Chapter 31

Maybe that’s what I notice. More than someone who doesn’t celebrate, he’s slouched into his seat like someone who wishes he wascelebrating. Which is certainly none of my business.

So I plop my little butt into the chair across from him. He removes an impressive cascade of blond-ish bangs from in front of his face, the better to ascertain who goes there, and I smile. Whereupon his elfin face crumples and he dissolves in tears.

“Oh my gosh. Are you okay?”

He keens dramatically when I ask this, and I flinch. Stupid question, got it.

“I mean, what’s wrong? Do you want to talk about it?”

He looks at me—well, you know, towards me—as the tears just gush from his eyes. He snuffles up a tremendous glob of snot, chokes on it a little, wails out a “No,” then proceeds to tell me the whole sordid story.

Probably. What I mostly hear is Waah and Ooooh and Meh meh meh as he blubbers out about thirty seconds of gibberish before he throws his head back and just howls “Whyyyy?!”