I imagined this woman I’d just met coming with me to sit on a couch next to my mom while I said, “I made that thing that made a lot of people lose their minds and also inadvertently caused a few people we knew to die,” and my mom going, “Oh, sweetie, we’ll need to talk about that, but does your friend here want, like, something to drink? Or some sandwiches? Does she want pizza? Frankie? Frankie? Are you listening? Does your friend want pizza?”

Mazzy stared at me for a second. “Could I have your cell phone number? I’ve only ever called your home phone. It’s just so we can stay in touch.” I had a feeling that she suspected I might immediately get on a plane to some random country and she’d be left with an article that no one wanted to publish. I think she was very smart to suspect that.

I looked at her card and used my phone to send a text to her, and she nodded and then added me to her contacts. We stood up. I still had a Corn Pup left to eat, and I was about to reach for it when Mazzy asked, “Where did it come from?”

I was looking at the mini corn dog, distracted, but then tried to focus. “The poster?” I asked.

“The words, yeah, that phrase,” she said. “Where did it come from?”

“Me,” I said, not sure what else to say.

She looked at me for a few seconds, and I knew she was repeating the phrase in her head. I could hear every single syllable inside her mind, the entire utterance, because I knew what it sounded like so clearly.

“Let’s talk soon,” she said, and I agreed, and as soon as she left, I dipped the corn dog in mustard and ate it in two bites.

Fourteen

AFTER HIGH SCHOOL, I GOT A SCHOLARSHIP AND ENDED UP AT a small liberal arts college in Kentucky, which is where I met Aaron. And I made friends. I felt myself expand into those open spaces, to hang out with people who had been like me in high school and now were surprised that, holy shit, they could revise themselves into someone who was a little cooler. I was an English major and sometimes I shocked my professors by having read some of the books already. They were impressed, and that made them give me a little extra attention, and that made me feel so grown-up that I decided I’d devote my four years to doing whatever they said.