The house was orderly and spare. The door to the all-white bathroom stood open and the pungent odor of freshly dropped cat shit emanated from within. It was so strong it almost made him hungry. Not for cat shit—Roy wasn’t insane—but for something rich and chocolaty. When he was done here he might head over to the Chocolate Room and have a slice of cake. One ought to eat more cake, he thought, and then giggled to himself because he was pretty sure Winnie the Pooh had said that.

He glanced across the hall into the twins’ bedroom, expecting to see two cribs or two tiny little beds and a whole host of cute little things in duplicate. Instead there was just a single white bed pushed up against a pale yellow wall. Above the bed was a picture of two little newborn babies swaddled in hospital blankets, nestled side by side in a white wicker Moses basket.

Roy stared down at the lonely bed with its faded daisy quilt and gray stuffed bear. He examined the photograph of the babies again and then began to cough and cough, as if his esophagus were trying to dispel the shocking sadness of Tupper and Elizabeth Paulsen’s tremendous loss. One of the twins had died, but they still called it “the twins’ room,” which meant the child who was left had to live with the hole in the basket that was her sister’s little body for the rest of her life.

“I’m clearing out your box and then it’s cheery-bye, m’lad,” Roy told the invisible cat. Sad things made him nervous.

By now the litter box was probably overflowing with poo.

Can I buy you a drink to thank you?

Roy stared at the texts. Poor bloke. Maybe he’d only asked Roy to feed his cat because he wanted to be friends. He wasn’t fame-stalking him, it didn’t seem like. He hadn’t even mentioned Roy’s books or the TV show. He was just a neighbor, being neighborly.

All the lonely people, where do they all belong?

I’m actually headed out to a bar right now if you’d like to join me. Monte on Henry St.

Tupper didn’t text back right away. Roy put his coat back on, grabbed his laptop, and called up to Shy.

“Going out again!”

“Okay!” she shouted back.

His screen lit up as he walked down Henry.

Great! See you in 10.