Chapter 21

The red trail went past the falls, twisted around into a different part of the woods, and came out below the falls. We tried to stay far enough behind Robert so he wouldn’t hear us. The woods were really quiet. No birds, just a few squirrels.

“Shhhh!” Mia said. “Your feet sound like thunder.”

“Oh, pardon me, Chief Light Foot, I forgot my moccasins.”

“Ami, you think it’s all right to criticize me, but when I say anything—”

“What are you talking about, Mia? When did I criticize you?”

“When? Always! Just a little while ago, you told me not to call Miles the fat boy.”

“Mia, I only said—”

“I know what you said.”

We came around a turn in the trail, arguing, not looking, and there was Robert, waiting for us. “I knew it was you two,” he said.

We all just looked at each other for a minute, then Robert said, “So what’s my big surprise, Ami?”

Why was he asking me? I didn’t know any more than he did.

“This is your surprise.” Mia took him by the arms and kissed him the way we kissed when we made up our quarrels, first on one cheek and then on the other. Robert really looked surprised and he blushed. He took off his glasses and hooked them over his shirt.

Mia and I looked at each other and she wriggled her eyebrows to remind me of that morning in the Bagel Tree. I remember! I wriggled back.

She poked me. “Your turn.” For a minute, I didn’t get it. Then I did. I was supposed to kiss Robert, too. I leaned toward him and kissed him on the cheek. He smelled really nice, his cheek was soft, but sort of firm, too.

The next thing I knew, he kissed me back on the cheek. And then, he kissed Mia on the lips! It was a real kiss. They put their arms around each other and kissed, just the way Jan and Fred had that time in the kitchen. Well, I thought, even if I’m not kissing, I’m getting plenty of experience watching.

After that, we all walked back together, talking about the picnic, the food, the teachers, stuff like that. Robert said, “Mr. Pelter is okay. He’s kind of boring sometimes.”

“That’s Ami’s father,” Mia said.

“Ami’s father?” He really blushed, more than he did when we kissed him. “I didn’t know that. I thought it was just—you know—the same name.”

“I don’t care that you said that. I mean, my father has to be something, so he’s an English teacher.”

“My father’s an electrical contractor,” Mia said.

“I know that, Mia.”

“I wasn’t telling you, Ami! I was telling Robert. I might want to be an electrician,” she said. “I’m telling Robert, Ami. Got it? It’s a good trade and there aren’t many women electricians, my father says, so I’d be a trailblazer. Which sounds neat. But it might be more fun to work on a newspaper.”

“What do you want to do?” I said to Robert.

“I don’t know. Maybe something in television.”

“I know someone who works in radio. Harley Juster.”

“The DJ? You know him?” He acted impressed and I promised to show him Harley Juster’s autograph.

When we got back to the picnic, Robert went to find his friends. The picnic was almost over, but we had to police up the park before we left. I dumped a can into a plastic bag and thought about all the things that had changed since school started. Just three months and so many things were different. Fred getting ready to go to France in the spring. Dad and Forrest. And really knowing now that Mom wasn’t coming back home. Only Mia and I were the same. Or were we?

We sat together on the bus going home. Ms. Linsley was our bus monitor. She stood up in front of the bus and led us in songs. “… and the wiiide mouth frog said.…”

Davis Buck looked over at me as I was singing and snickered. I remembered what Bill had said about my voice. I looked out the window. “Rootie tootie,” I hummed, and I felt this little stirring inside me, this fluttering like a mouse inside my chest, a tiny, nibbly feeling. I didn’t know what it was, I only knew what it wasn’t. It wasn’t sadness, it wasn’t fear.

Coming back into the city we passed the old railroad station, rows of little houses, a brick church. A kid in a window waved. I waved back. And there was that stirring inside me again, that nibbly fluttering, as if something were going to happen, something good, something interesting. But what? What was it? Then, just for a moment, I thought I knew. I understood. It was everything, it was my whole life, it was all the things that were going to happen to me that hadn’t happened yet.