ten.

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CHAPTER TEN


❝We ran as if to meet the moon.

Robert Frost


✦✧✦


"So they're gone for real?" Nicky asks for the hundredth time, leaning across the kitchen island toward Larry. "There's really nothing you can do?"

"I wish there was," Larry says, pulling the takeout cartons out of the greasy paper bags. "I'm telling you, I tried everything. I talked to McPhee, I called the board, but they shipped them out this morning."

Luna peers across at the boxes of rice and kung pao chicken, anxious to change the subject. "That's a lot of food, Mr. Daley, even for us." Usually, Nicky can eat an entire carton of rice and another of meat on his own, and Luna can almost keep up with him, but tonight, her appetite's almost gone.

"Yeah," Larry says, looking around, presumably for napkins. "Ed from work's gonna come by. I thought I told you guys. We just have to go over a couple little work things."

"So you're working tonight." Nicky pulls a container of wu lo yuk toward him and grabs a package of chopsticks from the middle of the island, stabbing the package open aggressively.

"I used to work every night," Larry says wryly, tossing a handful of crappy fortune cookies onto the counter between them. Luna's heart tugs painfully. She snags one of the fortune cookies and opens it, cracking it in half and popping the first piece into her mouth. It tastes like sweet styrofoam, but it's tradition in this house to eat the cookie first and wait until everyone has their fortune to read them.

"Yeah, but that was when you had a cool job," Nicky says around a mouthful of pork, pointing at Larry with his chopsticks. The house phone on the side table rings loudly.

"Well, 'cool' doesn't pay for that Xbox," Larry replies, setting the napkins down on the island and walking over to pick up the phone. He presses ANSWER, leaving the phone on the stand so everyone can hear. "Hello?"

"Gigantor! It's me! Jedediah!"

Luna almost drops the container of rice she's holding. "Jed?" She scrambles over to the phone, kneeling down beside the table. "Jed, it's Luna."

"Luna? Look, little lady, we're in a bit of a pickle--" It sounds like there's a war going on in the background.

"Jed, how did you dial the phone?" asks Larry, and Luna thinks he's being entirely too nonchalant about this.

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐍𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓 𝐖𝐄 𝐌𝐄𝐓 ; ahkmenrahWhere stories live. Discover now