Page 57 of Come Find Me
“I know who he is, Kennedy.”
“What? Who?” My arm drops to my side.
“Nolan. Nolan Chandler. I know who he is, what happened to his family.”
“This has nothing to do with—”
“This haseverythingto do with this. Listen to yourself. Two people receiving a signal. Two people who—”
He stops talking, turning to face the window.
Quietly, I ask, “Two people whowhat,Joe?”
He fixes his eyes on me then, his jaw moving softly side to side. “Two people who have suffered a terrible loss, Kennedy. Two people who have endured something horrible, much younger than is fair. Two people who both want something desperately.”
My hand tightens on the flash drive, gripped in my closed fist. “What is it, exactly, that you think I want?”
He opens his mouth, then closes it again. “Well, for starters, you don’t want me to sell that house.”
I shake my head. “You think I’m lying? To keep you from selling thehouse?”
He runs his hand through his hair and winces. “I don’t know. I’m just saying. You don’t want to sell the house, and now there’s apparently a…” He searches for the word. “A signal? From space?” He says it like it’s impossible. Incredulous. And coming from him, it suddenly sounds that way. Like everything we’ve been doing is for nothing.
“What happened to trust, Joe?” Was it just a word, an empty promise, to keep me in line?
“It has to beearned.Look, Kennedy, I believe thatyoubelieve this, I do. But—”
“Elliot could tell us what this all means. That’s why I went to see him.”
“Kennedy!” he yells. I’ve pushed him to yelling.
“Please, Joe. Please, I know you can bring this to the college. I know there are people who can read it, who can figure out if there’s something there.”
“Kennedy, you don’t know what it’s like there, at the school right now….”
I frown, confused. “What’s it like?”
“They’re reeling from…” From the loss of my mother, and Will, both professors there. From the fallout of my brother. From a student who turned a weapon against his teacher, and his mother. And where must that leave Joe? I’ve never even thought about it. What this must be like for him now.
I nod, feeling like everything is slipping from my grasp.
Fingers shaking, I leave the flash drive on the laminate tabletop, an offering. I go to my room, to bed, but I don’t sleep. I think of Nolan, and everything he’s feeling, and how cut off from the world he must be, over there right now, alone.
“I know,” I whisper to the dark night.
—
The next morning, Joe has uncharacteristically beaten me to breakfast. He has the flash drive in his hand, twirling it between his fingers. “I will take it to a guy I know, Kennedy.”
I suck in a gasp, reaching for his arm. “Thank you, Joe. Thank you.”
He stares at my fingers on his sleeve, and he nods. His throat moves as he swallows, but he slides the flash drive into his pocket. “I will do this one thing for you. And then, after, you will do something for me.”
I step back, already leery. “What?”
“You will let the house go.”
I open my mouth, but he puts up one hand.
