– Yeah. Hell yeah. I mean, no. I mean, really, I cant stand the things. Make me crazy.

– Why?

She folded her arms.

– I want to know why. You better not just be trying to get me to hang around longer.

I laughed.

– Well, theyre loud and they smell. They get in the way. And theyre really kind of ugly.

She smiled.

I took this as encouragement and kept talking, something thats rarely gone well for me in my life.

– And theyre haunted.

She raised her eyebrows.

I raised a hand.

– No, no. Really. This is so strange. I dont know. Just this thing. Kind of started. Something happened and I started not liking them.

She laughed. Sort of.

– Because theyre haunted?

I rubbed the spot between my eyes and squinted.

– Yeah, OK. Urn, let me think.

– Youre lying. Youre so trying to sucker me.

– No, Im not.

– You totally are. Youre trying to think of something funny to say. You are fucking with me and you are so busted.

I laughed again.

– No. Its just that its complicated and I sometimes, I dont know, forget exactly how.

I looked up at the sky outside the window.

A piece of it snapped off and dropped and hit me on the head.

And it was all there again, the whole thing, back in my head, one picture, entire. No longer broken into the little fragments I liked to keep it scattered in. Fragments hidden on ghost buses cruising L.A. Freighters of lost things. But not of me.

I looked at Soledad, whod just helped me to put it all together again.

And I thought, How kind of her.

– No, I got it! Yeah, huh, its funny. You know. Because, its not like I forgot. Its more like I think about it all the time. So I kind of forget its there. Like white noise?

She tilted her head.

– Web?

– Yeah, funny thing. Totally fucked up, but funny in a distinctly not ha-ha way.

– Web. Hey.

– Weird how I had to think really hard to remember the… details? Details. Yeah.

– Are you OK?

– Yeah, Im fine. So I was on this bus. I was teaching. I was a teacher before. Did I tell you that? I was. My dad always wanted me to be a teacher. Well, not always, but thats a long story. So I was a teacher. And I was on a bus. With my class. Fifth grade. Ten- and eleven-year-olds. Great age for kids, I think. Because theyre really coming into their own as people, but the hormones havent gone entirely berserk yet. Theyre mostly still kids. So my class and two other classes a little younger are on this bus. Its a field trip. Remember those?

– Sure.

– Yeah. This was cool. Did you grow up in L.A.? Cuz when you grow up in L.A., when I was a kid anyway, you always, sooner or later, you always go up to the Griffith Observatory. The planetarium. But it had been closed for renovations for like a year. Then it reopened. So we were going. Id had to twist arms to make it happen. Field trips are a major production these days. So we were going. And were riding in the bus. Lalalala. Kids talking, yelling, texting to the kid in the seat next to them. Kids in the back of the bus shoving each other and playing with toys theyre not supposed to have because they start fights over them. Im walking the aisle, talking to kids. Talking to this kid Tameka. Cute girl. Shes pissed at one of her friends over this hat shes been wearing that no one else had, but now her friend is wearing the same hat and she doesnt understand how her friend could bite off her style like that. And we were talking about that. So then. Urn. Crap. What happened then? Oh, yeah, man, how could I forget this part? So then, yeah, theres like a noise, like, like, like when you dent a soda can and pop it back out. But louder. Theres a couple sounds like that. And someone screamed for the driver to stop. Crap, who was that? Oh, oh yeah, it was me. So I screamed for her to stop. And she did. And the kids. Some ran for the door. But I told them to get on the floor. Under their seats. And most of them did. Then I thought, Crcif, we should get out of here. Or did I yell it? Anyway, I yelled at the driver to drive away. But she was on the floor, too. Aaaaand. There were sirens. And a helicopter. And it happened really fast. But pretty soon there were cops and they came on the bus and got the kids off. And they tried to get me off. But, you know, I really didnt want to leave Tameka behind? So they had to kind of, pry me loose from her. Embarrassing, kind of. And then, well, that was kind of it. Except that there was a real mess in there, in the bus. Man, I had stuff all over me. Dont know how I got those clothes clean. No, thats right, Chev threw them out. And, what happened was there was some kind of thing, some thing on the street between some guys who had a beef with each other, never found out about what. So, bullets were exchanged. Obviously some hit the bus. So. Thats what hit Tameka. Thats why it was such a mess in there. Aaaaanyway thats why I guess I dont like buses. Funny, right? That Id forget something like that? So thanks, you know, for pushing the point, really digging into me and getting me to stir all that up. Because, you know, I clearly havent been doing enough to keep people at arms distance and its a good reminder to me to tell you to get the fuck out of here.

– Web? Web, are you OK?

I looked at her from under the bed where Id crawled and curled into a ball.

– GETTHEFUCKOUT!

And she did. And I felt tired. So I went to sleep.

– Motherfucker!

I opened my eyes and looked up at the extremely pissed off giant standing over me holding one edge of the bed off the ground and threatening to stomp on my head.

– Motherfucker, are you high?

I shook my head, looked around the sun-filled office.

– No. What? No. I dont even do drugs.

He hefted the bed.

– Get the hell out of there before I drop this thing.

I scrambled out and stood in my T and underwear, jeans clutched in my hands.

– Urn.

Po Sin dropped the bed.

– Jesus, Web, what the hell?

I slid one leg into my jeans.

– No, Im fine, I was just sleeping. I sleep a lot.

He shook his head.

– You sleep a lot? You sleep like the fucking dead, is what you do. I was yelling, running around yelling your name for five minutes. Saw you under the bed, I freaked out. Oh, shit, Webs fucked up. Almost had a heart attack. And I dont mean that figuratively.

He squinted at me.

– You sure youre not high?

I buttoned my fly and looked at him.

– Man, I smoked grass once when I was eleven and got so paranoid I thought the air was trying to kill me. Only time I ever got high. I hate drugs. I never do drugs.

He licked his lips.

– OK. Fine. Then help me with something here.

He walked to the outer door and swung it open and pointed at the empty parking spot out back.

– Help me and tell me where the fuck my van is.

I took a step toward the door.

– I.I.I.

He nodded.

– Yeah, and when you figure out the answer to that one, you can tell me this.

He unballed one huge fist and showed me the pair of blue panties in his palm.

– Who the fuck do these belong to and why are they in my office?

The thing about getting beat up twice, spending big chunks of time cleaning up other peoples blood, seeing your dad for the first time in two years, getting in a fight with your best friend, and having sex with someone you think you might really like a lot and then totally going psycho on her, all in a twenty-four-hour period, is that its likely to affect your judgment. And if your judgment is pretty much for shit to start with, that may result in some spectacularly lame lies.

Im not saying its cool or anything.