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crops and super growth environments designed to produce food in the increasingly harsh conditions of a world plagued with erratic weather. By some standards, Daniel admitted, Jack West was a flake, or at the very least, eccentric and anti-establishment. He’d found fame in the sixties as an actor, then had a short political career before marrying intoTexas oil money. He’d inherited an unfathomable fortune when his first wife died.
    While he was out looking for a map, Daniel had scoured the Internet via his phone and come up with a New York Times article about Jack West. As I read it, Daniel watched me, his gaze trying to bore through the side of my head and discern my thoughts. There was a sense of the room holding its breath, as if every stick of furniture and stitch of clothing, including Nick’s toys, were lining up, whispering, Toy box or moving box? Which one? Which one?
    On television, Owl was talking to Bambi and Thumper about being twitterpated, a hopeless infatuation that causes love-struck young creatures to completely lose their minds in the spring.
    â€œI don’t know . . .” I looked across the table at Daniel and thought, Don’t go. Don’t do this. I wasn’t only considering myself, considering us. I was afraid for him, and for Nick. “It sounds kind of . . . crazy. I mean, you’ve got Nick to think about and your job and . . . well . . . health insurance and retirement . . . everything. And what about day care? Nick would have to get used to someone totally new. And then there are your parents, and your brother and his kids. They’ll be so far away.” I heard air slowly escaping Daniel’s lips. I knew I was deflating him, but I couldn’t help it. Selfish motives and genuine concern were a mishmash at this point, like multicolored blobs of Play-Doh carelessly pinched together, impossible to separate now. I didn’t want Daniel and Nick to go. I couldn’t bear the idea of it.
    I looked at Nick, tried to imagine him growing up somewhere else. Maybe with someone else.
    Drawbacks popped into my mind in rapid succession, and I threw them out like road spikes in Daniel’s exit path. “And then there’s all the everyday stuff. I mean, that town looks tiny . Where would you find a good preschool next year? Where would you even live in a town that small?”
    Daniel ran a hand through his hair, drew back that little curl that hung over his forehead, making him look like Christopher Reeve in Superman . “That’s just it, well . . . that’s one thing. The place is so remote that housing comes with it. The research lab and the crop plots are actually on West’s ranch, which is—I forget what he said—ten thousand acres, or something, some of it right along the lakeshore. There’s housing there for the ranch hands, and one of those houses is part of the job offer. Three bedrooms, two baths.” He looked at me, the expression in his eyes almost pleading with me to breathe gently on the dream, cause it to spark rather than blow out. “Nick could grow up in a house, a real house, instead of this dumpy little place. He could run around in the woods, build tree forts, catch frogs and lizards like my brother and I did in Ohio. It was a great way to grow up, you know? As long as we were home by dark, nobody worried about us. Mom could send us out the door in the morning, and all she’d have to tell us was to watch for snakes and be home by supper. And this place is even better than that. What kid wouldn’t like to have a lake on his doorstep?”
    I didn’t answer immediately. I was still stuck on frogs, lizards, and snakes . I’d never lived more than a stone’s throw from neighbors and a mini-mart. Even my parents’ house in Maryland was sandwiched between other large houses with manicured lawns. The only lakes I’d ever spent any time