Benny put two fingers to his eyes and then pointed the same hand in one-finger fashion at Zack. “And leave the door open.” He said as he left the two kids alone.

  Zoe finally erupted and threw a nearby tin can at the doorway. However her father had already finished his self-perceived “parental” duties.

  “Now he wants to be father of the year,” she angrily commented to Zack.

  “So did you bring it?” She added on.

  Zack look confused, “bring what?...”

  A moments silence then she blurted out – “the homework!”

  Zack look initially confused which then evolved into him looming at Zoe like she was institutionally insane.

  His facial expression non-verbally voiced “what homework??” until his mouth finally made it verbally explicit.

  Zoe reached for another tin can. Zack’s eyebrows did more talking, this time a state of alarm. He put his hands out in a “stop”-fashion between him and his hurting school friend.

  “No. But i did bring you this…” Zack reached in his bookbag and gave Zoe a book. Zoe’s eyes conveyed a hidden sense of wonderment with more overt covetous features.

  “Why would I bring you homework?...” Zack finaly replied after Zoe had lowered her throwing arm.

  “It’s only been three days and who cares about school anyway? Once all the teachers find out what’s happening they will give you a passing grade just for showing up. It’s only the ones that think they have something to prove that will test you academically. At least that’s how it was –”

  Zoe cut him off, she had not been looking but had been eyeing the book Zack was holding in his hands instead.

  “”I’m sorry but I really can’t focus right now.” She knew she was being unintentionally rude.

  Her arms reached out in a “give-me”-fashion. Zack obliged and she plunged right into the book. Zoe started moving internally in two mental directions. While beginning to inspect the contents of the book, she expicitly wondered about her cat.

  “Do you think Mister Scuttlebutt will be okay?”

  Page turning and exploration. Her fingers shifted from running along the center of the old book’s spine to streaming down the table-of-contents.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

  “Why don’t you just bring him here?” Zack posed the obvious-and-logical question.

  “Because I’m not staying here,” she declaratively responded. The certainity of her statement masked the inner realities she felt innervating in her abdomen: “I have no idea what I’m doing in life. In fact, I have no idea how to navigate the world. I’ve never done this before – send help!” The rumblings of her insides went on and on.

  Zoe looked up at Zack concerned and sincere and hopeful, “How was he? He’s okay right?”

  “Tell me again how he was,” Zoe momentarily put the book down.

  A finger locked the page she had been perusing in place.

  “He was fine. I tried to pet him but he looked at me like ‘why are you even existing? human.’” Zack didn’t let Zoe interrupt him this time. “But,” he said pointedly, “like I was trying to tell you. I had to climb in through the window. I was worried there was an alarm in place. So I threw some pebbles at your neighbor’s window to see if anyone was home since all the lights were out. And when no one came to the window, I tried opening it without a problem…same procedure with your place…”

  Now Zoe’s eyes looked alarmed however not at the fact that Zack was apparantly a spy-in-training but because she had no idea if the house even had an alarm and how it worked.

  “Do all alarms go straight to the police headquarters?” She wondered.

  A feeling of dread and helplessness was setting in her thought space. She did not know how to be an adult, she did not want to be an adult – it all seemed so tiring, like an unceasing flood of activities and responsbilities – “when does one ever get time for themselves?” She did not think to ask as the logical end to her thought sequence.

  Zack looked at Zoe who seemed deep in thought, “but I left food out like you said. So don’t worry.” He was sure she was judging him and that he had failed her somehow, that he was inadequate and unworthy of what he knew not.

  In a more defeated tone, Zack added on “but when I stepped away. He went straight to eating. Then after that, he literally ran away like a madman. Like there had been a gunshot or something.”

  Zoe put the book down and got up off the floor where she had been sitting native-american style and hugged Zack.

  “Thank you so much,” she said gripping him.

  Zoe had never hugged another boy this much more before. Zack had been deprived of such social contact as well.

  He went to put his arms up to lightly push Zoe off of himself but then feeling the heaviness and concreteness of her body stopped in fright and then when he felt overwhelmed even moreso he went to instinctively push her off himself again but she had already finished her hug sequence. Zoe was oblivious to Zack’s inner states and dilemmas.

  “Anyway,” she added reaching for the book. “I don’t see it in here.”

  Zack felt internally isolated and confused. He was still dwelling on the second hug which he liked quite much but did not – or could not - process for himself this fact. His mind felt numb and ruptured, and that was from such a – objectively speaking – small interaction. Big for him though.

  Zack forced himself to talk, deatching himself from the indigestible boulder in his stomach.

  “I’m not…I’m not sure what you hoped to find in there in the first place. Or, really, how you knew it was in the school’s library in the first place.”

  “A witch has her secrets,” Zoe joked to herself.

  Zoe had been so distraught after the incident in the hospital room she had forgotten the weird dream non-dream she had with her grandmother telling her to look for something.

  “It’s called Mount Dominus and I figured if it was anywhere it would be in here,” her lips squiggled sideways.