“Everything!” He began laughing as he stumbled back out the door.

“Bum,” Dean said.

Twenty minutes later Dean, still mopping, said, “Hey, corndog, doesn’t that skuzz bucket out there belong to you?”

I looked out. To my embarrassment, the Bee was in the parking lot. I walked to the door, wondering what it was doing here.

“Better tell your mom to move it. Dick told us to throw away all the trash in the parking lot.”

“Shut up,” I said.

My mother had climbed out of the van and was walking toward me. I unlocked the door and opened it, preferring to meet her away from Dean. She wore a grim expression.

“What’s up, Mom?”

“You need to come home.”

“I can’t. We’re not done yet.”

“It doesn’t matter, you need to come home. Now.” My first thought was that she’d found Grace.

“Have you heard the news?” she said.

I shook my head.

“I’ll tell you when we get home. Is there anyone else here?”

“Dean.”

She stepped inside. “Dean, I’m Eric’s mother. I’m taking Eric home with me. You need to go home too.”

Dean just held the mop handle and stared, not sure what to make of her. “We’re not done. We’ll get in trouble if we don’t finish.”

“Trust me, it doesn’t matter. Just get home as soon as you can.”

“What’s happening, Mom?”

“Just come.” I followed her out to the Bee. She wasn’t crying but she was close.

“I brought my bike…”

My mom drove around the side of the Queen, and we put my bike inside the van. On the way home she said, “I love you, Eric.” Something about the way she said it frightened me.

When I got home Joel was still up. Joel was never up past 8:30. He was sitting in the living room across from my father. Obviously whatever was happening was really bad. I was even more afraid.

My mother sat down between Joel and me. My dad began talking.

“Tonight, President Kennedy said on the television that the Russians have been sending atom bombs to Cuba. The Navy has been ordered to stop all Russian ships sailing to Cuba. What this means is, there could be a war.”

I looked back and forth between my parents. “You mean with atom bombs?” I asked.

My dad nodded. “It looks like it.”