Capítulo 26: All Talk and No Explanations
I put the bracelet in a plastic water bottle where I knew it would be safe. If you realize what's wrong with this scenario, congratulations. You have the ability to think.
When I woke up the next morning, Tiny Person decided to perform the most elaborate morning routine ever.
First, I stole my mother's comb and ran it through my head until it had ten percent more order than usual. It took three rounds of clothes to find something that didn't make me look like an overstretched pasta noodle. The red baggy shirt made me skinnier, but the tight orange one was a big show-off of nothing. Same with pants. My shoes were borrowed from my father. Why I wanted my height to shoot up so much that I hit my head on the door, I'll never know.
One lame excuse to my parents later, I was out the door with the container in hand. My legs became Jell-O. Would she even be there?
She had to be. This was Julia we were talking about. It would take an alien invasion to keep her inside the house on a morning like this. The world looked like a Bob Ross painting.
"Good morning," some random person said to me who has nothing to do with the plot.
He was in one of those crazy wheelchairs that makes a kid think of their grandfather as a personal carnival ride, complete with a control pad on the right arm rest. The image stuck with me. Even this guy was out on a walk that wasn't really a walk. Julia would have to be here.
I really hoped she hadn't bluffed about her daily walks by the fountain.
The old fountain wasn't as special now, with all its broken, useless parts scattered and mossy water lying inside. I leaned against it and peered at the paved walkway, up the surrounding buildings, and out towards the empty streets.
I glanced at my watch.
Five thirty.
A.M.
What the heck was I thinking? Who in their right or left mind would be out on a walk at five thirty? And on a weekend? I guess Tiny Person had been in Left Brain headquarters.
"Yo, kid!"
My ribcage jabbed. The man looked like a ninja with a longer beard. He had a Sherlock Holmes trench coat with a ski mask hat. He popped up from his seat and teleported to my side.
When he saw me, he frowned. "Sorry. Thought you were someone else."
My breaths froze.
"You just look…familiar," he said.
I tried to nod. Or move. Or run or something. It was like I'd come face to face with Medusa. I was as stone as the fountain.
The man straightened his spine. His neck cracked. "Well, uh, listen kid. See no evil, hear no evil. Unless you buy what I'm selling."
"What do you sell?"
"Nice try, Kid." I recognized the huffs of breath, although it made him smell like a dumpster. "Go on, get out of here."
I didn't move. The confusion made me nauseous.
He looked at me like a pawn on a chessboard. "You shouldn't be hanging around here. You could get hurt."
I don't know how, but I was going to react. I was going to say something. This was my broken fountain, not his.
That's when my eyes came into focus on the person crossing the street. My heart did a little Fortnite dance as her features became more distinct. Every hair made a strict line towards the back of her head, but her ponytail bounced like a spring. I leaned forward. Dark lenses stood in the way of her eyes. Sunglasses? Julia wearing sunglasses?
Her shadow passed alongside mine and continued down the walkway.
What was I doing?
Oh, right.
"Hey!" I called out. My voice had a chime to it that I couldn't quite place. "Hey!"
There was no stagger in her step, no falter in her movement. She was a drone. Soon, she was around the corner and out of my sight.
Way to go, Stupid.
Before Tiny Person could figure out what my body was doing, my surroundings changed. I was chasing after her. My chest burned as my knees formed crooked angles against the ground. I huffed and lengthened my stride.
With legs like these I should be able to outrun the shrimp.
I shook off the thought. Julia White was no crustacea.
"Hey!' I screeched again. Maybe puberty was reversing in me. Tempted to slap myself, I said something I'd never said before. "JULIA WHITE."
Her face became human when I cut in front of her and forced her to a halt. "Ben?" She lifted her shades and wiped her finger against her brow, pulling Air Pods out of her ears. "What are you doing here?"
My heart stopped. "Oh, I…u-usually…you know—walk…through here?"
"Oh."
Her weight shifted forward as if gravity had adjusted itself. I couldn't help but feel the same way.
"Um, but, youknowisawyouandwantedtogiveyadis."
"Pardon?"
Only Julia would say something like 'pardon.' Then again, only I could say something like whatever just left my mouth. Saliva dried on my tongue. I'd said it, right? My fingers shook into my back pocket. They wrapped around an object.
Julia glanced at my feet.
My fist clenched tighter, and I remembered what I was holding when a crinkle noise pierced the air. Eyes directed towards the plastic water bottle, my thumb and forefinger twisted hard against the cap.
"Ben, what are you-"
"Just…give me a sec…"
The cap popped off, pinched between my teeth as I stuck my finger inside the open hole of the bottle.
"If you're thirsty I have some cash…"
Her eyes flashed. Somehow, I knew she was remembering my thirsty-water bottle incident at the drugstore. That's what my tiny person told me, at least. This is turning into a weird analogy.
"No…I just…"
I pushed the bottom of the bottle towards the spout and fish-hooked the bracelet with my pinkie. Carefully. Carefully. Yes! I chucked that stupid bottle of water as far as my arm would let me.
It went three feet.
Thump. Thump. Thump. My heart didn't like the idea of…whatever I was going to say when I gave this to Julia.
"Ben?"
She slipped her fingers into my palm and snatched the bracelet. My vision tunneled with green. "What's this?"
"Oh, uh, I, um…"
What was I? The giant in Jack and the Beanstock?
I flinched when saltwater swelled up in her eyes. "Did you…"
"Oh, no." My hands flew up like a flag on the Fourth of July. Despite what Austin thought, I was way too smart to lie to Julia White.
I also wasn't smart enough not to say this: "I mean…we went down the carnival...to the carnival…but we couldn't find it and then we met this creepy old foreign—person and… Well, he ran the bead-bracelet place thingy. Um…but your bracelet wasn't there. But I found the blue beads, so I thought I'd…well he gave me the idea but on the bus ride home I found some patterns and I tried to clone the original. But I wasn't going to lie or anything I just thought, you know…here."
Maybe my throat is poisonous. By the time words escape, there's no hope for a logical statement.
Julia's face made more colors than ROY G BIV. But it was the face at the end, the one where her eyes became emerald moons, where her thin lips parted and became full and pearled, where her cheeks flushed with a sunset, that left its imprint on my mind and sent my soul into spiraling chaos. Or something like that. I'm pretty sure I stole most of that from Shakespeare.
Julia shook a little. "You went all the way back there?"
"Well, yeah."
I wasn't ready for what came next.
She put the bracelet on. Then she wrapped her arms around my neck and squeezed her face in my shoulder.
"Thank you."
My voice was a freaking earthquake. "Hey…you know…your welcome."
She pulled away. My arms hesitated to drop to their sides. I've always had bad reaction time.
"So, I guess I'll see you at therapy on Monday?" she said.
"Yeah."
She fingered around one of the beads.
"Hey, Julia?" It felt weird saying her name.
Her eyes focused into mine. If there was any logic in the world, I would've died from a heart attack right then. But I had another question that I wanted to know the answer to. I hope this doesn't become a recurring theme.
I swallowed. "Why…did that thing matter so much?"
"What?"
"The bracelet. I mean, your bracelet."
"Oh."
Timing is everything. I should have known, with the way my life works, something would interrupt us before I'd get my answers. I'm the reigning champion of bad timing, and that's how every story plots out.
Of course, if this were any other story, it would've been a worthwhile interruption. Maybe a meteor would hit the earth and kill everyone. The government could take over the world via computer robots. Diseases could wipe out most of the planet. But instead, this happened:
"Hey, Jules, you coming? Everyone's getting cranky and Joey hasn't eaten in like ten minutes."
The first thing I saw was the baseball cap. Then the jacket and the cropped hair, followed by skin that was a little more tanned than last time.
Julia blushed. "Yeah, sorry Alex."
Alexander stopped right next to her. "Oh…hey, Ben."
"Hi."
Julia faced him. "Do we know what we're seeing yet?"
"Well, I don't think Joey could stand another chick flick, but the girls said if they have to watch another zombie apocalypse, they'll scratch their eyes out." He laughed two huffs. "We figured we'd make everyone uncomfortable and go see that new musical."
My heart stopped inflating. The entire group was going. At six in the morning for some reason...let's fault this to the author and not the default explanation that Julia and her friends were total weirdos.
"Sounds like fun." Julia's face was fake again. But she did stop and touch my hand. "See you later, Ben. And… Thank you."
When I went by my fountain again, the Sherlock Holmes man was gone.
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