Chapter 19

“Yeah—like, my great, great, great, great—too many greats—my way-back grandfather’s hat. You like it?”

“Yeah, it’s pretty awesome,” said Ryan. Then, reaching up, Erik removed Ryan’s fedora and swapped his plastic Viking helmet onto Ryan’s head, then plopped the green fedora on his own blonde head.

“Ha! You look like an elf now,” said Ryan.

“And you’re a real Viking, now,” said Erik, pronouncing the V like a W so that it sounded like why-king.

“So—you like America?” asked Ryan, grasping at anything to talk about. He realized he did not even know how long Erik had been in this country or anything about him other than the fact that he swam and that he was majoring in English.

“I love it here,” said Erik. “And I love Americans. It’s just always a lot of fun.”

“You think?” asked Ryan. “What’s so fun about it?”