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“Well, that’s why I call you Sunshine. You smile and laugh when most people wouldn’t.”
“The sun is a star, too, you know,” she informs me, and thanks to the books she’s shared with me, I do.
She claps her hands together. “I have a great idea. You need a middle name. Let’s make that it.”
“Make what my middle name?” I ask her, confused by her changing the subject.
“Star.”
“What the heck, Apollo?” I protest, my male pride wounded. “That’s a girl’s name.”
“I have a boy’s name,” she says with a shrug
“Yeah, that’s fine for you.” I frown at her.
She wrinkles her nose. “You call me Sunshine. I want to call you Star.”
“No way are you gonna call me Star.” I glare at her as best as I can.
She frowns for a minute and then that smile is back. “How about if I say it like it’s one word? Like Grahamstar?” She smiles hopefully, and I can’t say no when she looks at me like that. I would give her just about anything she asked for.
“Whatever, it’s just a name,” I grumble.
“A name is more than just a word. It should mean something. And you’re the smartest, nicest, bravest boy I ever met,” she declares.
“Well, guess you ain’t met many boys,” I mumble, glad it’s too dark for her to see my blush.
“Please. Stop putting yourself down. It really makes me sad,” she says, and I feel bad at how sad she sounds. I don’t want her to ever be sad. Not because of me anyway.
She steps close enough that the toes of our shoes are touching and grabs my other hand and links our fingers.
She smells like the bluebonnets and grass. And like the sun. It’s the best thing I’ve smelled in my entire life. Even better than that cake.
“Grahamstar, you’re the first real friend I’ve had in my whole life. Well, besides my sister. I’m not sure that she really counts. She didn’t really have a choice.”
My heart beats a little faster. I’m nervous but excited that this girl who’s the closest thing to a miracle I’ve ever experienced is looking at me like she thinks I can move mountains. She makes me think that maybe I can.
“I read a lot, and I watch some television. I know it’s not normal for an eleven-year-old not to have any friends. You think I have some great life because I get to do those things, and travel and stuff. But I just wish I still had a family. I wish I could live somewhere as quiet and peaceful as this place.” She closes her eyes and smiles as if she’s daydreaming. “Somewhere that you lived, too. We’d read. You’d kill all the snakes. I’d cook dinner and bake us cakes. And every night, we’d get to sit outside and look at the stars.”
She opens her eyes and gazes up at me. Looking in them, it’s like I can see exactly what she’s describing. “That sounds nice. Well, except for living in a town like this. I want to live in a real city.”
She nods happily. “We could find somewhere we both liked. It wouldn’t even matter. ‘Cause we’d be together.” She stands up on her toes and presses a soft kiss to my cheek. My stomach suddenly feels like it’s full of dragonflies that just woke up and are trying to find their way out.
I feel like the spider webs and leaves and every other forgotten overlooked thing that Apollo notices. Hearing her talk about me like this, I know she won’t forget me when she leaves. Maybe … somehow … I’ll feel like I’m out there with her.
So, I say a rare prayer of gratitude that she fell out of the sky that day. I’ve learned more in these last ten days than I’ve learned in my whole life. It’s planted a seed that I want to water and never stop feeding.
I’m glad I snuck out tonight. That whipping was worth the memories that no one will ever be able to take from me. Even if I never get out of this place, that would be something more than what I had before she came.
“Grahamstar,” she singsongs my new nickname. I think I might actually like it … even if it is a little girly.
I look up to find her dark eyes smiling at me.
“Yeah?”
“The universe is waiting for you. And she doesn’t like to be kept waiting.”
“She? How do you know the universe isn’t a man?”
