He waited.
"What?" he urged.
"What you heard!!" I wailed.
Instantly, silently, he was at my side, holding my hands in his hands and my eyes in his eyes.
"Don't be upset!" he pleaded. He dropped to his knees, shoving his head into my stomach. I could feel his wet tears dripping down my torso. I was embarrassed. I tried to look away.
"You miss your mother," he whispered. "You worry about her. And when it rains, the sound makes you restless. And when it's windy, the wind makes you nostalgic. And when it's perfectly sound, when not a single grasshopper is grasshopping, you whisper my name, over and over... "
I sighed in defeat. "Are there a lot of times... like that?"
"How many do you mean by 'a lot', exactly?"
"Oh no!" I hung my head.
Instantly, he took his head out of my stomach and stood up tall, pulling me against his chest, softly, naturally.
"Don't be self-conscious," he whispered. "If I could sleep at all, I'd say your name all the time, no matter what the weather was like." He began massaging my head. "And I'm not ashamed of it."
Then we both heard the sound of tires on the brick driveway, saw the headlights flash through the front window, down the hall. We stiffened in each others' arms. The lights got closer, and the dull sound of tires became the screech of brakes. Before we knew it, Charlie's cruiser was flying through the kitchen window at ten miles per hour.
We freaked out. "Does your father know I'm here?" Fredward asked.
"I'm not sure... " I tried to think it through quickly. I didn't have much time.
"Another time then... "
And I was alone.

295

Chapter 14

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