The day Dad came to say goodbye, he brought me a box filled with the last of my things from the town house: old toys and gadgets and books he’d turned up as the Craigslist buyers and movers and friends emptied his home. Dry late-August summer heat scorched us both as he told me he would miss me, that I could visit, that he’d never be more than an email or a phone call away. He hugged me so long, I thought maybe it was all a mistake, maybe he wouldn’t leave, maybe he was just getting a new place in town and my life as I knew it wasn’t really ending.

But it was.

And it did.

I had walked back into the house feeling like a hole had been blown through me, like my guts lay strewn on the patio and my heart was on its way to catch a plane to London. Up in my room, I shoved the box of memories under the bed. I wasn’t ready to deal with it. Still, all around me there were reminders of him — things like the Wonder Woman poster he’d given me the prior Christmas; Runaways, Paper Girls, Ms. Marvel, and the rest of the shelf full of graphic novels he’d introduced me to; and a goofy-looking robot he helped me make out of an empty soda can when I was eight.

Staring at that stupid can, I knew exactly what I needed to do.

Be a robot.

Feel nothing.

How else would I ever survive?

My phone buzzes in my palm and breaks the bitter reverie just as I walk in the front door of my house. It’s Zoe again.

Zoe: *looks up in search of Humphrey*

A thrill races through my body. She’s asking me for an escape — for somewhere to go.

“I’m home!” I yell. The TV blares from the living room, and I fly up the stairs hoping Mom won’t follow me. Once I’m safely shut in my room, I switch to my computer so I can type more easily.

Me: *throws a grappling hook into the stars* *tugs, popping open a door in the sky*

Zoe: *grabs you and jumps on a comet to follow*

Me: *conjures a palace out of stardust and paves the entryway with polished asteroid flagstones*

“Samantha, did I hear you come in?” Mom calls from downstairs.

I bristle at the interruption. I don’t want to talk to Mom right now, and I especially don’t want to rehash what happened earlier.

“Yes, but I still have work to finish!” I shout.

Zoe: *plants the comet we rode in on and grows a giant fractal tree to shelter the castle courtyard*

Me: *coaxes flowers out of the ground until they blossom with sparkling starlike hearts*

Zoe: *whistles for Humphrey to come pose for a topiary shaped in his likeness*