“Um, you know how flashlights work, right, Murph?” hesaid. Everyone else called me Hattie or Hatts, but Mason always called me Murph. And even though last names are supposedly more formal, the way Mason said it felt like the opposite. I could hear that signature smirk.
“Uh, yeah, Mason. It must have just been loose or something.”
“All right, little girl, let’s go tuck you in.” I grabbed his elbow and he put his hand over my hand. “And if you wake up Daddy again you’re going to get a time-out.” He was still teasing me, but his hand was warm and his voice soft around the edges.
“I wasn’t trying to wake you up,” I said, mock offended. “I was calling for Asha. It’s not my fault you came when I called like a puppy.”
“Asha is snoring like a lumberjack,” he said. He stopped for a minute, and we listened. He was right: I could definitely hear some heavy-duty snoring.
When we were at our tent, I hung back.
“I’m never going to get back to sleep now,” I said. I felt like I had just had a big cup of caffeine—probably from the adrenaline still coursing through my veins, but maybe also a little bit from feeling suddenly like Mason and I were the only two people in the world right now. “I don’t want to go lie in there, wide awake, and have to be quiet. Let’s just stay out here.”
“Seriously? It’s freezing.” He was still for a second. Then he said, “Hold on a sec.”
He detached himself from my hand and went into the tent, which I could just see the outline of. He came back with both our sleeping bags seconds later. I followed him a few feet to apicnic table and he unzipped them, laying his on the bench and pulling mine over us against the chill as we scooted together.
“Check it out,” he said. “Goodbye, stars; hello, huge ball of flame.”
The sunrise had been sneaking up on us. Half the sky faded from black to a soft gray. Just moments later, it was all of the sky. The clouds were visible again, wispy and white. Already the gray was taking on more blue.
“Sweet,” Mason said. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen the sun rise before. Looks like not all of your ideas are bad, Murph.” He slung his arm around me and held my shoulder.
The gesture made me feel cozier than the sleeping bags did. But then that warmth gave me a pang, made me think of something. “Remember when we first met? In fourth grade?”
“We knew each other before that,” he objected.
“No, we didn’t. I was at St. Brigit’s before that. I moved to Fillmore in fourth grade. That’s when we met. In Miss Davis’s class.”
“Oh. I thought you were there from the beginning.” He shrugged.
“Nope. Started with Miss Davis. Remember how she let us have free reading time after lunch and you could sit anywhere? How we used to climb on top of the cupboards and sit near the ceiling to read?”
“Ha, yeah. We were so psyched for reading time, just ’cause we got to climb.”
“I never understood you then. Not that I understand younow. But you were a real mystery.” I hadn’t planned to rehash elementary school with him, but out it came. It was clear I thought about it more than he did. Even now, I was looking for clues to how Mason ticked.
“A mystery? Like a ‘how could a boy be so handsome and so smart at the same time’ kind of mystery?”
I pinched his leg. “No, you dope. Seriously, you were kind of … a flip-flopper. Half friend and half enemy.”
I felt the energy change in his limbs. There was a tension, like he was struggling between the urge to make a snappy comeback and genuine curiosity. He landed somewhere in the middle.
“Murphy, I barely even remember fourth grade. And I definitely don’t remember being enemies. Not with anyone. So what are you talking about?”
“Do you remember how we were always next to each other in line, ’cause of our last names? We would talk in the hall on the way to math class.”
“Sort of. I remember math class. I hated Mr. Harding. Yep, you got me. I take back what I said about no enemies. I was enemies with Mr. Harding.”
“Yeah, me too.” I pushed on. “So, we’d usually joke around, but a few times, when I was walking in front of you, you did that thing where you reach out your foot and hook the ankle of the person in front of you. One time I fell pretty hard. My books went all over the hall. The whole class laughed. You don’t remember?”
“Well, you’ve always been klutzy, Murphy—”
I sighed. I felt the snark wall going up. “Whatever. Never mind.” I waved my hand a little bit, erasing the attempt to cut through to something real. My body involuntarily inched away a little, but Mason grabbed me and pulled.
“Hey now. Hey. Don’t be like that.” I could hear the half-joking pout of his lip. “I mean, I don’t remember that, but it sounds like me, as in, a dick.”
I shrugged.
