I looked at Gloria. “Please, Bids,” she said. All the pictures of Rowan in my head started to go gray. Then the other truth, the nicer truth, was getting colors.

“Gloria was in the bath and we had another show. Rowan said we could.”

“Of course he would.” Gloria rolled her eyes up.

“We like being in your chair, Telly. We did.”

Telly’s face went sad. “You can use it anytime you like, Bids.”

“And I fell asleep in the chair. Then he wasn’t there no more.”

“What do you mean, wasn’t there no more?”

“When—when I looked out again.”

“Looked out?”

I could hear Gloria breathing hard. “Woke up, I mean.”

“I carried her up to bed, didn’t I, darling. I figured Rowan was already gone to his room. The door was shut. What else was I supposed to think?”

Telly stood up straight. He closed his eyes. He pushed the top of a finger between his eyebrows and pressed hard. “This is unbelievable. Did you ask his friends?”

“Really? That’s what you got to say? He don’t got no friends, Telly. Other than that Darrell kid he’s clinging onto half the time. I mean what kind of seventeen-year-old wants someone Rowan’s age glued to him?”

“No one else?”

“Not a soul.”

I found a loose thread on my T-shirt and I tugged on it until it snapped. I knew what Gloria said wasn’t true. He did have another friend. A friend who lived in the woods.

Gloria shivered. She started to cry. “I’m sorry for acting so rotten, Telly. I’m just—I’m just not myself since you left. There’s so much to do all the time, and I can’t handle Rowan. He’s just out of control.”

“Let’s not worry about that now, Glow. We just got to find him.” Telly hugged her and rubbed at her back. “I don’t know where to start. What do I do?”

“Maybe the woods? All summer he’s been wandering around in there.”

“No kid in their right mind’s going in the woods in the dark. Especially the way it was last night.”

“That’s just it. He’s not in his right mind.” She started crying harder. She put her face in Telly’s chest. “He’s not. He misses you so bad.”

“Okay, okay. It’s been hard, I know. Come on, now. Don’t be crying. I’m here, Glow. I’ll find him. You can count on Telly, right? I’ll find our boy.”