.

My mother snaps the photo.

Let me see, Lisa yells, and she

gets the phone from my mom,

stares at it, and makes a funny face,

then she runs across the deck

while we chase her.

In the photo,

my friends are on either side,

Pick, his smart, handsome face beaming,

Lisa, her chin lowered, eyes wide,

born for the camera,

and me, so much wider

than both of them.

It’s not fair, I think,

how my sides overflow my shorts,

or the way my legs

always rub together.

I’m not sure I can do this.

We print the photo

and pin it to a shelf

beneath two trolls,

one holding a tiny flowerpot,

the other a hatchet.

Then we go to the beach,

run the whole way

until our toes reach the shore,

lay our bodies down

in the warm sand.

At the nursery,

the seagulls land on the fence,

stuffed or tired.

Level 1 Induction

I miss apples

pizza

French toast

sandwiches

candy

watermelon

hamburger buns

cake

pizza

doughnuts

spaghetti

chips

pizza

It’s been a week.

The Kid Who Draws at the Beach

At the beach

we meet this kid named Jorge.

He is often by himself,

building sandcastles

or sketching something

inside a brown journal.

He says he takes the bus a few miles

from Bolinas.

He likes the feel of traveling.

We like him right away.

Loch Ness Monster

Pick holds up a drawing

of a tentacled creature,

a giant, mutant squid

rising out of the bay.

Our game needs more enemies,

he says. What do you think?

The robots need

to face a real threat.

I reach for Mysterious World,

flip it open to chapter 6,

“Creatures of Lakes and Lochs,”

hold it up in the air

like I just found the answer

we’ve been looking for.

Something like this? I ask.

Pick nods. Maybe?

But isn’t that the Loch Ness monster?

Yes! I say. What if—I turn the page—

in the game, Earth is filled

with these creatures,

but they aren’t enemies.

They are just lost,

isolated, angry, afraid,

creatures that just don’t

quite fit in?

What if part of the game

is to help these creatures

stop destroying things

and become allies?

Pick looks at me.

I’m not sure that makes it fun, Ari,