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“Well then, that’s just what I’ain But first I need so”

Astrid Ellison was in the overgrown backyard with Little Pete when Sa Oras Astrid pushed him He seemed to like it

It was dull,with almost never a word of conversation or a sound of joy from her little brother Pete was five years old, just barely, and severely autistic He could talk, but , evenof the FAYZ Maybe it was her fault: she wasn’t keeping up with the therapy, wasn’t keeping up with all the futile, pointless exercises that were supposed to help autistics deal with reality

Of course Little Pete made his own reality In some very important ways he had made everyone’s reality

The yard was not Astrid’s yard, the house not her house Drake Merwin had burned her house down But one thing there was no shortage of in Perdido Beach was housing Most hoh many kids stayed in their own homes, some found their old bedrooms, their old family rooms, too full of memories Astrid had lost track of howabout theirthe lawn, their older brother or sister hogging the remote

Kids got lonely a lot Loneliness, fear, and sadness haunted the FAYZ So, often kids ether, into what amounted almost to frat or sorority houses

This house was shared by Astrid; Mary Terrafino; Mary’s little brother, John; and more and more often, Sam Officially Sam lived in an unused office at town hall, where he slept on a couch, cooked with a microwave, and used what had been a public restrooloomy place, and Astrid had asked him more than once to consider this his home They were, after all, a family of sorts And, symbolically at least, they were the first family of the FAYZ, substitute mother and father to the motherless, fatherless kids

Astrid heard Sam before she saw him Perdido Beach had always been a sleepy little town, and noas as quiet as churchhi her name as he went from room to room

“Sam,” she yelled But he didn’t hear her until he opened the back door and stepped out onto the deck

One glance was all it took to know so his feelings, at least not from her

“What is it?” she asked

He didn’t answer, just strode across the weedy, patchy grass and put his ar he’d tell her when he could

He buried his face in her hair She could feel his breath on her neck, tickling her ear She enjoyed the feel of his body against hers Enjoyed the fact that he needed to hold her But there was nothing romantic about this embrace

At last he let her go Heto need so physical to do

“EZ’s dead,” he said without prea the fields with Edilio Me, Edilio, and Albert, and EZ along for entertainood reason for EZ to even be there, he just wanted to ride along and I said okay because I feel like all I ever do is say no, no, no to people, and now he’s dead”