He texted Eden on his breaks. Just making plans to meet up for the rally tomorrow and some texts about maybe going bowling on Sunday. It was weird to talk about normal things with her—weird to think ahead to things they might do together in the coming weeks—without the looming feeling of a ticking time bomb in their pockets.

There’d be no fire alarms, no Panera rain, no secrets, no hiding, no bomb threats, no fear.

It felt like a wire had been cut and they’d all been defused.

He’d taken some more notes on his podcast after the funeral yesterday but then decided, for now at least, to just let the device be done, to let the story sit awhile until he could make better sense of it.

He still hadn’t listened to that last episode of the beauty queen podcast and was pretty sure he wouldn’t. It seemed weird, suddenly, to spend so much time immersed in other people’s darkness instead of out in the world, looking for light.

Eli had started a group text: Send help.

Marwan felt himself tighten and reactivate, but then a photo came through. It was a picture of Eli’s sister holding one of the cards from the conversation game. If you zoomed in you could just make out the question: What is the most valuable lesson you have learned?

Eden sent a rolling-on-the-floor-laughing face.

Marwan sent the pondering emoji.

Ilanka wrote: Um. Do I know you? then, a minute later, a smiley face.

“Marwan,” his father said. “No sleeping on the job. Table four needs water.”

He put his phone in his pocket and grabbed a glass pitcher. “I’m on it.”

Eden

EDEN

At first it seemed like maybe nobody was going to turn up except for Eden and her mom and the rally organizers: a small group of women with their children in tow who had gathered at the center of the park, all holding handmade posters. But then more people started to mill, and then more people, including her friends, filled out the edges of the park and suddenly it was a thing. The idea was to walk quietly through the neighborhood, past the places where hateful incidents had occurred in the past few days and months. The organizers had mapped it out on paper and printed up copies and started passing them out.

Eden’s mom finally met Marwan. And Ilanka and Eli (again), too. He’d brought his little sister and his dog, Cora. Some of Marwan’s friends from soccer were there so Eden met them.

Svetlana was there with Ilanka. And Anjali was there, of course—with Tristan and Thea and Thea’s moms. The Rankins had turned up, too. Mark came over and asked Eden about life post-Aizel.

“So far so good,” she said.

“And it’s definitely destroyed?” he asked.