“Where you been, bro?” Crosby asked.

“Gun show,” Dave said. “Picked up an Anderson AM-15 and a double-drum magazine. You throw a rifle stock and moly steel barrel on it, and you got yourself one hell of a cannon. And the whole thing’s as legal as the day is long. What do you carry, Croz?”

Crosby’s mind went blank for a second. “Uh, a Bren.”

Dave laughed. “I’m not talking about a video game gun. I meant your day-to-day piece, bro.”

“Oh, uh, a Glock.” Now Crosby managed to remember a name.

“Right. Old reliable,” Dave said. Their connection went quiet for a moment. “How old did you say you were, Croz?”

“Nineteen.”

“Where’d you get the Glock?”

“Gun store,” Crosby said.

Once again Dave was quiet. Crosby wondered if he’d said something wrong. Did they not make Glocks anymore?

“Well, you know what they say,” Dave finally said. “Use it in good health.” He chuckled as if that was a joke, so Crosby chuckled, too. “But seriously, on a fundamental level,” Dave went on. “It’s all part of the struggle, Croz. Not just the right to bear arms, but the right to maintain our personal and religious identities, okay? The right to preserve our country as the forefathers intended. For too long the snowflakes have been taking it away. I mean, right now, Croz. Right under our noses. It’s everywhere you look: gay marriage, abortion, Muslims in Congress. At some point you gotta take a stand. ’Cause if you don’t, what’s next? Know what I mean?”

Crosby thought he did. Well, maybe.

“I need to know that we can depend on you when that time comes, Croz,” Dave said.

“Definitely,” Crosby said, though once again he wasn’t sure what Dave meant.

“Good to know,” Dave said.

After that they played TGW until Dave said he had to go. As soon as he signed off, Crosby googled the age requirements for purchasing guns. It turned out you couldn’t legally buy a pistol in a store until you were twenty-one. That made him feel stupid because Dave had known he was lying about the Glock. The funny thing was, if Crosby had said he’d bought a semiautomatic AR-15 type of assault rifle, that would have been fine. Because the age requirement on those was eighteen. But maybe being caught in that lie wasn’t so bad. Crosby could still pretend he was nineteen. More importantly, even after Dave had caught him, he’d had important things to say. Dave still wanted to know that he could depend on Crosby.

As far as Crosby was concerned, he could definitely be depended on.

“Why were you at school so late?” Caleb’s mom asked while she drove home. The sun was an orange ball just above the treetops.

“Had to make a deadline for the yearbook,” Caleb lied. The truth was Zach had given him a skateboarding lesson. It was a little confusing at first because Zach rode Goofy Foot, while Caleb rode regular. Zach taught him the proper way to push off and ride, and the next thing Caleb knew, he was gliding along the asphalt. It was amazing! Almost like freedom from gravity. He hadn’t wanted to stop, but he knew he had to walk back to school so that his mom could pick him up.