Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close

monster.”
    Grandma stayed at our apartment the week after Dad died, while Mom was going around Manhattan putting up posters. We had thousands of thumb wars, and I won every single one, even the ones I was trying to lose. We watched approved documentaries, and cooked vegan cupcakes, and went for lots of walks in the park. One day I wandered away from her and hid. I liked the way it felt to have someone look for me, to hear my name again and again. “Oskar! Oskar!” Maybe I didn't even like it, but I needed it right then.
    I followed her around from a safe distance as she started to get incredibly panicky. “Oskar!” She was crying and touching everything, but I wouldn't let her know where I was, because I was sure that the cracking up at the end would make it all OK. I watched her as she walked home, where I knew she would sit on the stoop of our building and wait for Mom to come back. She would have to tell her I had disappeared, and that because she wasn't watching me closely enough, I was gone forever and there would be no more Schells. I ran ahead, down Eighty-second Street and up Eighty-third, and when she came up to the building, I jumped out from behind the door. “But I didn't order a pizza!” I said, cracking up so hard I thought my neck would burst open.
    She started to say something, and then she stopped. Stan took her arm and said, “Why don't you sit down, Grandma.” She told him, “Don't touch me,” in a voice that I'd never heard from her. Then she turned around and went across the street to her apartment. That night, I looked through my binoculars at her window and there was a note that said, “Don't go away.”
    Ever since that day, whenever we go on walks she makes us play a game like Marco Polo, where she calls my name and I have to call back to let her know that I'm OK.
    “Oskar.”
    “I'm OK.”
    “Oskar.”
    “I'm OK.”
    I'm never exactly sure when we're playing the game and when she's just saying my name, so I always let her know that I'm OK.
    A few months after Dad died, Mom and I went to the storage facility in New Jersey where Dad kept the stuff that he didn't use anymore but might use again one day, like when he retired, I guess. We rented a car, and it took us more than two hours to get there, even though it wasn't far away, because Mom kept stopping to go to the bathroom and wash her face. The facility wasn't organized very well, and it was extremely dark, so it took us a long time to find Dad's little room. We got in a fight about his razor, because she said it should go in the “throw it away” pile and I told her it should go in the “save it” pile. She said, “Save it for what?” I said, “It doesn't matter for what.” She said, “I don't know why he saved a three-dollar razor in the first place.” I said, “It doesn't matter why.” She said, “We can't save everything.” I said, “So it will be OK if I throw away all of your things and forget about you after you die?” As it was coming out of my mouth, I wished it was going into my mouth. She said she was sorry, which I thought was weird.
    One of the things we found were the old two-way radios from when I was a baby. Mom and Dad put one in the crib so they could hear me crying, and sometimes, instead of coming to the crib, Dad would just talk into it, which would help me get to sleep. I asked Mom why he kept those. She said, “Probably for when you have kids.” “What the?” “That's what Dad was like.” I started to realize that a lot of the stuff he'd saved—boxes and boxes of Legos, the set of How It Works books, even the empty photo albums—was probably for when I had kids. I don't know why, but for some reason that made me angry.
    Anyway, I put new batteries in the two-way radios, and I thought it would be a fun way for me and Grandma to talk. I gave her the baby one, so she wouldn't have to figure out any buttons, and it worked great. When I'd wake up I'd tell her good morning. And before I'd go to bed we'd usually talk. She was always waiting for me on the other end. I don't know how she knew when I'd be there. Maybe she just waited around all day.
    “Grandma? Do you read me?” “Oskar?” “I'm OK. Over.” "How
    did you sleep, darling? Over.“ ”What? I couldn't hear that. Over.“ ”I asked how did you sleep. Over.“ ”Fine,“ I'll say, looking at her across the street, my chin in my palm, ”no bad dreams. Over.“ ”One hundred dollars. Over.“ We never have all that