CHAPTER THIRTEEN

THE RETURN

IT WAS DUSK, that sliver of time caught between day and night. Spring break was coming to an end. From his front yard, Daniel watched car after car and minivan after minivan return to While-a-Way Lane.

Bumper stickers and words spelled out with shaving cream were like banners telling of the neighbors’ whereabouts from the last week. SEE THE GRAND CANYON. AMARILLO OR BUST. I ATE TACOS IN SANTA FE. ELVIS IS ALIVE AND WELL IN MEMPHIS.

Daniel thought about hanging a sign on the back of his bike that read MY PARENTS GOT A DIVORCE AND I HAD TO MOVE TO WHILE-A-WAY LANE.

Even though the neighbors drove in from so many places, they all seemed to arrive at once. One of the drivers honked his horn as he headed down While-a-Way Lane and then the other drivers honked, too. It sounded like a song. Daniel listened closer. It was a song. He’d heard it before. “Yankee Doodle”! Everyone waved arms out car windows and honked horns and shouted to each other.

“Hey, neighbor, wait till you hear about the fish I almost caught!”

“Hey, neighbor, I have some pictures to share of our ride on an elephant!”

“Hey, neighbor … hey, neighbor…” On and on and on.

Tilda Butter stepped out onto her porch and waved at each vehicle as it passed. The piano teacher with the long fingers waved at them, too. Daniel bet she was glad she could torture her students with learning chords and scales again.

The neighbors followed each other like a parade, driving all the way down to the pond and then turning around, honking until their wheels met their driveways.

“Welcome back!” Tilda Butter hollered. “Welcome home!”

They were so happy to be home.

Daniel felt hollow inside. While-a-Way Lane would never be home to him. He didn’t want to live here, this place with all these happy people and air that smelled like cotton candy.

Just as he was wishing his dad were with him he saw something sparkle in front of him. It flashed three times. Then there were a hundred flashes. Maybe a thousand. And even though the sun wasn’t quite down yet and the moon was nowhere to be found, his friends had returned.

“I knew you’d come back,” he told the fireflies. With that, he began to pedal, and together, they made their way down While-a-Way Lane.