I didn’t want to hurt his feelings, so I let the hug go on for as long as he wanted. Finally it ended.
“How did you know where I live?” I asked him.
He said he bumped into Nacho and Burke and he asked them.
As he watched me eat breakfast, he said thanking me wasn’t the only reason he came over. “I’d like you to help me build the clubhouse,” he said.
Right then I realized I had been hoping he would ask. “Sure,” I said.
He high-fived himself. “Yes!”
On the bike ride to his house he said, “I was just thinking something.”
“What?” I said.
“Maybe we should get some more help. Maybe we should ask Nacho and Burke. What do you think?”
I guess he knew better than to ask Bump. As for the other two, I tried to think of a good reason why not, but I couldn’t. “Good idea,” I said.
I led Ernie to the hideout. The guys weren’t there, but Ernie was hyper-impressed by the umbrella tree. He walked in circles under the leafy dome. “Wow…cool,” he kept saying.
We bumped into them five minutes later on the road. The shock on their faces was priceless, seeing me with Ernie, but they quick switched to cool. “Hey, dudes,” I said.
“Hi, Nacho. Hi, Burke,” said Ernie, his usual cheery self. “I found Jake”—he laughed—“as you can see. Thanks again for the address. And I know Bump did it. Jake told me his confession was fake.”
The guys looked at me. I nodded. “It’s all cool.”
I could see them relax. Their faces changed. Their eyes. They were no longer looking at a goober. Or, even if they were, they didn’t care. Each of them reached out and fist-bumped Ernie. He was beaming.
We headed for Meeker Street. As we got closer to his house, Ernie started laughing. It was just a chuckle at first, and by the time we hit his driveway it was a howl.
“What’s so funny?” said Nacho.
Ernie wiped away laugh tears with his shirttail. “My clubhouse. It’s leaning more than the tower of Pisa. It’s probably the ugliest clubhouse ever!”
He cracked up again, and the rest of us joined in.
First I raced back to my house for more tools, while the others raided the garage for Mr. Lindop’s tools. We started by tearing down the mess Ernie had already made. When his mom came out, she knew without asking what we were doing. “Thank you, boys!” she called, and went back inside. We could hear her laughing all morning.
Mrs. Lindop fed us lunch. It was maybe the best lunch I ever had. Not because of the food but because of—I don’t know how to say it—the fun. The laughs. The talk. The good feelings. The guys. The sun streaming in through the lemony curtains.
Maybe it was the light that gave me the idea. As we were building a wall after lunch, I said, “Why don’t we put in a window?”
Everybody thought it was a great idea.
“But we don’t know how to put in a window,” said Burke.
“My parents do,” I said.
At dinner I asked Mom and Dad if they could help us make a clubhouse for my new friend. They said sure, they can do it day after tomorrow, which is Saturday.
My head is spinning with all the stuff that’s happened since Lily shook me awake this morning. If I had to pick the best day ever, I think this would be it.