Are We There Yet? (24 page)

With that, she jets off again. Danny's gaze follows her— sure enough, she is handing the cap and jacket back to a shirtsleeved older man.

Elijah keeps hearing Danny's words—
Well, maybe she should
be. He wonders if it could really be that simple. If something so obvious could actually be right.

“Elijah! Danny!” Their mother is calling them now. She, too, is beaming.

“C'mon,” Danny says. Elijah picks up his bag and continues down the arrival pathway.

After the hellos, the thank yous begin. The word “trickery” does not come up. Danny doesn't even think it anymore.

When Mrs. Silver asks her sons what their favorite part of the trip was, they overlap and finish each other's sentences.

“Oh, it had to be—”

“The Pantheon was the most incredible—”

“—thing I've—”

“—
we've
—”

“—ever seen. You wouldn't—”

“You wouldn't believe it.”

Mrs. Silver and Mr. Silver share a knowing look.

Elijah and Danny continue on—the telling makes them realize what a good time they've had. Danny talks about gondoliers and Joseph and meeting Ari again, while Elijah tells them about the balcony over St. Mark's Square, the floors and the ceilings, and the woman on the plane ride over who once met Billy Corgan. Julia is not mentioned—she is, momentarily, forgotten.

Mr. Silver asks if all the hotels were okay. Mrs. Silver asks if they had a chance to see the synagogues.

Elijah and Cal walk arm in arm as they all head to the garage. The conversation falls back onto the usual post-vacation topics—what the weather was like here, what the weather was like there, what's been on the news. Cal clearly has other news to tell Elijah, but it will have to wait for the car ride home.

Danny overhears her telling Elijah that Ivan and Meg had a falling-out in the middle of ballroom dance, and the implications are
huge.

Finally, they reach the point where Cal's car is one direction and the Silvers' is the other.

Mr. and Mrs. Silver's desire to have Cal and Elijah over for dinner is overruled by their desire to have them drive home before sundown. Plus, Elijah has to be at work early the next day. (“Early” being ten o'clock.)

Elijah says thank you again and again. He hugs his mother and father…as does Cal. Then he comes over to Danny, and the two of them shake hands.

“Give me a break,” Cal moans.

“Tell me about it,” Mrs. Silver puts in.

Elijah and Danny laugh and go for a hug. They hold on longer than either would have expected. When they let go, they thank each other and smile.

“Good luck.”

“You, too.”

Then, with a wave, Cal and Elijah walk away.

Danny watches them go—arm in arm, fading into the garage.

As Elijah walks back into the land of the student, with its late-night coffee conversations and application anxieties, and as Danny returns to his voice-mail, e-mail, direct-deposit, pulsedriven existence, Danny wonders when he'll next see his brother. And what it will be like.

There is the distance of miles, and the distance of brothers, to overcome. He can feel the world coming between them again. But the world is so much smaller than it used to be.