I tried to lift the lid of the cashbox, but it was locked. I pulled it out of the drawer and held it up to the meager yellow light.

“It was all a lie, you fucking prick,” Cal went on. “The Almighty War, the training, the key . . .”

I freed the key from the worn leather strap and slid it into the lock. It clicked.

“Cal?”

“But, hey, you got the water part right!” Cal said, laughing. “Bet that’s a surprise. Did you even know if there was a Hell? What about a Heaven?” I heard the sound of fabric gripped by a tight fist. “How sure are you now, Dad?”

“Cal,” I said again as I lifted the lid. I turned over a lot of rocks in my days in the Deals Department, rather excited to view the writhing mess underneath. But even though I knew enough from reading his file to know what made up this particular mess, this wasn’t my rock, and for the first time, that mattered to me.

“For the love of the dark, what, Peyote?”

“I found the key’s lock.”

I heard the General’s sagging sack of a body thud against the metal bed frame as Cal came up behind me.

“What are you talking about?”

But by then the box was open; the rock turned, and, even if I wanted to, there was nothing I could do to unturn it.

MICKEY

THE NIGHT AIR WAS cool, but Mickey felt warm all over. There were so many stars in the sky, she noticed, as she lay with her back on the wooden float. An excess of stars; overstock. Like the first round of a beauty pageant: crowded, eager, and gorgeous. Her legs felt rubbery; she was glad to have arrived. She wasn’t looking forward to the return swim, but they had time yet.

“I’m so happy you’re here,” she said to Ruth.

“Well, I wasn’t going to let you do it alone! Not only because I was totally with the boys that you would chicken out.”

“I don’t mean right now,” Mickey said, stretching. “I mean in general, this summer. I’m so happy you came; that you’re here with me.”

Ruth squeezed her arm.

“I mean it. I’ve never had a best friend before. Not like you. But nobody is like you, are they?” Mickey tilted her head up at the sky, grinning. “Nobody in the whole world.”

Mickey could hear the sound of the water under the float, echoing in the chamber of air caught beneath the boards. The pine trees waited on the shore, the summer breeze moving the needles in a thousand small greetings. The air hung heavy with sap and woodsmoke. It was all exactly as she knew it to be, and yet she felt like it was all happening for the very first time.

“Why are you friends with me?”