The Despairing Tribulations of a Doomed Boy

Chapter 18

Otto picked his way across the rubble, forgetting everything that was behind him. What was in front of him was a strange mix of familiar buildings that caused a feeling of vertigo to run through him. Between some of the buildings were pieces of corn fields and trees—their branches scraping windows.

As the night set in the temperature dropped and Otto, still wet from the tsunami, started peeking into windows to find a warm place to sleep. Across the street, he spotted a familiar glowing light. He climbed over a downed power line that lay lifeless across a fissure and ran to the door of the townhouse.

"Ruskin!" Otto said as he pushed through the door. Inside, Ruskin sat, glowing nose, in the living room with Lancret. The floor in front of them was covered in couch cushions and blankets and on top of them, a litter of children staring wide-eyed at Otto.

"Otto!" Ruskin said. He looked Otto over. "Why are you wet?"

"Long story," Otto said and sat down on a cushionless armchair. "There was a tsunami. I guess you guys missed that catastrophe."

"A tsunami?" Lancret said. "How did we miss that?"

"I don't know. It happened before the ground broke up. There's a lot of crazy stuff happening. Have you seen the jackalopes?"

"I guess that confirms the rumors," Ruskin said.

"What rumors?"

"That some crazy guy is running around town pushing people's buttons. You wouldn't happen to know anything about that, would you?"

"What, you think I'm doing it?" Otto said, offended at the implication. "The toddler pushed his own damn button!"

A child gasped.

"Hush," Lancret said. "Don't talk like that in front of the kids."

Otto rolled his eyes.

"What are you talking about?" Ruskin said.

"Never mind," Otto said. "I don't know anything about some crazy guy pushing buttons. But if that's true, my guess is that it's Pieter. That's the only crazy guy I know. And I'm not crazy," he added.

"I didn't say you were," Ruskin said. "I just meant that you seem to be in the middle of all the crazy."

"Thanks." Otto paused and looked around. "Speaking of which, have you by any chance seen a girl in a gray hoody come this way?"

"Friend of yours from the crazy house?" Ruskin teased.

"Something like that."

"Haven't noticed. I haven't really been looking for random people I don't know. And Lancret is the only person I've found that I do know."

"Well how sweet." Otto said. He leaned back uncomfortably in the chair. "I was with Mr. Detroy for a little while there," he said to the ceiling. "But then I left him to look for Amelie. I guess that was stupid."

"Detroy," Ruskin said. "Never thought he'd be out of prison or wherever he was being kept."

"Yeah well, apparently everyone is out of everywhere," Otto said in his sleepy trance-like voice, "They were talking about trying to get everyone at Center Square Park to sort things out, but then the whole city got mixed up and now no one knows where Center Square Park is or which way is the center of anything."

The room went quiet. Children's faces, highlighted by the soft glow of Ruskin's nose-button, looked from one teenager to the next, not scared or sad, but rather content and a little expectant of what would come next.