“What happened?”

“Nothing much at first. I think he was disappointed. A lot of people are the first time.”

“So what did you do?”

“We smoked some more and it seemed to work. It was pretty strong stuff, opiated hash. He got all giggly at first, then he went sort of introspective.”

“So what went wrong?”

“It was when Ryan put that Neil Byrd CD on. You know, that new compilation, The Summer That Never Was.”

“He did what?” Annie could imagine what effect something like that might have on Luke if he was under the influence of strong cannabis. Maybe it wasn’t a seriously dangerous drug, but it could cause paranoia in people, and it intensified and exaggerated emotions. Annie knew; she’d smoked it more than once in her teenage years. Reining in her temper, she asked, “How did Luke react to the music?”

“He freaked. He just freaked. Ryan was thinking it would be a neat idea to do a Neil Byrd song, you know, with Luke singing. I mean, it’d get a lot of attention.”

“Didn’t you realize how confused Luke was about his real father? Didn’t you know he never listened to Neil Byrd’s music?”

“Yes, but we thought this was a good time to try it,” Liz protested. “We thought his mind was, you know, open to new things, mellow from the dope, that it was more likely he’d see how beautiful his father’s work was.”

“When he was disoriented, ultrasensitive?” Annie shook her head in disbelief. “You’re a lot more stupid than I thought you were. Stupid or so selfish and blinkered it amounts to much the same thing.”

“But that’s not fair! We didn’t mean any harm.”

“Fine,” said Annie. “Let’s just say you were guilty of poor judgment and move on. What happened next?”

“Nothing at first. It seemed as if Luke was just listening to the song. Ryan was playing the chords along with it, trying a little harmony. All of a sudden Luke just went crazy. He knocked the guitar out of Ryan’s hand and went over to the CD player and took the CD out and started trying to break it in two.”

“What did you do?”

“Ryan struggled with him, but Luke was, like, possessed.”

“What about the blood?”

“In the end Ryan just punched him. That was where the blood came from. Luke ran into the bathroom. I was just behind him, to see if he was all right. There wasn’t much blood, it was only like a nosebleed. Luke looked in the mirror and started going crazy again and banging the mirror with his fists. I tried to calm him down, but he pushed past me and left.”

“And that was it?”

“Yes.”

“Neither of you went after him?”

“No. We figured he just wanted to be by himself.”

“A disturbed fifteen-year-old having a bad drug experience? Oh, come on, Liz. Surely you can’t be that stupid?”

“Well we were stoned, too. I’m not saying we were, like, the most rational we could be. It just seemed…I don’t know.” She lowered her head and sobbed.