Lost in Cyberspace Read Free

three months and a week, and usually called Sunday nights. I hadn’t gotten around to mentioning it to anybody. I didn’t even like mentioning it to myself.
    â€œYour mom’s getting some help around the house now your dad’s left and she’s going back to work at Barnes Ogleby?”
    I stared. “Aaron, how do you know my dad’s—not around? How do you have access to all this personal data about my family?”
    â€œVince. The doorman. Day shift. Doormen know it all. Who’s there. Who’s not. What we eat, because they see the grocery deliveries. Your mom’s not having the groceries delivered anymore. She’s cutting down expenses by carrying them home. Doormen read our mail.”
    â€œThey read our mail?”
    â€œThe envelopes. How else could they sort them? Your dad’s writing from a 60611 zip code. Chicago, right? You people ought to get E-mail.”
    â€œIt’s just a trial separation,” I said, though I wasn’t too sure about that. Maybe I should ask Vince.
    â€œIs it a French au pair or a German one?” Aaron asked. “Because they’ll try to teach you the language. Bonjour, mes enfants; Guten Tag,Kinder —that kind of thing.”
    â€œEnglish,” I said, “but our apartment is filling up with women.”
    I didn’t have to say I wanted Dad back. Aaron could figure that out. His dad and mom are together. But his mom is his dad’s third wife, so you never know.
    Â 
    The field trip shot the day. We only went back to Huckley to catch our buses home. Mom was already there when I came in.
    â€œI got the job,” she said. She was in jeans and a sweatshirt, clearing everything out of Dad’s old den. He hadn’t taken much but his computer and fax. I thought that was a good sign. But now Mom was sweeping clean. She was dusting Dad’s empty shelves.
    â€œWhat a long face,” she said, fingering my chin. “It’s just for now, Josh. Really. I’m tidying things away so we can put Fenella in here. We’ve always used it as a guest room anyway. Think of Fenella as a—helpful guest. She’ll be good for Heather. Heather needs a ... role model.”
    So Fenella was nearer than I knew.
    Â 
    I dreamed that night, big-time and nonstop. It was about Aaron and me at the Natural History Museum. It was us, but it wasn’t exactly the museum. It was actual Mesozoic times. We weren’t wearing anything except blue-and-white Huckley ties, which is typical of my dreams. As we trudged along through the swamp, mud and twigs seeped between our toes.
    â€œPrimeval ooze,” the dream Aaron said.
    Volcanoes were erupting in the distance. Some really scary things were flying around on webbed wings. All my dreams are colorized. Aaron was eating a carrot. When he clutched my dream arm, we took cover under a plant with giant leaves.
    A huge, long-necked, small-headed shadow fell over us. It blotted out the sky. Aaron and I grabbed each other. The leaf we were hiding under turned transparent. And this dinosaur spotted us. Its head wasn’t so small anymore. A snaky neck coiled, and it was coming down at us, and it was all teeth.
    â€œTyrannosaurus Regina,” Aaron whispered. “Cretaceous period. Meat-eater.”
    Now its eyes were zeroing in on me. And its face was changing. Now it was half-human with big brown eyes.
    â€œMy name is Fenella,” it said. “Think of me as a helpful guest.” Then its jaws opened wide.
    That was enough to knock me out of bed. I fought my way up toward being awake. It’s a long way from the Mesozoic Era. But I was nearly there. I could feel the sheet twisted under me. And I had on my pajamas, which is more than I was wearing in the dream.
    I wasn’t alone, though. Somehow Heather had horned in on my dream. But I was moving faster than she was. Her shoes were slowing her down.

3
    The Club Scene
    â€œLet’s put our best feet