Saaaay hiiiiiiii!” Alex’s voice fluttered up and down with his hands, which gestured like those of a game-show girl revealing the prize behind curtain number one. Standing in the kitchen doorway, Reef felt like anything but a prize. More like a contestant who’d wandered into a freak show by mistake and couldn’t get out without answering a skill-testing question. The only problem was that nobody knew what the question was, just the penalty for losing: The Next Twelve Months Of Your Life. “Hi, Reef.” The combined greetings from the four other people in the kitchen sounded false, like the singsongy welcome a bunch of preschoolers might give someone new at daycare. Three had barely glanced up, while a short kid, who looked like he belonged in daycare himself, ignored him completely. He sat at the kitchen counter staring at the back of a Cheerios box while slowly shoveling spoonful after spoonful of the soggy circles into his mouth, milk dribbling down his chin. Before coming back downstairs.
