I dropped the picture, then looked from Gonzalez to the backpack next to him. “So you’re really heading out, huh?”
He snapped a twig in half and tossed it into the woods. “Day after tomorrow. Rest of the Guard will be pulling out pretty soon after that.”
“Hear anything new about the Marvins’ plans for us?”
He shook his head. “They’re buttoned up tight. All I know about is that carnival Raney is throwing next week.”
“Carnival?”
“Yeah, turns out he wasn’t kidding about doing something fun for you guys. It’s going to be down in the park. Rides and food and stuff. Hear they’re even carting in a Ferris wheel. Jerks are waiting until after we pull out. Guess they don’t feel like springing for a little cotton candy for their brothers in the Guard. Greer and Hannah are taking the kids to it. You didn’t know?”
“Guess I’ve been a little out of touch lately.”
“Yeah, look, about that—”
Before he could finish, I turned and grabbed his portfolio out of my tent. “I got a chance to look at your stuff,” I said. “The drawings are solid. Really good. Like I said, I’m not an expert or anything, but if I were you, I might ditch the Wolverine and do another woman or two. Batgirl maybe? Or Ms. Marvel. Supergirl could be good. Maybe even—”
He snatched the portfolio out of my hands and threw it on the ground.
“Gonzalez, what are you—”
“Come with me.”
“What?”
He leaned forward on the stump. “I can get you out of here today, man. They’ll put you in isolation for twenty-four hours to confirm you’re not infected, and then we’re out of here.”
“But everything’s fine now,” I said. “Tommasulo’s in—”
“This isn’t about him,” Gonzalez interrupted. “And everything’s not fine. Listen, me and you, we go to Comic Con, and then after that . . . you don’t want to go stay with whatever family you’ve got on the outside, that’s fine, my folks are in the Bronx. I’ve already talked to them. You can stay with them while you finish high school, and then you start looking at colleges. You can—”
“No.”
“Why not? What the hell are you doing here, man? There’s a whole world out there!”
“There’s a whole world here, too.”
Gonzalez looked around at the sagging trees and the vines and the twilight gloom. He shook his head.
“Yeah,” he said. “Hell of a world you got yourself here.”
He kept his eyes locked on me, but I didn’t waver. Didn’t look away. Finally he shook his head and pulled something out of his pocket. It hit the ground in front of me. A cell phone.
“My number’s programmed in,” he said. “It’s got a full battery, and there’s a tower just over on the next mountain, so you’ll always have a good signal. If you change your mind—shut up, let me talk—if you change your mind, call me. Even if I’m already gone. You want out of here, you call me and I’ll make it happen double quick. Got it?”
I picked up the phone and turned it over in my hand. I nodded.
“Now get up,” Gonzalez said.
“What?”
“Dude, just do it. Stand up.”
As soon as I did, his hands clasped my back and he pulled me into a hug. I could hear his heart beating alongside my ear. How long had it been since someone hugged me? As hard as I tried to remember, I couldn’t.
“You take care of yourself,” he said in a choked-up whisper. “You need anything, you send up the bat signal.”
I said I would. Gonzalez pulled me in tighter, then let me go. His eyes were shining. He wiped them with the back of his hand and then tucked his portfolio under his arm.
“So I guess . . . I guess I’ll see ya around.”
My throat ached, like I hadn’t had a drink of water in days. I flashed back to that first time he’d come up the mountain. It seemed like the second someone walked in the door, they were on their way out again.
“Yeah,” I said. “See ya around, Hec.”
He took his backpack and started off through the brush. After a few steps, he turned back.
“How about Storm?” he said. “For the portfolio.”
I thought for a second. “Yeah, but it’s gotta be mohawk-and-leather-jacket Storm,” I said. “That’s the only good Storm.”
He grinned. “Yeah. Definitely. Take it easy, kid.”
Gonzalez turned away again. Leaves and branches crunched under his feet as he walked away. The sounds grew fainter and fainter, as if the silence was rushing back in to cover his tracks. Just before he disappeared from view, he turned back one more time and waved. I waved too. A few seconds later he was a smudge in the trees, and then it was like he’d never been there at all.