Down World by Rebecca Phelps (beach read TXT) 📗

fact, for quite a while all we had talked about was DW and getting Robbie back.

When did his parents divorce? Did his mom live nearby? What kind of a friend had I been for him, not even knowing these basic things about his life?

“I didn’t know,” was all I said, talking to Kieren. “I’m sorry.”

I realized that I kept apologizing, and I didn’t even know what for anymore. I was just sorry. I was sorry for everything that was happening.

“I’ll make some sandwiches,” Mr. Protsky said. “Then why doesn’t everyone lie down for a bit? We can talk in the morning. Kieren, unfold the cot.”

“Yes, sir,” Kieren responded, springing into action. He still seemed lighter somehow, as if none of the talk of divorce or anything else was affecting him. Robbie was alive, and I realized that, even if Robbie never forgave him, that was all Kieren needed to know.

Mr. Protsky left the room and Scott came back from the bathroom.

I felt a bit lost. Everyone seemed to have found their station in the room. Scott helped Kieren unfold the cot, where he had clearly crashed many times before. Robbie and Piper sat together on the couch, exchanging more of their secret whispers. But I had no place here.

I wanted to run and hide, but there was nowhere to go.

After a minute, Mr. Protsky came back with sandwiches and everyone began to devour them. Robbie still didn’t talk to Kieren, or even look at him, but seeing the two of them silently stuff their mouths, both leaning over the same little coffee table, brought at least a sense of peace to quiet me.

“Aren’t you hungry?” Kieren asked me.

I shook my head. I couldn’t think of food. I just wanted to watch this scene and pretend it was the whole truth, that we were together again and that everything was back to normal.

But it wasn’t. Outside that door, everything in our town had turned upside down. My real mother was gone, and that hideous mannequin had taken her place.

“Listen, Dad’s right,” Kieren said, nodding to his father. “Everyone should crash here. You’ve already risked too much being out this late. Um, Scott, take the cot. Robbie, we can fold out the couch bed for you and Piper.”

“Not in my house,” stated Mr. Protsky, steely and forceful once again.

“Right,” Kieren said. “Okay, um . . .”

“It’s fine,” Piper said, taking my hand. “Marina and I can share a bed. It’ll be like a slumber party. Where should we go?”

Kieren looked to his dad to make sure it was okay with him, and apparently it was.

“Come on,” Kieren said. “You can have my room.”

“Just a sec,” I said, kneeling down for a moment by Robbie. “You okay?” I asked, keeping my voice low.

His big vacant eyes fell on me, then focused for a moment. He smiled a bit, looking for all the world like our mother. I gave him another hug, and stood to follow Kieren and Piper up the stairs.

I was struck by how everything in the house was just as I remembered it, although blanketed under a layer of dust. The dining room didn’t seem used anymore, and the lumpy living-room couch seemed relegated to a cat’s bed. It was like time had left the house behind.

When we got into Kieren’s room, he quickly started pushing dirty clothes out of the way, and I was reminded of the time I had walked into Brady’s room and he had done the same thing. Boys were funny to me, always conscious of how they were being perceived, assuming they were being judged. I didn’t care if his room was messy.

“I’m going to find the little girls’ room,” Piper said. “Do you have an extra toothbrush?”

“Um . . . ,” Kieren began.

“Never mind. That’s why God gave us fingers, I guess.” She went into the hallway, and we both watched her go.

I turned and examined Kieren’s shelves. I had never actually been in his room before. We always used to play in the rec room when we were kids. On one shelf were two pictures—one of me, him, and Robbie that one of our mothers must have taken at a park somewhere, all hanging from some monkey bars and smiling for miles, and the other of just me. I didn’t recognize myself at first, but then I remembered it. It was the one Robbie had taken of me at the pyramid house.

“You kept this?” I asked.

“I love that picture,” Kieren said, walking closer.

I flinched, embarrassed to know I had been living on his shelf all these years. “I didn’t recognize myself,” I said. I wondered how much of that child was left in me now. What would she think, if she were looking at a picture of me?

In this brief moment of privacy, we both grew shy, but finally Kieren came up behind me and put his arms around my waist. We stood there together a moment, looking at the picture and holding each other.

“Why isn’t it back to normal, Kieren?”

“I don’t know. We’ll figure it out in the morning,” he said. “I’ll take you to the old grounds. There’s someone there who might be able to help.”

“The old grounds?”

“All done!” Piper exclaimed, coming back into the room. “You know you’re almost out of toothpaste,” she said to Kieren, pushing some books off his bed and climbing in like she owned the place.

I laughed, breaking away from Kieren. “I guess it’s my turn.”

“I’ll explain in the morning,” Kieren said, nodding to Piper and excusing himself from the room.

“Is Kieren your boyfriend now?” Piper asked after he had left.

I didn’t know what to say, so I went to brush my teeth. I almost didn’t recognize my image in the mirror, I looked so tired and so changed. For a moment, I actually thought I looked like my mother. The real one, not the lady in the pyramid house.

When I was done, I climbed into Kieren’s bed, trying to smell some trace of him in