“Yeah,” she said. “Everyone feels it. But you can’t really act on it. All you can do is wait. You’re here until she needs you.”

“But why would she make me and then leave me here? Why would she leave you here, with all of this? It doesn’t make sense.”

“Well, she can’t use all of us,” Anna said. She tried to be practical. “Some of us are just extra.”

“And you’re at peace with that? You’re not frustrated?”

“I was frustrated for a while . . . I used to get up every morning and get ready. But . . . I couldn’t sustain that, you know?”

“How do you feel now?”

“I feel . . .” Anna sighed. She looked down at Peaches. She never really talked about this. Who would she tell? Her parents? Her best friend? That seemed unkind. They were only sketches compared to her. They might never get filled in.

Anna almost never met someone like James. Someone with clearly drawn outsides and clearly drawn insides. Someone with carefully developed emotional maturity. James didn’t even realize how special he was. How lucky he was. He wouldn’t be here long—she was surprised he’d lingered at all.

“I feel forgotten,” Anna said. “Mostly. Like . . . I must have been fascinating once. For her to build all this for me.” She looked around the yard. “I must have had promise. But then she just . . . set me aside. It’s a bit like knowing someone has fallen out of love with you.”

James listened. Even after she’d stopped talking.

Anna kept looking at Peaches. “I mean, not that I know how that feels . . .”

“You’ve never had a love interest?” he asked.

“No.” She looked up at him. “Which is strange. Most people around here come in pairs.”

“Maybe it isn’t that you were forgotten,” James said carefully. “Maybe she’s saving you for something really good.”

Anna smiled. “That’s very optimistic of you, James.”

“I think I might be optimistic,” he said.

“Likable,” she said. “Sympathetic. Almost creepily handsome. I have a good feeling about you.”

He laughed and seemed to relax. He was still rocking the swing with his ankle. It was nice. Comforting.

Anna felt for him. She could still feel the pull, too, underneath everything. But she was so used to it. It was like gravity for her.

“Can you make friends here?” James asked.

“Yeah. Of course.”

“Even if you’re not meant for the same story?”

“I mean, yeah,” Anna said. “Relationships don’t have to be eternal. People come and go from your life.”

“I suppose that’s true.”

“I’ve had a few friends here for years.”

He rested an elbow on the back of the swing and rested his head in his hand. “Has anyone been here longer than you?”

“No one who’s stayed.”

“You mean no one who hasn’t ended up in a story?”

“Not everyone ends up in stories.”