Ghost Time

are receiving tens of thousands of hits per day. Thea, we filed a cease and desist, and we’re threatening them with a lawsuit. We have to put a stop to this, and I said, Stop who ? And the man goes, Facebook, Flickr, Google, YouTube, iTunes—they’re all showing these videos. And what? I said. You want to sue Google? Facebook? Yes, he said, dead serious. I go, For what? And he goes, For exhibiting videos of a minor performing sexual acts, in what is, technically, a case of statutory rape. Rape? I said, and I almost started laughing. I go, I never raped Cam, trust me. Thea, the woman said, we’ve been contacted by every major news agency in the world. CNN called and we feel—. You feel? Look, you have no business being here, I said, really getting angry with these people, and the woman smiled, like she felt sorry for me, and Mom goes, Thea, I retained their services two weeks ago. I had to—aside from the fact that your father left me little choice, we need legal counsel, she said. We? We who? I said, shocked she was just telling me this now, weeks after the fact. I’m sorryI didn’t tell you sooner, but I didn’t want to worry you prematurely. Anything else you aren’t telling me? I asked, glaring at her.
    Immediately, the man said, Because there’s more. More what? I asked. We can’t understand how, but the resolution is getting sharper with every hit, every viewer. They can’t seem to remove the tapes—or so they’re saying, the woman said. They’re claiming it’s a virus unlike anything they’ve ever seen before. No kidding, I said, standing, ready to walk out. Please, I want you to leave now—or better yet, I will, I said, heading for the front door.
    Thea, Mom said, look outside, and I could see not to push her any farther, so I walked over the window, and I twisted the blinds. I looked out the window, and there was a white van, a news van with a satellite dish on the hood—right in our parking lot. What happened? I asked, thinking there was an accident or a fire or something. Mom didn’t know what to say, but the man spoke up. He said, That’s what we’re trying to tell you, Thea: you happened: you’re big news.

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2011
    (EIGHT WEEKS EARLIER)
    4:14 PM
    When I was little, like three or four, Gram, my mom’s mom, sent me this card for Easter with this bunny on it, and I thought it was the most beautiful bunny I’d ever seen. It was so real, too, like you could see its shiny hair and its little cotton tail and every blade of grass was so perfect, I became obsessed with trying to draw a bunny like that one. But I was so young, I couldn’t even read yet, so my dad helped me look up the artist, online, and it was Albrecht Dürer, right, from like the 1500s, and when I saw all the things he’d drawn, I wanted to draw like that as well. I tried so hard, too. I worked and worked my little fingers to the bone, but I just couldn’t come close to copying Dürer’s hare with crayons.
    A couple years later, when I was playing in Gram’s attic, I was snooping around, and I found this old box. This was before my grandpa died, when he was in the hospital, and I found thiscollection of old Playboy s, all the way back to the 1950s, even. I knew it was wrong, but I snuck a few of them, and then I spent like the whole day, looking at the centerfolds, trying to draw Playboy bunnies. I mean, I know that sounds weird, but I saw this show on TV that talked about figure drawing and how all the great artists learned to draw by drawing women naked, and I wanted to be a great artist, but I didn’t know any women I could draw naked, you know? I must have been like five or six, because I could read by then, and I just thought it was so funny that the women were called bunnies, and for years I’d been drawing bunnies, so for some reason, I started drawing these totally curvy sixties Playboy bodies with pretty little Dürer bunny heads. And ever since then, I don’t know, I’ve always drawn people with animal heads—eagles, tigers, badgers, you name it. I mean, I’ve always loved animals, but my dad’s allergic to fur, so I could never have anything but fish, and that’s not the same, but anyhow.
    So after school one day, we were walking into 7-Eleven, and I was telling Cam how I was trying to talk my mom into letting me get a cat for my birthday. I know a dog is out of the question, especially in our apartment, but it’s big enough for a cat, and I said I’d even keep the litter box