“David!” I said, grabbing at his presence like a lifeline, willing the strangeness of the last few minutes to resolve into something ordinary.

“Oh, I’m so glad it’s you.

Can you please tell me where Marcus is?

Everyone here is acting so oddly, I’m starting to worry.” David did not smile.

He searched my face, his eyes moving over it as though he were looking for something, some sign of how much I knew, and I watched him find his answer there, in my confusion, in the lunchbox held so hopefully in my hand.

I watched him understand that I knew nothing at all.