“Excuse me?”
“Nothing.”
“I just want you to be safe,” Ralph said.
Dennis lay in his bed. He turned away from the custodian, staring at the wall. He was tired of the custodian telling him he cared. Martha kept taking him to the treatment room, and nothing ever changed. Ralph had turned out to be a liar too. They all were. They all said they loved you and let others hurt you.
Ralph was even worse than the rest of them. He had made Dennis love him, and now look. He couldn’t even save a rabbit.
“I hate you,” Dennis said.
Ralph understood.
“They’re saying the missing boys took the keys from the watchman,” Ralph said. “I don’t believe it.”
Dennis rolled over in bed. “Is that possible?”
“I guess.”
Dennis rolled back.
“What do you think happened?” Dennis asked the wall.
“I don’t even want to say.”
“Maybe Martha is doing them a favor,” Dennis said.
Ralph rubbed his face. He had dandruff in his eyebrows.
“But I hope Reggie doesn’t disappear,” Dennis said. “I like him.”
“It’s you I’m worried about right now,” Ralph said.
“Well, there’s nothing you can do. Right?”
Ralph looked sad, and sick.
“Maybe it would be for the best,” Dennis said, after a bit.
“What?”
“If she made me disappear too. Then it would be like I was never born.”
“No, son.”
“Why not?”
The center was waking up around them. Ralph knew he had better go before he got caught, because Martha would take it out on Dennis if she saw them together. It would be more evidence of their “unhealthy attachment.”
“Ralph?” Dennis asked. His voice was calmer.
“Yes, son?”
“Do you remember what you told me, back when we met?”
“What was that?”
“About the ocean. You said it was like this place. Nice on the outside. But dangerous.”
