When I opened my eyes again, everything was calm. Everything was resting and quiet and still. Except my arm hurt really bad. There was a bathtub over my head. Adam was sitting next to me. And someone else was sitting next to him. Someone large – or not a kid, anyway. I couldn't see him because it was kind of dark, so I elbowed Adam.

"Ow!" he cried. "What are you doing, Cole?"

"Trying to wake you up!"

"Fine! I'm awake." I heard him groan. "Geez, my arm hurts."

"Mine too," I said, trying to pull my left arm up to look at it. Then I realized it was sort of stuck under the edge of the tub. "This stupid tub is sitting on my arm."

Adam shifted around a little. "Yeah. Same here."

"What the heck are we doing under a bathtub anyway?"

"Somebody pulled us here."

I nudged him and dropped my voice to a whisper. "It's that guy there . . . next to you."

Adam hadn't known somebody else was under there with us. We were scrunched up enough as it was, with our knees against our chests and one of each of our arms stuck under the side of the tub. So how that other guy was under there too was kind of unclear. I think his legs were on the outside.

"Wake him up!" I whispered.

Adam looked at me like I was nuts. I could see his wide eyes even with how dim it was. "You!"

"I can't," I said in aggravation. "He's sitting next to you." He still wasn't budging. "Come on. Don't be such a chicken. He saved our lives, probably."

Adam sighed. "Fine. But I'm not doing any talking. You can talk." I rolled my eyes but didn't say anything rude.

Adam gave the guy a little shove, but to both of our surprise, he said, "I'm already awake. I've just been listening." Neither of us knew what to say. The man, whose face was shadowy, went on. "Let's get out from under here, all right?" Then, with the kind of strength that a grown man would have (and Adam's and my muscles combined wouldn't), the guy heaved up his shoulders and hoisted the tub off of us. Our arms were released and both of us started checking to make sure they still worked. When I looked around, I saw that we were sitting in the bathroom of room number fourteen at the Coach Motel. The light overhead was buzzing, trying to fully turn itself back on. It made things look creepy and dark. The man opened the bathroom door and motioned for Adam and me to head out.

When we saw the motel room, the three of us gaped. The place was pretty much demolished. Bright, summer morning sunlight shone over the boards of torn-down walls and the empty bed frame. Who knew where the mattress had flown off to. The TV was still, strangely, standing in the same place, and it was working. The news was on, and the weather man was blabbering about the tornado damage that had occurred throughout the night. It was the weirdest thing ever.

I knew we had to thank the guy who'd shoved us under the tub. Looking up at him, I saw his face for the first time. It was narrow and long, with dark eyes and a thin smile. His hair was dark and kind of shaggy, and he was wearing faded jeans and a wind-breaker. He looked very nice, actually, like a really nice guy. Someone who would swerve off the road to avoid running over a chipmunk. I didn't feel too nervous to talk to him.

"Hey," I said, holding out my hand. "My name is Cole. Thanks for helping us. We'd probably be flying through the air if you hadn't come."

He shook my hand, and I liked his shake. It was real. "You're welcome, Cole."

Adam was surveying the guy with a skeptical expression. He didn't seem to trust him. "How did you know we were in here? Were you just in the area or something?"

The man turned to look at Adam, and a very faint smile crossed his face. "No, Adam. I was told you were here."

"Yeah?" scowled my friend, crossing his arms and standing with his weight on one foot like he was too cool. That was the Adam I was used to. "What, did Troy tell you, too? Jerk. He keeps a secret like a girl."

I raised my eyebrows at Adam's boldness. The guy probably thought he was a snob. Then something odd occurred to me. The man had just said Adam's name. Adam hadn't said it to him, and I couldn't remember saying my friend's name under the tub. So how did the guy know it? I didn't have a chance to question him, though.

"No," the man said to Adam with a smiling laugh. "Troy told your mother after he told your friend, there. Your mother told me, and I wasn't far. So I came."

Adam's attitude totally changed. He widened his eyes and dropped his arms. "How do you know my mom?" he hissed.

Instead of answering, the man stepped closer to Adam. I noticed something kind of weird was going on, so I moved a few steps farther back. Whatever was happening, it didn't involve me. When he was only a foot away from Adam, the guy looked hard at him. "I'm in with love your mother."

Something jumped into Adam's face. It looked like anger. "Wait a second . . . you're Ted Barnes, aren't you? You're the one who's been sending her stuff! You leave my mother alone, get it? Or you'll have me to deal with!"

"You're half right," the man said. Then, he lifted his hands and put them around Adam's face. I could see my friend. He was entirely confused. He didn't know what to do. The guy caught sight of the nearly-severed ear. When he touched it, Adam winced. "What did you do to yourself?" asked the man with concern.

Adam gulped. "I . . . I t-tried to p-pierce it."

Shaking his head, the man said to him, "With what, a hatchet?"

I almost laughed, but I held myself back. They seemed to have forgotten I was there. Then, to my complete surprise, I heard Adam reply, "I know. It was stupid."

That instant, I knew I'd been right about Ted Barnes. I wasn't sure Adam got it quite then, but it didn't matter. He knew that the person standing there holding his face in his hands was someone he'd been waiting his whole life to see. Someone he'd been dreaming would walk back through the front door of his house. Someone he'd been desperately trying to make up for. Someone whom he needed now more than at any other time. Someone who would never be leaving again.

Mr. Nyler drove Adam and me from the Coach Motel back into the dusty town of Goldenrock. Fortunately, not too much damage had been done there. Most of the strong winds had hit along the highway, which was why our motel had been busted up pretty badly. I was dropped off at my house first. My mom and dad were so glad to see me. Dad yelled at me for running off, but I knew it was a loving yell. I never thought my mother would let go of me; her hug was so tight. Corey told me never to do that again and punched me hard in the arm. Even Scuzz brushed up against my leg with a purr, and this time, I didn't have the heart to kick him away. They wanted to hear everything that had happened, so I told them most of it. I left out everything about Adam's writing and the stories, since that would be too complicated and personal to talk about anyway. There were a lot of parts I still didn't know, though. I'd have to wait to hear from Adam again before I could understand everything.

A day or so after the whole tornado-motel incident, I was just sitting in my room reading when there was a knock on the door and Corey came in. He looked all nervous, like he was afraid I'd yell at him for being in my territory. Yeah, right. I was too full of other ideas to worry about his trespassing.

"What are you doing?" he asked, hovering by the door.

I was lying on my bed and peering at him over the top of my magazine. "What does it look like?"

"Reading."

"Nice guess, Einstein."

Normally Corey would've told me to shut up or shot back some rude response, but he didn't this time. He just stared at me. I couldn't take his quiet, so I tossed my magazine and sat up.

"Corey, what do you want?" There was clear annoyance in my tone.

He inched inward. "I just wanted to tell you something."

"Fine—so tell me."

My brother was a little more confident. He took several steps into the room and plopped himself on the foot of my bed. I hardly ever saw him acting like a scared little brother. He was always tougher-than-Cole Corey, who played football like a small bull and had enough friends to fill a school bus. As he sat there looking down at his fingers, a frown on his perfect face, I was actually reminded of Adam. Adam, who was always too cool in front of everybody except (once in a while) me. It kind of hit me that my brother and friend were more alike than either they or I knew. Maybe that was why I got so easily frustrated with Corey and always felt like Adam needed someone looking out for him.

"Remember when I said I turned in Adam when our house was TP'd?" Corey had this guilty expression on his face. I just nodded to keep him talking. "Well," he went on, "I said I had a reason, but you never let me tell it to you."

"It doesn't matter now, Corey," I broke in.

He sighed. "I know, but I just wanted to tell you so you don't think I was making it up."

I didn't think he'd made it up, not anymore. Not after everything that had happened. In fact, I had a pretty good idea of what his reason was, even though he hadn't told it to me. Still, I didn't want to upset him, so I just let him say what he felt he had to.

"I woke up in the middle of that night, and I looked out the window. Guess who was standing practically right under it?"

"Who?" I already knew the answer.

"Adam. He was just standing there, and he had a notepad and a pencil and he was just . . . there, in the middle of the night, under my window. He didn't see me. I didn't know what he was doing. But he was there for a long time, and it kind of weirded me out. So I just went back to bed, and the next morning, when I saw all that stuff, I just figured it was him that did it. Why would he have been there? And who else would want to do that? I thought maybe you made Adam mad and he just wanted to play a prank on you or something. You know, because friends can be pretty stupid like that sometimes."

I didn't exactly know what to say to my brother. I knew he was telling the truth, but after what the Ham had told me, I'd pretty much figured things out on my own.

"I'm sorry, all right?" added Corey. "I just thought I could do it without you knowing. After I told mom what I saw, she said I had to call. She said it didn't matter who it was, they still needed to know it wasn't that funny of a joke."

"It's ok," I said fast, not wanting to talk about it anymore. "I really don't care anymore. Just don't tell Adam that you were the one who called him in."

Corey shrugged a yes. "So . . . you think his dad will stay?"

It was my turn to shrug, even though I felt the answer in me. "Don't know for sure." I leaned in closer to Corey and lowered my voice. "All I can say is, why would the guy come back after ten years just to turn around and leave again?"

He thought about that for a minute. "Yeah. Guess that's true. Why'd he come?"

Another raising and lowering of the shoulders from me. Corey didn't know what else to ask me. He sort of chewed on his lip for a minute, then slid off the mattress and onto the floor. Then he turned and started for the door, but before he could leave, I said, "Hey. There's something I want to show you later."

That sparked his curiosity. "What?"

He was looking back over his shoulder at me as I said, "A tree house. It's really awesome. Adam and I found it, and I think you'd like it."

"A tree house?" For a minute he seemed skeptical, but then he grinned. "All right. Cool. Why can't you show me now?"

"Because I'd rather take you there later."

"Ok." He stepped out into the hall. "Oh. And Cole?"

"Yeah?"

Corey glanced at me out of the corners of his eyes. He hesitated for half-a-minute, then said kind of short, "Love you."

I didn't act surprised, even though I felt that way. That might've embarrassed him. All I said was, "Love you, too."

"But don't tell anybody," Corey added. "Especially mom or dad."

I placed my right hand on my heart and held my left in the air. "I swear."

Still smiling, he closed the door behind him. Sitting there on my bed, I wondered if that kid had actually been my obnoxious brother or if a robot clone had replaced the real Corey. Even though my head wondered that, though, I knew the truth, and it actually felt good to know.