“I’ll see you in the kitchen in a minute.”
When she’s gone, I check myself in the mirror. My face and lips are blue, like I’ve been holding my breath since New Year’s. I brush my teeth again and go to the kitchen.
Candy has laid out what looks like every piece of food in the house on the kitchen island. Alessa is next to her chewing a baby carrot.
“What will you have, sir?” says Candy.
“It doesn’t matter. I can’t taste anything.”
“Oh.”
“Sorry. Meat. I need protein.”
She piles a plate high with chicken legs and slices of roast beef. When she’s done she says, “You want it warm?”
“Sure. Thanks.”
As she carries it to the microwave, I look at Alessa.
“Chihiro …”
“It’s okay to call her Candy. She explained everything to me after you … you know.”
“Right. Anyway, she tells me that you’ve really turned Max Overdrive around.”
She nods. “I didn’t think I could work at the same place day after day, but it’s kind of our world that we made together. It’s cool.”
“And Kasabian?”
She smiles. “He takes a little getting used to, but he’s fun to have around.”
“‘Fun’ isn’t the word most people use about Kasabian. It’s nice that you get along.”
“He’s a hoot. And he knows a lot about movies. More than I’ll ever know.”
“Probably more than all of us put together.”
She picks up another carrot and says, “Can I ask you a question?”
“Of course.”
“What’s the story with your arm? My uncle had a prosthetic leg, but I’ve never seen anything like yours before.”
I tear off a piece of sliced chicken and eat it.
“I lost my arm in a fight. Someone thought it would be funny to give me this ugly one.”
“Why don’t you just get a regular one?”
“It doesn’t come off.”
She looks at me.
“It’s attached? Like it’s magic?”
“Exactly.”
Alessa sighs.