“What are we talking about?” I ask.
“It does!” Tomas beams.
“Tell me what we’re talking about!” I roar.
Tomas turns to me. “It’s a generator, Pell. It imprisons the sun, puts that energy into this box, and then…” His eyes are bright with excitement. “We can plug things in!”
Pie claps her hands. “You’re a fucking genius, Tomas.”
“I don’t get it.”
Pie turns to me. “We can have electricity! It’s a solar generator.”
“And I got this too!” Tomas holds up another black box, this time much smaller.
“A radio!” Pie says.
“Do you know what 632 AM is?” Tomas asks her.
“Not really.” Pie laughs. “But it’s a radio station. You just point the dial to those numbers.” She takes the radio from Tomas’s hands and starts fiddling with one of the knobs on the front. “There. I think that’s close. You might have to tune it a little once you plug it in.” Then she points at him. “You should get batteries. Then you won’t have to plug it in. Oh!” She looks up at me. “Holy crap! Why didn’t I ever think of batteries?”
“What are we talking about?” I ask, feeling completely lost.
“Oh, I have lots of batteries,” Tomas says. “I bought bags and bags of stuff from the Kitchen Sink in town.”
“The Kitchen Sink?” I ask.
Tomas looks at me like I’m the dumbest creature around. “It’s a survival store in town. Madeline’s uncle runs it. And he has a show on the radio every night called SHTF.”
Pie laughs.
“What’s funny?” I ask her.
“I’ve heard of that show. It’s kind of famous. Well.” She considers this. “Infamous. Big Jim, that’s the host of the show—”
“That’s him!” Tomas exclaims. “Big Uncle Jim!”
“Anyway,” Pie says, “he’s kind of a nutjob.”
“Define nutjob,” I say.
“You know. One of those crazy conspiracy guys. His shows are about Bigfoot, and the Mothman, and other urban legends like that.”
“I don’t get it,” I say.
“Monsters,” Tomas says.
Pie points at him. “Yes. Exactly. Monsters. He believes in all that crap.” Then she snorts. “Well. Joke’s on me, I guess. Because monsters are real. But he totally thinks aliens are real too, and they’re not. So he’s still crazy.”
“Aliens,” Tomas breathes. “I don’t know what that means, but I like the way it sounds.”
“Anyway,” I growl. “We’re going to bed.” I take Pie’s hand and lead her down the hill.
“Good night!” Tomas calls.
Pie says good night back, but I ignore him.
Fucking Tomas.