into living in rene's house—he sells his house and changes work to teacher's assistant for green sprouts middle school, and rene is pregnant—they argue or discuss or joke about getting married, they decide no for now, rene says she needs a break from marriage with divorce still fresh in her mind—but now there's a baby, things are getting permanent, hope fades that after a night's rest he'll open his eyes to his poster of tina turner in his old bedroom in his old house in his old world—he's been trying to locate his parents and sisters on the internet—he finds nothing on facebook, twitter or linkedin—in the old world his sister trudie lived in puebla, mexico where she creates pottery within an artist cooperative of questionable success while his other sister dorinda was living with another woman in new jersey, while his mother and father moved from new york to montana to start a pizza place for the tourists—but the internet searches failed to find addresses for their homes or even the pizza place—instead phone numbers and addresses of all his family members turned up around kansas city, where as far as he knew he nor anyone in his family had visited less lived—but the kansas city phone numbers he searched led to someone who only spoke polish, a restaurant called slim's chicken, and a lawyer's office—based on google satellite maps the addresses looked like apartments, malls or farms—he asked rene and imhotep what he's told them about his family, they said that when the subject of his family came up in conversation, normally around the holidays when they'd ask him about his plans, he'd deflect, suggesting that he didn't have any plans with family and preferred to spend holidays alone—which caused him to speculate that they all died in a plane accident, or a bus that tumbled over a cliff during a family get-together in colorado, or in a shooting—that maybe he himself entered this new world through death, maybe this world is his afterlife, heaven or hell he's not sure yet—rene arrives from work, she's at 4 months, with a small bump—valentin lays out plates of ribs and potatoes and glasses of lemonade, rene picks through it, she barely eats nowadays with her nausea—he says, rene, i know you're in the throes of pregnancy right now, and i will be there for you, but i'd like your support as well, because with the baby coming i think it's important that i find our child's grandparents and his aunts, my family—rene drops her fork and shakes her head and frowns, she picks her fork up, punches it into the ribs, after trying to wriggle the meat off she says, what am i supposed to do, eat this with my hands?—she stands and walks to the kitchen, she opens the utensil drawer and brushes her hands roughly over the forks and spoons, they loudly tumble over each other, a small spoon jumps out and bounces off the floor, ignoring the spoon rene returns with a small serrated knife—she again punches the fork into the meat and saws, eating the largest chunk of food that valentin has seen her eat in 4 months—rene, you have to understand my position, i need to commit to where i am, 100%, as if i'll be here the rest of my life—and you doubt that you will?—i still go through spells of not believing that any of this is real, that it will end, not because i want it to but because i entered this world without warning nor my consent and exiting this world could happen the same way, i wait for anyone in my family to call or show up at the door, but nothing, so something happened with them, or i did something to them, but i need to fix it or at least better understand it—valentin, i can't help you right now, i'm busy making a baby—the only help i'm asking for, rene, is your support and patience, from what i can tell they might be in kansas somewhere, it's the only lead i have, i was thinking of taking a couple weeks off from work and digging in, probably take a trip to kansas, maybe i find them and we're back to normal—rene says, sounds like you've already made your decision, so then what do you want from me?—i'd like to hear what you think of it—it doesn't sound like the greatest timing valentin, you've gone 6 months without knowing, you can go another 6 months—rene, we'll have a small child then, we won't have time—rene continues to struggle with the food as if in pain, but she finishes, lining her mouth with sauce that could be mistaken as blood—valentin says, how about a week to start, to see if i find anything promising, a reason to continue on, if not then i return, i'm not so sure what you need me here for anyway, you seem to get on pretty well without my involvement—right, ok, fine valentin, do whatever you want, i have to pee—rene gets up and climbs the stairs—in the old world, where valentin spent the first 26 years of his life, a girlfriend never lasted more than 9 months, as if it were a rule for him, that if he wasn't going to marry her then he didn't see much point in continuing with the relationship—it was while eating hamburgers at a sonic, which in the old world was a medical office, that rene said she missed her period and they should buy a pregnancy test, and when it turned out positive for the first time the permanence of the new world clawed into him, and his mind repeated, i am here, i am here—