Highly Illogical Behavior

It’s like on Star Trek: The Next Generation, really. We’re just floating in space trying to figure out what it means to be human.

That’s what we do sometimes. We let people disappear. We want them to. If everyone just stays quiet and out of the way, then the rest of us can pretend everything’s fine. But everything is not fine. Not as long as people like Solomon have to hide. We have to learn to share the world with them.

As smart as I am, it took a boy stuck in his house to teach me that sometimes it doesn’t matter where you are at all. It only matters who’s with you.

It’s not too hard to disappear when no one’s looking for you.

After all, no first love goes away overnight, especially one that’s always right in front of you, but just out of your reach.

“You want to know how I know you love her?” Solomon asked.
“How?”
“Because you kept her secret. You protected her.”

For a split second, Solomon got a rush in his chest like maybe it was about to happen—like the world he ran away from had still managed to send someone just for him.

Gossip works that way. It makes fools out of everyone but the source.

“There’s no escaping it.”
“What?”
“Life.”

What Solomon had was unforgiving and sneaky and as smart as any other illness. It was like a virus or cancer that would hide just long enough to fool him into thinking it was gone.