“You helped me out.” Caitlin shrugged. “And you’ve been alone a whole lot this summer. Thought maybe you could use a pick-me-up or something.”
“Huh?” I said. “How do you know I’ve been alone?”
Caitlin pulled out her phone again. “I live across the street, remember? I see you all the time sitting up on your roof, or staring into space every time you get the mail. Your friend went to summer camp without you, right?”
“Abby? Yeah, she went to camp.” This was weird. So Caitlin had been watching me, had she? I began assessing which rival spy agency she might be working for. “How did you . . . ?”
“You’ve got a postcard from her in there.” Caitlin nodded toward the mail getting sweaty in my armpit. “Plus one of her brothers told me.” She tilted her head toward the turquoise house one to the right of mine. Abby’s house. Her twin brothers had stayed home all summer. I’d seen them playing soccer in their front yard. But they were juniors in high school and about as likely to hang out with a soon-to-be-sixth grader like me as Caitlin was.
“Abby’s coming home soon though,” I said. “Very soon.”
Suddenly I was burning with impatience. My arms were full of successfully rescued cat, free ice cream, and, apparently, the latest postcard from Abby. This mission was officially over. “Anyway, thanks again for the Swizzle Cone,” I said, scanning the road.
“Sure, sure. Thanks for saving me from the cat, or the other way around. Hope your summer gets better,” Caitlin said, tapping at her phone. Then she stopped and looked up at me. Really looked. “You know what?” she said. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have assumed just because you’re alone you’re not okay. People can have amazing things going on in their lives that no one else knows about. I bet you’re having a whole summer full of awesome adventures, aren’t you?” She smiled, patting me on the shoulder. “Of course you are. You go get ’em, tiger!” And she returned to the truck.
It was my turn to quirk an eyebrow. Yeah, definitely not suspicious behavior. Definitely not clearly working for a counterspy agency. . . .
I got out a hurried “You too!” as Caitlin closed the door; then I crossed back to my own territory. The tinkling of the ice cream truck faded in the distance as Samson twisted lazily out of my arms and dropped onto the grass, taking the mail and ice cream with him.
“You’re welcome, buddy,” I called as his tail disappeared through the gap in the fence leading to Abby’s place. I wiped my forehead. I loved that cat, but hypno-rayguns, he was heavy.
My house phone jangled through the open kitchen window as I scooped up the ice cream and letters, and I hustled in to answer it.
“Hi, Mom,” I said, hopping up on the counter. I tucked the phone against my neck and started flipping through the mail. Bill. Bill. Junk. Bill. Junk. Catalog. Hey, a second postcard!
“Hi, sweetie. How’s the day?”
“Fine. I rescued Abby’s cat from a killer ice cream truck, and I just got another postcard from Uncle Joe.”
“Aw. I should probably be mad my little brother writes to you more than me.” The intercom buzz and bustle of the hospital break room echoed behind her. “How’s he doing?”
I scanned the postcard. “Good. Same as the last few months: Alaska, whales, cabin, whales, research, sciency science. Aaand more whales!”
“That’s Joe. What’s that crinkling noise I’m hearing?”
“That is the sound of a Mega Ultra Caramel Swizzle Cone being unwrapped,” I said. “Caitlin across the street gave it to me.”
“That was nice of her. I’m glad you’re spending time with other people. Make sure you eat something with vegetables for dinner, though.”
I just barely avoided a sigh. “You won’t be home?”
“—be right there,” my mom said to someone who wasn’t me. “What, sweetie? No, that’s why I called. I’ll be working late again.”
“I’m shocked,” I said, biting off a chunk of ice cream.
“Oh, don’t start,” said my mom. “Deep, slow breath, you’ll be fine. Hang on— No, I said I’ll be right there. Well, I think Philips should be able to handle that without me by now. One second— Sweetie, sorry, but I really have to go. Remember what I said about dinner, and make sure you get your chores done, okay?”
I took another bite. I was powering my way through that ice cream. “Yes, Mom,” I said around a mouthful of caramel crunchy bits. And really, what else was there to say? I’d been used to my mom being gone since she got promoted to head doctor in the kids-with-cancer ward. And now that I was eleven-staring-down-twelve and she trusted me to be okay on my own all day, I was starting to forget what she looked like.
I was fine with it before, when I had school stuff and Abby was around, but things hadn’t gone to plan this summer, and after six long weeks of being really, truly, actually alone—if you don’t count those first two weeks of oh-my-ice-cream-let’s-not-talk-about-it beginner tennis lessons, which went about as well as me around a group of strange new kids has ever gone—I could say for certain it wasn’t much fun at all.
“Okay then, real good-bye now,” said my mom. “Love you. See you soon.”
“You too,” I replied. My mom hung up first.
Well hey, another night of being all by my lonesome. I stuffed the last of the ice cream into my mouth, fished Abby’s postcard out of the bill pile, and headed for my pillow fort in the living room.
The fort’s technical name was Gromit’s Room, after Abby’s favorite movie, but with no Abby around to get the inside joke I’d just been calling it my Fortress of Fortitude. At least it was cool and comfortable after my cat-carrying marathon in the afternoon heat. I flicked on the lamp, re-armed myself with
