Nate came into the house, closed the front door, and wrapped me in a hug. I was shaking. Staring down Mr. Santoni, Quin’s father, totally shook me up. Now I knew exactly what that old saying ‘shaking like a leaf’ means. I was shaking like a leaf, and I couldn’t make it stop.

Nate led me into the family room and laid me down on the sofa.

“Brian, I’ll be right back.”

He came back with a glass of water and a dishcloth wrapped around some ice cubes.

“Here. Sit up and drink a little water.” He helped me sit up and I took a couple sips of cold water. Nate held the dishcloth against the back of my neck. It was a little cold, just cold enough to feel good. I drank a little more water and I started feeling normal. I looked at Nate. He looked worried.

“I’m fine now. It just shook me up when I realized who he was. I mean, I didn’t know who he was, then he told me. He’s Quin Santoni’s father. But it never sunk in until he left.”

“I can’t believe that you yelled at him the way you did. That was real ballsy.”

“Maybe, but I don’t understand why having him come to the door freaked me like it did.”

“I think you were having a panic attack. Finding out who he was and not knowing what he was going to do was major. What did he tell you about why he was here?”

“He just kept telling me he wanted to come in and talk to me, and I said no, that I didn’t want to talk to him. When he wouldn’t go I said I was going to call the police. He said I shouldn’t do that, and that’s when I saw you coming up the walk. He said he wanted to tell me why I shouldn’t call the police. He said something like he wanted to offer something to me and my family and that it would be interesting.”

“Do you think he was trying to bribe you?”

“Maybe. Or maybe threaten me and my folks.”

“You should call the cops.”

“I think I should call my attorney and see what he says. He might want a witness. You’re that witness. Did you hear anything that he said to me?”

“Yeah. I heard him say that you shouldn’t call the cops until you find out what he’s willing to offer you and your family, and that he knows you’d find it interesting.”

“Would you write down what you heard him say and what you heard me say? I’m going to do the same thing.”

“I have my laptop in my backpack, I’ll key it in.”

“Let’s go into the kitchen. Can I borrow a piece of your notebook paper?”

“No, but you can have one.” Nate grinned.

“You’re a funny guy. Sometimes.” Then I grinned.

We sat down at the kitchen table and Nate opened a spiral notebook to a blank page. I started writing what I remembered. He took out his laptop and started entering what he remembered. It didn’t take very long. Mr. Santoni hadn’t been at the house more than a couple minutes.

Nate leaned back from his laptop. “Okay, what I did was write an email to you with what I remembered. That way I have the original and you have a copy, and you can forward it to your lawyer and the police and whomever.”

“Did you already send it to me?”

“Yeah. My laptop has a 4G connection so I used that to go online.”

“Hey, that’s cool. I wish my laptop had that. I can only hook up to WiFi. Still, that’s okay at home and at school. And I can connect at the library downtown. Let’s go upstairs and I’ll make sure I’ve received your email, then I’ll phone my lawyer.”

I did receive Nate’s email, and it said what he’d told me. I opened the email, and added what I’d written down. It included what Mr. Santoni said and how I thought he seemed desperate, and how he looked defeated when he left, and what I remembered that I had said. I forwarded it to myself and copied Nate. Then I pulled out John Gibbs’ phone number and dialed his office. I clicked on the speakerphone so Nate could hear John Gibbs’ side of the conversation.

“Law offices of Gibbs, Forintino, and Levington. How may I direct your call?”

“This is Brian Anderson. I’m a client of John Gibbs and I need to talk to him. It’s important. Is he in?”

“Yes, Mr. Gibbs is in the office this afternoon. Let me check and see if he’s available, Mr. Anderson.”

There was a delay of about two minutes with really bad music on hold.

“John Gibbs. Is this Brian Anderson?”

“Yes.”

“What can I do for you, Brian?”

“Mr. Santoni, Quinten Santoni’s father, was just here. He said wanted to talk to me. I was at home alone, my mom went to the market, so I told him to call you, but he said he wanted to come in. I said he couldn’t, and that if he didn’t leave I’d call the police. He said not to do that because he wanted to tell me what he was willing to offer me and my family. He said it would be interesting. Just then a friend from school came up and asked me if I was having a problem and I said no as long as Mr. Santoni left, and he left.

“Nate, my friend, wrote down what he remembered that Mr. Santoni had said. He did it on his laptop then emailed it to me. I added what I remembered to Nate’s email then sent the email to myself and to Nate. Then I phoned you. I have the speakerphone on so Nate can hear and in case you want to talk to him.”

“Hello, Nate. Brian, has Mr. Santoni left your house?”

“Yeah. At least I think so. He walked back to the street and there was a car parked there. But I didn’t see him get in it or drive away.”

“I didn’t either,” Nate added.

“You didn’t let him in the house?”

“No.”

“Did he give you anything? What I’m interested in is something with his fingerprints.”

“He didn’t give me anything.” I thought for a couple seconds. “He did put his hand on the outside of the front door to keep me from closing it on him.”

“Do you remember where he put his hand?”

“Yeah, I think so.”

“Good. You said you have what you and your friend...”

He paused, so I filled in the name, “Nate Mead.”

“...you and Nate Mead wrote down that you remember in an email. Can you forward it to me?”

“Sure. I have your email address on your business card. Hang on a sec…”

I forwarded the message to John Gibbs.

“…there, you should get it in a few seconds.” I heard a ding sound through the phone.

“Got it. Let me read it.”

There was a short delay while he was reading.

“This is very good. The only other thing that would button this up is a photo. Did either you or Nate Mead take a photo of Mr. Santoni?”

“I didn’t. I was too freaked to do anything like that.”

“And I didn’t know there was a reason to take his pic,” Nate added.

“Wait a minute! I just remembered that there’s a video camera covering our front porch. It’s motion activated. I don’t know how to access the security system but I’m sure my dad does. We probably have a video showing Mr. Santoni.”

“Does it record audio?”

“I don’t know about that. Dad was here alone when he had it installed. I hadn’t come home from the hospital yet and Mom wasn’t here either. She was still in Weatherford with me. Anyway, my dad will know if it records audio.”

“You said your mother went to the market. When will she be home?”

“She left about three thirty. She said she’d be back in about forty-five minutes. It’s four twenty-five, so she should be home any time now.”

“When does your father get home?”

“Around six, or a little after.”

“I’d like to come by and talk about what happened with Mr. Santoni this afternoon. Will six thirty be a good time?”

“I guess so. As far as I know there’s nothing planned for this evening, like my folks going somewhere or anyone coming over.”

“I have a client meeting at four thirty. Please ask your mother if six thirty will be alright for me to drop by. If it isn’t, please have her call my office and leave a message for me. Also, would you ask your father if he can find out about how to download the video and, if it’s available, audio also from the surveillance camera? I’d like to have a copy of the time from Mr. Santoni’s arrival until after he left.”

“Okay, I’ll take care of both. Now I have a question. Should I call Inspector Kozara and tell him about this?”

“No, I’d prefer to gather all of the information then contact him. Is that okay with you, Brian?”

“Sure.”

“Alright. My meeting is about to start. I’ll see you this evening unless there’s a conflict. Bye, Brian.”

“Goodbye, Mr. Gibbs.”

I ended the call and looked at Nate.

“Well, what do you think about all this?”

Nate grinned. “This is all way cool. I’ve never been involved in anything like this. I’m sure glad I arrived when I did. I’m not sure that Mr. Santoni would have left so easily if I hadn’t been there.”

“Neither am I. You know, I should have asked Mr. Gibbs if he’d like you to be here when he meets with us tonight. Hey, I know, you want to have dinner with us tonight and stick around?”

“Yeah! I’d like that. If it’s okay with your folks.”

“I’m sure it will be. I can verify that when my mom gets home.”

“Until then we should start your school session.,” Nate grinned, then pulled open his backpack and pulled out some books and spiral notebooks. “These are yours, from your locker.”

“Hey, thanks! All I need now are my textbooks and my workbooks that were in my backpack. Quin and Tom stole my backpack and the contents, then they ‘found it’ in the woods during the time people were searching for me. They told Mrs. Santoni that they gave it to the police, but I don’t know if they did. I think my dad was going to try to find out where my backback was taken, and how he can get the contents for me.”

“I’m sure that the school will give you copies of your textbooks that you don’t have. Your workbooks will be a bigger problem.

“By the way, here’s my class schedule for next fall. Look it over and we can talk about coordinating classes next time I come over. And this,” he said as he pulled out a hoodie and some of my gym clothes, “was in your locker too. I talked to Coach Garrison this afternoon and he opened your gym locker. I’m glad I brought a plastic bag with me. These are a bit on the rank side.” He handed me a plastic baggie from the supermarket that contained my dirty gym clothes. He held it at the top by two fingers.

“Eww! You should’ve burned them, I think.”

 “A recommendation, Brian. Put these in the washer yourself. Don’t leave them for your mom. She’d have to go buy a gas mask before she unsealed this bag.”

“Aw, come on, they aren’t that bad.”

“All I can say is that Coach Garrison told me to use that hand sterilizer after handling them.”

“Yeah, like he’d say that. Not.”

“No, really, he did say that. He also told me to tell you that when you return to school to remember that you are supposed to have a clean gym uniform at the start of every week, not every month.”

I could tell that Nate was pulling my leg and trying to keep from laughing, but he couldn’t and then we were both laughing.

“And Mrs. Munn in the office gave me these cards that had been left with her for you. I think they’re probably get well cards or something like that.”

“Alright, let’s go downstairs. I’ll put these in the washer, then we can review my homework and what’s been going on in class.”

“You don’t need to wash them. I was just kidding.”

“Yeah, I figured the gym uniform was okay.” 

I grabbed my books and laptop and a spiral notebook and we went down to the kitchen and sat at the kitchen table.

“I worked with David Choi and finished my first Physics experiment.”

“Which one was that?”

“Magnetism, projects 1 and 2. I should have shown you my setup upstairs. I can do that later. I started reading about the other three projects in this chapter, and want to find out what you guys did with them in class. Because I only have one hand, I can’t do most of the experiments on my own. David said it would be okay for you to help me when you’re here, and he’ll help me when he comes once a week. Once I get caught up it’ll be a lot easier.

“Oh, by the way, here are my reports for experiments 1 and 2.” I handed him the two reports. “Please turn them in to Mr. Nayak on Monday.”

“Okay, will do. Now let me review what the projects in chapter 17 were. We’ve moved on to chapter 18 so I’ve sort of forgotten the details from chapter 17.”

We worked on Physics for about a half hour and I heard the garage door open.

“That must be my mom. Took her a lot longer to do the marketing than I would have thought.”

“Maybe I can help her bring in the groceries. Uh... how do I get to the garage?”

“Follow me.”

We went to the door in the laundry room that led into the garage.

“Hi, Mom. Nate’s here. He offered to help bring in the groceries.”

“Thank you, Nate. Everything is in the back.”

Nate and Mom brought everything in, with my supervision, and Mom started putting things away.

“While you were gone there was a bit of excitement here.”

“What was that?”

“Mr. Santoni was here and tried to get me to let him in. I wouldn’t, and told him if he has anything to say he should contact my lawyer John Gibbs. I think he wanted to talk me into dropping my complaint against Quin, but I wouldn’t talk to him. I said if he didn’t leave I’d call the police, and he asked me to just listen to what he had to say, that he wanted to offer something that I’d like and that you’d like. That’s when Nate got here and it’s a good thing he did because I think with two of us Mr. Santoni decided not to stick around and he left.”

“Why didn’t you call me, Brian?” Mom was pissed, and at me.

“First, Nate and I had to enter everything we could remember that Mr. Santoni and I said into an email message. Then I called John Gibbs and sent him the email. I asked if I should call Inspector Kozara. He said don’t call the police, that he wanted to talk to us first. He wants to come here at six thirty tonight unless you and Dad have a conflict. I figured that he wants to talk to Nate too, since he was a witness, so I asked Nate if he wanted to have dinner with us, if that’s okay with you and with his mom.

“Oh, one more thing, Mr. Gibbs wants to talk to Dad about the surveillance camera on the front porch and get a download of the video starting from when Mr. Santoni arrived to when he left. Anyway, there wasn’t anything you could do, and there was no reason to make you come home in the middle of your grocery shopping.”

I could tell that Mom thought my answers were adequate. She didn’t seem pissed at me any longer.

“Nate, you’re welcome to have dinner with us tonight. We’re having roast chicken, baked potatoes, asparagus, and a salad. I bought a lemon meringue pie for dessert.”

“That sounds really good, if it’s okay for me to stay I’d like that very much.”

“Well then, why don’t you phone your mother and let her know. You can use the phone in the family room.”

After Nate stepped away to make his call, Mom looked at me.

“How long do you think Mr. Gibbs will be here tonight?”

“I don’t know. You could call and ask him to call back. He told me that he had a client meeting and if there was any change to call his office and leave a message. You could ask him to call back and let you know how long so you can plan our dinner.”

“Do you have his number?”

“Uh huh.” I pulled his business card out of my shirt pocket and gave it to Mom.

Nate came back to the kitchen. “My mom says it’s okay. She’d like to talk to you to make sure it’s really okay with you.”

Mom picked up the kitchen phone, and Nate and I eavesdropped on Mom’s side of the call.

“Hi, Mrs. Mead, this is Phyllis Anderson speaking... yes, we invited Nate to join us for dinner... he’s been doing a great job helping my son Brian who is being home tutored this semester... he was injured when two boys attacked him and he spent two weeks in the hospital... no, Brian’s not on the football team... he and Nate have several classes together... okay, I’ll tell Nate... thank you... bye.”

Nate grinned. “I’ll bet Mom told you to tell me to behave, right?”

Mom laughed. “Is this something that you’ve been told before?”

“Sometimes. I think it’s her favorite saying. But it’s like she doesn’t trust me.”

“Well, now I’d better call Mr. Gibbs and find out how long he’s going to be here, and then phone your dad and let him know about tonight’s meeting.”

Mom phoned John Gibb’s office, and when she was finished with the call she told us what he told her. First, he thinks he needs less than a half hour. Second, he picked six thirty to make sure Dad would be home and could help with the video from the camera on the front porch. Third, he confirmed that he did want to talk to Nate about what he saw and heard Mr. Santoni talking when he got to our house.

Then Mom phoned Dad’s office and left a message that Mr. Gibbs would be at our house for a half-hour meeting with us at six thirty.

 “Well, it looks like dinner will be at seven. That’s a little late, so if you guys are hungry now, how about a snack?”

I grinned and said “Yes!” then turned to Nate.

“What would you like? We have apples and bananas, carrots, celery, cheese, and cookies. There are pizza rolls in the freezer, peanut butter and apricot-pineapple preserves so we could make a sandwich. What else do we have, Mom?”

“Orange juice, chips and salsa. Nate, what sounds good to you?”

“A peanut butter sandwich sounds good.”

“Brian?”

“Same for me.”

“We have sourdough, whole wheat, and rye bread.”

We both picked rye.

“I know Brian will have pineapple apricot preserves. We also have strawberry and blackberry. Nate?”

“Same as Brian will be great.”

“Why don’t you get back to your homework and I’ll fix the sandwiches for you.”

I thanked Mom and we returned to my Physics homework.

We finished reviewing the experiments for the rest of the chapter 17 projects, and started on chapter 18. Mom gave each of us a sandwich and a glass of milk, and we continued with chapter 18 in the Physics textbook. After about twenty minutes I was tired of Physics.

“Is this boring, or what?” I asked Nate.

“Yeah, it is. Maybe it’s time to switch from Physics to Algebra 2 or something else, maybe English 2 or European History?”

“I don’t know. Evan and I are spending time on European History. English 2 is easy for both of us, right?”

“Yeah.”

“What else are you taking?”

“Spanish 2 and Sports Medicine.”

“¿Usted quiere estudiar español?”

“But you’re not taking Spanish.”

“I took Spanish 1 and 2 in middle school and Spanish 3 last year. A continuación, vamos a hacerlo.”

Nate grinned. “If there’s no other choice, then let’s do it!” So we spent the next forty-five minutes on Spanish 2. Our studies were interrupted when Dad came home.

I started to tell him what had happened but I was interrupted when the doorbell rang. It was John Gibbs.

The first thing he did was hand me my backpack. I checked inside and it looked like everything was still there.

“Thanks, Mr. Gibbs! Having this is so important for my classes, even if I am being helped by Nate and a couple of tutors assigned by my school.”

“Okay, let’s get into the visit you had today from Mr. Santoni.” 

Mom joined us, and that was good because Nate and I were able to tell all of them at the same time about what happened when Mr. Santoni was here this afternoon.

“John,” Dad asked after we’d finished, “it seems we should get a restraining order issued against Mr. Santoni to keep him away from us and especially away from Brian.”

“I agree, and I’ll go to the judge tomorrow and do just that. I’m also planning to notify the police. Not to have them take action against Mr. Santoni, but to let them know what happened.”

“What about the District Attorney?”

“They’ll get a copy of the restraining order.”

“Won’t the police get a copy as well?”

“Yes, but I think the lead investigator, Brian Kozara, should be advised directly. I think you know him.”

“Yes, we do. When Brian came out of his coma Inspector Kozara went to Weatherford to interview him.”

“Greg, is there a way to review the video from your surveillance camera?”

“Yes, there’s a dedicated computer from the security company that records all traffic on our front porch to a hard drive, then it’s compressed and uploaded to their servers. We can access that computer from my PC in my home office.”

We went into Dad’s office and he logged on to the security system.

“Brian, what time did Mr. Santoni get here?”

“It was about quarter to four.”

Dad entered the time and we watched the video scan forward from three forty-five p.m. We were able to see Mr. Santoni come up the walk to the front door and press the doorbell button. The door opened and we heard the conversation between me and Mr. Santoni. Then we saw him stop me from closing the door by holding it open with the palm of his hand. Then Nate walked up to the porch and Mr. Santoni walked away to a car parked in front of the house. He got in on the passenger side, and after about fifteen seconds the car drove away. Dad replayed the section and this time he turned up the volume. We watched the entire clip and it was just about what we’d put in the email we sent to Mr. Gibbs.

“Greg, can you give me a copy of that section?” John Gibbs asked.

“Sure. I’ll put it on a flash drive.”

“Mr. Gibbs, I recorded the conversation on my portable digital recorder,” I said, “but since the video also has audio I don’t think you’ll need it.”

“It’d be a good idea if you’re able to keep that recording, Brian. That way if I do need it I can get it from you.”

“I can save it as an MP3 file and email it to you.”

“Yes, that’s an excellent idea.”

It took longer than what we figured to copy the clip to a flash drive, and it was after seven fifteen before Mr. Gibbs left and we sat down to dinner.

“I should have warned you,” I said to Nate, “you’re now subject to an official Mom Inquisition. My mom is going to pepper you with questions trying to pry everything that’s known about you including things you don’t even know about yourself.”

“Brian! I do not subject your friends to a Mom Inquisition.”

“Yes, you do!” Dad and I said at the same time.

That made Nate laugh. “Just like my mom does. So I’m prepared. I’ll take the Fifth if there’s a question I don’t want to answer.”

“Well,” I said, giving Mom a smarmy grin, “let me start the questioning. Nate, tell us what it’s like being a high school football quarterback, especially when you’re a sophomore.”

“It’s a lot of fun. I love football, and I don’t mind getting tackled. I have a pretty good arm, and I can throw long with good accuracy. I like running with the ball. We use a veer offense. That’s a ball control offense that is very effective, so we don’t throw a lot. We can use the veer offense because our line is big and fast, and so’s our offensive backfield. When we do throw the ball it catches the opposing defense off guard. The veer is a triple option offense with four backs. It works with one player taking a dive course through the line, one taking a pitch course, and the third as the lead blocker on the outside. That lets the quarterback make reads on the defensive players and then hands off or pitches the ball depending on where his backs and the defensive players are as the play develops, or the quarterback can keep the ball and cut up field or pass if he sees an open receiver.”

“That’s a great explanation,” Dad told Nate, “now I understand what’s going on. I’ll have to watch for it next time there’s a college game on TV. Obviously you don’t run a veer every play. What other formations do you use?”

“We alternate with the spread option, and sometimes we use run and shoot if the defense doesn’t have strong cornerbacks and safeties.”

I looked at Mom. Her expression was like mine would have been if a girl was describing how to apply makeup or style their hair.

“When you’re the quarterback which formation do you like the best?” I asked

“I like run and shoot. The choices are limited, and when we use it the opposition is usually expecting the veer. The veer is the most flexible, but it can be countered if the opponent has a good defensive line and linebackers. If the offensive line is strong, the pitch man can be countered by strong safeties. But if the quarterback is a good at options, that defense can leave holes that end up in good gains.”

“Do you guys play both ways?” Dad asked.

“Yes and no. We are a big enough school so interior linemen don’t have to go both ways. That’s a huge help because if one team’s line gets tired because they’re in there on every play of the game, the opposition is going to wear them out and take over in the fourth quarter. So most of our line, except for ends, plays either offense or defense, and almost never both. A few guys are used for rotation so they play both ways, but they are on the field no more than a third to a half of the time. That way the regular linemen can come out and get rested.”

“What do you like to play the best? Besides quarterback?” I asked.

“I like playing defense as a safety or cornerback. I like blocking and tackling. On defense I’m in control of who I hit. When I’m quarterback I’m the opposing team’s target on every play.”

Mom asked, “Nate, have you ever had a concussion? I read that there’s a lot of controversy about the number and dangers of concussions.” Wow, I wouldn’t have guessed that she knew about high school football players and concussions.

“No I haven’t, fortunately. I wear a special concussion reduction helmet. It cost the school over two hundred bucks, and my folks had to pay for it. It has gel-filled inflatable Z-pads so it’s really comfortable. The best thing is that it’s mine and I’ll be able to use it the rest of the time that I play football in high school.”

I was curious about what he was going to do in college. “Are you going to go out for football in college?”

“No, I don’t think so. I want to go to the University of California at Berkeley for my first two years, then to the U.C. San Francisco Medical School. That’s academically a tough school. I want to be an orthopedic surgeon. Playing football would be a huge distraction.”

Mom looked at Nate for a few seconds. “Brian told us you were taking AP classes this year. That must be difficult when you’re on the football team.”

“It is in the fall during football season. But I’m only taking one AP class, European History, the same one as Brian. I am taking two Pre-AP classes, English 2 and Algebra 2. That’s also the same as Brian. Next year I’m going to take four AP classes. That will be tough.”

“I’m taking three AP classes next year that are the same as Nate, AP Chemistry, AP U.S. History, and AP English 3. So we’ll be able to study together. I’m also taking AP Psych and Nate’s taking AP Spanish 3, which I took last year. So we’ll each be taking four AP classes. That’s four more classes we won’t have to take when we get to college. And we can help each other study for three of those classes, and I can help him with Spanish 3.”

Mom got us off the football team and what classes we were taking by switching to something totally different and more in line with her typical Mom Inquisition. “Do you have any brothers and sisters, Nate?”

“I have two younger brothers. They’re twins, and they are 12 years old.”

“Oh, my, I would think your mother has her hands full.”

“She does, but she can always call on me and I threaten to sit on them and tickle them until they behave. I did that to them twice, so now they know that I’m not just bluffing. They can be a real pain in the butt, but they’re really great kids and they’re my biggest fans. The little shrimps know as much about football as I do.” Nate laughed.

Dad asked, “What’s your dad do?”

“He’s a urologist at Lister Medical Center. It’s because of him that I want to go into surgery too, but in my case orthopedics, sports medicine.”

Dinner and Nate’s Inquisition by my mom finally ended, and Nate and I helped clean up the kitchen.

“Thanks a lot for a great dinner, Mrs. Anderson.”

“You’re welcome, Nate. You’re welcome here any time. I’m glad that you and Brian are friends.”

“Thanks. I am too,” he replied.

“Come on, let’s head upstairs to my room.”

When we got upstairs we laid down on my bed side by side. Nate asked, “Do you want to work on any other homework?”

“No. I just want to hang with you if that’s okay.”

Nate grinned. “Yeah, that’s A-okay.”

“When do you have to go home?”

“Whenever you want to throw me out, I guess. Of course, tomorrow is Saturday and there’s no school. So maybe eleven o’clock?”

“Sure. That’s cool.” I leaned over and set my second alarm to eleven p.m.

“We can listen to some music, or watch a movie, or play a video game, or just hang and talk.”

“How about some music and we just hang and talk with it in the background.”

“What do you like?”

“You.”

“Thanks, and I like you too, but I meant music.”

“You’re cute when you blush, Brian.”

“I’m not blushing!”

“You are so blushing, and you doth protest too much, methinks.”

“Come on, what kind of music do you like?”

“I like almost everything. No to most country, no psychedelic rock, no hardcore rap. But most other music is okay. Of course, it depends on the band and singer and song. For example, I like some Grateful Dead, but some I don’t like even though Deadheads would freak if they heard me say that.”

“How about The Polyphonic Spree? That’s good background music for talking.”

“I don’t know them.”

I put on the album and we listened quietly for a minute or so.

“Cool. I like that. I like songs with lyrics that say something.”

“Yeah, me too. What’s your favorite group?”

“Green Day. My folks took me to see ‘American Idiot’ at Berkeley Rep a couple years ago when we were visiting relatives in the Bay Area. Oh my god, I loved it! I even talked them into taking me a second time. Have you heard it?”

He turned his head and looked at me. I was grinning like the Cheshire Cat.

“I guess you have. Isn’t it fabulous?”

“It is the best! My cousin Rich gave me the album for my birthday last year.”

Nate got up off the bed and walked over to my bookcase.

“You like to read. I like that. I think books are the best. Do you have a Kindle or iPad or some other kind of e-reader?”

“I love to read. I have the Kindle app on my laptop. I don’t have an iPad. Maybe somethin like that for Christmas. What do you like to read?”

“A lot the same as you. Lots of science fiction, and mysteries. I love mysteries and suspense novels. I see you have Carol O’Connell’s ‘Bone by Bone’ and Dean Koontz’ ‘Velocity’. Aren’t those great? And you have a lot of the same science fiction authors I like. Terry Pratchett, Rudy Rucker, Terry Brooks, Cory Doctorow. And you have ‘Myth Alliances’. Oh my god, that is so funny! I love comedy, but especially science fiction and mysteries that have a comedy line. Of course, I also like stories that involve football and doctors. Anyway, based on what we read we could be twins.”

“I think our mothers would be very surprised if that worked out to be true.”

“Yeah, I suppose.”

We continued to talk about books and movies and TV shows we liked. I showed him my Facebook page and friended him, then I showed him my website and blog.

Too soon my alarm began buzzing. It was eleven and time for Nate to head home.

“I had a great time, Brian.”

“Yeah, me too.” We grabbed each other in a hug. “Let’s do this again.”

“That’s a deal.”

He grabbed his backpack and we headed downstairs. He said ‘bye’ to my folks and I walked him to the door.

“I’ll come by on Monday after school if that’s okay. That way you can give me the output of all the homework assignments I gave you. Remember, they are supposed to be done over the weekend. Also we can go over our schedules for next year.”

“That’s a deal. I’ll review your schedule and have some ideas about teachers. See you about four o’clock?”

“Yup. See you Monday, Brian.”

“See you, Nate.”

I walked into the family room and he said goodnight to my folks.

“You like Nate a lot, don’t you Brian,” Mom said.

“Yeah, I do. I think we might become best friends. We like a lot of the same things, which is good. He’s smart, which is even better. And he’s a really nice guy, which is best. I see him helping people at school, always patient and smiling no matter how clueless the person might be.”

“At your age having a best friend is important,” Dad advised. “And I think Nate is as good a guy as you think he is.

“Now, we got a call while you were upstairs. It was Inspector Kozara. He wants to come over tomorrow to talk about some things relating to the case against Quin, including Mr. Santoni’s visit today.”

“Agh! I wish I’d known that he called. I want to find out if I can get my backpack or at least what’s in it. It’s got stuff I can use for school.”

“Way ahead of you, sport. Your mom remembered that you’d said that, and we asked him, and he said he’d check with Ian Kilpatrick this afternoon and see what he can do.”

“Tomorrow’s Saturday. So he’s working on the weekend? That’s weird. What time is he coming?”

“Yes, he’s working on Saturday. A policeman’s job isn’t limited to nine to five on weekdays. He’ll be here at two. I have to go into the office for a while in the morning, and I’ll make sure that I’m home in time for lunch.”

“Well, I hope that whatever he has to say to us will be interesting.”

Now it was Mom’s turn. “Brian, I want to remind you that you have your first physical therapy appointment tomorrow morning. A physical therapist and an occupational therapist are coming to the house to evaluate what you can do and whether they have to come to the house to begin your therapy or whether you can go to the hospital physical therapy department. The occupational therapist will evaluate whether your room and the bathroom are safe for you.”

“Did I know about this appointment?”

“I’m sure I told you. Is there a conflict?”

“No, I guess I forgot about it.”

“Well then,” Dad added, “no harm, no foul.”

“Yeah. No problema. It’s interesting that all of these different people are working on Saturday. Anyway, it’s time for me to hit the sack, so I’ll say goodnight.”

My folks said goodnight and I headed upstairs. This had been a strange day, mostly good except for Mr. Santoni’s visit. I was looking forward to hearing what Inspector Kozara had to tell us about that, and about my backpack. But first I had my physical therapy appointment. Then I wanted to write friends and reply to the get-well cards now that it seemed like everyone knew where I was.

So tomorrow was going to be another very interesting day.