“You didn’t know. Makes it easier anyway. At least I know there’s no one out there worrying.” He thought of Julia, and for once, he felt he had to say something else. “I have a guardian, Julia, but she’s in a tech-free yoga retreat in Italy, so she probably doesn’t even know the plane’s missing.”

Alice smiled. “I saw her at a parent–teacher conference. Actually, I’ve seen her a couple of times. It sounds terrible, but I was always a bit envious—she just seems so cool. And you know, she’s on a yoga retreat—who does that?”

“Julia does that.” He laughed. “Yeah, she’s pretty cool, but, she’s… more like a really high-maintenance friend than a parent. It’s okay now, but when I was younger I just wished… Well, the envy cuts both ways, that’s all I’m saying.”

He realized that in those few seconds he’d said more about himself than he ever had before, and he felt instantly vulnerable, on the edge of a precipice, his heart beating faster and with a strange rhythm.

But Alice said, “Of course. I can only imagine,” and Tom relaxed a little, some unseen danger averted. He guessed this was how people spoke to each other, that it was okay to tell people that he’d rather have parents than a roommate, that he missed them, even without really being able to remember what it had been like to have them there in the first place.

George was watching, transfixed. He said, “Do you think that’s why you’re the way you are?”

Tom looked back at him. “You mean unfriendly, doesn’t play well with others, a little bit of a freak?”

George laughed, a mixture of shock and embarrassment playing out across his face, as if he couldn’t believe he’d asked the question. Alice laughed a little too, looking more relieved that Tom had responded in that way, and that in turn made Tom wonder how she thought he might have reacted—were people really afraid of him?

Tom smiled too, making clear there were no hard feelings, though he wasn’t sure how there could be because he knew that was how people saw him.

“Honestly, I don’t know. Julia’s always telling me how laidback and friendly and funny my mom and dad were, so maybe I was like that too. I don’t really remember what I was like before the accident.”