Free Lost Boys by Orson Scott Card Page A

ago."
    "The yucky hole hooks up to the ocean?" asked Robbie.
    "Everything does," said DeAnne.
    "Wow, cool."
    Robbie took a wide berth around the drain, and as DeAnne stood at the front door, fumbling in her purse to find her keys, he stayed at the curb, looking back toward the yucky hole.
    "What if it rains while the kitty's down there, Mom?" he asked.
    "It isn't going to rain for days, and the cat will get hungry and go home long before then," said DeAnne.
    She got the door open. "Come on inside, Robbie."
    "Do you think the kitty's playing with my ball down there?" he asked as he came through the door.
    "Kitty," said Elizabeth. "Yucky hole, all gone."
    "That's the story," said DeAnne. "Looks like we can't keep anything from you, Elizabeth."
    "Drink," said Elizabeth.
    Robbie had already rushed ahead to the room he shared with Stevie, shouting out the story about the ball and the kitty and the yucky hole long before he got to the room. DeAnne smiled as she took Elizabeth into the kitchen to get a drink. If anybody could get Stevie out of his blue funk, it was Robbie.
    A moment later, Robbie was in the kitchen, looking mournful. "Mommy," he said. "Stevie told me to shut up and die."
    "What?" asked DeAnne.
    "He doesn't want a little brother anymore, Mommy," said Robbie.
    DeAnne set Elizabeth down on the kitchen floor. "Stay with your sister for a minute, would you?"
    "Can I turn on the TV?"
    "The cable isn't hooked up yet so there's hardly anything to watch," she said, "but suit yourself."
    She found Stevie lying right. where she had left him before going on the walk. "Son," she said.
    "Yeah?" he mumbled.
    "Son, sit up and look at me please," she said.
    He sat up and looked at her.
    "Please don't ever say anything so terrible to your brother again."
    "I'm sorry," said Stevie.
    "Did you really tell him to shut up and die?"
    Stevie shook his head. "Not exactly."
    "What did you say, then?"
    "I told him to shut up, and when he just kept yelling about a snake eating a kitty I just told him to drop dead."
    "Where did you ever hear an expression like that?"
    "Everybody said it back at my old school, Mom. It doesn't really mean that I want him to die."
    "Well, Robbie doesn't understand that, Stevie. You can't say things like that, even joking. Not to your own brother."
    "I'm sorry."
    He looked so miserable. And DeAnne could understand how, after years of sharing a room with Robbie, the dedicated extravert, Stevie could have moments of complete exasperation, for once Robbie thought of something he wanted to say, he would say it, even if you begged him for silence. He simply could not leave a thought unspoken. The miracle was that Stevie was usually so patient with his brother.
    "I'm sorry, too," said DeAnne. "I shouldn't have told you off like that." She sat down beside him on the edge of his bed and put her arm around him. "You've had a tough day, and here I am, no help at all."
    "I'm fine, Mom."
    "Can't you tell me what happened?"
    "Nothing happened," said Stevie.
    "Did you make any friends?"
    "No!" he said, so vehemently that she knew there was far more to the story than he was telling.
    "Were they mean to you?"
    "No," he said.
    "Is Mrs. Jones a nice teacher?"
    He nodded, then shrugged.
    "Did you have any homework?"
    He shook his head.
    "Do you just want me to leave you alone for a while longer?"
    He nodded.
    She felt so useless. "I love you, Stevie," she said.
    He murmured something that might have been "love you too" and then, as she got up, he rolled back over, curled up on his bed.
    She left his room, feeling deeply depressed. As she walked down the hall she could hear the television in the other room. Robbie was switching from channel to channel, so it alternated between loud hissing and very fuzzy reception on the local channels. For just a moment she couldn't bring herself to go into the same room with her children. She was supposed to know what they needed and provide it for them, and she was going to let them down because she