Since Finny appeared to be serious and it didn't appear that I would be able to study any this night, I helped him to his feet. By the grace of God, somewhere between him sitting and standing, he lost his balance and fell face-first into my shoulder. For the briefest of blissful moments, his hair brushed my cheek and tickled my nose. I inhaled deeply, taking in every glorious aroma: cotton, kiwi shampoo, some kind of effeminate cologne, breath mints, tomato sauce, apples.

Before I could stop him, Phineas had righted himself and stood at half-mast with his crutches.

Wanting just the smallest of contacts to satisfy my urge, I adjusted his earring and told him that it was caught in his hair.

We found plenty of guitars and drum kits to suit Finny's interest, but didn't take anything home with us that day.

--

The next morning, my dad and I once again ventured to Finny's house to pick him up for school. When Finny didn't come right out, I decided to go inside and get him.

"Good morning," I said to Adora, who was sitting on the sofa in her bathrobe.

"Hi, Gene!" she replied enthusiastically. "Finny's upstairs!"

I thanked her, even though I had already surmised this. I climbed up the stairs just as I had done a thousand times, willing to believe that Finny had gotten back into his old routine of sleeping in and caring less about school than he should have.

I knocked on his door lightly, and then turned the doorknob. The door was harder to push open than usual. I guessed that it was due to him having too much of his "stuff" migrate behind the door. When I had gotten halfway through the door, I could see the bed. Phineas was not in it. I turned my head around the corner and was astonished, once again by my best friend.

"Morning, Genny," he greeted me, a wide grin across his face. He was fully dressed for school, which was a shock in itself. But the real eye-opener was that his hair was no longer blue. It had transformed overnight to a black that was darker than twilight. It was so dark that it seemed like a mirror, being so shiny.

My mouth agape, I waited for an explanation that I didn't get right away.

"Ready for school?" he wondered.