So, no. Jen didn’t even feel bad about the omission.
（Maybe she felt a little bad.）
“I love this,” Colin said about the abstract triptych.
“Came with the house,” Jen said. “It’s a mountain.” Janine had informed Jen of that, and also that Melissa Stoller had ordered the piece from a SoHo gallery.
“Can I show Colin Foxhole?” Abe said.
“Please,” Colin said, “I’ve heard so much about it and Holla123.”
“I’ll go summon him,” Abe said.
After Abe bounded upstairs, Jen said, “Please let me know if Holla123 turns out to be a creepy fifty-year-old man.”
“What?” Colin’s face was stricken.
“No, no.” Jen sometimes forgot how to act with people who weren’t Paul. “It was a joke in very poor taste, mostly about how Paul and I should be a little more careful supervising Abe’s online time. Holla123 is a kid from Michigan. Seems sweet enough. So, it’s going okay? At school?”
“Abe is a great addition.”
“He is?”
“Are you surprised?” Colin’s brow crinkled. He raked his hair behind his ears.
“I’ve never seen him so…” Jen reached for a word that wouldn’t make Abe sound like a total freak. “He’s usually not a fan of big group activities like Fall Fest.”
“Maybe he’s been overwhelmed at other schools? He’s a really good fit with Kingdom. It’s small, which for a kid like Abe can be much easier to navigate.”
“A kid like Abe?”
“Anxious,” Colin said. “Shy. Into his passions. I didn’t mean to assume anything—”
“No, no,” Jen said, “that’s Abe.”
“Creating a five-level video game from scratch is pretty ambitious, but I have every faith he’ll do it.”
“I thought it was supposed to be ten-level.”
Colin grinned. “We’re in negotiations.”
“I bumped into Nan the other day,” Jen said, “and she quoted a psalm that I think was about patience? I worried it meant he wasn’t fitting in.”
Colin bit his lip. “Nan is amazing, but sometimes … I don’t know … the psalms are a little—”
“Vague,” Jen said diplomatically. Inside, she was screaming, Yes, exactly!
“Abe is doing fine. I was like him when I was younger—you know, other kids didn’t know what to do with me—and I would have thrived at a place like Kingdom.”
“Abe might have something called conduct disorder,” Jen said. “We’re still figuring it out.”
“What’s that?”
“He has to work a little harder than others to learn empathy and consequences.”
“Oh.” Colin shrugged. “Doesn’t that describe like half of the people in the world?”
“It might.” Jen smiled.
“I don’t mean to make light. People are complicated, though.” Colin swallowed roughly and forced a smile, but it was wistful. “And folks sure do love their labels.”
“Don’t they just,” Jen said.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
The weather for Fall Fest was aggressively perfect: sunny with a razor of chill in the air. Annie and the other second-grade parents were clustered in front of the gazebo for the best views of their children, who were being ushered up the steps by their teacher, Mrs. Jalonski.
Hank waved at Annie and she waved back.
“Annie, Hank’s bow tie is adorable.”
“Where did you all find such bright green pants? Seriously, all I could find for Finn was that drab olive, poor guy.”
“Finn looks great,” Annie said with a half glance toward the stage. She scanned the crowd for Laurel and her friends. “All of them do.”
Mrs. Jalonski approached the microphone, tapped it once officiously, and delivered the annual warning about how all applause must wait until after the entire performance.
“I love you, Fall Fest,” a lone voice shrieked from over by the river. “Woo-hoo!”
Light laughter rippled through the crowd. Someone whooped. The two square speakers in the gazebo’s corners crackled and, as if they were zombies controlled by a hive mind, the second-grade parents lifted their phones and pointed their cameras at the stage.
The background music blared through the town square.
Form the corn, form, form the corn.
The moves were pretty simple—jazz hands extended overhead, kick ball change, turn to the side, repeat. Hank was better than a lot of his classmates, Annie noticed with a surprised pride. One of Mike’s sisters had majored in dance in college, and Annie made a mental note to send her the video, ask if Hank was as good as she suspected.