"THIS IS HOW IT WORKS. There's not just us, I mean Scorpio Bone. There's other tetrads. Dozens, maybe hundreds. Four and no more. All the world o'er. From then and always, till the end of days."
Tetrads was the word for us. For Knacke's Krew. And I guess for other groups of four, hidden away in plain sight everywhere.
"Led Zeppelin. Totally. No question about it," Relly said. "The Fantastic Four, of course. Black Sabbath and Slayer. And I think there were four Gospels in the Bible. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Right? There's other people out there like us. They need each other. Earth, Wind, Air, and Fire. They need the full tetrad to be complete. You know what I mean?"
"Sort of." We were walking across the Platt Street bridge. It was closed off to cars years ago. Now only people can go across, and look down into the deepest part of the river gorge. This late in the year, there wasn't much water coming down the high Ms. Still, it was a pretty amazing place. Round and deep, with crumbling rock walls, it was bigger than a stadium. And it was right in the middle of the city, a vast secret hole.
"Some people say that when you fall in love, it's like finding a piece of yourself you never knew was missing. Well this is way better." Relly was holding my hand. We looked down into the gorge together. "We're not like regular people. It takes four for us."
"Four and no more," I murmured.
"That's right. We found our four and we're going straight to the top. That's why Knacke is so obsessed with you. He needs a fourth to make his tetrad complete again."
"So what happened to her?"
Relly shrugged.
"It was a her, right? A girl?"
"My mom says it's a guy thing to obsess about fire. You know how little boys are so nuts about candles and matches? A four-year-old kid will do anything so he can play with a campfire, right? Get a burning stick going and wave it around. My mom says you don't learn that. You're born with it."
"I get that. I read that almost all pyros are guys. But what about Knacke's lost fourth? Was that a girl?"
"Yeah."
We were leaning over the guardrail, looking into the abyss. The logical part of my brain said we were safe. They made these fences strong enough and high enough to keep people from going over. But another part of me was screaming like a siren, telling me I would die if I didn't get away from there fast.
Relly dropped a stone and we watched it fall—the whole way down. When it hit the water, the splash was too small to see.
"My mom says it's normal to think about doing it. Not healthy, just normal. Everyone thinks about jumping in some time."
This made me even more afraid. Had he been reading my mind?
"What are you talking about?" I said.
"There's some impulse—that's what she calls it—an impulse to do it—to throw yourself in. 'We all want to return to our element.' That's what she says."
"So what happened to her?"
"My mom?"
"No, whoever it was that used to be Knacke's fourth."
"We all go back to our element. Some sooner. Some later."
We watched the silvery chain of the high falls a long time. The water came and fell and ran away. But it never ran out. It never stopped.
"Maybe that's what Knacke is so afraid of now. Why he's acting so weird. Maybe he thinks he's got to burn up—go back to his element—now that the tetrad is missing a piece."
"Yeah, maybe." I took a dime out of my pocket and tossed it over the fence like I was standing at the biggest wishing well in the world. The dime turned, over and over, as it fell. It flickered like a tiny silver spark all the way to the bottom.