Alfie didn’t seem surprised when Ali caught up to him at the end of the school driveway.
“Can I walk with you?” she asked. Could he hear the quiver in her voice?
Alfie nodded. “Uh-huh.”
They walked in silence for the first block. The moment was so significant to Ali that she half expected a brass band to step out of the fog and lead them down the street. The late afternoon sky was a hazy gold. It seemed brighter today, as if the sun wanted to banish the fog and celebrate the fact that Ali and Alfie had finally met.
Ali knew that she needed to use different tactics to get to know Alfie than what she used in Ali’s Rules for Making Friends. She had to be herself, act natural. But it was hard; she’d never done that before. She knew she shouldn’t dive right in about their family troubles, so she decided to start with the favorite conversation of all Saint Johners: the weather.
ALI’S RULES FOR MAKING FRIENDS*
*note: Alfie Sloane is different. Try to be yourself.
“Lots of fog, huh?”
“Yup. We get a lot of fog in London, too, but nothing like this.”
They continued on, quiet once more.
Ali tried another topic. “I was nervous about the debate team.”
Alfie glanced over. “How come?”
It was time to tell the truth. “I don’t really like public speaking. I joined the debate team to meet you.” She held her breath, fearful of his reaction.
“Huh,” said Alfie. It sounded like a surprised “huh,” which Ali took as a hopeful sign, though the fact that he wasn’t swinging his knapsack was a worry.
They turned onto Douglas Avenue, and she paused. She loved her new street, which ran the length of a narrow peninsula separating the Saint John River and the Bay of Fundy. The peninsula’s existence created the city’s famous Reversing Falls, thanks to the twice daily twenty-eight-foot ocean tides that rushed into the bay and forced the river to flow backward. A reluctant Digger had taken Ali to see the falls the previous week, even though he’d said there wasn’t much to see. She’d stood on the observation deck and watched the water churn, thinking about a scientific law she’d studied in sixth grade—Newton’s second law of motion—which explained what happens to a mass when it’s acted on by an external force. The massive bay and its tides might push the river back twice daily, but the force of the river was unyielding. Thanks to force, something small could stand a chance against something much larger.
Gigi’s Victorian house came into view. Did Alfie know this was where she lived? As they got closer, she pointed up at the turret. “That’s our great-grandmother’s room. Notice the open window?”
“Uh-huh.” Alfie studied the window like it was a problem to be solved.
“She always leaves her window open to feed the birds and squirrels. My dad hates it when she does, because he worries the house will be taken over by animals.”
Alfie chuckled.
“Want to come in?”
Ali imagined taking Alfie inside. She’d introduce him to Digger, then take him upstairs to meet Gigi. It made her shiver with excitement about how thrilled they’d be. She was already on the first step when Alfie shook his head and began to walk away. Stunned, she gaped at his departing back, then ran to catch up with him.
“You don’t want to come in?”
Alfie shook his head. Ali swallowed her disappointment. She hadn’t even told him about Gigi’s party yet.
“Can we talk for a few minutes?” She pointed toward Riverview Memorial Park in the distance. Maybe he’d be willing to talk someplace else. He didn’t say no, so they kept going. They passed the old New Brunswick Museum, with its imposing pillars and dark stone, and arrived at the park on the other side, cutting across the leaf-strewn grass until they reached the statue of a Boer War soldier. They took a seat beneath the sad-looking man, who clutched his bayonet as if he expected to be called into battle at any moment.
Alfie checked his watch. “I have to be home in ten minutes.”
Ten minutes wasn’t much time if you had a lifetime of questions you wanted answered.
“Did you know that my parents and I were living here?”
“My mom told me last week.”
Phew. That meant seeing Ali at debate team hadn’t been a total shock.
“Our families don’t speak,” she said, dipping a toe in the Sloane Family Feud waters.
“It’s so stupid.”
The knot in Ali’s chest unraveled a bit. “I think so too. I was worried you wouldn’t want to be friends with me.” In the distance, seagulls called to one another as they fished for their supper. Their screeches sounded like please, please, please to Ali.
“We can be friends,” said Alfie after a torturous minute, as if he’d reviewed all of the possible alternatives and chosen this one.
Thrilled, and braver now, Ali turned to look at him. “I’m throwing a birthday party for Gigi. She’s turning one hundred.”
“Gigi?”
Duh—of course he didn’t know her nickname! Ali giggled. “It’s what I call our great-grandmother. She wanted me to call her Gertie, but I couldn’t pronounce it very well, so Digger said to call her G. G., for ‘great-grandmother,’ which is what he and your dad used to call her. I thought he was saying ‘Gigi.’ The name stuck.”
“Gigi? I quite like it,” said Alfie.
“You’ve never met her.”
“Nope.” Ali sensed years of regret in that simple word.
“But now that you know me, you can meet her, and you can come to her birthday party.”
Alfie shook his head. “Impossible.”
“No, it’s not. If you come to the party, then the rest of your family will too, and the Sloanes will be reunited! It’ll be the best gift ever for Gigi!”
Alfie made a half-choking, half-grunting sound. “Never going to happen.”
“Why not? We’ve just met, and the world hasn’t ended. If all the Sloanes come to the party, I’m sure they’ll make up.”
“My grandfather will never go.”
Then it hit her: maybe she didn’t need all of the Other Sloanes to come to Gigi’s party. Maybe one would be enough. “Will you come, at least?”
“No.”
Ali’s excitement fizzled like a spent sparkler. “I don’t even know why they’re fighting.”
“It’s about my dad. My grandfather blames your father and Gigi for his death. My mom and my aunt don’t, but it doesn’t matter, because Granddad does.”
“But one person can’t boss everyone around!” Ali protested.
Alfie stood up. “I love my grandfather. So even though I’m dying to meet Gigi and your dad, I can’t go against him. My mom says family has to stick together, even if you don’t agree. If they won’t go to the party, I can’t go either.”
“But we’re your family too! We’re blood. We even look alike!”
Alfie grinned. “When I walked into the classroom, I recognized you straightaway.”
“Can’t you at least ask them to come?” Ali didn’t try and hide her distress. “Maybe if he knows you want to come, your grandfather will change his mind.”
“Look . . . I’ll try, but don’t get your hopes up. Do you want to eat lunch together tomorrow? Murray and Cassie and I have eaten in Mr. Corby’s classroom the past couple of days because they were working on a project, but we’re eating in the cafeteria tomorrow.”
That was one mystery solved.
“Okay.” Surely the rule about not making friends too soon didn’t apply to cousins.
Alfie swung his knapsack as he walked away. When he reached the sidewalk, he turned. “I’m glad you came to debate team!”