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after a certain time, and so there are soldiers on every corner. He never seems to notice.
    There’s a really big distance between us that was never there before, and I hate that, too.
    “I miss you, too,” he whispers into the phone. “I want to see you. Really bad.”
    “I don’t have to work until the afternoon on Saturday. And no school. Maybe you could come over here? We could play some games. Hang out.”
    Tony hesitates. “Yeah. Opal will be there, right?”
    “Yeah, well … she lives here, Tony. I can’t just get rid of her.” I can’t send her out to play in the yard or anything like that. There are other kids in the apartment complex, other Conorphans like us, and they don’t go out to play, either. I know why he’s asking, too, and that annoys me. Like it’s not enough to just come and hang out with me; he has to know if we’ll have time to be alone, like making out is the only reason he wants to see me.
    “Right, right. I know that. Well … I’m not sure if I can come over. My mom …”
    Other teenage boys would probably lie to their moms and come over, anyway. With the new bus system, it would be even easier for him to get here, since he wouldn’t need a ride from her. I don’t think Tony will lie to his mother, though. I mean, what makes him so good can also be annoying.
    “You could ask her, Tony. C’mon. It would be fun.”
    “She doesn’t like me going to your place,” Tony says. “She knows your parents aren’t there.”
    “What if my mom were here? Would she care then?” I say boldly.
    Tony laughs, sounding uncomfortable. “Yeah, right.”
    “I’m serious, Tony. If my mom were here, she couldn’t say there were no parents. Would she let you come over to hang out then?”
    Tony doesn’t say anything for so long, I think he’s hung up. “Velvet, that’s not funny.”
    “I’m not trying to be funny.” I draw in a breath, then another. I can hear the smile in my voice and wonder if he can, too. “I found her. I found my mom. They said it’ll be about a week before she can come home, but that’s not so long—”
    Tony breaks into my babbling. “Stop it.”
    “Stop what? I thought you’d be happy for me.” My voice rises, and I look toward the bedroom where Opal’s still sleeping.
    “But your mom’s … one of them.”
    “She’s my mother, Tony.” The words come out stiff and sharp. “I found her. She’s coming home.”
    “But you can’t bring her home!” He sounds shocked. “Really, Velvet? Are you crazy?”
    “It’s safe. She’s been neutralized. They all are.” I think of the Connie coming at me from out of the bathroomand force away a shudder. They’re getting fewer and fewer, though, the wild ones. Somehow this makes it worse.
    “Gross.”
    I know I heard him right, but my jaw still drops. “It’s not gross! It’s my mom!”
    “But she’s not,” Tony says. “She’s a Connie, Velvet. I mean … they’re not … she won’t be …”
    “You wouldn’t say that,” I tell him coldly, “if it were your mother.”
    “Well, it’s a good thing it’s not, then.” This voice comes across the line from Tony’s mother herself. She must’ve been listening since he picked up the phone, silent and skanky in the background. What a bitch. “Tony, hang up now.”
    “Mom—”
    “Now, Anthony.”
    He does. There’s silence on the line, and I listen to her breathing. I’ll give her the chance to say what she’s going to, I guess because I need to hear it. I need her to say it, get it out of the way once and for all.
    “I think it would be better if you didn’t call here again, Velvet.”
    “Does Tony want me to stop calling?”
    “My son does what I tell him to do,” Tony’s mother says smugly. “And I’m telling you to stop calling here. You’re not welcome. I don’t want you with my son.”
    “Why?”
    She sounds surprised that I asked and stutters out a reply. “What do you mean, why?”
    “Why don’t you like