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“What are the chances you’ve been working on my case, too?”
“Good,” he said. “No one see Fernando. Fernando see lots.”
“That’s true. When the world sees you as a cat or dog or whatever fits into their worldview, you must be able to gather all kinds of information unnoticed. And history shows you can get away with just about anything.”
He nodded his whole body enthusiastically.
“Why have we never teamed up before as adults like we did as kids?” Well, like we had done when I was a little girl. No matter how much time had passed, Fernando remained unchanged, never aging. “You’re thinking there’s no time like the present?”
“Yes.” He clapped his hands together as if willing me to agree.“Yes.”
“Sure, let’s hang out,” I said with a shrug. “Why not?”
“Yes!”
We high-fived. He lunged at me and hugged me hard, then climbed me like I was a rock wall, wrapped his arms around my head, and perched himself on my shoulders.
I felt like I was ten years old again. A bubble of laughter filled my chest. Genuine delight filled my heart.
I said, “Pull my left ear to make me go—”
“Fernandoneverforget,” he said.
I chuckled. “All right then. Lead me to something you’ve found in Inorog that I may have missed.”
He gave my hair a shake, snapping the strands like reins. And we were off. I ran down the sidewalk, turning when he pulled on one ear or the other. People shot us the strangest looks. What they saw when they looked at us, I couldn’t fathom. But I couldn’t stop laughing.
We hadn’t had time like this since I’d returned. We hadn’t had time like this since I’d started working for the library at eighteen. Perhaps it had been longer still.
Fernando pulled both ears back. “Stop.”
I stopped. He bounded off my shoulders and started rolling, leaving me to chase after him and try and catch up. I called, “You’re too fast.”
He disappeared around a corner. I stopped at the junction, but couldn’t see him in any direction. Was this some kind of game of hide and seek? Was whatever mission-related clue hewas leading me to hidden around here? Was he retrieving it for me? Could he already have located the amulet?
“Fernando? Where’d you go?”
The door to what looked like a house opened and Fernando rolled out, something cone-shaped held in each hand. He rolled right for me, launched off the ground, landed on my face, and shimmied around to the back of my head.
“Ahh. What are you doing?”
“Showing Lily what Fernando found.”
“What did you find?” I stared at the building he’d come out of. It was definitely residential.
He lowered a cone in front of my face—ice cream.
“This isn’t what I meant,” I said. “Is whoever this treat belongs to going to come after us?”
“Maybe,” he said.
I shook my head, took the cone, and headed back the way we had come until we reached a bench. I sat down. Fernando climbed down me and sat on the bench beside me.
He watched as I ate my ice cream, mirroring my movements by licking his cone with his long tongue. The ice cream was strawberry, with real fruit bits.
“I’ve missed you,” I said. I’d missed all of this. It had been so long since I’d had so much fun. Longer than I cared to admit.
“Fernando miss Lily, too.”
