The very minute Eddy laid his pencil down at the end of the last of his five exams, the world folded back in on him. He hadn’t realised how much he’d closed it out until the pressure released. The sky was brighter again, the clouds puffier. The faint breeze which tickled through the open window was refreshing and carried the scent of nature, instead of just being that pesky draught that would annoy textbook pages. Yep, he mused, it was funny how the world could be the same place and yet so different. It all came down to perspective.
The exams had been tough. Some tougher than others. And through four of the five of them he imagined Reagan going through exactly the same thing with exactly the same questions.
Right throughout that fretful week that beautiful sign had remained up on her window. For Eddy it was confirmation she’d been thinking about him and some of them at least had been good thoughts. Why else would she wish him good luck? Even the fact her blind was still down and she never once looked back when she left for school in the morning couldn’t take away that good omen. It was starting to look as though Mrs Crowe had been right. Time and space were beginning to work their magic.
He would wait. He would wait forever if he had to. But he didn’t have to. For Eddy, though he didn’t know it at the time, it was one more sleep till Reagan.
It was just another Saturday the way Eddy saw it. Well, not quite. It was the first day in what seemed like forever that he didn’t have to have his nose stuck in one book or another. His time belonged to him again and he didn’t really know what to do with it. The exam results wouldn’t be in for weeks yet, which was pretty unfair, and so he had to resign himself to putting such things out of his head. That was easier said than done.
He was sitting there, staring out the front window and noticing how the rubber streaks from Ryan’s inauspicious escape were already fading to barely an etch, when there was a soft tap on the other window.
No, it couldn’t be. It had to be one of Mr Tree’s branches playing games with him.
And then it came again. Tap, tap.
Eddy got down off the ledge, wishing, hoping, but at the same time preparing himself for it to be nothing. One step across the carpet . . . nothing – just more of Mr Tree and the wall beyond Reagan’s window. Two steps . . . same stuff. Three steps . . . and the world was wonderful again. Magnificent, stupendous, fabulous.
‘Hi, stranger,’ said Reagan, standing out there on the tree, looking back at him. It was obvious she was as uncertain about this as he was.
‘Hi b-back.’ Eddy didn’t know what to say. Why didn’t they have an exam for this sort of thing?
‘Watcha doin’?’
‘I was waiting f-for you to knock on the d-damn window!’
She smiled. How fantastic was that! She was actually here at the window and she was actually smiling.
‘Jam sandwiches?’
‘I thought y-you’d never ask.’