I thought of what my sister would say if she was home. “We need to live our best lives,” she’d say, mimicking my mom’s attempts to be positive. My mom was deep into the best life theory and I used to agree with her. If you have a few lives to choose from, always pick the best and most fun one. It’s what the Rules are all about. I’ve noticed that I keep forgetting the Rules. I don’t want to get lucky anymore. I just want to get through this. I don’t know how you feel, Lar, since I haven’t heard from you. Sorry if that sounds harsh.

Anyway, then my mom said she was sorry, but she had to go teach an exercise class. I was surprised, since I had been alone, or at least said I was alone, all day. I didn’t say anything though. I just told her to have fun.

She came over and kissed the top of my head.

“You are the best kid. I love you and things will be okay. It’s just going to take time. There’s a turkey pot pie in the oven. I set the timer. Please don’t forget to take it out. Use the oven mitts.”

As if I would forget. There are things that matter and pot pie is one of them. Not burning your hands is another one. Maybe that should be the eleventh rule: don’t burn both hands.

Then I told her I might have a job.

She stopped dead.

“Who offered you a job?” she said. “You’re eleven. You can’t work.”

“I’ll be twelve soon,” I said, even though my birthday is still five months away. “And it’s not like that. One of the kids at school said he works on his uncle’s ranch. I said I could help out there too.”

“You want to work on a ranch?” she said, like I’d just said I wanted to get a job getting my fingernails pulled out by goblins.

Then she snuck a look at her watch, which was good because it’s best to ask for things when she’s got to be somewhere.

“I thought that if we’re going to live here for a while, I should learn about how to do stuff like that,” I said.

Her face softened. “That’s really smart, Rodney. And responsible. We’ll talk about it more, but it sounds promising.”

“I need my own bike,” I said. “So I can get there if they hire me.”

She grabbed her gym bag from the kitchen table. “Good thing I’ve got a second job!” she said.

When I went online, I had a message from Rigmor.

Rigmor: Where were you today?

Me: Sick.

Rigmor: See you tomorrow?

I wanted to jump up and down. She wanted to see me!