She stopped and looked around herself.“Oh,” she said. She sounded numb and lifeless. Then brightening a little, she held up a canteen. “I brough... water. I thought you might be thirsty...”“Great!” Jake said, enthusiastically taking it from her and opening it up, not even wondering where she might get a canteen.“How did you get loose?” she asked him, looking down at his feet.“Oh. Well, I just took off my boot.” He shrugged and grinned, looking sheepish.Béla just looked at him, shock and disbelief. For awhile you have to be the adult and encourage your father to stay on track.”“I will. Stanley is good at keeping people on the straight and narrow. He will help.”“Are you two a couple?”“No, but we are cousins, housemates, and definitely not in any kind of relationship.”“So then Mike is Stanley’s cousin or maybe Stanley’s nephew?”“No such luck. He is cousin to my mother as well as to me.”I spoke up, “Mike was married to my cousin and still would be if he hadn’t got divorced. I’ll still claim. He struggled out from his mother’s grasp and took a deep breath. Wearily, he said, “I’m going to suffocate if you keep doing that and you’ll lose me forever.”Realizing that she was holding him too tightly, Linda relaxed her hold on him. In a tearful voice, she said, “I’m sorry. I just don’t want to lose you.”“You are not losing me. I am going to the Native American College for two years. They hold classes according to the regular schedule, so I’ll be home for summers. I’ll only be gone for nine. The room was empty…that is to say that it was clean. No drawers on the floor, no piles of clothing anywhere. Turning my head slowly, partly because of the pain, partly out of apprehension, to peer around the frame, I saw that the drawers were stacked neatly in the dresser, just where they belonged. The bed was made up with no trace that I had ever laid upon it. ‘What the…,’ my voice died in my throat. Had I dreamt it all? Was I losing it? Did I just need coffee? Gathering myself as best I.