He looked at the toy lurking beneath his bed. His desk lamp flickered and went out. He pushed absently on the wire at the base, bending it to the angle he knew would work. The lamp glimmered to life. Loose connection. He leaned his head back and sighed, then took out his phone.

“Hey,” he said when David answered. “I will come over tomorrow. I mean, if it’s still all right.”

III.

DON’T LOOK BACK

The visit to David’s was good, until it went bad.

For a few hours, they slumped on beanbags in David’s room, carving their way through some paramilitary massacre of a video game, all digital slaughter and laughter over the headsets. After a while, Alex was surprised to realize he had stopped thinking about the robot, the tablet, the tall man, the girl, his grandfather, all of it. For the first time in months, the tension chewing his skull had eased. He concentrated on the game again, before it came back.

Finally, David’s dad appeared in the doorway with a regretful grin. “Time to face the sisterhood.”

Downstairs, crammed around the kitchen table, sat David’s two older sisters, his mother and her two sisters, his grandmother and her sister, and, regally installed at the head of the feast, his great-grandmother.

David had been right: this was her ninety-first birthday. She sat swaddled in layers of wool bright against papery gray-brown skin, sound asleep amid the chatter of her family and the muted thump from a well-used turntable.

With a few nods and a sternly raised eyebrow at David’s elaborately mimed protests, David’s mother ordered David and Alex to sit on either side of the dozing old lady. As Alex squeaked his chair into place, she gave one short, snorting snore, causing David to dissolve in giggles, until his mother’s eyebrow shut him up.

“Thanks, Mrs. Anderson,” Alex said, as she handed him a steaming plate.

“It’s good to see you, Alex.” She shoved his shoulder gently. “You’ve not been over in too long.” She turned to her mother. “Should we wake Granmé to eat?”

“Let her sleep. She’s happy. If she wakes, she wakes.”

They dug in. Outside, the night was dark and the rain never stopped, but the kitchen was warm and the lights glowed. The windows steamed as the talk, laughter, and music grew louder. The old woman slept, snoring occasionally. David made a face; his sisters smiled. Alex sank into the comfortable atmosphere, soaked it up.