Benny blinked and heard as an after-echo the sound of Tom snapping his fingers.
“Huh?”
“Jeez … what planet were you orbiting?”
“Oh … just kind of drifted there.”
“Nix or the jet?”
“Little of both.”
“Must have been more about the jet,” Tom said. “There was less drool.”
“You are very nearly funny,” said Benny. He looked down at his plate and was mildly surprised that it was empty.
“Yes,” said Tom, “you were eating on autopilot. It was fascinating to watch.”
There was a knock on the door. Benny shot to his feet and crossed the kitchen to the back door. He was smiling as he undid the locks.
“That’s got to be Nix,” he said as he pulled it open. “Hey, sweetie …”
Morgie Mitchell and Lou Chong stood on the back porch. “Um,” said Chong, “hello to you, too, sugar lumps.”
2
BENNY STARTED TO SAY SOMETHING THAT WOULD BE WILDLY CRUDE AND physically improbable, but then a smaller shape pushed her way between the bulky Morgie and the wiry Chong. Even though he saw her every day, seeing her again always made his heart bang around like a crazy monkey.
“Nix,” he said, smiling.
“‘Sweetie’?” she asked. Not smiling.
It wasn’t the sort of thing he ever said to her. Not out loud, and he could kick himself for letting it slip. He fished for a clever comment to save the moment, aware that Tom was watching all this from the table, and Morgie and Chong were grinning like ghouls.
“Well,” he said, “I—uhh …”
“You’re so smooth,” Nix said, and pushed past him into the kitchen.
Chong and Morgie mimed kissy faces at him.
“Expect to be murdered,” Benny threatened. “Painfully and soon.”
“Yes, snookums,” said Morgie as he followed Chong into the kitchen.
Benny took a few seconds to gather the fractured pieces of his wits. Then he turned and closed the door, doing it very carefully even though slamming it would have felt much better.
After her mother died, Nix had first moved in with Benny and Tom, but then Fran Kirsch, wife of the mayor and their next-door neighbor, suggested that a young girl might prefer to live in a house with other females. Benny tried to argue that Nix had her own room—his room—and that he didn’t mind sleeping on the living room couch, but Mrs. Kirsch didn’t buckle. Nix moved into the Kirschs’ spare
bedroom.
Nix and the boys crowded onto chairs at the table and were doing a pretty good imitation of vultures with the leftovers. Tom settled back into his chair, and Benny reclaimed his.
“We training this evening?” Morgie asked.
Tom nodded. “Road trip’s coming up, remember? Benny and Nix have to be ready, and you two guys need to stay sharp, Morgie. Who knows what you will have to face in the future?”
“You’ve been working them pretty hard,” said Chong.
“Have to. Everything we do from now on will be about getting ready for the trip. It’s—”