Emma Jean Lazarus Fell in Love

Colleen was lying in her bed, smiling in the dark, thinking about how fun it would be to go to the Spring Fling with her boy. She thought about the dress she would wear—Long? Short? Sparkly? Twirly?—and if her mom would let her wear heels.

Oh, but her boy wouldn’t care about her shoes, would he? No, Colleen decided. Her boy wasn’t like that. He wouldn’t care if her hands got sweaty and she stepped on his feet when they danced. Her boy would just be happy that they were together.

Colleen turned over and smiled into her pillow. Thinking about her boy gave Colleen this new feeling. It wasn’t that she felt like a different person. It was the opposite of that. She felt like herself, only more—taller, braver, stronger . . .

Maybe this was how a peach felt when it was ripe, or how a brownie felt when it was all baked and ready to come out of the oven.

“Is something going on?” her mom had asked when they were sitting in the den after dinner. Colleen was doing math and her mom was sewing Joseph and Mary sock puppets for her Sunday school class.

“Why are you asking that?” Colleen said, scared that maybe her mom had figured out that Colleen was putting on a little eye shadow when she got to school every morning. She’d wiped it off coming home on the bus, but maybe today she’d missed a spot.

“You’re just acting different,” her mom said, putting down her needle and reaching over to rest her hand on Colleen’s cheek, like she was checking for a fever. “Are you feeling all right?”

Colleen wanted to burst out in giggles. She was so much more than all right! She wanted to tell her mom about the note and her boy and the bird, how if you wished hard enough, anything could happen.

But her mother wasn’t a wishes-and-giggles type of person. Maybe she kind of used to be, when Colleen’s dad lived with them. But that was so long ago, Colleen couldn’t be sure.

“I’m doing fine, Mommy,” Colleen said. “I’m really, really good.”

And her mom seemed satisfied with that. She’d even smiled a little and nodded and said, “That’s nice.”

Colleen snuggled under her blanket and tried to fall asleep, but it was no use. She was too excited. And so finally she got up and sneaked across the hall to the guest room to call Kaitlin. That was one of the great things about having a best friend like Kaitlin. You could call her anytime, even at 9:50 on a Tuesday night.

“I’m just so happy, you know. . .” And then she just talked and talked and talked, about her boy and the note and how romantic it was, like Romeo and Juliet minus the dying at the end.

“Isn’t it so amazing?” Colleen said, closing her eyes, waiting for Kaitlin to exclaim, “Yes! It’s the best!”

But instead Kaitlin said, “Coll, it’s just a note,” which made a balloon inside Colleen go pop.

“I’m saying you shouldn’t make this note into such a huge thing. So many boys like you, Coll! You need to just pick one and ask him to the Spring Fling. That’s what everyone else did.”

As always, Kaitlin sounded so sure, like when she was spelling a word or showing where Brazil was on a globe. Usually Colleen would just say okay, you’re right, even if she was pretty sure Brazil was nowhere near Japan.

“All the boys like you,” Kaitlin answered, which was really sweet but not true.

“But the boy who wrote this note really likes me! And Emma-Jean is going to help me—”

“Colleen!” Kaitlin interrupted. “Don’t you remember what happened the last time Emma-Jean helped you?”

She said helped in a mean Laura Gilroy way, like Emma-Jean was a big joke.

Colleen didn’t say anything. The phone felt hot in her hand. She could picture Kaitlin with her eyebrows all smooshed together, twisting one of her curls around and around and around on her finger.

Colleen wasn’t sure because she never fought with her friends. Never. Not even when Kaitlin invited Laura to go skiing instead of Colleen, and Colleen had been so hurt. Even then, Colleen had said, “Don’t worry!”

“For once something really great has happened to me,” Colleen said. “Can’t you be happy?”

“Then be excited, okay?” She could hear her mom moving around downstairs and she needed to hurry back to bed. “Please?”

Colleen said good-bye to Kaitlin. She felt better. She couldn’t blame Kaitlin for worrying. But this wasn’t like the last time Emma-Jean helped. And anyway, Colleen was so much Colleen-er now. Whatever happened, she could handle it.

Colleen went back to her room, but instead of getting into bed, she stood at her window and looked at the sky, which was so beautiful. Stars really did twinkle, just like in the song. Why hadn’t Colleen ever noticed before? Probably her boy noticed. Probably he was standing at his window right now, staring at the sky, thinking about Colleen, who would find him soon.