“You’re joking, right?”
“Not really,” he said.
“I think we should return it,” she said. “Tomorrow.”
“Can I just see what I find out?” he said. “Before we decide?”
“Eden?” Her mother was at the upstairs door, holding the storm door open. “Everything okay?”
“Yeah!” Brightening her tone. “Mom, this is Eli. Eli, my mom.”
“Nice to meet you, Eli,” her mother said, and Eli said the same. Then Eden said, “I’ll be right in.”
The sky had turned a sort of gray pink behind the apartment building across the street. The silhouette of two birds on a satellite dish on a rooftop looked almost romantic, like they were having a moment.
“This is a nice block,” Eli said. “I walk my dog here sometimes. I didn’t know you lived here.”
“I wouldn’t call it nice, but it’s definitely popular with dog owners, because it’s quiet, I guess. But there’s always poop. It’s gross. Hey, do you think that’s what this thing is, maybe?” Eden asked. “Like a kind of computer pet?”
“It’s not very cute or cuddly,” he said. “I don’t know.” He swept his bangs away from his eyes. “I’m pretty into tech stuff and games and whatever, and it’s like nothing I’ve seen or heard of.”
Eden said, “Remember not to get it wet.” She nodded in the direction of the house. “I should go.”
He nodded, too. “I’ll see you tomorrow. I’ll draw up a schedule, maybe. With the other two. What’s that girl’s name?”
“Ilanka Sokolova.”
“You have her number?” Eli asked.
“Nope.”
“What about Marwan Gamal?”
“Nope,” she said. “We should just return it.”
“We can decide tomorrow. But I guess I need to hand it off to you right when we get there. I’ll meet you at your locker.”
“Okay, sure,” Eden said, because she had no better ideas, and he shrugged and walked off. She went inside, closed and locked the upper door, and leaned against it, breathing in deeply.
Back in her room, she checked her phone.
Caught up on stories and posts.
People were stuck in an elevator in a building on Twenty-First Street.
She searched for Marwan. Found him. His most recent post was a picture of a flyer posted on a streetlamp that had a photo of dog poop and said: FOUND! If this belongs to you or your dog, please contact us ASAP.
His caption said: The person who made this flyer deserves a medal.
Another post was a screenshot of a true crime podcast home page with the caption: Can’t. Stop. Listening.
She clicked away and went downstairs, then plugged her phone in at the charger in the dining room, where it was supposed to stay for the night because those were the house rules. Eden’s mother had made her take some online survey a while back, and the results supposedly proved that Eden was addicted to her phone, so now there were, technically, no phones allowed at the dinner table or in the bathroom (oops) or upstairs or while walking to school or after nine p.m. Her mother didn’t know that Eden snuck down every night and then up again so she could sleep with her phone under her pillow. And by the way, if her mother was honest with herself, she was addicted, too. She had refused to take the same survey on the basis of being an adult and not having to.
A text alert on her mom’s home screen was from someone identified as NH and said, How about just lunch then? You owe me that.
“You have a weird text,” Eden said, and her mother rushed over and read it and then put her phone facedown. “It’s nothing. And why are you reading my phone?”
“It was an accident. Jeez. Who do you owe lunch?”
“It’s a work thing.”
Returning to the kitchen, Eden’s mom put two bowls of pasta and Bolognese sauce at their usual spots at the table. “So,” she said brightly. “Who’s Eli?”
Eden almost laughed.
Establishing_connection
MARWAN
At breakfast, Selma and Tosnim were arguing over large hair bows and whether they were or weren’t “in.” They were only ten and twelve but wanted to be teenagers and tried to act cool even though their idea of “cool” had no basis in reality and mostly involved talking about fashion. More than anything, Marwan wanted his sisters to not grow up. He wanted them to stay in their all-girls middle school forever and never have to deal with guys like Christos.
“I have some homework to finish,” Marwan said to his mother as he cleared his breakfast plate. “I think I’ll head to school early and do it in the library.”
His mother said, “Go,” and returned to the table to coax his sisters into eating more, like she did every morning. “Enough about the bows,” she said, and smiled at Marwan.
They’d talked only briefly last night, since getting his sisters to bed took up most of his mother’s night and he’d been doing homework, then listening to the beauty queen podcast and thinking about messaging Eden for so long that it was eventually too late to do it. His mom was relieved about the California gunman, too. And she’d mentioned that supposedly a few of his friends had stopped by the restaurant. “None of my friends would do that,” he’d said, and she’d shrugged.
By his bike out front, he found Eden on Instagram—turned out he already followed her but didn’t remember doing it—and sent her a direct message: Morning! It’s Marwan. How’s it going? Did you put it back?
The “Active now” under her name went away and was replaced with “Active 1m ago.”
She was probably mad at him.
Or maybe it was this simple: she hadn’t wanted anything to do with him before all this and nothing had changed.
The “Active now” was back. He stared at it, trying to glean meaning. He imagined her being surprised to see a message from him but not in a bad way, then remembered a question on a survey he’d taken about phone usage a while back. Do you frequently sit with your phone in your hand waiting for something to happen?
So what if he did? Why wasn’t she writing back?
He wasn’t really into social media, but it was fun sometimes to post photos of funny things he saw in the neighborhood. Like a sign that read, Restrooms for Costumers Only, or a fish company truck with the tagline As Fresh As It Is on the back of it. (His caption: Like, Is It Fresh? Or Not?)
Her message appeared: I didn’t. It says it has to change hands at a maximum of every fourteen hours so Eli has it now because we couldn’t exactly hand it off at 5 am or whatever. I’m taking it back this morning then we’ll figure out what to do.
Ugh. Why were they playing along with this thing? It was just a little … computer? And the whole thing surely a game.
We should put it back where we found it. Don’t you think?
We?
He deserved that. But it was a dumb thing to even be involved with.
You? he wrote.
I guess. Not sure. Eli won’t want to. Seems into it. But it’s weirding me out.
So they were pals now, she and Eli? Had Eli gone to her house?