43
But on the way back home tonight, you wish you’d picked him up, held him a bit. Just held him, very close to your heart, his cheek by the hollow of your shoulder, full of sleep. As if it were you who could, somehow, save him.
There was a rainbow over the hills to the north of campus. Maria Cortez stared at them. Gravity hates me, she said.
Gravity hates all of us, I told her.
I remember when gravity didn’t give me a second thought.
It was just biding time.
I heard that Ramona was fired.
I looked around for Ramona and didn’t see her. I saw Leon standing at the central building. He was wiping down a wheelchair, perhaps of someone who had died. He’d been wiping it for a good thirty minutes, nervously glancing about all the while.
I can’t say I’m sorry to see her go.
The last I’d see of Ramona was when she and Harley were having an argument that tumbled with them into the dining room.
I know it was you, Harley said.
I have to clean Chen’s toilet.
Leon and Cletus don’t have the initiative and I know it’s not Tommy.
I punched in at six just like every other day.
Just admit you’ve been doing stuff on your own.
What do you want to talk about?
I’m done with you.
Me? Me? You think I did it?
You might as well pack up. With that Harley stormed away.
Ramona followed. Billy, it must be Billy.