And that shut them up. They all regarded him, as if waiting for him to go on. He didn’t know what to say. Were they, really? Was he? Was he better?
“What are we, Alan?” Edward said it, but Frederick and George mouthed the words after he’d said them.
“You’re my brothers,” he said. “You’re …”
“I want to see the city,” George said. “You two can come with me, or you can meet me when I come back.”
“You can’t go without us,” Frederick said. “What if we get hungry?”
“You mean, what if I don’t come back, right?”
“No,” Frederick said, his face turning red.
“Well, how hungry are you going to get in a couple hours? You’re just worried that I’m going to wander off and not come back. Fall into a hole. Meet a girl. Get drunk. And you won’t ever be able to eat again.” He was pacing again.
Ed and Fred looked imploringly at him.
“Why don’t we all go together?” Alan said. “We’ll go out and do something fun—how about ice-skating?”