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the store,” I say. “So I was just wondering if you could tell me where the stuff you brought in came from.” I can feel my face getting hot, and I know I’m starting to sound desperate. “Please?”
    Blue Cheese shrugs. His shoulders are tense, he takes a quick gulp of the beer in his left hand. “I was just looking through the basement for stuff to sell, and I found a bunch of old crap. And then I saw that Crap Day sign in the window of that store and I thought, well, what do you know?” He drains the left beer and drops the cup onto the floor. He lifts his second cup to his mouth and takes a gulp. “Why, are you looking for some crap? You didn’t have to come all the way here for that, the entire world is full of it!” He lets out a phlegmy laugh, opening his mouth so wide I can see each of his tiny teeth.
    “There was one specific thing you brought in, a psychology book and it had something inside of it, a little piece of cardboard that someone was using as a bookmark…”
    From somewhere downstairs the music speeds up.
    “And?” Blue Cheese yawns. A girl starts walking down the stairs next to him in a skintight rose-colored dress. He watches her ass.
    “And there were these drawings all over it, and my sister did those drawings.”
    “So?”
    “Well, she’s missing,” I say. This is easily the thirtieth time I’ve told this story tonight, but it never gets any less weird to hear myself tell.
    “And what does that mean?” Blue Cheese’s expression changes slightly, the way people’s expressions always do when I start to tell them. His Adam’s apple bobs as he swallows.
    “It means I don’t know where she is and my mom doesn’t know where she is.” It still feels fresh. It always does. “Two years ago my sister Nina went out and that night she was supposed to come home.” He’s looking at me like he doesn’t know if I’m lying or not. I wish so much, so much , that I was. “And she didn’t. And then she never came home after that, either.”
    Blue Cheese is nodding. “Intense,” he says. His expression has changed again but I can’t understand what the new one is supposed to mean.
    “That’s why I came here,” I say, “to find you and ask you about this and see if maybe you knew her. I bet she was here at some point. Her name’s Nina Wrigley…”
    “Listen,” Blue Cheese holds out his hand, cutting me off. “ Everyone has been here at some point, okay? That was likethe whole point of this place. So unless she was the girl I was with last night, I’m not going to remember her,” he grins, “and even then it’s questionable.”
    “But I have her picture,” I say. My voice comes out in a slight whine. I take her picture out of my pocket and show it to him. He leers at her disgustingly, licks his lips and then shakes his head.
    “Nope,” he says. “Never seen that one.”
    “Well what about the place where you found the book that her drawing was in? Maybe there’s something else there, another clue or something?”
    He breathes in and then nods, like he’s just decided something. “Follow me then, I guess.” He looks me up and down and then shows me his gums again. “I think I have just what you need.” And with that my stomach starts fizzling and he grabs my hand. “Come on.”
    We walk down one flight of stairs; he’s crushing my hand. His skin is clammy. I wiggle my fingers. He holds on tighter. My brain is overf lowing with questions and they bubble out my mouth, “Where are we going? How much more stuff is there? How long has it been there?” But he ignores all of them. He’s speeding along now, and I have to jog a little to keep up. We make our way through the living room where a girl is sitting on a swing that’s attached to the ceiling, swinging back and forth, kicking the wall with a giant pair of platform shoes each time she gets close, through the kitchen where ten people are gathered around the tabledrinking from a giant fish tank with super long