“Nothing. I say it’s okay.” He made a little huffing noise.

“What do you want to say?” asked Rigmor.

“I want to say that if you like someone, that’s fine. But if they don’t like you back, it’s over. Show some respect.” He sounded irritable.

“Nils is dating one of that girl’s friends now. Awkward!” said Rigmor.

“You’re twelve. What do you know about awkward?” said Nils.

“I know some things,” said Rigmor.

Her brother laughed and his face lost that hard look it had sometimes. “That’s true.”

Rigmor punched me lightly in the arm.

“Later,” she said. “Thanks for running with me.”

I nodded.

She got into the car and Nils turned it around. He stopped the car beside me, his arm hanging out the window.

“You need to talk to your dad,” he said. “Directly.”

Then they drove away.

So that’s what I decided to do.

More later. This is hard.

Rodney

27

Hey, Team of Counselors I’m Probably Going to Need After All This,

I walked in the front door and found my mom and sister sitting at the table.

“Can we go to Vegas?” I asked.

They both stared.

“Now?” said my mom.

“I want to talk to Larry.”

My mom’s eyes went wide, and Kate put her hand to her mouth.

“Oh, honey,” said my mom. “I’m not sure that’s a good idea. It’s three o’clock now. And it’s a long drive.”

“I want to talk to Larry, and then I want to go see Dad.”

My mom puffed out a breath.

“Maybe we could just go see your father? How about I make an appointment?”

“I need to talk to Larry now,” I said. I wasn’t sure why, but I knew it felt important.

“We better do it while he’s willing,” said Kate. And I thought she was probably right.

“Let me call Larry’s mother,” said my mom. There was this worried look on her face like calling Isbell was the last thing she wanted to do.

“But, Mom—” started Kate.

“Hush,” said my mother. “Let me figure this out.”

Five minutes later we were in the Range Rover, heading for Vegas.

My mom couldn’t get through to Larry’s mom. She just got a message that the number could not be reached.

“I hope your dad’s treatment center lets us in. We won’t be there until late,” muttered my mom.

I didn’t care. If they wouldn’t let us in, I’d wait on the doorstep until the next morning. You know how once you decide to do something you’ve been avoiding, you need to do it right away? That’s how I felt then.