He turned at the sound of his name. Time stopped while they stared at each other.

"Arrietty?"

The next thing she knew, the passenger door was wide open and he was in her arms. Afterward, she could never remember whether he ran all the way around the hood or scrambled over it. Great-Aunt Sadako - it must be her - stared in shock as her great-nephew embraced a total stranger, laughing and crying and talking at the same time. It was a good thing Arrietty wasn't holding any milk. Sadako worried whether all that jostling was good for him. Still, there was no mistaking the look on Sho's face -

Pure joy.

Sadako had been worried about him. The operation had been risky at best, and the doctors had done a lot of frowning and head-shaking before, during and afterward. But Sho had pulled through. With a will that seemed alien to his frail body, he had fought back a postoperative infection that had kept him in the hospital weeks after he should have been released. Sadako had visited him as often as she could. She usually found him staring out the window of his hospital room, chin set, brow drawn, book face down on the covers of his bed. He would come out of his reverie and look at her with eyes that were far too serious for a twelve-year-old. There was always a cluster of little packages on his nightstand. His uphill battle for life - and, to be sure, his sweet manner and delicate good looks - had won him the support of the nurses, and they brought him a steady supply of treats and presents.

After he was released, he continued to struggle with the side effects of the powerful antibiotics the doctors had had to use against the infection. He stayed with Sadako because the hospital insisted that he needed to be watched constantly, and his parents, as usual, had no time for an invalid. Haru the housemaid was better than no one for those times when Sadako had to be out, despite the polite hostility that had inexplicably developed between her and Sho.

Sho had been steadfast in his determination to live and get better, even during nights when he woke up vomiting or with a fever. But he had stopped smiling. Sadako knew he was weary of being indoors all the time, so she took him driving when she could. Today, a short trip through the country on a lovely summer day had seemed the perfect outing, especially when she had an errand to run out this way anyway. But she seemed to have found something much better for Sho than raw milk!

"Um..."

Sho and the leggy girl finally let go of each other, out of breath. Sho wobbled; the leggy girl supported him with a quick arm under his shoulders. They both looked at Sadako with half-fearful, half-laughing eyes and started talking at the same time.

"This is-"

"I'm -"

"Oh, sorry. Let me finish. Auntie, let me introduce -"

"I can say my own name!"

"Shh, that's not how it's done!"

Finally Sho clapped his hand over Arrietty's mouth. The fact that she was two years older and quite a bit taller than him made this an effort. "Auntie, this is my very good friend Arrietty," he said all in a rush, before Arrietty could pry his hand loose. "I didn't know she was going to be here!"

"Oh, my." Sadako fluttered with delight. Sho actually had color in his cheeks. "I didn't know you had any - I mean, err, I'm so happy to meet a friend of yours, Sho."

"Pleased to meet you," Arrietty stammered, now that Sho had removed his hand.

"And I'm Sissy," Sissy interjected, edging closer. She was looking Sho over admiringly. Arrietty shot her a calculating glance and laid a casual but proprietary hand on Sho's arm. Artful or not, Sissy was not Borrowing Sho.

"Yes, I met Sissy just this morning," she said pointedly, but with a smile. Sissy pouted.

"Arrietty dear, do you live here?"

"No," Sho and Arrietty said together, then "You don't, do you?" Sho asked Arrietty, and "I'm just visiting," Arrietty said to both of them. "I'll be - er - going home soon."

Sadako tapped her fingertips together. Sho. Smiling. Happy. "Arrietty, do you think your parents would mind terribly if I borrowed you for the evening?"

Arrietty stared. "How do you know about Borrowing?"

"Well, it's what people do when they want something, isn't it?" Sadako smiled in the way that crinkled all her smile lines and made her look especially nice. "I'll give you a ride home to make it up to them."

"I don't think they'd mind," Arrietty said slowly. Really, what difference did it make to her parents whether she was here or at Sadako's. And, either way, she realized with a little tinge of guilt, they couldn't exactly stop her. But she should let them know where she was going. At least, she should try. "Can I run and get something from the barn?"

"Is your family there?" Sho asked under his breath.

"No," she said shortly. "Later."

"Of course, dear." Sadako picked up the cooler and motioned for Sho to open the trunk. "We'll be here waiting for you."

"I'll be right back," Arrietty promised Sho, and tore off to the barn. She flew up the stairs, struggled with the trapdoor - then remembered what she was about and opened it slowly, carefully, lest she crush Spiller if he were nearby. "SPILLER!" she shouted at the top of her lungs.

Silence; but he had to be here. The silence had a sulking quality to it, not the emptiness of real solitude.

"Spiller, I know you're up here. Listen, I'm going to Great-Aunt Sadako's. It's the house where we used to live - before. You know. I'll be safe there for now. Tell Mama and Father, please. I'll come back when I can. Bye!"

She eased the trap door back down and ran back down the stairs. Sho, already anxious that she might have vanished into thin air, brightened when she reappeared. This was not lost on Sadako.

"Arrietty!" A door slammed. It was Sissy, with Arrietty's pajamas. They were clean and neatly folded.

"Oh." Arrietty took them, then hugged Sissy contritely, sorry that she had been so quick to view her as competition. "That's so nice of you. Thank you."

"No problem." Sissy hugged her back and decided not to mention that she had washed them because she simply hadn't wanted her mother to see the dirty pajamas and ask where they'd come from. Nor did she mention that her mother had been dropping hints about sending her visitor home for the last two hours. Sissy hadn't given up on having Arrietty over again. And maybe that good-looking friend of hers, too. "You'll visit, won't you?"

"As soon as I can," Arrietty promised.

"Oh, good." And Sissy stood and waved as the Mercedes pulled out of the farm yard. Then she ran into the house and slammed the door so hard that the windows rattled.

"Sissy!" Carol's yell drifted after them, audible even through the door. "Will you stop that!"