Chapter 46

Randall lay down on the floor, without a blanket or pillow. I watched him cross his arms behind his head and look at the ceiling, fixedly—like someone could see the sky beyond the concrete slab. The bedroom window seemed closed, and I didn’t want to open it, fearing another killer insect might enter, like the one from the forest. Plus, the rain— though it wasn’t raining now—I didn’t want to be caught off guard at dawn.

“Do you think he was serious about the multiverse?” I asked quietly, more to myself than to Randall.

He turned his head to look at me. “I don’t know what a multiverse is.”

I giggled.

“Sorry. It’s just that the way he was talking, you seemed to absorb everything, and I don’t always remember that you weren’t raised with the same basic teachings as I was. Your human carcass deceives very well.”

Randall laughed.

“If you, who are human, couldn’t understand anything he said, imagine how I felt. Just a brainless brute. I’ve never heard any