In the house, Izabel stayed on the floor near the door. Andy got a hand towel, ran it under water, and wrung it out. She brought it back to Izabel, got down next to her on the floor, and wiped the pollen off her knees.

Kaito came out of the bathroom. “Jesus. What happened?”

“She’s not ready to go in a car yet,” Andy said.

Kaito carried Izabel back to their futon and laid her down. “You’re okay,” he said.

“Will Cami be okay at school?” Izabel said.

“Of course she will be.”

Izabel nodded. “I want her to come back.”

“That’s not what’s best for her.”

“I know,” she said, teary.

He said, “What can I do?”

She shook her head.

He crawled into bed next to her and held her, and she fell asleep again.

When Izabel woke up, the house was silent and she was alone. Andy had left a note near her head. It read, “Working at the mall. Make yourself at home.” She stayed in bed and tried her tablet again. It reminded her less of the car than the last time she used it.

She opened a sudoku app and set it to Easy. It took her about four minutes to finish a board. Between each board, there was an ad for another game. The first ad was for a game where you find hidden objects to solve a murder. An old woman was on the floor with a gunshot wound to the head. It was cartoonish but graphic. Izabel groaned and turned the screen away from her. But as she kept playing and the ad kept appearing, she got used to it.

Izabel went into Hestia’s room. There was a shelf filled with old books. People weren’t supposed to have books anymore. Books collected and held dust, and so pollen. But Izabel missed books. She understood why Andy would have them.

Some of the books were a set about elements. Izabel pulled out the one about nitrogen. It made her nostalgic, holding the book, turning the pages. She slid her finger along the underside of an edge. A section of the book was about “Peaceful Explosions.” It was a term for explosions not intended to do harm to humans. So blowing the tops off of mountains for mining—that was a “peaceful explosion.” Even if it harmed humans eventually. Izabel put the book back on the shelf.

She spotted a toy that had rolled back under Hestia’s desk. She bent down and bumped her head as she reached for it. She remembered her mother saying, “You always have to put your head lower than you think.”

While her head was hurting, she wasn’t worried about Cami being away from her. That was one good thing about pain.