Harrison Squared by Daryl Gregory Page B

school? Then who would entertain me ? This place is stultifying . True, if there’s any news, they can tell you in school just as easily as here, but how much better to spend your time with your most beloved relative? I can teach you how to make a decent Bloody Mary.”
    â€œYou’re not a very good aunt.”
    â€œPardon me, but I’m fantastic . The best aunts aren’t substitute parents, they’re coconspirators.”
    I poured her a cup and brought it to her. “I was thinking of going back to school anyway,” I said.
    â€œRe-a-lly,” she said. She’d loaded the word with half a dozen extra vowels.
    â€œReally.”
    Her eyes narrowed. “You seem different. Did something happen this morning?”
    She’s still alive, I thought.
    â€œI’m going to take a shower,” I said. “I don’t want to be late.”
    *   *   *
    I arrived at school just as the students were being let out of Voluntary. I could feel eyes on me as we climbed the stairs. Of course no one was whispering. But fingers were moving.
    I took my seat in Cryptobiology. Flora, the Goth girl in the red lipstick, and Garfield the bat-eared boy said nothing as we wired up our dead toad. But halfway through class I noticed that Flora was giving me a pitying look, and I realized I’d been staring into space.
    â€œSorry to hear about your mother,” Flora said quietly.
    â€œYeah,” Garfield said.
    Lydia, sitting a row ahead, glanced back; then she turned away without speaking.
    Someone behind us squealed. Everyone in the class turned. On one of the tables, a frog had started to smoke, and the limbs were twitching spasmodically. Dr. Herbert rushed over, clapping his hands. “It’s alive!” he cried.
    Just as he reached the table, the frog’s rear legs jerked in unison, and it leaped off the table. The wire leads snapped free, and the thing fell to the floor with a fwap ! We gathered around it. The animal was still smoking, but it was inert again.
    I was thinking of poor Michigan J. Frog, from the cartoon.
    Hello ma baby,
    Hello ma honey,
    Hello ma ragtime gal.
    Send me a kiss by wire,
    Baby my heart’s on fire.
    â€œEveryone set your transformers to this voltage!” Dr. Herbert said. “We’re doing science!”
    After class I walked a few paces behind Lydia and followed her into the stone basement that held the pool. Just as we reached the locker rooms she turned and said, “You’re looking at me.”
    â€œI’m looking at your hands.”
    The other students passed by us and went inside.
    â€œWe’re not talking about you,” she said.
    â€œLiar.”
    â€œNot all the time.”
    â€œThat’s more like it,” I said. “What are they saying?”
    â€œWe’re surprised you’re here at all. We all thought you’d have left town by now.”
    â€œMy mom’s missing, not dead. I’m not leaving without her.”
    â€œOh, Harrison,” she said. “People around here go missing all the time. There’s no use waiting for them to come back.”
    â€œAll the time? What do you mean, all the time?”
    She looked exhausted. “Never mind.”
    â€œWait,” I said. “I’m looking for something. An albatross.”
    She’d been turning away from me, and now she froze. “What are you talking about?”
    â€œI don’t know,” I said. “I was just…” I didn’t want to tell her about the note. Or try to explain the Fish Boy. “Someone said something about that bird.”
    â€œGo to class, Harrison,” she said. “And then go back to where you came from.”
    *   *   *
    Coach Shug came out of the water, shook his head as if clearing his ears, and then lifted his goggles to his forehead. He spotted me in the stone bleachers and lumbered forward. His skin was so white I wondered if he