When Friendship Followed Me Home (18 page)

55

WHOA

That third Wednesday of October was a warm day. Mrs. Lorentz wanted to drive Halley over to the library, but she wanted to walk. Mercurious sided with Halley and said they would meet us over there. I brought the wheelchair just in case. She made it a couple of blocks before she needed to use the chair. Still, she was psyched. She couldn't wait to see Brian. His teacher emailed Halley that Brian was close to reading at grade level now.

Mrs. Lorentz and Mrs. Salvador had wrapped up Halley in all her crazy colorful scarves. She gave them away to the kids. Brian read to her and Flip, and she got her hug and kiss on the cheek. The kids were cool. They didn't make her sad. They knew she was dying, but they said good-bye like they'd see her next week, and I swear they meant what they said, and I really wished I could be like them.

After, she wanted to ride down the boardwalk, just her,
me, and Flip. She wanted me to push the wheelchair fast. “Push, Coffin.
Push.
Faster. Yeah, like that. Woohoo!”

• • •

We were in her room, sunset. We worked on the model of Luna Park 1905, or I worked, and she watched. I fiddled with a string of lights that went from the top of the golden tower to one of the stars Mercurious had hung from the ceiling. Flip snored in her lap. “Ready for the last chapter of
The Magic Box
?” she said.

I'd been waiting for her to bring it up, or more like dreading it. I didn't want the story to end. “Ready,” I said.

“Tess says, ‘You've saved Mundum Nostrum, Ben. You and Flip. You brought the magic. Herein lies the cure to every malady, the fix for Rayburn's sadness, the peace that will help the people of Mundum Nostrum remember they are of one blood, brothers and sisters, friends forever. Go ahead and see for yourself, the Greatest Treasure.' Tess gives him the box. He opens it. He looks in. ‘That's it?' he says. ‘That's everything,' Tess says.”

“And?” I said.

“And that's all,” Halley said. “End of story.”

“Uh,
no.
After dragging me and Flip all the way to Mundum Nostrum, you're telling me what's inside that box.”

“Seriously, Coffin? You haven't figured it out yet? By the way, if you're ever going to kiss me, you might want to do it soon. For instance, now would be a good time.”

“Way to distract me from trying to get you to tell me
once and for all what's inside the stupid box. Plus, I thought you said there's nothing better than friends.”

“Forget what I said.”

I kissed her. I felt her heartbeat in her lips. They were chapped, and then they got slippery. They were just like I'd dreamed, lit with sparks. All the while Flip snored right next to us in the upside-down flying squirrel pose. “Whoa,” I said.

“Yeah, whoa. We're shaking like crazy, aren't we?”

“I can't stop my teeth from chattering.”

“Was that your first kiss?” she said.

“Yours too?”

“Third. Ha. Be happy for me.”

“Did I do it right?” I said. “Like, was it lame, ours, compared to the other two?”

“Kiss me again and I'll tell you.”

“Halley?”

“Ben?”

“I totally freaking love you.”

“Me freaking too.”

• • •

I woke the next morning to Flip's barking and Halley's screaming and then Mrs. Lorentz's. I could barely hear Mercurious as he called 911, even though I was standing right next to him. Halley bunched up like a pill bug. “It's cold but it burns,” she said. “My back, in the middle. Like somebody's hitting me.”

The EMTs came and put her onto a stretcher. “My hat,” she said. “My rainbow hat. Please.” They went lights and sirens to the hospital. Mrs. Lorentz rode with her in the ambulance. By the time Mercurious and I got to the hospital a few minutes after the ambulance, she was on the operating table. She had to have emergency surgery because her kidneys were all blocked up and she couldn't pee. She never made it out of the surgery. One of the nurses said it was a blessing that she didn't drag on for the next few weeks, all drugged up and all but dead. Yes, that she died in her sleep was a gift. It sure didn't feel like one. Not at all. It was like with Mom all over again. I was so mad. She never told me what was inside the magic box.

56

GOOD-BYE FOR A WHILE

When we got back to the apartment Flip was waiting for me at the front door with one of Halley's dirty socks, I thought, but it was mine. “Flip,” I said, and his tail flicked. I crouched and he crawled into my lap. I carried him into Mercurious's office and set him on the couch. I stared at my Chewie poster. Mrs. Lorentz and Mercurious came in. They sat on either side of me. Mrs. Lorentz kissed my forehead.

“Can Flip stay?” I said.

“What are you talking about?” she said.

“Everybody I love disappears. I can't figure out how to bring them back. I have to go now.”

“What?”

“I'll remind you of her. It's just going to make you feel worse.”

“Ben, reminding us of her is going to keep her alive,” Mrs. Lorentz said. “How can you say these things to us? How can you not see that this is where you're supposed to be, you
and Flip? We're not losing you too. We're
not.
My Ben. Oh God, please don't go. Please. We need each other. We really do. Michael, tell him.
Tell
him.”

Mercurious put his arm over my shoulder. He went somewhere between hug and headlock, just like Mom used to. “She left something for you,” he said. “Come on now, son.” I followed him into Halley's room, and Flip followed me. We stood in front of her desk, in front of the model of Luna Park 1905 spread over it. We'd come so close to finishing it, just one last detail. I'd wanted to put some people in the top of the tower, a family looking out over the city, the ocean.

Mercurious opened the desk drawer and took out Halley's phone and gave it to me in its bright pink case. He patted my back and left his hand there for a bit, and then he left. The phone was tapped up to Halley's notepad. I sat in the desk chair and read the note written three days before, the time stamp said.

Dear Ben,

As awesome as our story of
The Magic Box
is, it's not as awesome as your story, and that's the one I want you to tell.

Speaking of
The Magic Box
 . . . It's right there, in the model, in
Dreamland at Night.
Mercurious snuck it in for me. Look at the Golden Tower of Light. You see the foundation there, the one the tower is built on? You can look inside now, Ben. Yup, there's the Greatest Treasure. I still can't believe you didn't figure it out. The secret was in Flip's big gold eyes all along.
Your mom knew too. It's why she picked you.

Take care of Mom and Dad for me, and give my books to Housing Works.

Love forever and ever,

Rainbow Girl

I lifted the golden tower out of the model of Luna Park 1905. Beneath it was a wooden box, just big enough to keep a book safe. I opened the box. Inside was a mirror. I looked into it, and all I saw was me.

57

TRAVELERS AND MAGICIANS

My favorite thing about Halley Lorentz will always be this: Every time she hugged you it was like she hadn't seen you in a long, long time. I'll never forget the way she held hands either, cold and trembly and hard enough to make your fingers ache a little the next day. Frannie's teacher from
Feathers
was right after all. Some things never fade away.

It's a year later and I go to a different school now, one for science geeks. It's really competitive and I'm not, but otherwise it's awesome. I never fall asleep in class and nobody smacks me in the back of the head. The only fights I get into are about whether or not roentgenium can occur naturally in environments where the gravity is a hundred and eleven times stronger than it is on Earth. If I stay on track I have a shot at getting into a good engineering program for college. Then again I might just go ahead and be a waterslide tester. Most of all, I like working with Mercurious. Maybe I'll design
rockets and roller coasters by day and be a magician at night.

Aunt Jeanie and I get together a couple of times a month. She's always giving me presents, really nice stuff from Macy's, and some of it's even stuff that I like to wear. Hoodies and jeans and stuff. I tell her I feel bad, her spending all this money, but she says I shouldn't worry because she gets it dirt-cheap with her discount. She never brings up Leo unless I ask, and I do once in a while. He isn't drinking and he's losing weight, she says. She never asks me if I want to see him, because she knows I don't. I want him to be okay, though. I really, really do.

This one sweater Jeanie got me—it's really preppy. I wear it when Flip and I do Read to Rufus. Brian is reading above grade level now, and he isn't afraid to be caught carrying around a book.

I posted
The Magic Box
on some of the story sites. All told it has a little over eleven hundred reviews so far. A few girls and one guy even wrote spinoffs of it and a few more were threatening to. That's all Halley ever wanted anyway. To give the story to a few people. I posted her sketches too, with the story. I listen to the audio tracks, the notes Halley talked into her phone. I loved the sound of her voice. I still love it, loud and husky and just plain true.

• • •

It's Saturday, and Flip and I meet up with Chucky at the basketball courts. We both totally blow and these bigger
dudes kick us off the court, which is fine because my asthma is starting up and Chucky is sucking wind worse than me because he's been eating way too many donuts. “Want to come over for my sister's birthday party?” he says.

“Can't, have to help Mercurious. Which sister and how old, though?”

“Coffin, are you serious? I'm lucky if I can remember their names.”

• • •

Mercurious and I head on over to the hospital. We're in the pediatric wing where the kids are all bunched up in this one room, and they're going
whoa
and
holy crud, did you see that?
The angel Halley makes her appearance and flutters around the room and kisses each one of them on the cheek. And then Mercurious calls me out from behind the video controls for the showstopper. It's an old trick, but the kids go bonkers for it. I take off my magic silver sombrero and put it on the table and tap it with my light saber. Flip pops out in his rabbit ears and surfs on over to the kids and knuckle bumps them. There's high-fours all around and all the kids are cracking up and in the corner Mom Lorentz is crying but more she's laughing too.

After the show it's such a nice night, way too nice to be inside. Flip and I head out. We stop off at that supermarket where the lady gave me the cheddar samples that brought us all together in the first place, and I actually
buy
some
cheese, and Flip and I head to the beach to play chase.

At dusk we stroll down the boardwalk to Luna Park. The lights are coming on, millions of them. I'm falling hard into my dream, traveling into the past, to 1905. Somewhere in time it still exists, and an apprentice electrician and a magician watch a young woman swing on the trapeze high into the night sky, and they pray she'll be okay. In the middle of it all is the golden tower. Flip and I run up those winding stairs to the top, and I'm breathless. She's there. She really is. Mom. Laura's with her. Jeanie and, yes, Leo, and it's okay, I don't mind. Then there's the woman who regretted selling Flip for forty dollars, who trained Flip to be awesomeness. The bus driver who fed me. Jerry the chemotherapy nurse, Franco, Mrs. Salvador, Kayla, the Santa magician, even Rayburn. And then there's Halley. Halley most of all.

Flip leaps to greet her and gets his stinky tongue up into her mouth. She holds my hand and we turn to the ocean, and what a view. It's not just the past anymore that I see. It's the future too and it's now and it's everything and everyone I've ever met and will meet. I look out and see forever. Yes, Halley's with me. All I have to do is close my eyes and think of her.

Acknowledgments

Thank you to Jodi Reamer, who's not only one of the nicest people I know in publishing but also one of the nicest people I know. Do NOT get into a fight with her, though. She'll totally kick your butt. Seriously, she's crazy strong and just plain crazy. Ditto for Alec Shane, who, in addition to being a great agent, is also a great guy. David Levithan, for hooking me up with The Blackbelt.

My Behind The Book crew for hooking me up with the amazing Patty McCormick. The phenomenal Andy Griffiths, for giving the book to the phenomenal Markus Zusak. The lovely Steph Stepan, for giving the book to the lovely Rebecca Stead. The incredibly kind Rick Margolis, for giving the book to The King, aka Gary Schmidt. The wonderful Jacqueline Woodson, for letting me quote
Feathers
, and, for reaching out to Jackie, the divine Nancy Paulsen, who also happens to have a divine singing voice. David Baldacci and Kristen for the nicest tweet and for so many hours of reading happiness—same goes for Timothy Zahn. (Harper Lee and
To Kill a
freaking
Mockingbird
are pretty good too.)

Mary Kate McDevitt and Dani Calotta for the ridiculously beautiful cover; Jasmin Rubero and Regina Castillo for making the inside just as ridiculously beautiful.

Namrata Tripathi, for her perfect notes, her generosity re the cover and for coming up with the most gorgeous title in concert with Ellen Cormier, who gave equally perfect notes, made me crack up (laughing), put up with my lame pranks and generally held my hand as this book made its way through production. Puffin Julia gave rockin' notes too, as did my pal Heather Alexander.

Lauri Hornik, for that final round of notes and the best hugs, for the hilarious late-night e-mails, for taking me to yummy places to eat and for just being so completely and totally awesome to me these many years.

Sheila Hennessey—I don't even know what to say about Sheila, except you know how Ben takes in scruffy little Flip off the street? That's what Sheila did with me. Hugs to Shark. Shout-out to Steve Kent, Doni Kay, JD, Colleen, Ev and Nicole too. Eileen and Dana, Kendra, Stacey B and Kathy D, Mary Raymond, Helen, Kim and Draga, Michael, Penny, Steph, Alaina and my Text peeps. Jen Loja was awesome with cover and title support. Erin, Emily, Alexis, Don, Felicia, Carmela, Venessa, Melinda, Courtney, Anna, Jackie, Jennifer, and Marisa. Steve Meltzer, did you move? How come I don't see you in Frank's anymore? I miss you Jess, Marie, Emily, Scottie, Donne, Sara, Alex.

For the very fun and very marathon phone calls, Shawn Goodman (great man), Gayle Forman (outrageously magnificent), Nan Mercado (guardian angel of punk writers, or at least this one) and my bud Barry Lyga, who also sold me his phone for half what he could have gotten for it on Swappa. Morgan Baden, for keeping Barry on a leash, albeit with limited effectiveness. Michael Northrop, Coe Booth (Coe, might I ask, what are you working on now?), Gordon Korman and the rest of the TARN revelers. Jess, Karlan, Claudio and LIT. Greg Neri, Melissa Walker, Matt de la Peña, Libba Bray, Paul Volponi, Ted Goeglein, Torrey “Brando” Maldonado, Allen Zadoff, and especially Elizabeth Hill and Scott Smith, an amazing friend.

Dad, for always reading; Mom, for always buying. General Kathleen Whelan for marshaling the troops. Baba for all those hours at the
hotokesama
, Kari for all those hours keeping us giggling.

My dogs, Ray (Liotta), Al (Pacino), Bobby (DeNiro), Marty (Scorsese), Nice Guy Eddie (from
Reservoir Dogs
, also the model for Flip. See him there, in the picture with Halley's hand and the magic square?), and my lovely, dainty little jackal MiMi (from
La Bohème
. We needed a lady to class up the joint).

My friends who invite me to their bookstores, libraries, detention centers, schools and crazy conferences, with particular—and particularly fun—craziness coming from that Texas librarian posse and my Florida FAME peeps. JLG crew: love you all.

My friends who visit me every time I close my eyes and think of them.

My editor, Kate Harrison. Kate, your big-hearted and brilliant notes and letters, our calls and lunches and brainstorming sessions—every minute I get with you is the greatest treasure. Our collaborations are so fun I feel guilty getting paid for them. (Please don't tell Lauri I said that.) Thank you for keeping me around all these years. They mean everything to me—your guidance, your teaching, your friendship.

TWO NOTEs:
The Coney Island Library is a little different from the way I described it here, but it's a dream world for sure. You should go.

Alas, Boardwalk Flight closed in 2014, but it lives on in my heart and can in yours too. All you have to do is close your eyes and think of it, right? (Or, if you're lazy like me—I am—you can search Google images.)