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incredulous, as if he’d just presented some rare species of dinosaur. I also loved anyone who could quote Orwell in the proper context.
    He nodded but not without a touch of sadness.
    “Makes my parents seem progressive,” I chuckled.
    “Makes me feel like I’m taking blood money and it depresses me something fierce.”
    “Couldn’t you get a job?” I asked.
    He shrugged and sighed as though such a thing was out of the question, as though I was being unreasonable.
    “You look like a strong, healthy guy.”
    “Can’t give up my dream.”
    “Lots of people have dreams and zero money, and so they have to work at jobs in the meantime. You know,
jobs
.”
    “I know. But it’s like there’s a money tree in the front yard. It makes any sort of struggling seem pointless and unbearable.”
    “If taking the easy way out makes you sick, then what’s the point?”
    I could barely believe I was being so argumentative – maybe it was because he just ruined my car and probably lost me my crummy job.
    “I just want to be respected, you know. I want to really move people, like a visionary. Can you dig that?”
    “Isn’t a visionary more concerned with something
other
than being considered a visionary?” I asked.
    “Not necessarily.”
    “Oh, okay.”
    “All I’ve ever wanted to do is move people,” he repeated.
    “Do you move
you
?”
    “What’s your name?”
    “I’m Tracy – guess we missed that in the intro.”
    “No, Tracy – I don’t move me at all. Some days I can barely look myself in the eyeballs.”
    I absolutely loved the way he said my name.
Tracy
. It made invisible hairs quiver, “Well then, how do you expect to move me or anyone else, James?”
    “You’re quite blunt, Tracy.”
    There it was again.
    “Maybe it’s time to uproot the money tree.”
    “Yeah,” he said. “Maybe it is.”

chapter 8

    W E WERE EVENTUALLY released back into our separate streams.
    But we wanted to stay together – so Sheila picked us up outside the emergency entrance. We were only waiting at the curb fifteen minutes, but standing together while ambulances passed made him feel like my boyfriend. There was an easy energy between us, and I didn’t once feel like I had to ‘people please’ him. Perhaps I was just running out of energy, but I’d never felt more real.
    James and I had neck x-rays taken, but the doctor could immediately tell that we’d both suffered military neck – which I assumed meant bad whiplash. I’d already started nagging that I’d never be able to handle the medical bills. I don’t know what it was about him, but I was having no problem being fearlessly authentic.
    We carefully contorted ourselves into the backseat of Sheila’s Paseo, and everyone agreed on Thai Town for noodles. I checked my messages: my sister wanted an answer regarding the anniversary, and work informed me that I’d been officially replaced.
    All I could do was look on the bright side – maybe now I’d have the time to feed my long starving characters. The panic would probably come later, when I was no longer in the dizzying state of my newfound orbit.
    After a quick drive, James and I bent our way out of the backseat to find Sheila standing before us in a miniskirt and heels. Hermake-up looked like it had been professionally applied, and in one sexy move, she pulled her long hair out of its scrunchy. I wanted to charge her like an enraged bull, and ram her into the next car until she was nothing but a heap of crushed bone and flesh.
    Instead I said, “You look nice.”
    Earlier in the waiting room I had text messaged her that I had just met a gorgeous heterosexual man and that he’d be accompanying us for lunch – apparently, a big mistake on my part.
    She led us into the restaurant, and I watched James stare at her toned calf muscles, made all the more pleasing by the four-inch pumps she was struggling in. In the five years I had hung out with her, she had never once worn any footwear other than fancy