"You all packed?"
"You bet, Eddy!"
"You excited?"
"You bet, Eddy!"
A long pause.
"You scared?"
A longer pause.
"Yeah…I'm - I'm pretty scared, Eddy."
Eddy looped his fingers around his good buddy's jacket and smacked him upside the head. Ed grunted affectionately and bowed his head so Eddy could scratch his neck. Eddy obliged.
"You're smarter than I thought, Ed," Eddy said, raking his nails down Ed's pimply scalp. Ed beat his legs against the bench like a dog longing for a belly rub. "If you told me you weren't, I'd have been the one who was scared." Behind them, a family of songbirds nestled into their tree for an afternoon nap. Townsville Park was empty. Unusual, considering the gorgeous weather. A lone cyclist trudged along a few blocks up the road, but apart from him, they were alone. Two bag lunches dozed in the shade beneath the bench. Every time the wind blew, it carried with it the thick, sweet scent of a double-decker peanut butter sandwich. Both boys rested their heads against the bench. Eddy kept scratching Ed's. "You know, it was a real pain, hiking all the way out here. Buses are expensive." Ed blushed and kicked his knees in a shallow, guilty fashion. "Why didn't you come home to Peach Creek for a little while?"
"Military says I gotta stay put, Eddy. I didn't wanna, but Double D said I should." Ed laid his fingers in his lap and began to pluck at his gangly hangnails. "So I stayed."
"Military ain't gonna spank you if you run off every now and again," Eddy chided him, increasing the pressure on his neck. "You're worth too much to em."
"I don't wanna upset Double D." Eddy's fingers stopped.
"You're too nice, Ed. You know that?"
"I'm sorry, Eddy."
"It's cool, lumpy." Eddy bent over and grabbed both their lunches. He weighed them both in his hands, frowned, and then passed the bigger bag to Ed. "That's why I like ya." Ed didn't take it. He looked like he wanted to, though.
"I'm sorry, Eddy," Ed said waving his hands. "I'm really not hungry right now."
"Liar," Eddy said, shoving the bag towards him. "You're always hungry." At that moment, Ed's stomach growled, just as determined to prove him wrong. Ed clasped his hands over his gut and raised his finger to his lips in a vain attempt to shush his hungry belly. Eddy stared at him, still holding both bags. Then it occurred to him. He lowered both their lunches back into the shade beneath the bench and scowled.
"They ain't lettin you eat before you go up, are they?" Ed shook his head and started kicking his feet again. He didn't meet Eddy's eyes.
"Nope. Everyone else can eat. Cept me." Eddy's eyes flickered. He was already rehearsing a forthcoming conversation with Double D inside his brain. But he didn't dare say anything out loud. Instead, he rested his chin in his hands, shut his eyes, and sighed.
"Well, then I guess I ain't gonna eat either. Shame too. I made those sandwiches special." Ed's stomach growled again. Eddy changed the subject. He raised his chin a bit and stared at the blue sky. Two planes crisscrossed overhead, cutting two, thick cloudy vapor-trails across the Townville's biggest skyscrapers. "So…space, eh? Final frontier and all that." He turned to his friend. "You excited to see it?" Ed nodded enthusiastically.
"Sure am, Eddy! I bet its real pretty up there." He pulled his jacket around his broad shoulders and pretended to shiver. "I hear it's really, really cold up there too, so I've been practicing my shivers." Eddy raised his eyebrows.
"That right? Lemme see." Ed wrapped his jacket around his shoulders even tighter than before and shivered for all his worth. Eddy narrowed his eyes and scratched his chin, then pretended to scribble a letter grade on an imaginary sheet of paper. He passed it to Ed, who took his invisible review in nervous hands. He shut his eyes tight. He couldn't bear to look at it.
"Just tell me what it is, Eddy," Ed trembled, shivering harder than ever. "Grades and me don't get along very well." Eddy chuckled and pretended to swipe the report out of Ed's hands, shoving it back in his face and pointing at it with his finger.
"Don't sweat it. Gave ya an 'S'". Ed stopped shivering and perked up his ears. He snatched back his report and held it close.
"I got an 'S'?" He suddenly looked very depressed. He kicked up a cloud of dirt with his feet. His lower lip began to quiver. "That's even lower in the alphabet than normal." Eddy jumped to his feet and smacked Ed hard on the back.
"An 'S' ain't bad, lunkhead! It's good!" Ed smiled.
"Is that really true, Eddy?"
"Obviously," Eddy said, crossing his arms and nodding his head emphatically. "You got an 'S' for…er-" He paused to think. Then he snapped his fingers. "You got an 'S' for 'shivers'!" Ed's face lit up. He clapped his hands. He had never received such a high mark in his life.
"You mean it?" Ed pried himself off the bench and danced a jig around a nearby tree. "I can't wait to tell my folks! They'll be so proud!" And then he stopped. It didn't take Eddy long to figure out why. The stiff, pained look painted across his friend's face told him everything. Ed's gorilla arms hung limp at his knees. He plopped to the ground and sat against the tree. He looked utterly miserable. Eddy sat down beside him and started scratching his neck again. Their bagged lunches stayed put beneath the bench, totally forgotten. "Why do I gotta go into space, Eddy?" Ed turned to Eddy, eyes hungry for answers. Ed's stomach growled again. Behind lips spread into a comforting smile, Eddy grit his teeth. It was bad enough he couldn't buy his best friend lunch.
"I don't know…if there's anyone in the world who can tell ya that, Ed." Ed's eyes shimmered in the afternoon sun.
"Not even Double D?" Eddy frowned and shook his head. He stared back at the benches and their discarded lunches.
"Double D doesn't know as much as he lets on. Besides, he only does what the Brain Trust tells him to do."
"That's not true!" Ed exclaimed, practically shoving is head down Eddy's open mouth. Eddy jumped a little. Ed stared back at him, bright eyed and looking very enthusiastic all of a sudden. Eddy adjusted himself, gently pushed Ed away, and settled back into the grass.
"Oh yeah? How's that?" Ed's face clouded over again, like he was remembering something he'd prefer to have forgotten. He tapped his fingers together and shivered. He wasn't pretending this time.
"One time…when I was being fitted for some special clothes…the Trust started to poke me with all kinds of sharp things. They made me sit on this really big and scary table. It was really cold and it smelled like my doctor's office. I hated it. But they told me it was for the project, so I let them poke me and take my blood, and I took whatever pills they gave me." He hesitated for a moment, and then pressed on. "One time, they even made me pee in a cup. I didn't like that one bit." Eddy clenched his fists so hard he nearly snapped his thumbs. He could feel his heart pumping out something hot and molten and very toxic. As it spread through his body, he could almost see his own temperature stealing rising. "When Double D found out what they were doing-" Ed's voice trailed off. He looked very scared. "He got mad. Really mad. I've never seen Double D mad before. Not like that. What he said to them scared me more than the table and the needles and all those weird, smelly pills. I don't know what he told them cuz he used a lot of big words I don't know, but they seemed to get real scared of him too." Ed shivered again and shut his eyes. When he opened them again, a little bit of his usual cheer seemed to have returned. "After that, they stopped poking me. I still had to come in for tests and stuff, but they never did anything that made me hurt ever again."
The two of them sat under the shade of that tree for a long time. Ed looked exhausted. When he was sure his friend had fallen asleep, Eddy rose to his feet and retrieved one of their lunch bags from beneath the bench. He sat back down beside Ed and crinkled the bag loudly. Ed lurched forward a little, awoken by the smell of food and the crinkling of the bag. He watched Eddy's fingers worm their way through the paper bag with wide, curious eyes.
"You gonna eat, Eddy?" Eddy shook his head.
"Sure ain't. I'm no saint, but I ain't mean enough to eat in front of hungry little science experiment like you." Eddy pulled something large and round out from the very bottom of the bag and held it up to the sun. "I'm just givin you my goin away present a little early, is all." He passed the ball to Ed, who took it in trembling hands. Whatever it was, it was hidden underneath a coat of shimmering wrapping paper and swaths of poorly applied masking tape. Ed stared at it, and then shook it. It didn't make any noise. He tried to bounce it, but Eddy quickly grabbed his arms and told him to cut it out. Not sure what to do with it, Ed placed it between his legs and waited for further instructions.
"Can I open it, Eddy?" Eddy closed his eyes and shrugged.
"Don't matter to me. May wanna wait until later, though." He raised both of his eyebrows and shot Ed an aggravated glance. "So long as you think the braniacs won't take it from you, you can open it whenever you want." Ed shook his head from side to side and the stashed the present inside his pockets.
"I won't let em! No matter what they tell me, I won't let em take my present." Eddy smiled approvingly and gave his friend a pat on the back.
"You better not. That's the last one I got, and I don't think I'll be getting anymore anytime soon. You best savor it, y'hear?" Ed wasn't sure what Eddy meant by this, but he knew it meant his present was important, so he nodded his head and smiled.
"Thanks a lot, Eddy." Then another sad thought flashed through Ed's tiny brain. "There aren't any birthday parties in space, is there, Eddy?" Eddy shook his head, but the way he smiled back at Ed told him there was nothing to worry about. Eddy reached into his back pocket and dumped a book at Ed's feet. It looked like a very old library book. Several of the pages had been dog-eared and a few might even have been torn out. Ed wasn't sure what to make of it. He couldn't remember the last time he saw Eddy with a book. He picked it up and started to thumb through some of the pages.
"There sure are a lot of pretty pictures in here, Eddy."
"Stars are pretty things to look at, Ed." He waited patiently for Ed to make his way through the whole volume. He didn't stop to red any of the words, but he seemed to spend at least five minutes looking at every single picture he stumbled upon. He was engrossed. At the every back of the book, he came to a very large photograph. Stapled to the page was a large golden bookmark. Ed's eyes lit up and he pressed his face against the picture.
"This one is really cool, Eddy!"
"Oh. The Big Dipper? Yeah, I like that one too."
"Will I get a chance to see something like this way up in space?" Eddy inched closer to his friend and pointed to the constellation with all ten of his fingers. He allowed himself a sly smile.
"What, you didn't know? That's where your goin', stupid." Ed looked fit to burst.
"Really? No way!"
"Yup," Eddy nodded, as though he had deduced this all by himself. "Each and every one of is gettin' assigned a constellation. I guess that's how the braniacs are gonna keep track of you all." He cupped Ed's ear with his palms and whispered. "Don't let this get around, but Sock-Head told me you are gonna be right up in front of that one." Ed squealed like a school girl and stared at the constellation's picture with even more enthusiasm than before. Then his brow furrowed. He carefully moved the bookmark back into position and lowered the book into his lap.
"That's super cool in all, Eddy, but what does that have to do with birthdays?" Eddy smiled again and pointed to a little silver chain hanging from his neck. Hanging from the end was a little silver telescope, just big enough to fit in your pocket. He popped it off its hinge and parked it behind his ears. Then he crossed his arms and made himself real comfy.
"If I'm not too busy, I'll look up into the sky on your birthday, and if you promise to make it worth my while when you come back, I'll sing for ya."
"You…you really mean that, Eddy?"
"Sure do, lumpy. Like I told ya, I like ya. You're a nice guy."
From across the street, they watched a little red bicycle park itself. A young man in a black knit cap stepped off, plugged the parking meter with a few quarters, and started strolling towards them, arms outstretched and ready to hug the first thing that came his way. They both smiled, and rose to their feet. Eddy tucked the book under his arm and broke into a run, telescope dangling loosely from his neck.