22

NAME: CAPRICORN ANDERSON

The back doors of the ambulance swung open, and there she was.

She sat in a wheelchair that was anchored to the floor. She looked paler and thinner, but never better—not to me.

I hugged her. "Rain, I missed you so much."

She hugged me back, then pulled away and held me at arm's length. "I see that. Have you been in a fight?"

"He tried to stop one. I was there to see it," Sophie cut in.

Rain turned to look at her. "So, you must be Sophie Donnelly, the young woman my grandson has told me so much about."

"Cap has told me a great deal about you as well. It's an honor to finally meet you, Rain. Although I doubt that's your real name," Sophie replied. The two of them warmly shook hands.

"What a sharp girl. You're right. My real name is Rachel Esther Rosenblatt."

"I guess I've got a lot to learn about peacemaking," I cut in.

Rain turned to me and nodded proudly. "Good for you. We always try to save the world, but sometimes the world doesn't want to be saved." She looked at me critically. "You're going to have two black eyes, you know."

I grinned at her. "I'll take four black eyes if you tell me we're going back to Garland."

"We're going home, Cap. I think the rehab center was glad to get rid of me. Some of my opinions didn't sit well with my fellow patients. Like it's a crime to speak your mind." She beamed. "I insisted we come straight here to pick you up. I didn't want you to have to spend an extra minute in this awful place."

"It's not so bad," I told her. "Different. Crazy. But there are good things about it too," I admitted, turning to look at Sophie. To my surprise, it looked like she was about to burst into tears, and she quickly turned away from us so that we couldn't see her face anymore.

"You're a kind soul," Rain praised me. "But it's all over now. We just have to stop at Floramundi's to pick up your things."

The EMS tech slammed the door and turned to Rain. "We've got to run the siren for a few seconds, or we're not allowed to pass the school buses. Nothing to worry about."

The vehicle whooped and wailed off school property, then returned to making its silent way through traffic to the Donnellys'.

20 minutes later, the ambulance stopped in front of the house.

I turned to Rain. "Why don't you get down, Rain? I want to show you my room."

Rain shook her head. "I can't come in, Cap. Unfortunately, I'm still not getting around so well. You kids go in and clean all of Cap's stuff out of this house while I wait in here."

Sophie and I got out of the ambulance and walked up to the front door, which she unlocked.

I ran into the house calling, "Mrs. Donnelly! Mrs. Donnelly!" I was anxious to share my good news with the lady who had been so nice to me.

Sophie sighed and shrugged her shoulders. "She's at work, just like every other day, so don't bother looking for her. Come on, I'll help you get your stuff together."

It took barely a few minutes to fill my duffel bag and erase the fact that I'd ever lived in this house. I'm not sure what made me ask if I could have the Claverage yearbooks. All that was behind me now, but studying them had become almost like a hobby.

"Knock yourself out," Sophie insisted. "You're doing us a favor by making that stuff disappear."

I wrote a note to Mrs. Donnelly, thanking her for letting me stay there. I could have ended up in some kind of group home for all those weeks. I made sure to tell her that Rain was grateful too, since they had known each other.

"I guess this is it, then," Sophie sadly remarked, again fighting back tears.

I paused at the TV, the only one I might ever get to watch Trigonometry and Tears on. "I can't believe I'm never going to find out how Rishon does in college."

"Oh, he never makes it to college," she informed me. "He gets run over by a cement truck on the way to freshman orientation."

I was shattered. "No!"

She joylessly laughed. "I'm just pulling your chain, Cap. I'm sure he lives on to be a total basket case, just like everybody else on T & T. He doesn't exist, remember? I'd say 'get a clue,' but where you're going, you're probably better off without one."

We exchanged a very strange good-bye.

"I can't believe I'm actually saying this, but I'm really going to miss you, freakazoid," Sophie blurted out. It was the first time she had used her favorite insult on me in a long time, but I could see the tears streaming down her face, so I knew she was actually sad to see me go.

"And I can't believe you're actually crying that I'm finally going to leave your house for good. I'm going to miss you as well," I replied, feeling my face burning bright red.

Sophie wiped away her tears with both hands, leaned over, kissed my cheek and hugged me tightly. Supernova was a word I'd read in science books, but this was the first time I'd ever experienced the power of one.

I told her that I wished she would get to spend more time with her father. It gave me a special glow to note that she was wearing the bracelet she thought was a gift from Mr. Donnelly.

Sophie told me to have a nice life.

"I know you don't have a cell phone, so at least give me your home phone number so we can keep in touch," she said with a glimmer of hope in her eyes.

I told her the truth. "Unfortunately, we don't have a phone at Garland. I've talked on the phone a couple of times, but only in the nearest town."

Sophie sadly sighed and remarked, "I'm not even surprised to hear that anymore."

She walked over to the dining table and tore off a small piece of paper from a larger sheet. She wrote a phone number on it and handed the paper to me.

"Well, here's my cell phone number. Be sure to ring me up whenever you head into town."

I nodded, put the paper into my duffel bag, and replied, "Sure, Sophie. I promise to call you whenever I get a chance."

"It was real, it was fun, but it wasn't real fun," she called as I sadly headed down the front walk.

It seemed fitting that the last thing she said to me was something I didn't understand.

I reluctantly got back into the ambulance and waved goodbye before we drove off. I knew I'd never forget Sophie Donnelly.

Rain must have noticed my downcast expression, because the next thing she said to me was, "I can see that you've grown quite fond of Sophie and you're sad to part with her, but lighten up, boy. Our next stop is Garland."

I couldn't keep myself from grinning at the thought of finally returning home, which made my bruised nose hurt.

It was about an hour's drive. It would have taken even longer, but the driver used his siren to open up some snarled traffic.

I could tell the instant we turned onto the dirt road that led to the community. I had memorized every pothole and rut in that driveway, and they were all precious to me. The fact of returning hadn't become real until that moment.

The ambulance stopped, and the attendants helped us out and up onto our own porch. The first thing I noticed was that the duct tape had come off my Foucault pendulum. The bowling-ball weight had fallen, cracking the floorboards.

I took in the sights and smells of the only home I'd ever known up until several weeks ago. It looked smaller than I remembered it, and more—used. The colors and textures seemed very bland compared to the warm and bright bricks and stuccos of the houses around C Average.

I felt a pang of guilt for my disloyal thought. This was the greatest, most beloved spot on earth! If it looked a little run-down, it was from all the weeks standing empty.

Rain could always read my mind. "The place is lonely. It missed us."

Not half as much as I missed it.