The Mysterious Disappearance of Aidan S. (as told to his brother) by David Levithan

Author:David Levithan [Levithan, David]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Published: 2021-02-02T00:00:00+00:00

* * *

—

Aidan sequestered himself in the den again with the TV. I stayed in our room. When I heard footsteps in the attic, I couldn’t ignore them. I went upstairs and found Aunt Brandi standing in front of the dresser.

“I just had to see it,” she said when I walked up next to her. “It’s so…ordinary. You know, there are things in this attic that belonged to my grandparents—that chest over there was actually my great-grandparents’, which would make them your great-great-grandparents. It’s traveled the world, been through wars. And that dusty lime-green couch in that corner, under all that stuff? That was from your parents’ first apartment. Your mother would never dream of sitting on something so dusty, but she’s never going to get rid of it, because it was one of the first things that was theirs together.” She turned back to Aidan’s dresser. “But this thing? It has no history. Your mom bought it in a store. There are probably thousands out there just like it.”

“Do you think they all lead to Aveinieu?” I asked.

Aunt Brandi hiccupped a laugh. “I doubt it. If that were true, I imagine we would have heard a lot more about Aveinieu by now.”

“So how does it work?”

“I don’t know. I don’t even know if there’s a way for us to know. There’s definitely no way for Aidan to know. If what he says happened really happened, it’s far beyond our science and our language. If we’re lucky, we can know the what. But the how and the why? This dresser has about as much of a chance of explaining that to us as Aidan does.”

“Aidan keeps saying we can’t understand.”

“He’s right. But that doesn’t mean he understands it. None of us can understand it. Some people will accept that. Other people won’t. They get scared by things they don’t understand. Those are the people to be careful around. But they don’t get to dictate our reality.”

Aunt Brandi took a deep breath and sighed it out. Then she touched the side of the dresser as if she was touching the shoulder of an old friend.

“I told your parents I could stay, help out. Call in sick from work for a few days, or work from here. But they don’t see any reason for me to be here. They think they can handle it on their own. I think they’re wrong, but I respect that I don’t get a vote. Still, they can’t stop me from telling you to call me—anytime, any hour. I will drop anything to come back here for you and Aidan. Because you know what, Lucas?”

“What?” I asked.

Aunt Brandi sighed again. “There’s nothing we can do about it…but I guarantee you, tomorrow’s really going to suck.”

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