Henry and I agreed we would not work on finding Mary’s letters when we are not together, so I resist the temptation to search for Mary Wolf on the internet that night, and spend the entire evening finishing A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Dr. Plume is right—it is a great introduction to Shakespeare and I decide that when I’m at the library tomorrow, I may ask her for more of his plays to read. According to some internet research I did on Shakespeare’s plays, I think As You Like It and Much Ado About Nothing have similar comedic plots, while The Tempest has some fantasy elements like Midsummer Night’s Dream, so I plan to start with those plays.

After I finish the book, I go to the living room, where Mom is sitting in a chair reading. She seems sad ever since Dad cancelled a video call due to a storm downing a tree on the roof of one of the cabins, and my fears about her and Dad come rushing back.

She looks up from her book and smiles at me. “Tell me more about this Henry,” she says.

“He seems like a fairly standard boy my age,” I tell her, because I don’t want to get her hopes up, “he likes mysteries though, and he seems to think we found one,” I add after she looked disappointed about my first remark.

“A mystery?”

“It’s really nothing. I ran into a lady on the way to the library the other day who lost some letters, and we’re going to try to find them for her, that’s all.”

“Oh,” she says, fidgeting with her book a little, trying to be attentive, but also not super enthralled by the supposed mystery. After a little too much silence, she continued, adding “that seems very helpful of you,” followed by another, awkward, too long pause, “so did you do anything other than look for letters today?”

“Mr. Dijon put a carousel in the gymnasium that used to belong to his grandfather, which is weird, but cool. He said we can ride it sometime with parent permission, so is that okay? Henry seems really excited about it, I would hate for him to have to ride alone,” I hide my interest in the carousel, hoping to practice playing it cool. She nods, though I’m not sure if it means I have permission to ride or if she’s following along with the story, but I continue. “We also made our way around a number of the parks in town. Henry lives next to the one with Old Leon, in the green house with the really intricate stained glass windows on the second and third floors.”

“Ah, they moved into the old Carson place. That’s a beautiful house! What is Henry’s family like?”

“It’s just him and his mom,” I say, not liking this line of thought. My mom is an adult, so she knows divorce exists, but I do not want to plant the idea in her head.

“We should invite them both over for dinner sometime!” Mom suggests, “I mean, you should also see if he’ll have leftovers with you tomorrow night, but we should plan dinner with both of them, too.” This is not an idea that appealed to me greatly. I already have my apprehensions about whether Henry will stay my friend when the school year starts, but even if we do stay friends, dinner with parents feels weird to me. How can I build a friendship with my mom watching, let alone his mom?

“I don’t know about that,” I say cautiously, “You seem really busy these days.”

“Sam, I’m not too busy to be a good neighbor. Plus, there aren’t a lot of kids your age in town.”

“There are no kids my age in town.” I say, “well, there weren’t until now.”

“My point exactly. So, pass along my number to his mother, and we will have them over for dinner at their earliest convenience.” She passed after saying this. “And how did Mr Dijon get a carousel into the school? Is it safe?”

“I’m not sure. It was fully in the gymnasium when we got there, but he said he’s going to have someone make sure it’s safe before he would let us ride it. I’m sure you can email him with more details.”

“You can count on it. I need to check with him about the annual PTA/Hospital Fundraiser anyway.” 

I return to the sun porch, where I find the group chat of my friends from honors band buzzing along. Last Friday, everyone was preoccupied with their last days of school, including me, but now that the boredom of summer has set in, everyone is turning to the group chat for entertainment. Nate and his friends are making a movie over the summer about a monster in Burnet Woods, Cincinnati. Annette is headed to France, much to the jealous of the whole group. Sasha and Jennae are attending a music camp at Hollingsworth University for students entering grades 9-12.

“Isn’t Hollingsworth near Samantha?” Jennae asked.

“It’s about 45 minutes away.” 

“Maybe we could stop by for a visit on the way back?” Sasha suggests. “Sam has sent us some cool pictures of the parks in her town, we could hang out there.” 

“I would like that. Plus, you can meet my friend Henry. He was in the Colorado Middle School Honors band. He’ll probably join the Ohio Middle School honors band this year.” 

“You can bring him when you come to Cincinnati at the end of the month,” Ella says. She’s one of the few members of the group who is going into 8th grade like me. “The boys are staying at Nate’s, I’m sure one more person is welcome.”

“Absolutely,” Nate adds almost a second later.

“I’ll see if he’s interested!” I offer. “What other summer plans does everyone else have?”

“Cross country trip with family,” Raven says, with a string of gloomy emoji finishing the message.

“All-State Youth Orchestra after the 4th of July” says Rita, and all of the soon-to-be 9th graders agree that they’ll also be in attendance.

“What about you, Sam?” Jennae asks.

“I’m trying to beat my summer reading record and showing Henry around. We’ve found a lot of avenues to explore the town.” I leave out the mystery part.

After the chat starts to die down for the evening, I change into my pajamas and take The Scarlet Pimpernel down to the sun porch and read with a flashlight, the fairylights Mom and I had strung up along the ceiling adding a faint glow to the evening. I read the first four chapters of the book, ending with the arrival of Sir Percy Blakeney and Lady Marguerite.  I turn off my flashlight and watch the fireflies rise out of the grass in the backyard. A faint breeze blew in the lilac mixing with the smell of a coming rain.

My phone chimes on the end table beside the daybed. Henry. His message reads “I am SO excited about tomorrow! See you at 10:30.” I smile despite myself and send a smiley face in reply. I curl up in the blankets lining the day bed. It’s starting to rain, but softly, so the fireflies are still out. As I start to fall asleep, I am excited about what tomorrow holds for Henry and I.

Go to Chapter 7