Chapter 40

“With you,” he began, his voice throaty—but then he cleared his throat and began again. “With you, it was—different.”

“Oh?” I couldn’t help but saying.

“Yeah. When I first saw you, it was like there was—something, a light or something—about you. Something different. Something—more alive, maybe, or rather, something that—I don’t know, seemed to—” He broke off again, and shook his head. “No, I can’t find words for it.”

“Okay,” I said. Having said there was “something,” I felt, was kind of enough.

“Anyway, after that, I kind of watched you.”

“Oh.”

“And I—” He paused and laughed. “I kind of thought that you didn’t like me, you didn’t approve of me, whatever.”

I pressed my lips together, resolved to say nothing.

“And that was—well, I wasn’t used to that.” He laughed again, uneasily. “Most people tend to like me, somehow. Either that or they’re actually hostile. I getthat sometimes. But with you, it was different; neither one nor the other, actually.”