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days during school breaks. David and Jeffrey liked the same video games, of course, and compared notes all the way to this kid Liam’s house.
    â€œAre you picking me up , too?” Jeffrey asked excitedly as he climbed out of David’s rust-encrusted red Chevy pickup. The Chevy sounded like it had a lawn mower engine under the hood. Or maybe a Weedwacker.
    David looked at me. I shrugged. “It’s your car.”
    â€œTotally,” David said right away. “We’ll see you later this afternoon, man.”
    Jeffrey’s face lit up with pride. No longer merely little guy , or dude , or little bro . He was Man . Like the big kids. Plus Davidsaid it with such ease and casualness, like he really was talking to one of his best friends or something.
    Liam was the only ten-year-old I’d ever seen with a Mohawk. I shouted “hi” to him through the window. I owed Liam a lot. Not that he knew that. Me and Mom had brought Jeffrey to Liam’s birthday party a while back, and watching all those kids . . . it made me realize it’d been six years since I’d had a real party of any kind, or even been to one. That night I started forming what would eventually become the Hole in the Wall Plan of Salvation and Normalcy.
    Not the kind of thing I could or wanted to explain to a ten-year-old.
    David waited until Liam opened the front door and let Jeffrey in before pulling away from the sidewalk.
    â€œYou’re real lucky,” I said as I watched my brother go into Liam’s.
    â€œWhat makes you say that? Not that I disagree.”
    â€œI don’t know. Just that . . . nothing.”
    What I didn’t say was, You’re lucky you can just be cool with my brother like that. I’ve never had it and never will.
    God. I was jealous of David. How did that happen?
    I felt him looking at me, studying. I kept my face aimed at the window. Watching Phoenix go by. We headed toward downtown.
    We both let a few minutes pass in silence before David said, “So what’s going to happen today?”
    â€œAt the police station?”
    â€œYeah.”
    â€œI’m not sure. Looking at photos, I think. Of the guy. And age-enhanced pictures of Tara.”
    David must’ve heard something in my voice that I didn’t mean to let out, because his tone dropped. “You were really good friends.”
    I managed a strained nod, nothing else. And snapped my rubber band.
    â€œI hope they find her,” David said a minute later.
    Nod. Snap.
    I’m not sure myself whether I meant for my silence to be a hint. David took it as one and didn’t say anything else until we pulled up to the police department. Once we did, somehow the truth of how I’d been acting toward him seeped in. Guilt made my stomach burn.
    â€œThanks for driving me, David,” I said as he pulled into a parking space.
    I hated myself for the fact that he looked surprised. “It’s no problem,” he said. “Of course, I’ll be wanting something in return.”
    â€œUm. Okay. Like what?”
    â€œYou like Will Ferrell?”
    â€œThe actor?”
    â€œNo, the dictator-of-Uganda Will Ferrell. Yes, the actor.”
    â€œUm. I guess.”
    â€œDoes he make you laugh?”
    â€œI don’t know.”
    â€œDoes anything ?”
    â€œI forget,” I said. And then: laughed. Not a lot, barely a chuckle, but no mistaking it.
    David actually smiled. “Okay, you realize you just laughed when you said that.”
    â€œYeah. I’m pretty much a fruit basket.”
    â€œFair enough,” David said. “So, that’s what I wanted.”
    My surprise laugh stopped as quickly as it had started. “I don’t get it.”
    â€œJust for you to laugh, or at least relax,” David said. “I mean, I’m sorry if I made you feel bad at all yesterday. I didn’t know about your friend. No one does. I didn’t tell anyone