Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer

She said, 'Great, not good.'
    'Grandma?'
    'Yes, darling?'
    'It's just that where's the plate block?'
    'The what?'
    'The thing on the side of the sheet with the numbers.'
    'With the numbers?'
    'Yeah.'
    'I got rid of it.'
    'You what ?'
    'I got rid of it. Was that wrong?' I felt myself starting to spaz, even though I was trying not to. 'Well, it's not worth anything without the plate block!'
    'What?'
    'The plate block ! These stamps. Aren't. Valuable !' She looked at me for a few seconds. 'Yeah,' she said, 'I guess I heard of that. So I'll go back to the stamp shop tomorrow and get another sheet. These we can use for the mail.'
    'There's no reason to get another,' I told her, wanting to take back the last few things I said and try them again, being nicer this time, being a better grandson, or just a silent one. 'There is a reason, Oskar.'

'I'm OK.'
    We spent so much time together. I don't think there's anyone that I spent more time with, at least not since Dad died, unless you count Buckminster. But there were a lot of people that I knew better. For example, I didn't know anything about what it was like when she was a kid, or how she met Grandpa, or what their marriage was like, or why he left. If I had to write her life story, all I could say is that her husband could talk to animals, and that I should never love anything as much as she loved me. So here's my question: What were we spending so much time doing if not getting to know each other?
    'Did you do anything special today?' she asked that afternoon I started my search for the lock. When I think about everything that happened, from when we buried the coffin to when I dug it up, I always think about how I could have told her the truth then. It wasn't too late to turn around, before I got to the place I couldn't come back from. Even if she wouldn't have understood me, I would have been able to say it. 'Yeah,' I said. 'I put the finishing touches on those scratch-and-sniff earrings for the craft fair. Also I mounted the eastern tiger swallowtail that Stan found dead on the stoop. And I worked on a bunch of letters, because I'd gotten behind on those.'
    'Who are you writing letters to?' she asked, and it still wasn't too late. 'Kofi Annan, Siegfried, Roy, Jacques Chirac, E. O. Wilson, Weird Al Yankovic, Bill Gates, Vladimir Putin, and some other people.' She asked, 'Why don't you write a letter to someone you know?' I started to tell her, 'I don't know anyone,' but then I heard something. Or I thought I heard something. There was noise in the apartment, like someone walking around. 'What is that?' I asked. 'My ears aren't a hundred dollars,' she said. 'But there's someone in the apartment. Maybe it's the renter?'
    'No,' she said, 'he went off to a museum earlier.'
    'What museum?'
    'I don't know what museum. He said he wouldn't be back until late tonight.'
    'But I can hear someone.'
    'No you can't,' she said. I said, 'I'm ninety-nine percent sure I can.' She said, 'Maybe it's just your imagination.' I was in the place that I couldn't come back from.
Thank you for your letter. Because of the large volume of mail I receive, I am unable to write personal responses. Nevertheless, know that I read and save every letter, with the hope of one day being able to give each the proper response it deserves. Until that day, Most sincerely, Stephen Hawking
    I stayed up pretty late designing jewelry that night. I designed a Nature Hike Anklet, which leaves a trail of bright yellow dye when you walk, so in case you get lost, you can find your way back. I also designed a set of wedding rings, where each one takes the pulse of the person wearing it and sends a signal to the other ring to flash red with each heartbeat. Also I designed a pretty fascinating bracelet, where you put a rubber band around your favorite book of poems for a year, and then you take it off and wear it.
    I don't know why, but as I was working, I couldn't stop thinking about that day Mom and I went to the storage facility