Chapter 53

“Pumbaa and Timon. He came with us every Halloween after that, until I aged out,” Tabor said.

“Timon was Griffin? That means Griffin was Shawn. Is Shawn.” I really wished they could hear me. I really wished I could stay right there in the room with them forever.

“I think they were in love from day one.” When my sister dabbed at her eyes, mine got misty. “Ot used to talk about Griffin All The Time.”

“I missed so much of your childhood,” Mom said. “So much of your lives, yours and Otto’s. Your father and I both did.”

I wondered where my father was. Then, I didn’t have to, because I was in the same place.

* * * *

Tingly, covered in goosebumps, the journey there—a few steps in the normal way—wasn’t done in the normal way, or even intentionally. Bloop. Once I saw him, though, I was captured. “Dad…”

He was pacing on the balcony off one the upstairs dens, as he jabbered into the phone. “What’s the box office going to be?”

The answer he got back was evidently not favorable.