Two little girls run along the hedgeline hand in hand, crunching through leaves and trying to stifle their laughter. "Shhh!" Emily giggles. "He'll hear."
She finds the gap in the hedge and crouches to peer through first, then rocks back on her heels to let JJ look. She watches eagerly as JJ kneels beside her and leans forward. "I see him," she whispers, turning back to Emily, her big blue eyes wide and sparkling. She peers through the hedge again. "He works for your mom?"
Emily nods. It's not a big deal, really – almost everyone she knows works for her mother. "Uh huh. He does security."
"Wow." The agent turns and JJ dives away from the gap in the hedge, knocking Emily over so they land in a giggling heap in the leaves. "I feel like a spy," she whispers, when she catches her breath, picking dried leaves out of Emily's hair. They sit cross-legged facing each other, occasionally peering through the gap in the hedge to make sure the agent hasn't moved.
"Spies have codenames," Emily says shyly. She's always liked the idea of a codename, something only her best friend would know was her. Except she's never had a best friend.
"Ooh," JJ breathes. "What kind of codenames?"
"Anything we want," Emily says, shrugging. Honestly, she's never got as far as actually coming upwith one. "You choose mine."
JJ picks shyly through the leaves on the ground. She doesn't know about codenames but she thinks they should mean something. She has spent every day this summer with Emily and a few weeks at school before, so she should be able to come up with something good – she tries to think of something as rare and special and resilient as Emily. "What about – um – Phoenix?" she suggests, looking up to gauge Emily's reaction.
Emily nods vigorously. "I like that. Why Phoenix?"
"'Cause they start over and over and they stay just as cool and pretty."
Blushing furiously, Emily nods. "Um. You could be… Blackbird."
JJ grins. "You like blackbirds?" She collects butterflies but she likes watching birds too, as close as she can get.
"Yeah," Emily says. "But I like the song more. You know it?" JJ shakes her head. "We'll listen after dinner. It's… Well, you'll see."
JJ grins and Emily leans forward to peer through the hedge. "Blackbird," she whispers. "The target is in motion." She takes JJ's hand, stands up and they race along the hedgeline.
"Coming, Phoenix."
Almost an hour later, they collapse on the lawn, having finally lost sight of him when he switched duty with another agent, got in a car and drove away. It should have been anticlimactic, really, but they're still giggling, heads together on the grass as they look up at the sky. "He never saw us once!" JJ laughs.
"Because we're such good spies."
"You want to be a spy one day?"
Emily's quiet for a few seconds, thinking. "It'd be cool to be a spy I think. But I want…" She turns her head to the side and finds JJ's eyes. "I want a job where I can have a house that's mine, and just stay in it, you know? Not have to move all the time. You think spies can do that? Just stay in one place?"
JJ looks uncertain. "I don't know much about spies," she admits. "Maybe? I hope so." She wants that for Emily – for her to get to live in the same house all the time like she does. She feels a little churn in her stomach, a feeling she can't really figure out. "Emily? You think you'll have to move again?"
Emily chews her lip and looks away from JJ's eyes, back up to the sky that's just the same colour, and reaches for her hand. They hold on tight, because they both know the answer.