He turns out to be a really awesome dude, wicked smart of course, and Imani’s mother is so nice and regular acting, not fancy rich at all. She thanks all of us for never giving up. “I’m so sorry to hear about your friend Tony.”

It’s so sad and tragic that we can’t bear to think about it. But we can’t not think about it, so there it is, the Tony thing, never going away.

Mia catches my eye and nods. She gets it. Imani, too.

Deke, seated with his mom and dad, looks happy enough at first glance. He’s got a lot to deal with, but he’ll be okay. Because he has three forever friends, amigos bravos, and we’ll never let him down.

As for me, for the first time in my life, I’m looking forward to getting back to school. I’m going to take an art class, also for the first time, because if I’m going to write a graphic novel about my dad and how he deals with his condition, I need to improve my drawing skills.

If you’re going to be a good writer, you have to take it seriously, you have to be fully committed, no matter what. You have to understand that nothing is guaranteed, that things can go wrong. Mistakes get made, accidents can happen. And you can’t let that stop you.

Like I learned on the Crazy River, there are times that even if something is super scary, you just have to go all in.

Thirty Days Later

The four of us are up in the bleachers of the Sky Hanson Gymnasium, witnessing the dedication ceremony for the brand-new Byron James Regional Middle School. It’s quite a spectacle. Cindi Beacon wanted to be there, but is about to enter a long-term rehab facility. She misses a short speech by Byron James himself, and an appearance by the New Hampshire governor, who presents the famous inventor with a “key to the state.”

“You shared your imagination with the world, and now, lucky for us, you’re sharing your fortune!”

That gets a lot of laughs. Imani goes along with it, but I’m sure she feels the weight of it, all that fame and money. We’re our own tribe now, and we’re tight. We look out for each other and we can keep a secret. Imani’s secret is that Byron James is her dad. Deke’s secret is that he used to be a bully. Lots of secrets. For instance, we applaud and cheer when our new principal hands out a special award in memory of Anthony “Tony” Meeks, who “lost his life trying to help the other survivors.”

That may not be the Crazy River truth, but it’s our truth. Because of what we chose to tell them, his family believes he died a hero, and that’s a good thing, right? Or wrong?