Where Things Come Back Chapter 13

The Simplest Thing in the World

• Cullen, along with the rest of his family, Lucas, and Mena, is standing in the middle of a field while Vilonia insists that Gabriel is buried beneath them. Everyone looks pretty grim.
• He goes to sit in the truck with his mom and Mena while his dad and Lucas pull out some shovels and start digging; all the while, Cullen imagines Gabriel walking out of that dirt hole, completely fine.
• After Lucas and Cullen's dad have dug a huge hole, though, they don't find Gabriel at all. It turns out that Vilonia was wrong, and everyone is pretty peeved at her for making them believe that Gabriel was dead and buried.
• When Cullen sees Ada again, he asks her about Russell Quitman, and she says that he's still in a hospital in Florida.
• Before Lucas moved to Lily and became Cullen's friend, Cullen pretty much spent all of his time either alone or with Gabriel. And now with Gabriel gone, Cullen can't seem to fill the hole that his brother left behind—he's even wearing his brother's t-shirts all the time.
• He hears a knock on the door and finds that Libby, Gabriel's best friend, is waiting outside. They talk about Gabriel and Cullen hugs her, even though he doesn't like to hug people other than Ada.
• Lucas decides that Cullen and Ada are going to go on a double date with him and Mena one night. Before the date, though, Ada calls him and asks him point blank whether or not he slept with Alma; he admits that he did before he started dating Ada.
• At the drive-in, Ada just won't let it go. She wants to know more and more about Alma and whether or not they were in love, so Cullen asks her to define their relationship, but she avoids the topic.
• When he tells her that he's in love with her, she denies it and says that he's not. After he sleeps over at Ada's house, she tells him that he has to sneak out the window and walk home before her mom gets up—even though it's a whole four miles away.
• They don't talk for three days, but when they do she says that she's sorry about kicking him out and that next time they'll have to find a better place to get it on.