Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The world passes by in a blur of dull yellows and greens. Eddie’s head bangs against the window with every pothole his dad hits. It's dead silent aside from the growl of the engine and the constant rumble of the tires on the road.

They left for Uncle Wayne's right after the funeral. They’ve been driving for hours in the same noisy silence. Eddie’s skin itches beneath the oversized black dress shirt his father had wrangled him into that morning.

Eddie tried counting cows to pass the time, but he lost count a few fields back. Now, the only thing capturing his attention is a big brown sign coming up into view.

WELCOME TO HAWKINS

He misses his Mama.

"Now, when we get there, you best behave." His dad breaks the silence with a warning. He takes his eyes off the road to shoot Eddie a look. "Your Uncle don't got the same no-nonsense type of attitude as me, so if you give him hell, I'll tan your hide when I get back."

Eddie's eyes drift back to the passing trees, and he murmurs, "Yessir."

"You hear me?" His dad reaches over and shoves his shoulder, his voice raised.

"Yes, sir," Eddie repeats, louder.

They drive through the town square. His dad points out places he remembers from his late teens, but Eddie isn’t interested. He shifts, sinking further into the passenger seat.

He just wants to go to sleep, but every time he closes his eyes, his heart hurts.

Gravel crunches under the tires as they pull into Forest Hills. There are too many little houses for Eddie to count, just like back home. They pull up in front of a trailer with pretty blue stripes and a big front porch. The front door opens as soon as Eddie’s dad shuts the engine off.

Eddie looks over at his dad and watches him blow out a deep breath, his eyes getting shinier when he catches sight of his brother.

His dad glances at him. For a moment, he just holds Eddie's gaze. Then, his face hardens, and he swipes at his eyes before throwing his door open, never having buckled his seat belt in the first place.

Eddie follows behind, wincing at the way his shoes pinch his feet.

Uncle Wayne immediately pulls Eddie’s dad into a rough hug. His dad is tense the entire time, but he doesn’t pull away like he usually does. He lets his brother hold him for a good, long while.

He clears his throat and pats Uncle Wayne's shoulder once, twice, and Wayne steps back immediately.

Uncle Wayne turns his attention to Eddie. Without any hesitation, he opens his arms.

Eddie inches forward and lets his Uncle envelop him with a warmth not unlike his Mama's. He smells like cigarettes and sweat. Eddie can't help the way he tucks his face into Wayne’s scruffy neck and just stays there, holding his breath.

The tears come fast. He sniffles in an attempt to hold them back, but they won’t stop. Uncle Wayne rubs his back and tightens his arms.

Eddie's dad clears his throat again.

Wayne hesitantly lets Eddie go, carefully watching him. For what, Eddie doesn't know. He just swipes his eyes and sets his jaw, just like daddy. He knows that's what he wants him to do.

"I need to talk to ya," His dad says to Wayne. "Inside."

Wayne nods and holds the door open for them, but when Eddie goes to follow, his dad turns around and stops him with a hand on his shoulder.

"You stay out here," He orders, heading inside without giving further instruction.

Eddie's heart feels like it's in his throat, pounding hard. He doesn't know what he did wrong.

Wayne watches his brother go inside with a stricken expression, then looks at Eddie, his face softening.

"You can sit on that couch right there," He tells Eddie, pointing at a big, sun-faded brown couch. It looks comfy. "We'll be right back before you know it."

He smiles softly before going inside, closing the door behind him with a soft snick.

Eddie settles onto the couch and tucks his legs beneath him. The sun feels good on his face. He closes his eyes and tilts his face up, listening to the muffled voices of the two men inside.

The wind rustles his hair. It tickles his cheek, but he lets it be. There’s a bird chirping somewhere. It's peaceful.

Until the ache sets in.

It takes his breath away. He opens his eyes with a gasp, tears flooding without his permission. He clutches his chest and curls in on himself, a cry clawing its way out of his throat.

Before he knows it, he's being scooped up into someone’s arms and settled on their hip, even though he’s been too big for that for a while now. For a moment, he thinks it’s his Mama, but then he remembers, and he sobs hard into the person's shoulder.

Cigarettes and sweat. He gets used to the smell.

While his dad's back home, "taking care of things," Eddie’s staying with Uncle Wayne.

That night, Wayne set Eddie up in the single bedroom in the house. While unpacking Eddie’s things, he’d taken one look at the minuscule assortment of clothes his brother had packed into Eddie’s suitcase and sighed, looking over at Eddie, chewing the inside of his cheek thoughtfully.

“You wanna go do somethin’ tomorrow?” He’d asked.

Hesitantly, Eddie had nodded.

Now it’s the next day, and Eddie’s staring wide-eyed at the sprawling thrift store they’ve walked into.

“There’s so much here,” He gushes, spinning around in a circle. “It’s so much bigger than the one back home! The other one smells like old people, and, well, this one does too, but not as bad–”

He catches Wayne’s gaze, and his mouth clamps shut. Before he left, Eddie’s dad had told Eddie not to run his mouth, or Wayne had permission to shut it. Wayne doesn’t look like he wants to, though. He’s just smirking at him, like something’s funny.

“Keep on talkin’, kid, ‘cause Lord knows I ain’t a chatterbox. Someone’s gotta fill the silence.” Wayne chuckles and reaches over to ruffle Eddie’s hair. “We’ll walk around this whole place, I promise, but we gotta get the important stuff outta the way.”

He guides Eddie through the aisles upon aisles of clothes, holding shirts and such up to Eddie every once in a while.

“These’ll be a bit long but I’ll ask Miss Byers down at the general store to hem ‘em for ya,” Wayne says, putting a pair of blue jeans in the cart. It’s nearly half-full of just clothes for Eddie.

Eddie wants to speak up, to tell Wayne he’s spending too much, that his dad will be mad, but he can’t find the courage.

“Do you like this?” Wayne asks, showing Eddie a shirt with red, blue, and yellow stripes. Eddie doesn’t, not really, but he nods anyway. He usually doesn’t have a choice. Wayne pauses and squints his eyes playfully. “You sayin’ yes just to make me happy?”

Eddie doesn’t say anything. He just looks down at the dusty concrete floor.

“We don’t have to get it, don’t worry,” Wayne assures, putting the shirt back onto the rack.

“Thank you,” Eddie murmurs.

“No problem.” Wayne pushes the cart out of the aisle, and Eddie follows behind closely.

They stop at the racks of shoes. Wayne pushes the cart out of the way and motions for Eddie to sit on a little bench off to the side. Eddie does, kicking his legs back and forth as he watches his uncle pick up a few pairs of shoes.

He eyes the bookshelves across the store, wondering when they’ll get around to them.

Wayne crouches down in front of Eddie and starts pulling his shoes off. Curious, Eddie peers at the shoes Wayne brought over. Two pairs of running shoes, one blue, one green, then a pair of boots like the ones Wayne’s got on.

“I know these are small on ya, so I grabbed some bigger ones,” Wayne tells Eddie, setting the painful dress shoes Eddie arrived with to the side. They were the only ones he had with him, since his dad forgot to pack Eddie’s normal shoes. Wayne holds one of the blue ones up to Eddie’s right foot. “These might be too big, now that I’ve got ‘em over here.”

“Too big is okay,” Eddie finds himself saying. “Better than too small.”

Wayne huffs a laugh and smiles up at Eddie. “Well, how about we strive for just right?”

Eddie giggles. “Am I Goldilocks?”

“Well, you might not have blonde hair, but you’ve got your mama’s ringlets,” Wayne teases, reaching up to tug at one of Eddie’s curls. It bounces back into place.

Eddie’s smile falls away, and he screws up his face to fight away the burning threat of tears in his nose. Wayne smiles sadly and pats Eddie’s knee.

“I didn’t mean to upset ya,” He tells Eddie softly. “It’s just proof that she’s still here with ya.”

Eddie swallows hard and nods shakily. “Yeah.”

All the adults liked to tell him that she was still with him, still in his heart, even though she was far, far away from here. However, none of them ever told him that parts of him were parts of her. It made him feel warm inside, but it also made him want to cry. He doesn’t want to bother Wayne with the crying so he sucks it up like a big boy.

Wayne waits patiently, watching Eddie carefully. Not once does he look annoyed like Eddie’s dad usually does. Eddie wonders how brothers can be so different, as Wayne slips the blue shoe onto Eddie’s socked foot and squeezes at the tip to check the wiggle room. Wayne looks a lot like Eddie’s daddy, and sometimes acts like him, too. The way they move, the way they talk.

But he ain’t angry like Eddie’s daddy is.

“These’ll fall right off of ya,” Wayne says, “Even if I tie 'em tight.”

And just like that, he sets the shoe aside and moves along to the green ones. Eddie’s dad would have just said they were good enough, then get mad at Eddie if they got torn up too quickly.

Again, Wayne squeezes the tip of the shoe on Eddie's foot. "These feel okay?"

Eddie looks down at the green shoe and wiggles his toes. They don't pinch. He nods.

Wayne nods in return. After trying the boots, which also fit nicely, he regretfully helps Eddie back into the shoes that hurt. When he's done, he stands and tugs Eddie up off the bench.

"Now, let's go find you a good coat."

The coats are a lot closer to the bookshelves. Eddie doesn’t realize he’s drifted away from his uncle until he’s standing in front of the tall shelves, running his fingers along the spines of the ones he can reach.

Most of it is old encyclopedias or dictionaries. Then there are boring old instruction manuals. He wrinkles his nose.

He moves on to another shelf, murmuring eeny meeny miny moe to himself, and when the song ends, his finger rests on a book with pretty trees and a mountain on its spine.

He pulls it off the shelf and examines the pretty cover with a drawn-out, Oooooh.

"The..." He whispers, squinting confusedly at the title.

A shadow falls over him, and he turns to find Uncle Wayne holding a brown jacket. The corners of his eyes crinkle when he smiles at Eddie.

Uncle Wayne leans down. "Whaddya got there?"

"The Hobo!" Eddie exclaims, thrusting the book in front of his uncle's eyes.

Wayne leans away from how close Eddie’s got the book to his face so he can read it. He tilts his head back and laughs when he reads the title.

He grabs it and pulls Eddie into his side so he can run his finger under the title and say, "Naw, boy, that says The Hobbit."

"The Hobbit!" Eddie repeats. Then, with a frown, "What the heck is a hobbit?"

Wayne hums, flicking through the pages of the book. He stands and holds the book out to Eddie.

"We'll just have to find out together, won't we?" He says, wiggling his eyebrows. Eddie giggles and snorts, then screeches elatedly when Wayne grabs him and playfully grumbles, "Now let's get this jacket on you and see how it fits!"

It fits. It all fits. Wayne even keeps his word and gets the long jeans hemmed by that kind lady named Joyce just in time for Eddie to wear them to school the next day.

Wayne wakes Eddie with a gentle shake of his shoulder and lets Eddie take his time getting up. He ushers Eddie into the kitchen and sets a plate of bacon and eggs in front of him as he climbs onto the kitchen chair. Eddie blinks blearily at the food, and Wayne just pats Eddie’s head a couple of times before disappearing into the bathroom.

Sleepily, Eddie eats his breakfast. Once he’s done, he feels a lot more awake. He slips off the kitchen chair and takes his glass of apple juice with him to find Wayne. Sipping on his juice, he stands in the doorway of the bathroom, watching Wayne test the heat of the full bath.

“You ready, Eddie?” Wayne asks, grinning at the rhyme.

Eddie nods. Wayne takes Eddie’s juice and sets it on the counter before helping him into the bath.

It’s different. Eddie hasn’t had a bath like this since his Mama got too sick to help him. His dad had tried once, but ended up just telling Eddie to take a shower. Eddie hadn’t known how to take a shower. He had to figure it out on his own.

He closes his eyes as Wayne pours a cup of warm water over Eddie’s sudsy hair, a gentle hand covering his forehead to block the soap from sluicing over his face.

When he’s deemed squeaky clean, Wayne helps him get dressed, then they brush their teeth side-by-side, making faces at each other in the mirror. Eddie sprays the mirror with a splatter of toothpaste when Wayne crosses his eyes, and his uncle tilts his head back with the full force of his laughter.

After tying Eddie's new green shoes, Wayne grabs his backpack and the new brown jacket from the table by the front door.

Eddie stands from the couch, shoes on tight, and Wayne tosses the jacket at him.

“Let’s roll,” Wayne says, once Eddie’s got the jacket on.

In Wayne’s faded blue pickup, wind ruffles through Eddie’s damp hair as they go down the winding backroads. Something twangy plays quietly on the radio, mostly drowned out by the wind and Eddie’s own thoughts.

“You nervous?” Wayne asks, risking a glance over at Eddie.

Eddie takes a deep breath. “Yeah.”

Wayne nods. “It’s normal to be nervous.”

“Really?” Eddie asks, looking at Wayne. He seems so strong and brave. “Are you nervous?”

Wayne laughs. “I’m nervous as hell, kid.”

“Don’t be nervous,” Eddie tells him, leaning over to poke his uncle’s arm. “You’re brave.”

Wayne shoots him a smile. “So are you.”

When they arrive at the elementary school, Wayne rounds the truck to open Eddie’s door. Eddie’s got his arms crossed, staring at the building apprehensively. He watches other children walking into the doors and starts shaking his head.

“I don’t wanna.” He pushes himself further into the seat, and turns his head away from his uncle. “Let me stay with you.”

“I gotta go to work, buddy,” Wayne says calmly. “You can’t go to work with me, they’ll make you crawl under trucks ‘n get dirty.”

Eddie looks at Wayne, wide-eyed. “I’ll do it!”

Wayne shakes his head, laughing. “I should’a known you’d say that.”

He reaches over Eddie and undoes the seat belt, the mechanism clicking with finality.

“Wait-” Eddie tries, holding a hand out. “I’ll just sit in the truck while you work, I’ve done it before!”

Wayne pauses and his expression shifts into something odd as he stares at Eddie. “Have you, now?”

Eddie nods, crossing his arms again. “While daddy does his jobs.”

Wayne swallows thickly and looks down at the ground. “What does he do, exactly?”

Eddie thinks for a moment. He doesn’t really know how to explain it. He just knows that they drive around until his daddy finds a house with no cars in the driveway and he gets out with his backpack, goes into the houses, then comes out, and they drive to a pawn shop.

“I think he feeds people’s animals while they’re out,” Eddie says, tilting his head. “He always goes in with his bag and comes out, and then we go to the place with the cool stuff. It smells like cigarettes in there.”

Wayne looks off to the side, but Eddie can see the way his jaw flexes. He chews on the inside of his cheek, watching his uncle carefully for any sign he’s gonna take that anger out on him. After a moment, Wayne blows out a long breath and looks at Eddie with a reassuring smile.

“How ‘bout this?” Wayne begins, rubbing his hands along his own arms. He makes a big show of it, then raises his hands out to Eddie. Eddie tries not to flinch, but he knows Wayne caught it. Wayne moves a bit slower, gently laying his hands on Eddie’s arms, and starts acting like he’s wiping something off on him. “There.”

Confused, Eddie asks, “What?”

“I just gave you my bravery,” Wayne tells Eddie, nodding at him. “It’s yours now.”

Eddie’s mouth drops open. He looks down at himself, and like magic, he feels his chest fill up with courage. Suddenly, the kids walking into school don’t look so scary. His head shoots back towards Wayne.

“But don’t you need it?” He asks, trying to gather some of it back up to give back to his uncle, but Wayne grabs Eddie by his wrists, holding him still.

“You need it more than me,” Wayne insists. He lets Eddie go. “Besides, you can always give it back when you’re not using it.”

“Okay,” Eddie agrees hesitantly. “If you’re sure you don’t need it.”

They go into the building together. They wait in the office for a while, until they get called in. Wayne introduces himself and Eddie, and the Principal smiles with a nod, and they start talking about adult stuff. Eddie tunes it out and looks around the room, trying to hang onto Wayne’s bravery. He doesn’t want to lose it.

“Eddie, you need to follow Miss Lawrence, okay?” Wayne says, nudging Eddie with his elbow.

“Hmm?” Eddie hums, looking up at his uncle.

Wayne nods over to the doorway, where a kind-looking lady in a floral dress and pointy shoes is standing. Eddie doesn’t know when she appeared. She smiles at Eddie and holds her hand out.

“I’m gonna be your teacher while you’re here, Eddie,” She tells him. “If you’re ready, I’ll take you to the classroom.”

Wayne stands from his seat, and Eddie follows suit. He looks up at his uncle, who immediately tugs Eddie into his arms in a firm hug.

“Remember to be brave,” Wayne murmurs. “I gave you my bravery, you better use it.”

Eddie laughs and nods against Wayne’s stomach.

He doesn't feel so scared when he takes Miss Lawrence’s hand. He waves goodbye to his uncle and lets his new teacher lead him away.

When they finally come to a stop in front of a classroom, Miss Lawrence pauses and gives Eddie a moment to collect himself. When he nods, she smiles and opens the door.

The chaos that no doubt erupted in the classroom while Miss Lawrence had stepped out comes to a sudden stop, and heads turn to stare at the front of the room.

Eddie stares right back at them, his breath caught in his throat as his eyes dance over all the unfamiliar faces.

Some kids look curious, some bored, some entirely too excited.

"This is Eddie!" Miss Lawrence exclaims warmly, gesturing toward Eddie with a wave. "He'll be in our class for a little while!"

The class replies in a jumble of "hi" and "hello."

"Hi," Eddie replies quietly, waving.

Miss Lawrence directs him toward a small set of cubbies, where he leaves his backpack and jacket. Then, he sits at a table with two other kids. One’s a boy with wide, brown eyes and blonde hair. The other, a girl with mousey brown hair and green eyes.

The girl nudges a box of crayons towards him. "We're drawing."

"Yeah!" The boy nods, his hair flopping with the force of it. He picks up his paper and thrusts it towards Eddie. "Look at my horse!"

Eddie reaches out and touches the paper, feeling the wax of the crayon. The horse is big and brown. "I like it! You’re good at drawing animals."

He looks over at the girl's paper. It's just a bunch of scribbles. She grabs a purple crayon and, with her tongue poking out, her arm becomes a flurry of motion across the paper.

When she’s done, she sits back and pushes the paper to Eddie.

"You can have that," She says, already grabbing a new sheet of paper.

Eddie’s eyes widen. He pulls the paper closer to him and grins. "Thank you!"

The boy looks between Eddie and the girl and takes a moment to think before saying, "You can't have my horse. But! I'll draw you a cat!"

So far, Wayne’s bravery has been working wonders. Eddie has a great time in class. He has to show Miss Lawrence his work from his last school, where it still sits in his backpack, so she can figure out what he knows. Luckily, he’s right in line with her students.

Everything was going so great! But then Miss Lawrence announces it’s time for recess, and Eddie realizes he’s about to be surrounded by even more unfamiliar kids.

Recess is terrifying. There are so many kids. They all run off into their own groups, some joining the kids from other classes. Some even join the smaller kids who are out here.

Eddie stands by the door, watching with apprehension.

"Go on," Miss Lawrence encourages with a sweet smile. "Go make some friends, Eddie."

"Okay," Eddie agrees, tucking his hands into his brown jacket.

He shuffles across the yard, wondering who to ask to play with. He sees some boys on the equipment, but they all look mean. There’s some girls walking the track, but they’re so caught up in conversation that he doesn't want to interrupt.

He just decides to do what he’s best at: playing alone.

He finds a sandy part of the yard, next to the track, near the edge of the woods. He digs the toe of his shoe into the dirt there, moving sand aside with his foot.

Like magic, something red appears under the displaced sand. He smiles to himself and crouches down, picking up a stick to dig whatever the mystery treasure is out of the dirt.

It takes a little while of scraping and trying to wiggle the stick beneath the thingy, but he eventually gets it out with a triumphant grin. He picks it up and swipes the dirt off with his thumb, wondering what the heck he just dug up.

The dirt falls away and reveals a monkey. He wipes the monkey on his jeans and brings it back up to his eyes, examining the little red thing. He thinks it’s from that game with the barrel. He happily sticks the monkey in his pocket and stands up, looking for something else to pry out of the dirt.

By the time his legs get tired of all the crouching, he’s found two marbles and a bottle cap. With them all safely tucked into his pocket, he starts heading back up toward the playground. He wants to go down the slide a couple times, if the other kids will let him.

Then, as he approaches the playground, he spies his table friends, Wesley and Mallorie. They're with three other kids, whispering under the slides. He breaks into a grin and starts jogging towards them.

"Hey guys!" He shouts, skidding to a stop before them.

Mallorie turns to a girl and giggles, whispering something in her ear. The girl snorts and covers her mouth. Wesley's eyes are wide. He looks back and forth between Eddie and the two other boys.

"Hey, Eddie," He murmurs, his cheeks turning red.

Eddie’s seen this before. He knows what this is. He barely has time to put up his shields before one of the boys, a bigger black-haired boy, settles his cruel gaze on him.

"What were you doing over there?"

Eddie shoves his hands into his pockets. “Digging.”

“Digging?” The boy asks, his eyebrows shooting up. He looks at Wesley, who’s got his head turned away. Then, at the other boy, who’s just looking at Eddie curiously. “Digging for what?”

Eddie shrugs, his hands curling around his treasures in his pockets. The black-haired boy’s eyes catch the movement, and he steps forward, his hands reaching out. Eddie steps back quickly.

The boy snickers. Eddie doesn’t understand what’s so funny. You don’t just do that and laugh about it. He doesn’t understand a lot of things, it seems, because other boys always do this to him back home. His Mama always told him it was their problem, but now that he’s in a new place, he’s starting to think it’s just him.

“Whatcha find, then?”

“Nothin’,” Eddie murmurs, taking another step back.

He turns around to find something else to do, but the boy’s foot shoots out, hooking around Eddie’s ankle. Eddie yelps and hits the ground hard, mulch digging into the palms of his hands where he tried to catch himself. He sucks in a breath and holds it, choking back the pain.

“Quick, get him up so they think we’re helping!”

Before he can lift himself up, he feels hands rifling in his pockets as others pull him up.

He shrugs off their hands and looks down at his own, inspecting the damage. Finding nothing, he looks up to find the black-haired boy holding Eddie’s treasures with an ugly scowl. He rolls the marbles around in his hand, then grabs the bottle cap and holds it out for everyone to see.

“This is trash!” He cackles. “What are you, a crow?”

Eddie sniffs the tears back, clenches his jaw, and holds his hand out. “Give them back.”

Wesley refuses to watch, but Mallorie and the other girl are giggling up a storm. The other, smaller boy looks on with concerned, hazel eyes.

“Give them back?” The black-haired boy taunts. “I’m throwing this stuff away!”

“No!” Eddie shouts, reaching out as if to snatch his arm, but he stops himself.

He doesn’t want to get in trouble on his first day. He doesn’t want to make Uncle Wayne have to come down. He doesn’t want his dad to find out. He grinds his teeth and forces his hand down.

“Gary–” The smaller boy tries, from where he stands off to the side after helping Eddie up, but the mean boy, Gary, apparently, just throws up his free hand, quietening the boy.

“Shut up, Stephen,” Gary hisses.

Miss Lawrence blows the whistle, and everyone’s heads turn at the sound. Gary looks back at Eddie and smirks before he takes off running towards the building.

“Wh- No!” Eddie cries. He can’t help the quick sob that escapes him. Even as everyone around him starts heading back, the girls giggling as they go, Eddie stays back and whispers, “Those were mine.”

The smaller boy, Stephen, hangs back for a moment, just watching Eddie. Then, he tears his eyes away and walks off, slow enough that Eddie just trails behind helplessly.

At the end of the day, when Wayne picks him up from school and asks him how his day was, Eddie puts on a smile and nods, not wanting to use his words to lie to his uncle.

“That bad, huh?” Wayne asks. Eddie turns to him, wondering how he knew, and Wayne just tilts his head at him. “You’re a lot of things, Eddie, but secretive isn’t one of ‘em. Your face is an open book.”

Eddie crosses his arms and looks out the window. If Wayne wants to read his face, then he’ll just look away. Wayne’s truck grumbles to life, and they pull out of the parking lot in silence. Eddie stews in his misery.

He thinks of the kids back home, how they don’t like him very much either. He thinks of his dad and how he doesn’t seem to like him, too. He thinks maybe the only people who like him are Wayne and Miss Lawrence.

Eddie tries to explain what happened at recess, but he trips over his words, it’s all out of order. He doesn’t think he makes much sense, but Wayne listens carefully, nodding or shaking his head in disapproval every now and then. Eddie’s retelling trickles to an end, and he looks back out the window.

“Is there something wrong with me?” He mumbles into his arm where it’s propped on the window.

“Is there–” Wayne starts, looking over at Eddie for a split moment before turning back to the road. “No, Eddie, there’s nothin’ wrong with ya.”

Eddie bites his lip and tucks his eyes under his arm in a vain attempt to stop the tears. The truck comes to a sudden stop, and he hears the click of a seatbelt coming undone. His vision is blurry when he picks his head up and looks over at his uncle, who’s already looking at Eddie. Wayne’s eyebrows are drawn together in some sort of face that Eddie doesn’t know how to interpret.

They’ve pulled over onto the side of a road. Eddie’s throat clicks as he goes to ask why, but Wayne starts talking.

“Ain’t nothin’ wrong with you,” Wayne repeats firmly. “You’re the best kid I know. There’s somethin’ wrong with them other kids if they don’t have kindness in their hearts for someone as amazin’ as you.”

Eddie sniffles and shakes his head. “It’s everyone everywhere, even at home! It can’t be everyone else, it has to be me!”

Wayne’s nostrils flare and his eyes are wet when he looks away from Eddie, his jaw clenching.

“When I get my hands on that daddy of yours,” Eddie hears Wayne grumble. He looks back at Eddie and sighs deeply. “Some people just don’t know how to handle it when someone don’t fit the mold this world tries to put everyone in.”

“So I’m wrong,” Eddie croaks brokenly, his heart clenching in his chest. “I’m wrong and everyone knows it.”

“No,” Wayne insists, reaching over and clasping Eddie’s shoulder. He shakes him once, twice. “You’re different, that’s all. You’re wonderful and kind and you’re you. Lots of kids out there try to be someone they ain’t. Like that Gary kid. He’s tryna be some billy badass when I bet he eats his goddamn boogers!”

Eddie snorts, sending snot rocketing out of his nose. His hand shoots up to cover his face, but he can’t help the giggles that wrack his body.

“Oh, Lord, don’t eat that,” Wayne jokes, popping open the dash to grab some napkins. He reaches over and wipes Eddie’s nose. He leans back and looks at Eddie, takes in the way his bottom lip is starting to wobble again once the humor wears off. “What I’m tryna say is, you don’t waste your time tryna be someone you’re not. And they don’t like that. But you shouldn’t try to be like them, no matter what. You’re perfect the way you are, and if they can’t see that, then they ain’t worth your time.”

Eddie blows out a shaky breath and smiles crookedly. “Yeah. They’re stupid.”

“Stupid as hell,” Wayne agrees with a nod that feels like finality. He leans over and gives Eddie a tight hug. “And don’t you forget that.”

The next few days of school suck. Wesley and Mallorie won’t talk to Eddie anymore. Like some sort of curse, Eddie’s been found out again. It’s tough to keep what Wayne said in mind when everyone looks at him and snickers, making croaky cawing noises at him as he walks by.

That first recess back, he’d tried to ask Miss Lawrence if he could stay inside.

“Why?” She’d asked, crouching down to his height. “Did something happen?”

“No, ma’am,” Eddie’d murmured, not wanting to make things worse by being a snitch.

Eddie keeps playing on his own and ignores everything that doesn’t interest him. He avoids the other kids, and they avoid him, too.

Today, Eddie squints at the bright light and takes in the warmth hitting his face.

He sighs and wraps his arms around himself before stepping onto the walking track. He walks around it a few times, ensuring his distance behind any of the other kids on the track. It feels nice, he supposes, to walk in circles and think.

He imagines a dragon swooping across the sky and landing on top of the playground equipment. He thinks he’d climb the monkey bars and get on the dragon’s back, then tell the dragon to fly up, so Eddie can see his Mama.

But dragons aren’t real, and Eddie can’t go where his Mama went, not for a long time. He already asked.

Eddie’s on his third trip around the track when he sees something bright yellow poking out of the leaves in the woods. He stops and stares into the darkness of the trees. What the heck is that?

“Heya, Crow Boy!”

Eyebrows furrowed, Eddie turns around. There’s an unfamiliar group of girls there. They’re big, probably as old as Gary, that jerk.

The tallest of the girls leans around him and points into the woods. “Y’see that ball?”

Eddie guesses she’s talking about the yellow thing. He nods, his curls bouncing around his head. He’s apprehensive and doesn’t quite trust them, but they aren’t laughing at him, so he figures he’ll talk to them.

“Yeah, so, we lost that a few days ago, and we’re too scared to go get it,” The girl says. And, really, Eddie gets it. The woods are dark and scary. “Would you?”

At first, he doesn’t really want to. But then he thinks about The Hobbit. If Bilbo can go do all those brave things, so can Eddie.

“Yeah, I can get it,” He tells her, a grin forming on his lips. He tugs Uncle Wayne’s bravery tight around him like a cape. “Wait right here!”

He dashes into the darkness, ignoring everything but the yellow ball so he doesn’t get spooked. He needs to look brave! If he’s brave, maybe the girls will tell the other kids that he’s not weird and they’ll want to play with him.

He snatches the ball up and immediately heads back to the girls, panting and grinning.

“Here ya go!” He holds the ball out to them.

The tallest girl grabs it. “Hey, thanks, kid.”

Eddie beams. He feels like a brave knight, or something.

The girl stares out into the woods for a moment, then looks thoughtfully at Eddie.

“You know, Crow Boy,” She begins. “There’s a whole bunch of lost balls in there. You could probably bring back three years' worth!”

Three whole years?! Eddie thinks. “Really?”

“Yeah, really!” She confirms. “Everyone’s scared of the woods. Except you, huh?”

“Yeah!” Eddie agrees. The woods are nothin’ when he’s got Wayne’s bravery. Easy peasy!

Miss Lawrence blows her whistle. It’s time to go.

He thinks about the interaction for the rest of the day. It keeps him in high spirits, even when his classmates mockingly caw at him. When Wayne picks him up, he immediately starts telling him about it.

“-- and then she told me there’s more of ‘em in there!”

“Really?” Wayne asks, amusement coating his words. “Well then you better go get ‘em!”

The next recess, Eddie stares out at the trees. He doesn’t see any balls from where he stands. They must be deep in the darkness. Where all the creepy crawlies are. Where the monsters are.

He takes a big ol' breath and steps into the woods.

He takes a moment to look around. He doesn’t see anything at first. Just leaves, dirt, and a bug or two flitting by. Then, like a beacon in the darkness, he sees a bit of white poking out from behind a tree.

Carefully, he walks over to it, making sure to watch his feet so he doesn’t trip over a rock or a root. He leans down and picks up the ball. It’s a baseball, shiny and new. Someone must have lost it recently. As he straightens up, he spots another ball just a few feet away.

One after another, he finds five balls. He can barely hear the kids on the playground anymore. He heads back to the edge of the woods where he’d started putting the balls when there were too many to carry. He kicks the bigger ones out of the woods and onto the yard.

He continues to kick them until he reaches the cage where the balls go. He tosses the ones he’d carried in, then picks up the basketball and soccer ball and drops them in as well.

“Thank you, sweetheart,” Miss Lawrence tells him with a smile.

“You’re welcome,” Eddie breathes, chest full of pride.

He practically runs back to the woods.

After a few days, it gets harder and harder to find balls. He thinks he’s probably found them all. He puts his hands on his hips and looks around, wondering what to do. He could go back to the playground, but the kids still don’t really like him. They keep calling him Crow Boy.

He likes crows, so it’s fine.

He finds a big branch on the ground and picks it up. He swings it once, twice, then laughs when he realizes he can pretend it’s a sword.

“I will defeat you, Smaug!” He shouts, hopping up onto a large rock. “I know your weakness!”

Further and further into the woods he runs, pretending he’s darting through Lake-town. He ducks and dodges imaginary flames, swings his sword around like a good, brave man like Bard would. He crows in triumph as he holds his stick by the middle and pretends it’s a bow.

He draws back, looses the arrow and… “Yes!”

He drops his arms, breathing heavily. Quickly, silence wraps around him. Immediately unsettled, he frowns and wonders what’s wrong. He looks around the woods and, with a start, realizes he can’t hear the kids on the playground anymore.

“Uh oh,” He whispers, dropping the stick.

He nearly trips over himself in his rush to get back to the playground. He hops over rocks and roots, familiar to him now. Sunshine breaks through the leaves as he nears the edge of the woods. He bursts through the bushes and gasps for breath when he takes in the sight before him.

The playground is empty.

He’s totally and utterly alone.

“No, no, no, no, no,” He murmurs, taking off across the yard.

Terrified of the trouble he’ll be in, he stares at the door, beyond afraid to knock. If he knocks, they’ll find him and he’ll get in trouble. But then, if he doesn’t knock, he’ll be trapped out here for the rest of the day! He’s pretty sure the gates are locked. If he can’t get out of here, he’ll miss the bus, and his uncle won’t know where he is.

Panic setting in, he knocks on the door. It’s a big and heavy door, one he couldn’t force open if he tried. No one comes. He knocks again, twice this time. Still, no one comes. His heart pounds hard in his chest.

He hits the door hard. “Hey!”

Nothing.

His lip wobbles, and his nose burns as the tears come.

“I’m out here!” He shouts, slamming his full hand against the door as hard as he can.

Again and again, but no one comes.

“I’m here!” He hollers, banging on the door. “Someone, come get me!”

He starts kicking it, tears and snot dripping off his face.

“Let!” Kick. “Me!” Kick. “In!” Kick.

He falls backwards, landing hard on his butt. He curls around himself, tucking his legs up to his chest, and cries. He cries and he cries and he cries.

“Mama,” He wails. Then, with a scream, “I want my Mama!”

The door slams open, and he gets scooped up into someone’s arms. Just like before, he could be fooled into thinking she’s come back to him, but the smell isn’t right. It’s all wrong. He tightens his arms around Miss Lawrence and cries and cries and cries.

He isn’t allowed to go to the woods anymore.

He isn’t in trouble. Miss Lawrence told him that over and over in that gentle voice of hers. But still. No more woods for Eddie. He doesn’t want to leave her side when the next recess comes around. Just like before, she urges him forward with a hand on his back.

“Go play, honey,” She tells him. “You’ll feel better as soon as the fun starts!”

He highly doubts that.

He decides to walk the track again. He’s barely a few minutes in before a group of kids run up to him and all start chattering at once.

“Hey, is it true you got locked outside yesterday?”

“I heard you were crying for your mommy!”

“You were so loud! My class heard you for like five whole minutes before someone realized you were outside!”

Eddie ignores them and keeps his head down. Eventually, they get bored and walk off, but it was enough to upset him. He flops down on the ground and starts ripping up grass.

He hates it here. He wants to go home.

He’s created a small mountain of grass by the time he hears footsteps approaching him again.

“Go away,” He grumbles, grabbing his mountain of grass to throw at the person if they try to mess with him. He doesn’t even care if his dad whoops him for it.

The person doesn’t speak. They just crouch down in front of Eddie and reach their hand into his eyesight. There, in that hand, sits the marbles Eddie found on his first day.

With a gasp, he whips his head up and finds Stephen there, with those hazel eyes and a gentle smile.

“I stole these from Gary,” He tells Eddie. “He didn’t throw them away.”

Hesitantly, Eddie places his hand beneath Stephens. Stephen lets them roll off his hand and into Eddie’s. Then he places his hands on his knees and just sits there, smiling at Eddie.

“Thank you,” Eddie mumbles, clutching the marbles tightly.

“I want to treasure hunt with you,” Stephen says matter-of-factly. “Can I?”

Mouth dropped open, Eddie nods.

“Let’s go, then!” Stephen exclaims, hopping up. “I wanna be a pirate!”

He holds his hand out to Eddie expectantly, and when Eddie places his free hand there, Stephen pulls him up with unexpected strength. Stephen looks around the yard, then back at Eddie, wide-eyed and bouncing.

With a start, Eddie realizes he’s waiting for Eddie to lead the way.

“Come on, let’s go over there!” He takes off running towards the sandy spot where he originally found the marbles.

Stephen follows behind him, never straying. Eddie looks over at Miss Lawrence and finds her already watching him. She’s smiling, but she gives him a playfully stern look when she sees him getting close to the woods.

Eddie grins and gives her a thumbs-up. She laughs and returns the gesture.

With a giggle, Eddie slows down as they approach the sandy spot.

“How do you look for treasure?” Stephen’s breathless. “I don’t see anything.”

Eddie swipes his foot across the dirt. “You gotta look real hard and move stuff around!”

“Okay!” Stephen nods. Then, he looks at Eddie, points at him, and says, “You gotta call me Captain Stephen!”

And, really, Eddie’s never seen a pirate with red overalls, but he’s more than happy to play along. Though…

“Captain Stephen?” Eddie asks, tilting his head. “You don’t want to come up with a cool name? Different from your own?”

“I like my name,” Stephen pouts. “It’s a good name.”

“Well, yeah,” Eddie agrees. He points at himself and puts on a voice. “I’m Xavier Risk! I’m brave like a knight, but I’m not a knight. I protect my town and its people from bad people and monsters!”

Stephen’s eyes sparkle in wonder as he listens to Eddie. “I can do that, too?”

Eddie nods encouragingly. He steps closer to his new friend and puts a hand under his chin like he’s seen in movies and cartoons. He hums.

“Let’s see,” He says, his voice deepened as much as he can comfortably keep it. “You’re a pirate, right?”

Stephen nods excitedly. “Yes, a pirate, but he’s a nice pirate.”

“A nice pirate!” Eddie exclaims. “I’ve never heard of one of those before, but we can work with it!”

Together, they work out a character for Stephen. A nice pirate by the name of Rascal Jones who plunders only the ships of the rich to give back to the poor. His ship had docked outside of Xavier Risk’s ocean town, and he’d asked if the town needed help. Everything is fine until Miss Lawrence blows the whistle at them for fighting invisible foes with sticks.

“What do you do with all of this stuff?” Stephen wonders after a while.

They’ve long since wandered from the sandy spot. They’ve found everything there was to be found there. All of which included an old eraser as hard as a rock, three more marbles, a little, worn figure of a man, and a six-sided die.

“What?” Eddie asks, eyes scanning the blades of grass for any lost thingamabobs.

Stephen leans down, picks something up, and then turns to Eddie. “When you go home. What do you do with the things you find?”

Eddie leans over and peers at what Stephen found. It’s a screw. He nods in approval, then places his hand on his chin again.

“I put most of it in a little box,” He tells Stephen, then hops over a big rock. “I just like to have them. But sometimes I make stuff.”

“Make stuff?” Stephen screws up his face in confusion. “Like what?”

“Uhhh…” Eddie settles down on the ground. Stephen copies him, his attention fully on Eddie. “Well, sometimes I make people out of stuff.”

“People?” Stephen leans forward. “How do you do that?”

“Glue. Tape. Prayers. I don’t know.” Eddie shrugs. “Like a marble can be the head. And you can draw a face on with a marker. Or paint. Aaaand, uh, you can use an acorn top for a hat! Or just a whole acorn for the head, actually…”

Stephen pulls an acorn top out of his pocket and his eyes go all big. “It does look like a hat!”

“Yeah!” Eddie grins. “And then you can make a body out of pipe cleaners orrrr sticks. One time I used an eraser for a body and stuck toothpicks into it for arms and legs.”

“Whoaaa,” Stephen says. “That’s so cool!”

“Mhm!” Eddie nods. “Right now, my uncle is making me a shelf for all my little thingies.”

“If I had an uncle, I’d ask him to do that.” Stephen tilts his head. “I have an aunt, but she doesn’t make anything. She just smells like chocolate.”

“I wish I smelled like chocolate,” Eddie muses, plucking a dandelion out of the ground.

“Me too!”

Playing with Stephen is easy. Even on the hard days when Eddie doesn’t want to play pretend, Stephen will sit with him and hum different tunes while Eddie tries to do handstands or cartwheels. Tries. He hasn’t landed any yet. Stephen knows how, but he gave up on trying to teach Eddie, which Eddie doesn’t really mind. He just likes to throw himself around.

He hits the ground with a thump and growls in frustration, though he doesn’t really mean it. Stephen pauses his humming and looks at Eddie where he’s laying on his back, huffing and puffing from his efforts.

“What’s that song?” Eddie asks, breathless.

“Something I heard on the radio in my nanny’s car this morning,” Stephen explains crawling over to lay beside Eddie. Softly, he mumbles the lyrics, fumbling them a couple times as he tries to remember before landing on, “I never knew me a better time and I guess I never will.” Then he shrugs. “It was about a crocodile.”

“Oh.” Eddie’s eyebrows furrow. “Your nanny? Like your grandma?”

Stephen sighs and shakes his head. “No, it’s like… she’s a babysitter but she stays with me a lot of the time, since my parents have to travel for their jobs.”

Eddie looks over at him, the grass tickling the side of his face. “So, what, she lives at your house?”

“Kind of? She has her own home, she just stays with me while my parents are gone. Which is a lot of the time,” Stephen explains, staring up at the clouds. “She’s nice. She lets me do fun things my parents don’t like. Like playing in the mud and stuff. My parents don’t like mud.”

Eddie gasps. “But then how would you make mud pies?!”

Stephen throws a hand up into the air. “I didn’t even know what that was until last year! I thought everyone was eating dirt!”

Eddie snorts. Stephen looks offended for a second before he also laughs and gently hits Eddie’s shoulder.

Stephen stares at Eddie for a moment, and Eddie doesn’t know why until his hand comes up, and he pokes Eddie’s cheek.

“What was that for?” Eddie wonders, his eyebrows drawing together in amused confusion.

“You have little, uh… holes? No…” Stephen shakes his head. “Dips? In your cheeks?”

“Oh, dimples!” Eddie exclaims with a giggle.

Stephen cackles. “Dimples? That’s a funny word!”

Their laughter slowly fades into companionable silence. Eddie thinks about what Stephen had said about his parents. They don’t let him do fun things? What kid doesn’t get to play in the mud? He examines Stephen’s clean, pressed clothes, the way he’s careful not to wriggle too much in the dirt or grass.

“What do you do when you play with your friends?” He asks, still staring at the other boy.

Stephen’s silent for a moment before he shrugs. “I don’t really play with anyone but you.”

Eddie sits up. Stephen questions him with his eyes, but Eddie just waves his hands out in front of himself.

“Whoa, whoa, wait!” He exclaims, an ugly feeling building up in his chest. “You’ve never played with anyone at home? Like you’ve never had a playdate?”

Stephen wrinkles his nose and shakes his head. “My parents don’t like other kids being in our house. I went over to Gary’s house one time because our parents know each other, but he isn’t very nice to me.”

“Then why were you playing with him the day I came here?” Eddie asks softly. He might not know a whole lot, but he knows a thing or two about mean people and how talking about it doesn’t always feel good.

“My parents want me to,” Stephen tells him, looking down at the ground. “He’s really mean. I don’t like him.”

The ugly feeling in his chest makes room for a new, warm feeling. He scoots closer to Stephen.

“But you like me?” He asks, watching Stephen carefully.

Stephen lifts his head and meets Eddie’s gaze, and Eddie watches, enraptured, as a smile takes over his face.

“Of course I like you, Eddie,” Stephen says, as if it’s a well-known fact. “You’re the best.”

Eddie feels a matching grin on his face when he replies, “You, too.”

The shrill sound of Miss Lawrence’s whistle rattles out across the school yard. Dozens of heads turn toward the school building to watch her wave her hand, encouraging the children to line up with their classmates to head inside.

Eddie stands up and holds a hand out for Stephen. The younger boy grabs it, and Eddie hauls him up. They stand there for a second, not wanting to separate for the day. Eddie tries to think of something to say that means more than their usual goodbyes.

He remembers what Stephen said about his nanny.

“So, your nanny,” He begins, starting their trek across the yard. “She lets you do things you normally can’t?”

Stephen follows in suit, falling into step beside him. “Yeah, why?”

Eddie grins. “Why don’t you ask her if you can have a playdate with me? We can go to the park!”

Stephen’s eyes widen. “That’s scary! What if she says no?”

“Better than not asking at all,” Eddie says with a shrug. “It’s worth a try!”

They slow down as they approach the lines of their classmates. Stephen looks unsure for a moment before he clenches his hands into fists and nods.

“Yeah. I’ll ask her!” He says with a certain confidence that's new to Eddie.

“Great,” Eddie says, stepping into the back of his class’ line.

“Great.” Stephen nods and laughs before disappearing into his own grade’s set of lines.

“Let’s say I asked a friend to ask his nanny if he can have a playdate with me,” Eddie says through a mouthful of Honeycombs. Across the table, Wayne nods, shoveling his own spoonful into his mouth. Eddie swallows prematurely in the excitement of Wayne not saying no immediately. He coughs and takes a gulp of his apple juice to wash it down. Hopefully, he hedges, “What would you say?”

Wayne tilts his head this way and that, hemming and hawing. Eddie bounces in the kitchen chair, about to burst out of his skin in anticipation.

Finally, his uncle fixes his gaze onto him and says, “You’d have to get his number so I can talk to his nanny.”

Eddie opens his mouth to say something along the lines of, Easy peasy, I’ll make it happen, but Wayne holds out his hand, effectively silencing him.

“And you’d have to help me fold clothes later,” Wayne adds, crossing his arms.

Eddie deflates, knocking his head into the table with an exaggerated groan.

Wayne chuckles and stands from the table. He begins rinsing out his bowl. Over the spray of the water, he says, “I’m glad you’re making friends.”

“Friend,” Eddie corrects, sitting up. “One friend. His name is Stephen. He’s in second grade.”

Wayne puts his bowl back into the cabinet and grabs his coffee from the table before leaning against the kitchen counter. He’s smiling, and he just about dribbles coffee onto his shirt when he takes a sip because of it.

“Well, I’m glad you made a friend,” He amends, crossing his legs at the ankle where he stands. “I’ll figure out the plan with his nanny if all goes well, alrighty?”

“Alrighty,” Eddie repeats, and he definitely dribbles apple juice onto the front of his shirt.

It takes them a couple of days to get the correct number, on account of Stephen’s bad handwriting. The first number Eddie brought home to Wayne was actually some cranky old lady’s. Eddie could hear her shouting at Wayne through the phone. The second day, Stephen brought in a new paper written nice and neat in pen. He sheepishly rubs the back of his neck as he hands it over.

“I was real sad when your uncle didn’t call, but then Julie said I probably wrote it down wrong, so she wrote it for me,” He explains. His cheeks are pink, and he avoids eye contact. “Is that what happened or…?”

“Yeah,” Eddie admits, and Stephen’s gaze drops down the ground. Eddie scrambles to say, “It’s okay, though! I don’t even know the number at my uncle’s house.”

“Yeah?” Stephen asks, finally looking at Eddie head-on.

“Yeah!” Eddie confirms. “I’ll ask Wayne to write it down like this so you have it. Maybe you can call sometime.”

“Oh, yeah, definitely,” Stephen agrees, nodding almost aggressively. “We can talk all the time!”

When Uncle Wayne finally makes the call that afternoon, Eddie sits at the kitchen table, his legs nervously bouncing, making the water in his glass wobble. He can’t drag his eyes away from his uncle as he talks to Stephen’s nanny.

“I’m Wayne Munson, Eddie’s uncle,” he’s saying, his back turned to Eddie.

Eddie grabs a matchbox car that was sitting on the table and starts rolling it back and forth as he listens to his uncle’s side of the conversation.

“Yes ma’am… After school or this weekend is fine with me… Eddie says he’d like to go to the park? There’s the one near the town square with the swings… Of course. That way we can get ‘em some ice cream.”

Wayne chuckles, but Eddie’s bouncing only gets more intense at the mention of ice cream.

“If you don’t mind me asking, who are Stephen’s parents?”

Movement down by Wayne’s side catches Eddie’s attention, and he sees his uncle’s hand in a fist.

“Harrington, you said?”

Confused, Eddie watches as Wayne turns and takes a glance at him, his hardened face softening at the sight. His fist unclenches, and he lets out a silent sigh as he turns back to the wall.

“No, it’s alright, my ears don’t work the same as they used to. Saturday sounds fine to me. I’m happy to meet you and Stephen. Eddie’s real excited… Alrighty, thank you. Goodbye.”

Eddie saves his excited screeches for after Wayne sets the phone back into its cradle.

He leaps up from the kitchen table and just about knocks his uncle over with the force of his hug. He squeezes so tight he hears one of Wayne’s bones pop.

“Goodness gracious, Eddie,” Wayne chuckles, squeezing Eddie back. “You ‘bout broke me.”

“Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank youuu,” Eddie crows, unable to help swaying side to side, and Wayne sways with him. Eddie looks up at him, his cheeks hurting from smiling so hard. “I’m so excited!”

Wayne smiles down at him, his eyes crinkling at the corners. “You know what? Me too.”

Waiting for Saturday is one of the hardest things Eddie’s ever done. At home, they talk on the phone for what feels like hours (but is truthfully only one). At recess, he and Stephen can barely stop talking about all they’re gonna do together, so much so, they don’t even get a chance to really play before the whistle is blown.

Friday night, after his call with Stephen, Eddie gets tucked into bed with lightning running through his veins. He’s so wiggly, Uncle Wayne laughs at him and just leans down and pecks the top of his head.

“The faster you go to sleep, the faster morning comes,” He tells Eddie, but there’s no helping the restlessness.

“I can’t help it,” Eddie replies, paying no mind to the way his legs haven’t stopped moving since he laid down. He peers up at his uncle, at his kind eyes and the scruff on his chin. “Will you read to me again?”

Wayne smiles warmly and nods, grabbing The Hobbit from the table beside the bed. He nudges Eddie to the side and settles down on the bed and begins reading from the start, since they finished it the week before. It doesn’t take too long for his calming voice to send Eddie off to sleep.

Eddie almost doesn’t want to wake up from his dreams of little hobbits and wise wizards, but in the space between wakefulness and sleep, he hazily remembers what his day has in store for him, and he shoots up with a gasp.

“It’s Saturday!” He shouts.

“I know!” Uncle Wayne shouts back at him from the hallway. He appears in the doorway, sleep rumpled but sipping on some coffee, and knocks on the doorframe. “I was just about to come wake you up. Breakfast is done, buddy.”

It seems sleep couldn’t shake Eddie’s wiggles. He’s in nonstop motion while he eats his eggs and bacon, and the water ripples around him in the bath. He nearly steps on Wayne’s fingers as he ties Eddie’s shoes, going slowly so Eddie can watch and try to repeat it on the other shoe.

Eddie fumbles the laces, but he’s too excited to feel bad, not that Wayne would have let him feel bad, anyway.

“It’s alright, we can try again another time. Ain’t that right?” Wayne says, winking conspiratorially as he ties Eddie’s other shoe.

“Yeah!” Eddie agrees, his inside voice nowhere to be found.

Even when they’re in the truck and on their way to the park, anticipation still has a chokehold on his body.

“Good lord, Eddie,” Wayne says in fond exasperation. “Let’s find a good radio station, see if it helps.”

He flips through the stations, stopping every once in a while to listen. Sudden electric guitar sounds out through the speakers, shocking Eddie into stillness. Wide-eyed, he stares at the radio. Wayne goes to turn the knob again, but Eddie holds his hand out.

He feels his head start bobbing without his permission, but it’s less of a oh no feeling and more of a nice release of energy. He grins over at his uncle, who takes his hand off the knob and replaces it on the wheel with an easy, amused smile, his head nodding along as well.

Mississipi Queen
If you know what I mean

Eddie’s eyes slip closed and he lets the guitar and drums take over his body and mind. It’s like all his senses are satisfied at the same time. He didn’t know it was possible for it to be silent in the middle of so much noise.

He decides he likes it.

When the music fades away, he opens his eyes in mild offense, looking over to the radio dial. Wayne’s hand is still resting there, but when Eddie looks over at him, his uncle just nods toward the windshield.

Eddie looks out the glass, confused at first, but all of a sudden, everything he was excited about bursts back into color as soon as he catches sight of whatever had Wayne’s attention. There, waiting patiently on a swing being pushed by a young woman, is Stephen, his light brown hair caught in the wind.

“We’re here! He’s here! Look, that’s him!” Eddie shouts, his hand reaching for the handle of the door. He doesn’t make it very far out of the truck, on account of him not having undone the seat belt.  “Aw, heck- Uncle Wayne- Help-”

“Yeah, I see him, Eddie- Just- you’re all caught up-” Wayne says through hearty laughter. He reaches over and releases Eddie with a click. “There.”

Eddie tumbles out of the truck and darts away before his uncle can tell him to wait. As he runs toward the gate keeping him from running right into the park, he shouts, “Stephen!”

Like a light, Stephen’s head shoots up and his face is overtaken by a wide grin. “Eddie!”

Eddie can’t figure out the gate, which is frustrating. He can feel himself pouting as he fumbles with the latch, but Uncle Wayne comes up beside him and lifts it, easy as ever.

“Thank you!” Eddie grabs hold of his uncle’s hand. “Now come on!”

Wayne lurches to keep up. “Hold on, boy, I ain’t ran like this in years!”

Eddie only slows down because he sees Stephen hop down from the swing and start running as well. Eddie lets go of Wayne’s hand, and suddenly he and Stephen are meeting in the middle in a clash of arms and giggles.

“Hi!” Eddie shouts.

“Hi!” Stephen repeats. “You’re here!”

“You’re here!”

“I think they’re here,” Wayne jokes to the young woman approaching with a warm smile.

Overcome with excitement, mind all scrambled with a vague assortment of happy thoughts jumping around like popping candy, Eddie looks at his uncle, thrusts a hand out to Stephen, and proudly fumbles, “This is my Stevie!”

He barely has a moment to take in Stephen’s delight at the new name and think, oops, before Wayne nods sagely.

“Hello, Eddie’s Stevie,” He greets, holding a big hand out for the newly introduced boy to shake. “I'm Eddie's Wayne.”

Stephen giggles and shakes Wayne’s hand.

It doesn’t take too long before the boys break away from their guardians and start playing on the equipment. It’s not what they’re used to; they don’t usually get to play on the slides or monkey bars at school, since they’re always taken over by other children. Being the only two children at the park, they quickly wear themselves out before retiring to their usual activity: searching for lost treasures.

Digging in the dirt with a rock, Stephen keeps his eyes on the ground as he asks, “Sooo… am I Stevie now?”

Eddie looks up, wide-eyed. In the distance, he can hear Uncle Wayne and Stephen’s nanny Julie talking, sitting on a bench across the park. He can feel his cheeks burning up. “Do you wanna be?”

“Yeah,” Stephen says, and Eddie spots the tips of his ears turning red.

“Okay then,” Eddie agrees softly. “You’re Stevie.”

He hears Wayne laughing and looks up at him. He’s struck with the reminder that this isn’t forever. When his dad comes back, they’ll go back home, and he’ll never see Stevie again. He sighs before returning his gaze to his friend. Stevie’s watching him, eyebrows furrowed.

“You okay?”

Eddie doesn’t like lying or keeping secrets. “I gotta tell you somethin’.”

Stevie nods. “Anything.”

Eddie sits up straight and wipes his palms in the grass, stalling for time even though he did this to himself. He looks up to the sky, not sure what he’s looking for.

“You know, I’m not gonna be here for much longer,” He tries.

Stevie is quiet for a moment. Then, “... Huh?”

Eddie sighs again and tilts his head back down, looking Stevie in the eye for only a second before looking away. “I’m only staying here for a little while.”

Softly, Stevie asks, “Why?”

Eddie scrunches his hand up in the grass, ripping some out of the earth. A hand comes to rest over the top of his, drawing his eyes back up to Stevie’s. His eyes are brown like Eddie’s, though lighter, and they look at him with some sort of worried shine. Eddie doesn’t like making people worried. He doesn’t like making people sad.

“My mama passed away, so…” He whispers. He sniffles back the burning in his nose and looks down at his lap, his curls falling into his eyes. “I’m only here with Wayne while my dad settles stuff, back home.”

The hand on top of his squeezes, and he thinks he hears Stevie sniffle too. He’s afraid to look.

“I’m sorry about that,” Stevie tells him, gentle as just about always. “I’m real sorry about your mama, Eddie.”

Eddie can feel his voice straining as he tries to speak and not cry. “It’s okay.”

He can feel Stevie looking at him, trying to figure out what to say. He wishes he knew how to make telling people easier. He’s sat through this strange, painful moment so many times, yet he never really knew when the moment he’d tell Stevie would come until just now.

Stevie doesn’t get the chance to form his words. The moment is shattered when, from across the park, Julie calls out, “Are you boys ready to get ice cream?”

“Yeah!” Stevie shouts back to her. He gently tugs on Eddie’s hand and whispers, “C’mon.”

They decide to walk to the ice cream shop instead of driving the short distance. Wayne makes Eddie hold his hand and walk on the inside of the sidewalk, which annoys him a little bit. He wants to walk beside Stevie. He wants to hold his hand.

Wayne nudges him in the side and gives him a silent look, which Eddie guesses means, You okay? He nods and tries to smile. Wayne sees. He always sees. So, he nods too and squeezes Eddie’s hand.

Eddie looks behind him and sees Stevie crouched down on the sidewalk, picking something up, Julie patiently waiting beside him. He pauses, Wayne’s hand tugging him backward for a moment before his uncle realizes he’s stopped.

Stevie grins and looks up at Eddie, holding whatever he found up as if Eddie could see it from the distance between them. Eddie tilts his head in confusion, so Stevie runs and catches up to them, the treasure still held out in his hand.

“It’s a ring!” He says on an excited gasp. He grabs Eddie’s hand, turning it palm-up, and plops the ring right in the middle. “For you!”

In his palm, with dirt all clumped around it, is a silver ring. He brings it up close to his face and swipes some mud off of the circular stone set in the center. It’s black with flecks of white throughout. He pokes the mud out of the center and realizes it’s comically huge on his little fingers.

He giggles, and Stevie does too.

“You can grow into it,” Stevie murmurs in the space between them. He’s leaned in close, looking at the ring with Eddie. “Wear it when you’re big. It’ll remind you of me, when you gotta leave.”

Eddie’s tummy feels all fluttery when he looks over at Stevie and sees him smiling softly at him. He really likes the idea of wearing the ring when he’s older. He likes the idea of having something from Stevie, even when he’s back home and all grown up.

“Why wait?” Julie interrupts with a good-natured hip bump into Stevie’s side. “He can put it on a chain and wear it like a necklace.”

Eddie looks up at Wayne for confirmation, and his uncle nods. “I’ve probably got an old one laying around we can fix up for you.”

Eddie beams at Stevie, and then they’re off again. When they get to the ice cream shop, Wayne ushers the boys into the bathroom so they can wash their hands of the dirt from handling the ring. It rests in Eddie’s pocket, waiting to be properly cleaned when he gets home.

Eddie gets a chocolate ice cream and Stevie gets strawberry. They take their treats outside of the shop and sit at a bench with a huge umbrella blocking out the sun. Wayne and Julie have a boring conversation about something or another to do with whatever, which the boys happily ignore in favor of talking to each other.

“Do you like yours?” Stevie asks, tipping his cone to point at Eddie’s, and quickly rebalancing it when he notices his ice cream threatening to slip off.

Eddie huffs a laugh, licking his ice cream. He swallows with a nod. “It’s good.”

“Mine’s good too,” Stevie agrees. Then, with a wrinkle of his nose, he nods at Eddie’s cone. “Yours reminds me of my aunt.”

“The one who smells like chocolate?” Eddie snorts, accidentally knocking the tip of his nose into his ice cream.

“Yeah!” Stevie laughs.

He looks up from his cone, eyes sparkling with mirth, and his words stop in his throat. He giggles and grabs a napkin from his stack settled beneath his ice cream and reaches over. Eddie has no idea what Stevie’s doing until he stands up to reach further across the table, and swipes at Eddie’s nose.

Eddie brings a hand up to his nose in surprise, staring incredulously at Stevie. Julie nudges Stevie in the side and smiles, calls him sweet, and Wayne jokes about Eddie eatin’ messy, but all Eddie has ears for is Stevie’s contagious laughter.

At the end of their playdate, back at the park, they stand between Wayne and Julie's parked vehicles and hug each other tight.

“We'll have to do this again sometime,” Wayne murmurs to Julie behind them. “I ain't seen Eddie this happy in a long time.”

“I'll see if I can manage it,” Julie whispers back. “Stephen's parents are just so…”

“I get it.”

Eddie’s a little bit scared to see Stevie at school again, after the weekend is over. Maybe he’s had time to think about it and decide that he doesn’t wanna spend time with the sad boy with no mama. Maybe he thinks his time is better spent with Gary after all.

Those fears are dashed as soon as Eddie returns to the playground and sees Stevie standing by the door as Eddie’s class pours out, waiting for him.

“Hiya,” Stevie greets warmly. His eyes widen as he spots the necklace dangling over Eddie’s shirt. He gasps and reaches out to cradle the ring in his hands. “You’re wearing it! And it’s so clean now!”

Eddie giggles and nods, nearly knocking their heads together. “Yeah! Wayne cleaned it out with a toothbrush, and then he found a chain to put it on. I think it looks so cool.”

“It is!” Stevie agrees, bouncing on the tips of his toes.

Eddie suddenly remembers something. “Oh, wait, Stevie–”

Stevie stops bouncing, watching curiously as Eddie digs around in his own pocket.

“I got you something,” Eddie says, pulling it out of his pocket. “Well, made you something. As a thank you.”

He plops it down into Stevie’s hands and holds his breath. It may not be a shiny ring, but he worked hard on it, collecting beads, wrapping pipe cleaners and gluing them in place, poking a hole through the top of an acorn, and forcing thread through.

Stevie laughs delightedly, holding up the keychain. “It’s a man!”

With a head, hands, and feet made from beads, a can tab torso, all connected by limbs made of blue pipe cleaners, and a hat made from the acorn top, the man wasn’t much to shake a stick at, but it was everything to them.

“You might wanna be careful with him,” Eddie warns, scratching his cheek sheepishly. “He ain’t exactly tough, but he should hold together if you don’t fling him or crush him.”

“Glue, tape, and prayers, huh?” Stevie asks with mischief in his smile.

Eddie laughs at the unexpected reminder. “No, no tape. But yes to the others.”

Stevie gently tucks the man into his shirt pocket, and buttons him in to keep him safe.

They fall back into their rhythm as easy as breathing. Stevie doesn’t treat Eddie any differently. They talk about their playdate and what they could do for their next one.

God, he can’t wait.

Eddie sits at the kitchen table and watches his Uncle pace around, sigh deeply, pace around some more, wipe his hand over his face, glance at Eddie, then take off pacing again.

“Are you okay?” Eddie asks.

Uncle Wayne stops pacing and pulls a chair out. He sits down, brings his hands up as if to pray, but instead rests his chin on his fists.

“Eddie, there’s some bad news I gotta tell ya, buddy.”

The last time Eddie heard something like that, it was when his Mama explained that she wouldn’t be around for much longer.

“You ain’t dyin’ are ya?” Eddie asks, his voice getting caught in his throat.

Wayne sighs gently. “No, Eddie, it’s your daddy.”

“My daddy’s dyin’?!” Eddie wails, tears immediately springing to his eyes.

Before he can get too worked up about it, Wayne’s hands shoot out. “No! No, no, no! Shit, no, Eddie, your daddy ain’t dyin’!”

Eddie sucks in the snot that had already tried to drip out of his nose. “Then what is it?”

Wayne stares at the table for a while. “Do you know what happens to people who get caught doing bad things?”

Eddie thinks about all the times he got caught doing bad things. When his Mama caught him, she’d gently tell him why he’s wrong and ask him to do better. When his dad caught him, Eddie had to go cut his own switch from the bush outside.

“They get in trouble?” He says, since he doesn’t know which answer to give.

Wayne’s mouth twists up, and he stares at the table, taking a deep breath in and out. Eddie can tell that he’s angry; he’s got a similar look on his face that his daddy does when he’s mad. Eddie shoves his hands under his legs and presses his feet hard into the bar on the metal chair, forcing himself to remain still.

The lack of motion seems to do the opposite of what Eddie intended and pulls Wayne’s attention back onto him. Eddie’s frozen with fear, his heart pounding out of his chest. He bites down on the inside of his bottom lip, not daring to break away from Wayne’s eye contact. He’s really done it now.

Instead of bursting into loud, scary shouts and throwing things around, Wayne’s eyes soften, and he pushes his seat back and pats his lap before opening his arms. Gently, he says, “Come here.”

Slowly, carefully, Eddie rises from his chair and rounds the table. He stands before Wayne, still wary. Wayne nods, his comforting reassurance enough to guide Eddie forward. He settles down on his uncle’s lap and looks up at him, at the way his mustache moves this way and that as he chews on the inside of his cheeks, still hesitating to tell Eddie whatever it is he’s making such a big deal about.

Eddie pokes his cheek. “Hey.”

Wayne stops, looks at Eddie and sighs. His eyes flick to the side as if avoiding meeting Eddie’s gaze. Eddie doesn’t like seeing his uncle like this. Wayne’s usually so brave, yet so kind at the same time. He’s acting like Eddie does when he’s scared.

Eddie realizes with a start that he never gave Wayne his bravery back.

He starts rubbing his arms, collecting all the bravery Wayne gave him on his first day of school. His movements nearly knock him off his uncle’s lap.

Bewildered, Wayne grasps Eddie and pulls him back up before he tips over, then asks, "What the hell are you doin’?”

Eddie raises his hands, showing them to his uncle. “I’m returning your bravery! You seem like you need it. I even put some of my own in there. An extra special helpin’ of bravery, just for you.”

Wayne’s mouth drops open and his face gets all droopy and mushy for some reason. Eddie plants his hands on his uncle’s shoulders and spreads the bravery down his arms. Then, he takes the last of it and presses it over Wayne’s heart.

“There ya go,” He says, looking up at Wayne with his best imitation of his uncle’s reassuring smile.

Wayne looks into Eddie’s eyes for a moment. He huffs a small breath out of his nose and settles a hand onto Eddie’s side, a firm press that feels safe and secure.

“Your daddy got arrested today.”

It’s quiet for a moment. Eddie’s eyes dart back and forth between Wayne’s cool gray ones.

“Like by a cop?” Eddie asks, eyebrows furrowing.

Wayne’s mouth opens and closes a few times. “I- yeah, by a cop. Lots’a cops. He did something he really shouldn’t’a.”

Eddie shivers, a chill running through his body. He won’t pretend he knows exactly what getting arrested means, but he knows it isn’t a good thing. Sure, he’s seen movies and shows where policemen take away the bad guys, but he didn’t know that would ever actually happen to someone he knew. Especially not his daddy, no matter how angry he would get at times.

“What did he do?” Eddie finds himself asking, his voice wavering without his permission.

He knows his daddy. He knows how he does things he shouldn’t when he’s mad. Eddie should have seen something like this coming. He could tell his daddy’s been beyond angry, but he figured it was the sad type of angry, like Eddie’s. He thought maybe this time it would be different.

“He got caught breaking and entering. You know what that is?” Wayne asks, gently putting pressure on Eddie’s side, pulling him out of his own mind.

“Nuh uh,” Eddie mumbles with a shake of his head, clutching the bottom of his uncle’s shirt in one hand.

“Well,” Wayne begins, his voice soft, yet more sure now. He holds Eddie’s gaze as he says, “It means he went into someone’s home without their permission and stole some expensive stuff.”

Eddie frowns, looking down at his hands. He lets go of his uncle’s shirt, the fabric wrinkled from his tight grip. He knows what stealing is. He knows it’s bad. He just can’t imagine his dad doing it. He imagines his dad in black and white stripes and a mask with a sack over his shoulder, sneaking into someone’s house on his tiptoes and almost snorts in amusement before he realizes something.

Wayne’s face fades away as Eddie remembers sitting in the car, watching his dad go into strangers’ homes with a backpack hanging off of one shoulder. He remembers walking into the store with all the shiny things behind glass, staring at the guitars on the walls, and glancing over at his dad as he pulls random things Eddie’s never seen before out of his backpack and lays them out in front of the man behind the counter.

“He’s a thief,” Eddie whispers, blinking back into the present; his vision is blurry and his cheeks are wet as Wayne comes back into focus.

Wayne wraps his arm around Eddie and tucks him into his side.

Eddie’s only paying half attention as Wayne explains that his dad had broken into more than just a house or two, had been caught robbing a gas station, then connected to all the other houses he’d stolen from.

After that, the next couple of days are a blur of meeting and talking to a bunch of scary people in nice clothes who talk to him like he’s stupid. They ask him a bunch of weird questions like how Wayne treats him and if he feels comfortable with his uncle. They ask him if he wants to stay with Wayne or go stay with other people. Eddie thinks they’re all stupid. Who else would Eddie ever want to stay with?

It’s all a bunch of big words that Eddie barely understands, but when it’s all over and done with, Eddie’s struck with the knowledge that his stay with Uncle Wayne has gone from a couple months to however long it’s gonna take for his daddy to make up for what he’s done.

His Uncle had explained to him, kind yet blunt, that Eddie would likely be staying in Hawkins for years. It’s funny. Eddie had just been thinking about how happy he was to not have to deal with the kids at Hawkins Elementary the past couple of days. Now he’s stuck with them.

Stevie is the only good thing about school in Hawkins.

The other kids caw at him and tell him they figured he’d finally gone back wherever he came from. It gets so bad that Eddie eventually bursts and screams at them that he’s staying. He doesn’t get in trouble. Miss Lawrence looks the other way and stacks her papers, ignoring the other students looking between Eddie and her in disbelief.

At recess, Stevie barrels into him and nearly sends them both careening to the ground.

“Eddie!”

Eddie giggles and gently peels Stevie off with his hands on his shoulders, but keeps them there as the smaller boy starts talking at him excitedly.

“Where were you? I thought you went back home, but then Julie said you were probably just sick or something because your uncle told her you’d be here for a while longer. You missed the good news! I lost a tooth! And I was so sure the tooth fairy wasn’t gonna come, because she usually doesn’t anymore, but when Julie woke me up this morning, she found a whole dollar under my pillow!”

Eddie takes a moment to process the onslaught of words that have just been thrown at him, but once he gathers it all, his eyes go wide.

“A whole dollar?” Eddie asks incredulously. Usually he doesn’t get much more than a quarter. Stevie’s tooth fairy must be rich or something. “Wait, let me see, which tooth did you lose?”

Stevie sticks his fingers into his mouth and pulls his lips out of the way. Bouncing on his toes, he slurs, “Shee ih?”

Eddie peers into his mouth and sees where Stevie’s tongue is poking at the empty space on his top row of teeth. It’s near the front and way more visible now that he isn’t talking a mile a minute.

Eddie tilts his head back with a snort and says, “You could have just smiled!”

“Well, where’s the fun in that?” Stevie asks with a toothy grin, displaying the gap proudly.

He tugs Eddie toward a new spot on the yard they hadn’t looked for treasure yet. Instead of crouching like they usually do, Stevie plops himself down onto the ground and smiles up at Eddie.

“So, why were you gone? I had to play with Gary. That wasn’t fun at all.”

Eddie settles down across from him and sinks his fingers into the grass, tugging gently. He shrugs.

“Something happened,” is all he says.

Stevie tilts his head and pokes at an ant that has already crawled onto his shoe. “Something bad?”

Eddie takes a deep breath and nods. “Yeah. My, uh, my dad. He’s probably going to jail for a very long time.”

Stevie's mouth drops open, but he doesn’t say anything yet. His eyebrows furrow and he plucks a piece of grass out of the ground. He looks at Eddie, sees him waiting, and chews on his bottom lip.

Finally, he asks, “My daddy would probably tell me not to ask this, but this means you’re all out of parents now, doesn’t it?”

There’s a piece of Eddie that wants to be mad at Stevie, but he isn’t. If anyone else had asked, it would have hurt his feelings, but there’s a certain earnestness in Stevie’s voice that makes it hard to be mad. Eddie knows he only asked to be sure.

“Yeah.” Eddie nods. He leans over and rests his elbows on his knees. “I have Wayne, though. He’s my new parent, basically? Well, the fancy suit people said he’s my guardian, but it means the same thing.”

Stevie goes completely still.

Eddie looks at him and frowns. “What?”

Wide-eyed, Stevie asks, “You’re staying?”

Eddie nods. He doesn’t really have anywhere else to go. He’s not close with any other family he might have out there, not like he’s close with Wayne. Hawkins is just gonna have to be ho–

Suddenly, he’s launched backwards, Stevie’s arms wrapped around him tightly.

“Yes! Yes! This is the best news! I’m sorry about your dad and all, but Eddie you’re staying!”

All Eddie can do is laugh, and laugh, and laugh.

He can’t really wrap his head around how Stevie makes everything feel okay. He must be some sort of special, like how Wayne is special. There are lots of people in the world who make no sense to Eddie, and he doubts they ever will. But Stevie makes sense, and Wayne makes sense. His mama made sense.

He doesn’t think Stevie’s parents make much sense. Spring Break is coming up, but they’re going somewhere and aren’t taking Stevie with them.

“Isn’t that the point of going on vacation?” Eddie asks, staring down at a plastic building block he’d dug out of the ground. It’s full of mud, and he can’t find a stick to clean it out. He glances up at Stevie. “Families going somewhere to spend time together?”

Stevie rolls his eyes so hard Eddie thinks they might just roll out of his head.

“My dad says,” Stevie begins, then puts on a funny deepened voice, “Vacations are for adults to get away from their stresses. You, Stephen, are a stress.”

Eddie frowns and sets the block down on the ground beside him. “That’s not right, Stevie.”

Stevie shrugs. “I don’t see why not. I am stressful.”

“No you’re not,” Eddie says, shaking his head. “You’re not.”

Stevie holds Eddie’s gaze for a moment before looking away. He picks up a small twig and hands it to Eddie without looking. Eddie takes it and sets it to the side with the block, then crawls forward on his knees.

Taking Stevie’s hands in his own, he proposes, “How about we spend Spring Break together?”

Stevie sniffs. “We can’t.”

Eddie tilts his head to the side. “Well, we won’t know until we ask. Just like last time.”

“What if something goes wrong?” Stevie whispers fearfully. “My parents aren’t like Wayne or Julie, Eddie, they–”

Eddie squeezes Stevie’s hands. “Hey, it’ll be okay.”

Stevie looks up at Eddie with wide eyes and nods. Eddie even spots the beginning of a smile forming on his friend’s lips. His chest fills with the warmth of happiness and a little bit of pride.

“It’ll be okay,” he repeats.

Eddie forces himself to not leap up in excitement when he hears the crunch of gravel outside the trailer. When a knock sounds at the door, he looks at Wayne with wide eyes. His uncle just chuckles at him and gets up, groaning as he does.

“It might not be purty by any means, but I can assure you it's safe,” Wayne tells Julie as he holds open the door. “People here get a bad rep but we're all just a bit down on our luck in our own ways.”

“Trust me, I understand,” Julie says warmly, kicking her shoes off by the door. Stevie, encumbered with a full backpack, watches her curiously and follows suit. “I grew up in a trailer park just like this, over in Kerley.”

On the couch, Eddie pats the seat beside him. Stevie perks up and comes to sit, shimmying the backpack off of his shoulders and setting it down on the ground beside his feet.

Like a switch was flipped, any conversation besides their own disappears from Eddie’s attention.

“I like your house,” Stevie says, scanning the walls, gingerly placing his hands in his lap. “It feels…”

“Safe,” Eddie says. He also looks around, staring at the collection of hats and mugs hung up like trophies. “I think I’ve always felt real safe here.”

Visits to Wayne didn’t come often, before everything happened. Between the six-hour drive and Eddie’s dad being real hesitant about it most times, it took a lot of convincing to get him to go. Eddie remembers his mom softly murmuring to his father in the kitchen when Eddie had asked to go see Uncle Wayne.

The odd few times it worked, they’d barely stay a whole day, but there was one time a huge storm rolled in and they couldn’t leave. His dad had been pacing the small living room, hollerin’ about the whole thing, said they never should have come, that the trailer was gonna fall down around them, but Eddie never felt scared.

He’d sat tucked between his mom and uncle, on this very same comfy couch, awash in the warm lights of flickering candles, his dad’s voice booming louder than the thunder that rattled the walls. Despite the noise, there was a certain peace in it all.

He’d spent the night next to his mom in the bed he calls his own now, while Wayne slept on the couch, as he does these days. His dad had slept in the truck. In the morning, the trailer was still standing, despite the howling wind and battering rain. Eddie’s had unbreakable faith in this home ever since.

“Yeah, safe,” Stevie mumbles, still looking at the walls. Eventually, his eyes trail back to Eddie, and he asks, “What do you want to do this weekend?”

Eddie bounces on the cushy sofa seat. “So, there's a creek not too far into the woods around here. I asked Wayne if we could explore–”

“If–” Wayne interrupts, “The weather permits it. I ain’t about to cart you boys down to the creek if it’s all muddy down there.”

Julie tosses her head back and laughs with a snort. “Goodness, I can't even remember the last time I got up to no good in a creek. I encourage it, really.”

“Did he bring clothes to get dirtied up?” Wayne asks, gesturing at the backpack down by Stevie’s feet.

“Umm, yes,” Julie murmurs, eyebrows furrowed as she thinks. “He doesn’t really have clothes he’s allowed to be messy in, so we had to make a quick stop down by the thrift store in town before coming here. We got the basics.”

Wayne nods, his own eyebrows furrowed in their own funny way with the wrinkles inbetween. He seems to settle himself before speaking again. “Well, it ain’t happenin’ til tomorrow. That way he won’t get all tuckered out today and be too tired to play both days, yeah?”

He smiles warmly at Stevie, who nods and grins right back.

Julie leaves soon after giving Wayne a quick rundown on things he needs to know about Stevie, like the name of the stuffed animal he brought along, what food he likes, and to make sure he has a nightlight when it’s time for bed.

When she’s gone, the crunching gravel fading away as she goes, Stevie acts like he doesn’t know what to do with himself. Eddie thinks it’s a little bit funny. He doesn’t laugh, though. He just tugs on Stevie’s hand.

“I wanna show you the shelf Wayne built me!”

It’s a mad dash for his bedroom, their footsteps booming as they bound down the hall.

“You boys better not be runnin’ the whole time!” Wayne calls out after them with a chuckle on his breath.

Eddie can’t help but giggle as they skitter to a stop in front of his bedroom door. He pushes it open and walks in, his fingers still entangled with Stevie’s.

Wayne’s things are still in the room, though it was already bare bones when Eddie first arrived. There’s a wooden dresser pushed up against one wall, a single drawer cleared out for Eddie’s things. The bedside table has an old lamp with a cigarette-stained shade casting a yellow light across the room before Eddie finds the light switch and flicks it on.

In the light, it’s easier to see the orange carpet that covers the floor. It’s downtrodden and not so plush, but it still feels nice to Eddie as he steps further into the room, pulling his friend behind him.

The full-sized bed is entirely too big for Eddie, but he spends his nights curled up in its mismatched pillowcases and sheets. His teddy bear sits atop the pillows of the freshly made bed, as if waiting for him. Across from the bed is a large white desk, once cluttered with tools as Wayne built the shelf that now hangs above it, but is now organized, the tools locked away in a toolbox in the closet two feet away.

Eddie points up at the shelf and whips his head around to see Stevie’s reaction.

“Look! He built that!” He gushes. “It’s got my marbles you got back for me and a bunch of the other stuff we found together!”

Stevie’s eyes widen with wonder. “Your uncle is so cool.”

Eddie grins. “Yeah, he really is.”

He lets go of Stevie’s hand in favor of pulling out the wooden kitchen chair from under the desk and climbing on it to reach the shelf. Careful to not lose his balance, he braces one hand on the wall as he grabs something from the shelf. He manages to get down without falling, though the chair does wobble a bit.

“I made myself one, so we match,” he hums, holding his very own can tab man out to Stevie. “He’s red. Yours is blue.”

“Wow,” Stevie marvels with a whisper.

They get distracted by the few matchbox cars Eddie has, and they spend a good hour pretending that they’re racers, their knees pressed hard into the carpet as they push their cars down the runway Eddie made by lining up shoes. Their hands knock into each other as they play, and when Stevie’s car crashes and goes flying into Eddie’s knuckles, the scrapes feel a lot like happiness.

Wayne makes lunch for them to eat on the picnic tables outside. After that they, of course, dig around in the dirt for what treasures might’ve been lost (a little plastic baby doll smaller than Eddie’s little finger and a soda cap Wayne swears is from ten years ago).

The day goes by faster than Eddie wants. They’ve had to have played around a million games, but when it’s dinner time and they’re all sat around the table eating spaghetti, he can’t help but think about the people who pray before they eat. And, well, he’s already taken a few bites, and he’s sure God won’t mind, so he closes his eyes for a moment.

Thank you for this food and all, though I also thank Wayne for that, since he bought it and cooked it. I just really want Stevie to be my friend forever, if that’s something you can do. Thank you.

When he opens his eyes, Wayne is looking at him with an amused grin, and he shakes his head at him. Eddie feels warm inside.

They take turns taking baths. Stevie takes his bath on his own. Eddie thinks that’s very cool and grown up of him and asks Wayne when he’ll get to do that, but Wayne just shakes his head and guides Eddie away from the closed bathroom door so Stevie can bathe in peace.

When they’re both squeaky clean and ready for bed, Wayne tucks them in and reads from The Hobbit at Eddie’s request. The warm light from the lamp, Stevie's presence beside him, and Wayne’s drawling voice makes Eddie sink deep into the mattress. He idly tucks his teddy to his chest and turns toward Stevie before drifting away.

In the morning, when he wakes up to the sounds of dishes clattering around in the kitchen, he blinks the sleep out of his eyes and finds his friend staring up at the ceiling, his hands clenched around the blanket up at his chest.

“Stevie?” He mumbles on a yawn.

The other boy jumps like he hadn’t realized Eddie had woken up. He looks over at Eddie, wide-eyed, and laughs nervously.

“Hi,” he whispers, like he’s afraid to be loud.

Eddie stretches his arms and legs out and groans before nuzzling into his pillow. “How long have you been awake?” His eyes slip closed with the threat of drifting back off if he isn’t careful.

“Feels like forever,” Stevie admits, and Eddie can hear the smile in his voice. “I didn’t want to wake anyone up, and I didn’t know if I was allowed to do anything. I’ve never done this before.”

Eddie frowns into his pillow for a moment. He didn’t mean to make Stevie feel like he had to be trapped in bed until he woke up. He pushes himself up into a sitting position, then grabs Stevie’s arms and guides him up too.

He pokes Stevie’s chest. “Next time, you can play with my toys if you wake up before me. You can wake me up, too.”

With a small grin, Stevie nods.

They both just about leap out of their skin when knocks sound out on the bedroom door.

“I got breakfast in here, boys!” Wayne calls warmly. “Pancakes, scrambled eggs, and bacon. Come get it!”

“Okay!” Eddie leaps out of bed and grabs Stevie’s hands, pulling him up, delighting at the laughter spilling from the other boy. “C’mon, Wayne’s pancakes are the best!”

Eddie’s showing Stevie how to draw faces on acorns when Uncle Wayne knocks on the open doorway of his bedroom. They both look up at him, wide-eyed, excitement spilling out of their mouths until Wayne holds a hand up with a good-natured grin.

“You boys need to get dressed in your play clothes, then we can go.”

“Yes!” They both screech, launching up from where they were sitting on the bed.

Wayne nods and backs out of the room, already wearing his boots and mud-stained jeans.

Eddie grabs a stack of clothes he’d set out the night before and runs into the bathroom, letting Stevie have more space to get dressed in the bedroom. He gets dressed as fast as possible, just about tripping himself as he pulls on some shorts.

Stevie’s coming out of the bedroom when Eddie opens the bathroom door. He’s got on a pair of worn-out blue jean shorts, scuffed sneakers, and a faded green t-shirt. Eddie’s eyes widen. He’s never seen Stevie in clothes that didn’t look brand new. He knows he shouldn’t stare, though, so he smiles and runs out into the living room, Stevie right on his tail.

They find Wayne sitting on the couch, watching a black and white western on the little television.

“We’re ready!” Eddie says, bumping his shoulder into Stevie’s.

Wayne looks up at them, then pats his thigh and nods. “Alrighty, then.”

They make their way outside. Wayne takes a moment to grab a long, thick rope from out of the back of his truck before leading them down the gravel road of the trailer park.

Stevie points at the rope. “What’s that for?”

Some people wave as they pass, and others stare, but they’re not stopped along the way or asked any questions.

Wayne squints down at him, the sunlight harsh on his light gray eyes. He grins. “A surprise.”

Behind fences, dogs bark at them, making Stevie jump, but Eddie just reaches between them and grabs his hand.

“A surprise?” Eddie asks, excitement bubbling up inside of him. “What kind of surprise?”

Wayne chuckles and ruffles Eddie’s curls. “A fun one.”

“Aww,” Stevie groans, swinging their hands between them. “Just tell us, Mr. Wayne.”

“Naw, you gotta wait!” Wayne insists.

They have to move out of the way of a couple of vehicles, but they reach the edge of the woods eventually. There’s a clear, beaten down path where people have been going down to the creek for years and years. Wayne resituates the rope on his shoulder and reaches for each of their hands.

“It’s a little steep. I don’t want you fallin’.”

It is steep. At one point, Wayne even tells them to sit and scoot down rather than try to walk.

“You always gotta watch your step in the woods,” Wayne explains. “If something looks too steep to walk down, you better scoot instead. You gotta watch for holes and critters, too.”

Down and down they go, until, eventually, Eddie can hear the gentle sound of running water.

“I think I hear it!” He says, bouncing on his toes.

Stevie gasps and leans around Wayne to look at Eddie. “I do too!”

“We’re almost there,” Wayne confirms. “There’s a steep drop so I’m gonna need you boys to scoot again, once we get to the edge.”

He guides them through another few trees, then, stretching out before them, is a lazy creek. It’s not wide by any means, and it’s shallow enough Eddie can see the sand and some teeny tiny fish swimming in the water. The bank is sandy, and he watches as Wayne kicks a rock down and it tumbles down the dropoff into the soft-looking dirt.

Wayne manages to walk down on his own before turning around to face them, motioning for them to sit down.

“Y’all can go at the same time, it won’t hurt nothin’,” he assures.

Eddie sits down and sinks his hands into the sand that’s at the top where they are. It’s got grass growing all through it. Stevie settles down beside him and grabs Eddie’s hand between them without hesitation.

“Why’s the sand up here?” Eddie asks, using his other hand to grab some and show it to his uncle.

“Erosion, I figure?” Wayne looks up at them, holding a hand over his eyes so the sun trickling through the leaves doesn’t blind him. “The creek must’ve been higher up at some point, but the water runnin’ through carved into the ground, and that’s why there’s a big ol’ dropoff you’re sittin’ on.”

“Cool,” Stevie murmurs, looking around.

“Alright. Slowly, remember?” Wayne reminds them.

They nod, and together, they scooch on down the sandy slope. The soft sand gives a little bit beneath them, bits of it trickling down with them like water pouring out of a cup. They reach the bottom and greet Wayne with laughter.

The water is cold when Eddie reaches down and puts his hand in.

“This is so cool,” he marvels, watching a tiny fish give his hand a wide berth.

Stevie crouches down beside him and stares, open-mouthed at the school of fish darting to and fro. He turns and looks up at Wayne. “Do they bite?”

“Oh, no,” Wayne assures, also crouching down. “They’re probably ‘fraid of ya, anyhow.”

Eddie tears his gaze away from the fish and just takes a moment to look around. It’s so beautiful down here. Everything is so green in the sunlight. It’s mostly brown and green, and Eddie’s not really sure he’s ever looked at brown and thought it was beautiful before.

He turns and meets Stevie’s eyes and pauses at just how pretty they are in this environment. No, he’s pretty sure he has thought brown is beautiful before.

He catches sight of Stevie’s elated smile and finds himself grinning right back at him.

“C’mon, there’s a rocky area down the way, and I’m sure you boys could find some pretty ones,” Wayne says, stepping into the shallow water, the material of his work boots getting darker as the water soaks in.

Stepping into the water, Eddie doesn’t really feel the cold through the boots Wayne had gotten him from the thrift store. Behind him, Stevie sucks in a breath as the water seeps through his sneakers.

“You okay?” Eddie asks, waiting for Stevie to walk alongside him.

“Yeah, this is so cool!” Stevie says, his excitement outweighing any discomfort.

Wayne waits for them a few steps ahead. They catch up with him, and together, they make their way down the creek, Wayne guiding their path and helping them around any obstacles that seem difficult.

When they reach the rocky area Wayne told them about, Eddie can’t believe his eyes. It’s like an island of rocks surrounded by the shallow water of the creek. Eddie’s eyes immediately catch onto a rock he’d like to take, but then two feet away he sees another.

“I don’t think my pockets are big enough,” He remarks.

He and Stevie sift through the rocks, finding sharp ones, smooth ones, round ones, and even square ones. Eddie picks up a white rock with smooth crystal-like structures sticking out of it. He holds it up to the sun and examines how it shines through the sorta clear parts.

“That’s got quartz in it,” Wayne tells him, pointing at the translucent sections. “Very pretty.”

Stevie leans in close and touches the smoother part of the rock. “It looks magical.”

“Yeah,” Eddie says. He looks at Stevie. “Do you want it?”

Stevie’s eyes go wide. “Really?”

Eddie nods, a story already forming in his mind. “Yeah. It comes from the land of Quartzia. It’s a magical stone that gives you everlasting life!”

Stevie’s eyes light up, and he nods, gently taking the rock from Eddie’s hands. Then, he turns to Wayne and holds it up to him.

“For you, m’lord,” Stevie says, dropping down to one knee, despite the rocky ground beneath him.

Eddie looks up at his uncle, sees the way he has to press his lips closed to fight a laugh, and he nods at him, encouraging him to take the rock. Wayne does, no encouragement required, and he bows at Stevie.

“Thank you, young sir,” Wayne says, then straightens and puts the rock in his jacket pocket over his heart. “I’ll keep it close, always.”

They find and exchange rocks with each other. Eddie gives Stevie a water-smoothened stone, the surface soft and worn down over time, a lot like the creek did to the ground of the forest. Stevie rubs his fingers over it for a good minute before putting it in his pocket for safety. Stevie gives Eddie a shiny rock, packed full of minerals that sparkle in the sunlight. Eddie turns it round and round, admiring the way the light hits every glimmering speck.

They quickly come up with magical properties for each of their stones. Stevie’s smooth stone is destined for a pure-of-heart hero, who it then protects like a shield. Eddie’s, sharp and rough, gives him strength to take on any challenge.

Wayne guides them back toward the sandy area of the creek so they don’t fall onto the rocks amidst their playing. They find sticks and pretend they’re swords, swinging them carefully at invisible enemies.

“So, I’m still Rascal,” Stevie huffs, swinging his sword at an oncoming orc. “He’s pure-of-heart, right?”

“Oh!” Eddie exclaims, ducking to avoid a boulder thrown by a different orc. “I thought this was a new guy. But yeah, Rascal works! I’ll be Xavier, then.”

They’re splashing across the water that no longer feels cold to them, paying no mind to Uncle Wayne watching over them, when something hops into the water in front of them.

Stevie lets out a shriek and stumbles back. He falls before Wayne or Eddie can react. The water splashes around him, and Stevie cries out in pain. Eddie’s frozen in the moment, but his uncle rushes forward and helps Stevie up out of the water.

Eddie’s eyes immediately fall on the red scrape across his friend’s knee. “He’s hurt!”

Wayne helps Stevie over to the shore and pulls a small first-aid kit from his pocket.

“You scraped your knee,” He tells Stevie with a soft voice. “It’s gonna be okay.”

Stevie sniffles and brings his arm up to his eye, swiping tears away. His voice wobbles as he says, “Okay.”

Wayne cleans out the scrape as gently as possible, revealing that it wasn’t so bad beneath the blood. He places a wide bandage over the scrape, then gives Stevie a nod.

“You’re all good, buddy.”

“Yeah,” Stevie agrees with a brave nod. “What was that?”

Eddie looks down and bursts into laughter when he sees a plump toad still sitting in the shallow water, its throat expanding as it croaks out. He leans down and looks into its eyes and smiles.

“Hello,” He tells it. “I’m Eddie.”

He scoops it up into his hands and holds it close to his chest, but not so tight it couldn’t jump away if it wanted to. Slowly, carefully, he walks over to Stevie.

“It’s okay, it’s just a toad,” He says softly, staying far away enough so his friend wouldn’t be scared of him throwing the little creature onto him. He’s had that happen before, and it wasn’t any fun for him or the toad.

Stevie takes a step forward and sniffles, slipping free from Wayne’s gentle hold. “He’s kinda cute.”

“He’s gonna pee on you,” Wayne jokes, coming to stand beside Stevie. “Just you wait.”

“It’s just toad pee,” Eddie retorts, though he does hold the toad away from his shirt.

“We should name him,” Stevie says, reaching out and running a finger over the toad’s head. He giggles. “He feels funny.”

“You can’t keep him, though. This is his home,” Wayne tells them. “This is where his family probably is, too.”

Eddie looks down at the toad cradled in his hands and hums, thinking. Maybe Bob? Charles? Lenny? 

“What about George?” Stevie offers. “He would have a British accent.”

Wayne chuckles. “Looks like a British George to me.”

Eddie imagines George with a monocle and a top hat and tips his head back, giggling. In his laughter, George startles and hops out of his hand and plops back into the water.

“Let him go,” Wayne gently advises. “Say bye to George.”

“Bye, George,” Eddie pouts.

“Bye-bye,” Stevie echoes, waving to the toad as he hops on down the creek.

They watch him go for a few moments, before Wayne turns to them and says, “You boys ready for the surprise?”

Eddie and Stevie look at each other with wide eyes before turning back to Wayne and shouting an enthusiastic, “YES!” 

Wayne leads them over to a huge, thick tree just on the edge of the creek, helping them back up the dropoff.

“While you boys were playin’, I tied this here loop into the rope,” Wayne explains, showing them the loop, a thick knot holding it in place. He takes a few steps back and points up into the tree. “Y’all see that branch there? The thick one with the big ol’ bump?”

They both nod, eyes turned up to the heavens. Hanging over the creek is a branch just as Wayne described it.

“I’m gonna throw this end over,” Wayne explains, showing them the loopless side, “Then grab it, put it through the loop, and then pull until it’s tight on the branch.”

They watch him do as he said, enraptured by his actions. Eddie’s a little bit confused about it, but watching his uncle work has always kept him entertained. Wayne tugs on the rope to make sure it’s on tight, and the branch barely sways with the force. Wayne nods as if satisfied.

He turns back to them and holds out his hands about a foot apart. “Now, I want you boys to find me a stick ‘bout this long, and real strong like that branch up there, okay?”

“Okay!” The boys respond, immediately heading out on their search.

“And be careful!” Wayne calls after them. “Don’t go too far, and watch out for critters!”

They stay within Uncle Wayne’s eyesight. Eddie doesn’t really wanna get lost in the woods, after that last time. They scour the forest floor for about ten minutes before Stevie pops up with a cheer, holding a stick that fits Wayne’s standards to a T.

He brings it to Wayne. Together, the boys watch him tie the rope to the stick right down the middle, and tug on it. All of a sudden, he takes a few steps back, still holding onto the stick. Then, he pushes off the ground and lifts his legs.

Eddie’s jaw drops open as he watches his uncle swing over the creek’s water and land on the other side unscathed. He’s never seen his uncle do anything like that before! He wants to try!

“That was so cool!” He hollers, jumping up and down.

Beside him, Stevie wavers where he stands, looking a mix between excited and concerned. He calls out, “Are you okay?”

The rope swings back and forth between the two sides of the creek. Eddie grabs it before it settles out of his reach.

“Yeah, I’m alright,” Wayne laughs. “You boys wanna try? You don’t have to, if it’s too scary. I’ll be here to catch you.”

The stick is higher up for Eddie than it was for Wayne, but he can still reach it. He figures his uncle made it so it would be easier for him and Stevie, but Wayne could still manage to swing himself. Eddie tugs on it. It’s firm. If it could hold Wayne, it could definitely hold Eddie.

Plus, his uncle is on the other side with his arms stretched out.

A hand gently clasps his arm. Beside him, Stevie looks at him with wide eyes. “Are you really gonna do it?”

“I trust my Wayne,” Eddie says with a shrug. His uncle has never done anything wrong to him. “This is safe.”

He nods at Stevie and takes a few steps back, holds on tight, and lifts his legs.

The air whips at his face as he swings across the gap. For a moment, Eddie knows what flying might feel like. He whoops as he crosses the creek. His tummy feels like it’s flipping and turning. When he nears the other side of the gap, he’s nearly too afraid to let go of the stick. But then, he sees his uncle’s warm smile and his open arms, and suddenly his hands loosen, and he’s landing safely, tucked against Wayne’s chest.

Wayne gently drops him to the ground, and they both turn to look at Stevie. The boy is standing with his hands tucked close to his chest. He looks unsure. Wayne catches the swing before it loses its momentum.

“Catch,” He tells Stevie, pushing the swing back into motion.

Stevie grabs it in one hand when it reaches him. He looks at it dubiously, then turns his gaze onto Wayne. “You promise to catch me?”

Wayne nods, no hint of hesitation or deceit in his voice when he agrees with a, “‘Course.”

Stevie still looks a little nervous, so Wayne guides Eddie to stand beside him and gets the other boy’s attention.

“Stevie, hey, listen to me, alright?” He calls. Steve looks up from where he was eyeing the water in the creek and gives a nod. “It’s real easy. It only lasts a few seconds. It’s strong, so don’t worry ‘bout it breakin’. I’m bigger’n you, and it held me just fine.”

Stevie’s lower lip wobbles. “What if I fall again?”

Wayne waves a hand. “It’s only a couple feet once you’re at the middle. Hell, you’d probably land on your feet. The highest points are where you’re standin’ and where I’m standin’, and once you get over here, I’ll grab ya.”

Stevie nods again, but he still won’t move.

Wayne, in a firm, yet easy tone says, “Hey. I promise.”

Eddie watches on in careful silence until that point. He puffs up his chest and deepens his voice.

“Imagine, Rascal!” He shouts. “It’s just like swinging on the sails!”

Stevie lights up at that, then looks up at where the rope is connected to the tree like he's imagining it's a ship sail instead, and he's preparing to swing into battle.

“C’mon, Rascal! I need ya!” Eddie encourages.

With a final nod and a courageous shout, Stevie swings across the gap. It’s over in seconds. Wayne catches him easily and sets him down on the ground. He opens his mouth to say something, but Stevie shakes the shock away and starts jumping up and down.

“That was so fun! Let’s do it again!”

They go back and forth over the creek for a good hour. The only one to fall is Eddie, and he does land on his feet, just like Wayne said. He gets right back up and tries again. It feels like the best day of Eddie’s life.

Until it doesn’t.

“Catch meee!” Stevie squeals as he heads dead into Wayne’s arms.

Eddie grabs the rope, ready to take his turn swinging to the other side. But then, Wayne’s head snaps up and he shushes Stevie’s giggles.

“Wh–” Eddie begins, but his uncle holds up a finger.

“--ephan!”

It’s faint. The voice hardly drifts to them.

Wayne’s eyebrows furrow. “Did you boys hear that?”

“My name,” Stevie confirms, his hands clenched around Wayne’s shirt. His eyebrows draw upwards. “It sounded like–”

“Stephen honey where are you?”

“Come on,” Wayne says, grabbing hold of each of their hands. “Something’s going on.”

The voice gets louder and louder as they trek back through the trees. When they’re halfway through, Wayne calls, “I’ve got him! We’re on our way!”

When they break through the treeline, there are three people there waiting for them. An unfamiliar woman rushes forward and rips Stevie away from Wayne. A man gets between her and Wayne, puffing his chest up to seem big. Behind them all stands Julie, her hand held over her mouth as her shoulders shake with silent sobs.

“Oh, Stephen, are you okay, honey?” The woman cries, not deigning to crouch onto the ground in her fancy pantsuit. She hovers awkwardly, her shiny, wavy hair pinned to the side wobbling as she takes in the sight of Stevie’s knee. “Oh, good God, Philip, he’s been hurt!”

The man, Philip, bucks up to Wayne. “What’d you do to him, huh?”

“I didn’t do anything to him,” Wayne says calmly. “He fell down while he was playin’. It’s bandaged, Phil, you know I ain’t like that.”

“I don’t know a damn thing about you, Munson,” the man growls. “Now you better tell me why the hell you had my son in the woods before we make this an even larger issue than it already is.”

Wayne puts a firm hand on Eddie’s back, which calms the pounding of Eddie’s heart, but doesn’t make it go away.

“Julie and I organized a sleepover for our boys,” Wayne says simply. “That’s all this is. We went down to the creek to play. I kept him safe.”

“Whose clothes are these?” Stevie’s mom shouts. “They’re soaked!”

They’re not soaked, Eddie thinks. He dried off already.

“He fell down in the creek, scraped his knee,” Wayne explains again. “I cleaned it up and bandaged it. Julie got him some clothes from the secondhand shop in town so he wouldn’t get his own clothes dirty.”

“You,” Phil points at Wayne, then at Julie, “and you put our son in danger. A creek?”

Julie tries to speak, something that sounds like an apology, but she’s cut off by her own sobs.

“Nasty places,” Stevie’s mother sniffs. “We’ll have to take him to the doctor.”

“The doctor?” Stevie asks, but nobody pays him any mind.

Eddie leans into Wayne’s hand, and his uncle wraps his arm around his shoulder. The movement catches Stevie’s dad’s attention.

“Who’s this kid, then? Last I knew, you don’t have any children,” He barks, gesturing at Eddie, his hand moving fast enough to make Eddie jump.

“What’re you tryna imply here?” Wayne asks, his eyes squinting at Phil. “He’s my nephew, Phil. I got custody of him not too long ago.”

Phil scoffs and looks to the side, where his wife is still hovering over Stevie, harshly wiping mud off of his cheek with her thumb. He shakes his head, then looks at Julie again.

“This is child neglect. Or abuse. Or something. Kidnapping?” He spews, waving his arms wildly.

“No one kidnapped your son,” Wayne states, effectively drawing the angry man’s attention from Julie. “He wasn’t neglected or abused either.”

Phil turns back to him and steps forward. Wayne pulls Eddie behind him.

“And who are the cops gonna believe, huh, Munson?” Phil seethes.

There’s a moment of silence, only Julie’s crying to be heard, before Wayne sighs.

“Let’s have this conversation at my home. Your son can pack his things and get dressed in his clean clothes.”

Stevie’s mom stands up and grabs her son’s hand. “Stephen is not going back inside your trailer.”

Wayne nods. “I’ll get Eddie to pack his things, then. We’ll talk outside.”

The walk back up through the trailer park is awkward and silent. There are more stares now, what with the commotion Stevie’s parents no doubt made. When they get back to Wayne’s house, Eddie’s gently guided up the stairs with a firm hand on his back.

“But–” He begins, turning around.

“Just go get his things and bring them out here, Eddie,” Wayne orders, though he gives Eddie a smile. “It’ll be okay.”

“Okay,” Eddie whispers, heading into the house.

He grabs Stevie’s backpack and packs up his clothes. Eddie spots the little things they’d found together and frowns, dropping down onto his knees to scoop them all up into his hands. He stands and looks around his room for something to put them in.

On the dresser, right under the shelf, is the little wooden box Eddie’d been putting his trinkets in before Wayne built the shelf for him. He undoes the latch and lifts the lid, then drops all their treasures inside. He closes the box and gently settles it inside the bag.

He takes it out to Wayne. His uncle hands it to Phil, who hands it to Julie.

“Take Stephen to the car. We’ll discuss whether or not you’re still employed when we get back.”

Julie’s hand comes down from her face for the first time since Eddie’s seen her today. She grabs the backpack with one hand and guides Stevie to the car with the other, but Eddie’s already seen the red mark on her face.

Eddie opens his mouth to say goodbye to Stevie, but Wayne turns around again.

“Go inside, Eddie,” his uncle says. “I’ll be in soon, I promise.”

“But I want–”

“Eddie, please,” Wayne pleads.

Eddie stares into his uncle’s eyes for a few moments before nodding and going back inside the house. He closes the door behind him and sits at the small table beside the window. He peeks out the curtain and sees Stevie looking out the window of his parents’ fancy car.

Eddie wants to wave and get his attention, but he’s scared of getting his dad’s attention instead. He lets the curtain drop and just sits there, waiting. The walls of the trailer are thin, but he still can’t make out the conversation happening outside.

When he hears the gravel crunching under their tires, and his uncle comes back inside, Eddie knows, without a doubt, that he’s lost something.

“Buddy…” Wayne begins. He crouches down in front of Eddie and grabs his hands gently between his calloused ones. “Eddie… They don’t want you to play with Stevie anymore.”

Immediately, Eddie’s body lights up with anger. “They can’t do that!”

Wayne clenches his teeth and takes a deep breath. “They can, Eddie. They’re his parents.”

“Yeah, but he’s my friend,” Eddie cries, tears already tracking down his cheeks. “My only friend! They can’t take him away from me!”

Wayne looks to the side, but Eddie already saw the tell-tale shine of tears in his uncle’s eyes. “I’m sorry, buddy. I should have known better. You can blame me.”

“No!” Eddie shouts. “I blame them! They’re mean to him, Wayne!”

“I know,” Wayne agrees, wincing at the thought. “But sometimes there are situations we just have to take on the chin, Ed. They could have gotten me in a lot of trouble. I barely talked them out of it.”

“What kind of trouble?” Eddie whispers, horrified.

“The going away kind,” Wayne says. He squeezes Eddie’s hands and brings them to his chest. “Ed, you’ve had way too many people leave you. I don’t plan on doing the same.”

Eddie looks back and forth between his uncle’s eyes. “What– what did you do?”

Wayne sighs and looks down at Eddie’s hands against his chest. “I agreed to keep you boys separated.”

“No!” Eddie wails, jerking his hands away from his uncle. “No!”

“Yes,” Wayne insists, though he looks just as upset about it as Eddie. “I’m not asking you to be happy about it, but it’s important, Eddie.”

“No,” Eddie whimpers, folding into his uncle’s arms. “I don’t want to.”

Despite being told over and over again not to, Eddie makes plans to talk to Stevie at recess.

Even after being pulled aside by Miss Lawrence and warned to stay away from the other boy, Eddie marches right on over to him where he stands with Gary under the slides.

“Here comes Crow Boy,” Gary sneers as Eddie approaches. “Stephen told us he can’t play with you anymore. What did you do, bite him? Did you give him rabies?”

Stevie looks at Eddie with mild horror as he plants his feet and looks him dead in the eyes.

“Let’s go play, Stevie,” Eddie demands.

“Eddie–” Stevie starts.

“Stevie?” Gary snorts. “Who does this kid think he is?”

“Let’s play, Stevie, please,” Eddie pleads. “We don’t have to listen to your parents. They’re mean. You’re my only friend.”

Stevie wavers, looking between Eddie, Gary, and something off to the side. “No.”

“Please,” Eddie whispers tearfully. “Please.”

“No,” Stevie repeats, more firm this time. “I can’t.”

“Why not?” Eddie cries, reaching for Stevie’s hand, but Stevie snatches it away and steps back.

Stevie’s nose scrunches up in anger, and he hollers, with wet trails beginning to trace down his cheeks. “Leave me alone, Eddie!”

A strong hand grips Eddie’s arm, and he’s forcefully pulled away from Stevie and the crowd of onlookers that had circled around them. He kicks and squirms, but Miss Lawrence is stronger than she looks. She takes him all the way to the principal’s office, where he sits for the rest of the day.

Eddie’s heart feels like it’s been shattered all over again.

He cries and cries until he can’t cry anymore, and the nice lady in the office helps him drink a glass of water. Then, he cries until his uncle picks him up from school. He cries in the truck, and he cries in Wayne’s lap on the couch once they’re back home.

“You’ll find other friends, Eddie,” Wayne whispers into Eddie’s curls. “I know it hurts, but it’ll be okay.”

“I won’t find anyone like Stevie,” Eddie sobs. “I never will.”