"I'd like that."
"I'm not guaranteeing anything," Rictus said, opening the latch.
"I understand."
The wind gusted suddenly, and blew the window wide. The light began to swing wildly.
"Watch for me," Rictus yelled above the din of rain and wind.
Harvey started to ask him if he'd be coming back soon, but stopped himself in the nick of time.
"No questions, boy!" Rictus said, and as he spoke the wind seemed to fill up his coat. It rose around him like a black balloon, and he was suddenly swept out over the windowsill.
"Questions Trot the mind!" he hollered as he went. "Keep your mouth shut and we'll see what comes your way!"
And with that the wind carried him off, the balloon of his coat rising like a black moon against the rainy sky.
II
The Hidden Way
Harvey said nothing about his peculiar visitor to either his mom or his dad, in case they put locks on the windows to stop Rictus returning to the house. But the trouble with keeping the visit a secret was that after a few days Harvey began to wonder if he'd imagined the whole thing. Perhaps he'd fallen asleep at the window, he thought, and Rictus had simply been a dream.
He kept hoping nevertheless. "Watch for me," Rictus had said, and Harvey did just that. He watched from the window of his room. He watched from his desk at school. He even watched with one eye when he was lying on his pillow at night. But Rictus didn't show.
And then, about a week after that first visit, just as Harvey's hope was waning, his watchfulness was rewarded. On his way to school one foggy morning he heard a voice above his head, and looked up to see Rictus floating down from the clouds, his coat swelled up around him so that he looked fatter than a prize pig.