Have you figured it out yet?
The pop-up box made a soft ping that felt like a shiver.
Ellie hadn’t even seen Dyl’s Incurser approach her hut’s window. Now she could see him, outside and swaying with that rocking motion all the human avatars used. Cmd-shift-O opened the door, and Dyl’s character strode inside, his sword swinging wide. In the game he was taller than Addi the Healer. Ellie wondered if that would be true in real life, if she’d be able to stand under his arm. She bit the inside flap of her cheek. Have I figured out what? Awesome. Was Dylan going to start being like everyone else now? Would he ask her constantly (like her school counselor did) what she wanted to “do with her life”? Would he try to guess (like her mother did) what careers might suit her brain/hands/eyes/temperament? Ellie couldn’t figure out whether she preferred spearmint or wintergreen toothpaste. How was she supposed to figure out what kind of cubicle she wanted to fill in, like, five years?
Have you found out what’s wrong with your mom?
Oh.
Of course that’s what he would ask. Dylan was, like, the nicest guy she’d ever met in her whole life.
Not yet, she typed.
How are you doing? Are you still worried about her?
Seriously, what other guy would ask that? Guys didn’t pay attention to parents, even their own. Ellie would bet that not one of her guy friends knew her mother’s name, even though she’d picked them up from water polo about a hundred times, even though she’d bought them all pizza so often she knew their favorite kinds.
Dyl was an Incurser. And therefore he shouldn’t be trusted.
But there were a few good ones out there. She’d read about them on the Queendom FanForums, stories of Incursers who’d inexplicably come to the unexpected rescue of fair maiden or dire dragon. At the last moment, when they should have been stabbing a beast to its gory death, they reversed and healed it, running away before their compatriots could turn their swords on the traitor.
Ellie was sworn to protect Ulra, the dying Dragon Queen, while Dyl was pledged to eradicate the entire species. Yet here he was, in her hut, asking about her real-life mother.
Ellie took a deep breath before placing her fingers back on the keyboard to answer. She’d had crushes before but they’d never felt so upsetting inside, as if her stomach and heart were in a slap flight. She’s just being so weird. And I saw her talking to my aunt today, and they were both super-upset. I’m totally not imagining it. A part of her worried again about the way her mom and aunt had held hands—like one of them was trying to pull the other out of deep water—but another part of her was annoyed. She was still the kid. She hadn’t called out, “Mom! Watch!” while she’d been on the rocks, but she’d assumed that’s what they’d been doing. That was, like, their job.
What do you think it is? Dyl’s head bobbed in that “I’m paying attention” way the avatars did. Ellie wondered what position Dylan was actually in. Lying down? Sitting at a table?
Dunno, typed Ellie. I have no idea. Her Healer sat on the bench under the crystalline window and then stood up again. The music was sad, a thin violin paired with something deeper, maybe a single cello.
Maybe she’s pregnant.
HA! Stop it. She couldn’t be. You’re hilarious. But her throat tightened like someone was twisting it closed. Harrison.
How old is she?
Forty-three. Forty-four? Old. Too old.
You sure about that? My step-aunt had twins at forty-six. It wasn’t pretty.
The slap fight in her stomach turned into a boxing match. She did sleep with someone. Oh, my god.
When?
New Year’s Eve. That was when she’d heard her mother and aunt talking about it. Like, three months ago. When did someone find out they were knocked up? No, no, no. Wasn’t she in menopause or something?
You’re going to have a little brother! Or a sister!
NO.
Just kidding. It’s probably not that. Dyl shuffled, raising his sword as if he were going to slice the long wooden table in half and then lowering it again. It’s probably just money troubles or something. Parents get all weird about that.
They’d been okay with money, though. That’s what her mother had been saying. They couldn’t afford a new car right off the lot or anything—even though Ellie wanted one of those new electric Smart cars so bad, mostly because it was so cute she wanted to put it in her jacket pocket and keep it there—but Ellie could tell money wasn’t as hard as it used to be before Mom got syndicated, and it had gotten even easier since she got the book deal. Ellie remembered when she’d had to bring home her ziplock bags for her mother to wash and reuse. Something rumpled had smoothed behind her mother’s eyes the day she told Ellie she could throw them out at school, and she stopped being furious if Dad’s child support payments were late.
What if it was a baby? God, then her mother would never pay attention to her again. Ellie sniffed and slid farther under her sheets.
What are you doing on Saturday?
Ellie’s Healer jumped up from sitting, though Ellie didn’t have a plan for what she would do next. She made her juggle the rainbow crystals she’d bought from a Ginkgo trader last week.
Nothing. Why? Her Healer dropped a red crystal and it melted through the hut’s floor with an acidic whoosh.
I’m in a band. Wanna come hear us?
Ellie couldn’t help the sigh that escaped her. Of course Dylan was in a band. What do you play? Oh, dumb! That was so dumb! But what else were you supposed to say to someone in a band?
Guitar.
She gulped. Desperately, Ellie wondered what Aunt Mariana would do if some cool guy asked her to come see him in a band. Breezy. She’d be breezy and casual and not let him think she was that into it. Or was that what she wasn’t supposed to do? Ellie couldn’t remember. She wiggled her fingers in the air in front of her face, using the same motion that her Healer did when fixing wounds.
Then she typed, Sure. Sounds fun.
Cool. The response was instant and gratifying. It’s at a cop bar in Oakland.
What’s a cop bar?
Dyl tossed his sword between his hands. It’s a bar. Where cops hang out.
She typed slowly, hating the letters as they formed in the small purple box. I’m underage. He knew that.
Me, too. Believe me, no one there will care. I’m going to have to protect you from the old letches. Dyl dropped the sword to the floor of the hut with a clatter. Whoops.
Ellie wriggled her legs and pulled on both lobes of her ears with delight. Addi the Healer swayed serenely in place on the dirt floor of the hut.