“Just in case, though.” Mandy stood up and held her hand out to Ted.

“Better to err on the side of caution,” Peaches agreed, and stood up. She bent down and brushed her lips against Greg’s ear—the way she used to when they ran into each other in between classes at Oberlin. Then she crossed the street to talk to Bruce.

“You did the right thing,” she told him. “For once.”

“Does this mean I’m exempt from community service?” Bruce asked. He shook his inhaler and pumped it into his mouth twice. “FYI, that’s not why I did it.”

“You’re exempt,” Peaches said. The kid was still sort of an asshole, but so what? Everyone was an asshole some of the time.

It occurred to Tupper that Elizabeth might be at home. She might be taking a bath and packing her things. She might be booking cars or boats or trains—she rarely flew—and talking to sponsors. He wouldn’t let her sneak off again. This time he wanted a say.

Go, he’d tell her. I want you to go.

He checked his phone’s Macaw footage. Nothing. But there was something on the coffee table—a Post-it with a note. He zoomed in. It said something about rabbits.

“I’m just going to check our place,” he announced, and hurried down the street.

Wendy was shaking. Roy put his arm around her. Despite the fires and fireworks, the sky over their little patch of Brooklyn was clear enough to see the stars. From out on the harbor the Staten Island ferry sounded its low, mournful horn.

ONE YEAR LATER

“Before we begin,” Jefferson began, “I’d like to thank you for coming. I’d also like to invite you to stay after the reading. There will be wine and beer and hard-cider mini donuts—courtesy of Enjoy! magazine—plus cheese and crackers and some extremely entertaining live music by Greg Park, Stuart Little, JoJo Biederman, and Robbie Catchpoole of the Blind Mice, whose recent hit collaboration, ‘Sick,’ needs no introduction—it’s on the radio all the time. Congratulations, guys.

“Now, without further ado—Actually, why not? I’m going to make some ado. This guy is a god. I just heard he got a MacArthur ‘genius’ grant—there are actually two MacArthur recipients in the audience tonight. He didn’t keep the money though. He donated it to 718 Reads, an amazing organization that provides individualized reading instruction to low-income Brooklyn kids, so they could set up a new outpost in that impounded bar on Henry Street. We’re here to celebrate his new book. Buy it, read it, love it. Buy two! It’s truly an honor to welcome Roy Clarke, my favorite author, here to share with us his new masterpiece, Gold. He describes it as The Blue Lagoon meets Battlestar Galactica. Need I say more?”

The audience whooped, whistled, and applauded.