Ghost Time

honest, I was relieved not to have to go home, and he says, Guess he stuffed a box of raisins up his nose, and I was like, An entire box of raisins? And Knox just sighed again.
    I was cool, but it was awkward for some reason, like I got this feeling there was something he wasn’t telling me, and then he says, Do you mind? I said, No, no, that’s fine. So you have a kid? He nodded yes. A daughter. How old is she? I said, and he goes, Oh, about your age. After my last comment, I should’ve just kept my mouth shut, I know, but I didn’t. I said, She’s my age and you still have a babysitter? Knox didn’t say anything: awkward. What’s your daughter’s name? I said, changing the subject, and Knox looked surprised, and it took him a few seconds before he answered the question: Melody, he said. Her name is Melody.

SUNDAY, MARCH 20, 2011
    (FIFTEEN DAYS EARLIER)
    9:47 PM
    Karen invited me over for sushi, and of course I should’ve known that she’d make it herself, but I was so blown away, because I don’t know anyone who makes their own sushi, you know? I was like, Karen, you are the coolest mom in the whole world, and she started laughing. More? she asked, seeing me finish everything on my plate, including the pickled ginger, and I said, No, thank you, I’m full. It was delicious, sitting back, realizing I’d made a total pig of myself, but it was so worth it.
    Karen reached for her sake glass and she sat back in her chair, smiling, then she goes, That reminds me, and then she left the room and came back with a picture. Something I wanted to show you, she said, handing me a picture, sitting down again. It was a picture of Cam as a little boy. He was so young, with all this long white-blond hair; I don’t think he’d ever had it cut. His face was skinny, too, like a kid who’s just lost all his baby fat, and he waswearing this red and blue striped shirt, sitting on a cement floor, with all this junk around him, and something on his hands.
    What’s on his hands? I asked, leaning in, trying to get a better look. Gloves, she said. He’s wearing gloves, and just then, Cam walked in, coming back from the bathroom, and he rolled his eyes. I could tell he knew the picture, because the way he nodded his head, like, let’s get this over with already. Karen reached for the sake bottle and poured herself another glass, then she goes, One year, just before he turned four, we bought Cam a bicycle for Christmas. Cam was so excited , he literally peed his pants, and Cam goes, Is this necessary? Karen waved him off: He loved it—he was over the moon, so happy with his new bike, she said, talking to me. And because he’d woken us up at five o’clock in the morning to open Christmas presents, by ten, we all took a nap. At least I thought we were all taking naps, but, turns out, when we woke up, we found him, sitting in the middle of the living room, with his new bicycle in pieces all over the floor.
    I looked at Cam, and he knew I was looking at him, scratching his chopsticks across the pat of wasabi on his plate. It’s so funny when I see him like that, like I forget sometimes that there’s another side of him, the person he is with his mom, in private. A boy, a son. What happened? I asked, and Karen took another sip, and she goes, Well. I looked at his dad, and then his dad said, Cam, you did a great job taking that bike apart. Now you have to put it back together, and I didn’t think either of us took him seriously. But then the damndest thing happened: he did. Took him two days, but that’s exactly what he did: Cam put the bike back together. Soon after that, he discovered the vacuumcleaner, and the television, the DVD player, and my computer—. All right, Cam said, and we both smiled. Well, Karen said, pushing her chair out. Listen, you two, it’s getting late. Cam, you take Thea home, and I’ll clean up, she said, standing.
    We got in the car, and he pulled out, and then, when we reached the end of the block, he goes, Thee, I want to show you something, and he turned left instead of right, heading back into town. We passed the high school, and at first, I had this crazy thought that he might want to break in—Cam has a devious side, trust me. But a minute later, we pulled in behind the town baseball field, about eight blocks from school, on the other side of town. It wasn’t lit, because they never light the field during winter, and Cam pulled around back, behind these big metal trash bins, which is