Kevin and Spider stood frozen, with their mouths agape. The three children stared up at the boy with the golden hair, the teenage boy who was even bigger than he appeared from a distance. There was something in his manner, something hard and cold and worldly. Realizing this was a fight they could not win, Kevin and Spider sped across the Johnsons’ yard and jumped on their bikes, speeding down Briarwood Avenue.
Harley wiped her eyes on her t-shirt and squinted into the blazing sun, eclipsed by the shadow of the boy’s face.
The boy extended his hand to her and lifted her tiny body from the ground. He wiped a row of sludge from her cheek and smiled. “You okay, kiddo?” he asked in his deep, grown-up voice.
“Yes,” Harley said, trying to hold back more tears.
“Please don’t cry.”
“I’m sorry,” she said, her voice shaking. “Granddaddy says I’m a big girl now. That I’m not supposed to cry anymore. He says that if I cry anymore I’ll run out of tears.”
“You know,” the boy said, lowering himself to her level, “a very wise man once said, ‘we need never be ashamed of our tears, for they are rain upon the blinding dust of earth, overlying our hard hearts.’”
“But what does it mean?” she asked, sniffling.
He brushed a tear from her cheek and smiled. “It means it’s okay to cry.”
“Really?”
“Yeah.” Though his eyes were rimmed with sadness, they were surprisingly kind. “You were a very brave little girl just now. I saw you. I saw how you stood up to them. I saw how you fought back. And they wouldn’t have beaten you, not if they hadn’t taken something you loved.”
Harley swallowed a sobbing breath. “My book.”
“Shh … shh,” he said, wiping another tear from her cheek. “Hey, look, I’ve brought something for you.” He extended his arm out, revealing a hardback book bound in leather.
“Great Expectations,” Harley read aloud, gazing at the front cover. She looked up at the boy with curiosity. “But what is it?”
“It’s a story about an orphan who has big plans for his life.”
Harley gazed at the boy thoughtfully. “I’m an orphan. I mean … well, I used to be a bastard, but now … um, I guess I’m just an orphan.”
The boy closed his eyes for a moment, lines forming between his brows. He gently shook his head, then slowly opened his eyes once more to meet hers. “You may be an orphan, little thing, but your life is destined for greatness. Just like mine.”
“But the kids at school are so mean to me.”
“Now, now,” he said, patting her on the head. “There are always going to be bad people like those kids who try to run you down, who try to make you feel bad. And they won’t be happy, not until they’ve done just that. Until they’ve hurt you. That’s where they get their power, you see, and you can’t let them have it. You just ignore them, okay? Remember, you’re a very smart little girl with a big, big heart. And you have an amazing future ahead of you, too big for any of them to consider. You have to keep your power, Harley Henrickson, your pureness of heart, you promise me? Don’t ever let it go, okay?”
Harley wondered how he knew her name, but instead of asking, she nodded, and looking up with wide-eyed wonder, said, “Okay.”
He rose back to his towering height and stretched his long limbs. “Now, you keep enjoying those books of yours. Sometimes they’re just what we need during tough times. Sometimes they’re better than what the real world has to offer.”
Harley nodded. She had never met a boy as wise and gentle and mature as this one. “I will keep reading them,” she said. “I promise.”
The boy smiled, looking down at her. “You know, one of these days when you’re all grown up, you’re going to look back on all of this, and you’re going to wonder why you even cared what any of those stupid, mean kids thought of you.”
“Really?”
“I promise.” He gazed down at her intently. “So what do you want to be when you grow up?”
“A writer. I want to write books. I want to tell stories.”
“And you will. I have no doubt about that.”
Harley smiled at the mere idea of his predictions for her future.
“All right, kiddo,” he said. “I’ll let you get back to your reading. Goodness knows, you’ve had too many interruptions today already.”
Then he stepped out of the blazing sun, his golden hair catching the sunlight in waves, his kindness having saved an eight-year-old girl in more ways than he could have imagined.
“Wait,” Harley said, calling after him.
He looked over his shoulder and waited for her to speak. “How does it end?” she asked. “The orphan’s story.”
“I don’t know.” He smiled. “I haven’t finished the book yet. Why don’t read it and let me know how it works out for him, okay?”
“I will.”
“And don’t forget about me, you promise, Harley Henrickson?”
Harley held the copy of Great Expectations to her chest and watched the boy disappear among the trees in the backyard.
“I won’t. I won’t ever forget you.”