Chapter 9: Tradd Street

I called Ollie with my hand shaking.

He picked up on the first ring. Behind him, somebody was chanting.

"I know," he said. "I'm looking at them through the blinds."

"Is Benji okay?"

"He's in the bathtub with the stegosaurus and no water, eating dry cereal. He thinks it's a fort."

Ollie lowered his voice.

"Fee, a lady just held a sign up to the kitchen window. It has his face on it."

Jameson was already pressing the elevator button.

"Where are you?" he said.

"Sullivan's Island. A rental."

"I'll drive."

The cottage was yellow with white shutters and a porch full of strangers.

Two police cars sat at the curb with their lights turning slowly.

The signs said WE LOVE YOU CRUMB and CLONE DAD AND SON and one said, in glitter, FATE IS REAL.

A woman with a toddler on her hip spotted me getting out of Jameson's car.

"It's her! Fee! Fee, is he here?"

The whole porch turned.

Phones came up.

Jameson walked around the car and put himself between me and the porch.

He didn't say anything to them. He just stood there, very tall, and walked me up the steps.

People moved out of his way without knowing why.

Ollie opened the door before we knocked.

Benji came running down the hall in his pajamas, then remembered his glue and slowed to a shuffle.

"Mommy! We have a fort and also a parade!"

"I saw, baby."

Jameson crouched down in the hallway so they were eye to eye.

"Hello again."

"Clone!" Benji held up the stegosaurus. "There's people outside who like me."

"They do," Jameson said. "They're very loud about it."

"Are they a parade?"

"They're more of a crowd."

Benji looked thoughtful. "I think I like parades better."

We packed in nine minutes.

The officers walked us out the back door to the truck and Jameson's car.

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