The Bad Weather Friend

After his father’s murder, Benny’s mother, Naomi, sends him to live with his grandmother Cosima and then uses her husband’s life insurance to cruise around the world. Though Benny is only seven years old, Cosima takes pleasure in making him miserable. She forces him to wear only black. Even his bedroom is decorated in black. Because he is intelligent and has already taught himself to read, she homeschools him, devoting much of his education to gruesome lessons about death. She is frustrated when Benny is neither horrified nor depressed by this approach. Benny maintains the optimistic view that if there were a better way for the world to run, it would be put into practice. Two years later, Naomi returns with her new husband, Jubal Catspaw, and takes Benny away.

In the present, Benny tries to find a new job. He contacts every real-estate agency in the region, certain that someone will hire him. He leaves many messages and emails, and he is surprised when he has not received any responses by that evening. He decides that everyone must be busy. In the morning, he still has no responses.

The freight delivery arrives, leaving Benny with an enormous crate in his garage. Benny realizes that he must buy tools to break down the crate. Before going to the hardware store, Benny checks his messages again. He still has no responses, but he pushes back his rising anxiety and tells himself that all is well “in this best of all possible worlds” (64).

The narrative shifts to the past, explaining that Naomi met Jubal on one of her cruises. Jubal is rich and spends his time cruising around the world. Benny is happy for his mother. Jubal and Naomi travel again, leaving Benny in the care of a full-time tutor named Mordred Merrick, who seems capable of murder.

Mordred uses marijuana, praises the “superhero status of Fidel Castro” (66), and believes that children should take notes on their parents’ political affiliations for reference when the revolution comes. The only bright spot in Benny’s life comes when he realizes that he is a piano prodigy and can play any song after hearing it only once. However, Mordred has bad memories of a piano teacher in his childhood and threatens to kill anyone who plays the piano.

Naomi and Jubal return for Benny’s 13th birthday. The next day, they send him to Briarbush Academy, a boarding school in the mountains of Northern California that caters to rich families and prepares the leaders of the future. The headmaster, Dr. Lionel Baneberry-Smith, and his wife, Catherine Baneberry-Smith, welcome Benny warmly. Mrs. Baneberry-Smith was an entomologist who quit her job after a spider bite in Asia left her hospitalized for three months. Now, she helps at Briarbush and teaches history. Benny is glad to be free of Mordred. He feels optimistic about his new life until he meets his roommate.

The narrative returns to the present. Benny returns from the hardware store and breaks down the wooden crate. Inside the crate sits a silver-gray steel container about eight feet long and over three feet wide. It reminds Benny of a casket. He touches the lid and feels something like static electricity. He cannot find a way to open it. He taps it with a hammer, and the bell-like ring startles him, so he leaves the container in the garage and walks inside.

Benny recalls that Clerkenwell’s video urged him not to be afraid, even though it may seem that he should be. Benny tends to trust people even when he should not. Though he is unsettled by the crate, he decides to trust that Clerkenwell has good intentions.

He checks his messages again. He has an email from his banker, with whom he was working out a deal to buy and flip houses. The email says that the mortgage has been denied but offers no further explanation. When Benny calls to discuss the matter, the secretary claims never to have heard of him.

Feeling stressed, Benny goes for a jog. As he runs, he repeats his mantra that “all [is] for the best in this best of all possible worlds” (76). Eventually, he returns home and sees that his kitchen has been ransacked. Because the front and back doors are still locked, Benny surmises that whoever has broken into his home must still be there. He fears that it could be a whole team of burglars.

Benny does not own a gun. When he was 13, he learned that his old tutor, Mordred, had attacked teenagers at a boyband concert, shooting nine girls and killing three. Now, Benny retrieves a can of pepper spray and walks through his house. When he finds nothing, he turns to the garage, where he discovers that the steel container has been replaced by an intricately carved wooden box of the same size. The sides are decorated with ornate illustrations of jungles, cityscapes, and people running from something. Suddenly, Benny falls into the scene and watches as men run by him, fleeing from something he cannot see. A voice says, “I’ve come for you” (82), and snaps Benny out of the vision. The same voice speaks again, coming from the box. Benny screams and runs into the house, locking the door behind him. Frantic, he calls Bob for help. Bob promises to come.