She sat in a tree, reading. Ella was pretty and smart. And she liked peanut butter. And I wanted to walk in the woods and eat peanut butter and read with Ella. And give her the gift. But I had to ask her first, and I was scared. I didn't know why I was scared of pretty Ella. I had made huge things go boom before. Ella helped. I should not be scared of anything. I had to be brave.
"Do-do you want to walk with me? In the woods? With your book? And my peanut butter?" My face felt hot. And red. But Ella looked happy, maybe even more than happy.
"Yes. Yes, Ella would like that. Ella would like that very much. Into the Woods, musical comedy, 2014."
What did she say? I did not understand the last part. But that is okay. She said yes. We would go into the woods together. And she would get her gift.
We walked. She stopped next to a stream and sat down.
"Here. We will picnic here. Next to the brook. Brook, musician, One Piece, anime. 'I'm the Afro-hair guy.' Yes. Here we will picnic.
What? Ella didn't have Afro-hair. Maybe Brook had Afro-hair? At least he was in one piece. Oh, well. Maybe Ella wanted peanut butter.
"Peanut butter?"
"No. Starch is bad for giants. Peanut butter is bad for books. Peanut butter stains. You can eat peanut butter. You cannot touch the book."
But I couldn't eat peanut butter without Ella! Maybe Ella could read to me. No one ever taught me how.
"Can you read to me?" Now my face was hot and red again. I don't understand why that happens.
"Okay. Ella will read to Tyson. Ella likes Tyson." And Ella's face turned red, too. Ella went to the front of the book and began.
"My father's family name being Pirrip, and my Christian name Philip, my infant tongue could make of both names nothing longer or more explicit than Pip. So, I called myself Pip, and came to be called Pip."
Ella finished the first chapter. It was confusing. There were a lot of words I did not know. But it sounded pretty, like music.
"Thank you." I did not know what else I should say. Maybe I should take out the gift now.
"Oh. I...um...made this for you." I pulled it out of my pocket. It was a bracelet, unwrapped. And I put little feather charms. And my face was hot again. And I couldn't look at Ella. I remembered how long it took me to make the charms out of metal. I hoped Ella liked it.
"Wow. This is pretty. This is very, vey, pretty. Ella likes this. Ella likes this very much. Ella says thank you to Tyson."
I looked at her. And she looked at me. And we were smiling. (And in that moment, I swear we were infinite.)