Page 3 of Little Pieces of Light

People had been making a fuss about my heterochromia since I was a small child, teasing me that I’d inherited one eye from my dad and one from my mom.

I kind of liked that, but now my mom was gone, and I’d be stuck with the reminder of her forever.

Her parting souvenir. But Emery made it seem special again.

“Special” is going to turn into “weirdo” the longer she talks to you. Just you wait.

“Whatever,” I said, trying to sound cold and stony. I took my glasses back and put them on. “It’s not a big deal.”

“Maybe not to you,” Emery said. “But I’ve never seen eyes like yours before.”

I’d never seen eyes like hers, either. Not just their blue-green color—a standard color on the spectrum—but how they seemed lit from inside. Bright and warm, but with sadness at the edges.

She’d said she was having a bad day. I should’ve asked her about herself but didn’t know how without sounding like a creep. I had an IQ of 177. I could solve differential equations in my sleep and recite pi to the 1000th digit, but talking about normal things was hard.

Maybe she’s right. I just need to practice.

I sucked in a breath to ask about her bad day when the grown-ups at the picnic tables started calling the kids in for dinner.

“Emery!” one of the men shouted, waving a pair of tongs.

“Your dad?” I asked.

“My neighbor.” The sadness that had been lurking at the edges of Emery’s eyes came out in full. “My dad would never let us do something as fun as a picnic, but…something bad happened, so he sent Jack and me here for a little while. Jack is my brother. He’s eleven.”

“What is the bad thing that happened?” I asked, keeping my voice low. “Only if you want to tell me. You don’t have to…”

Emery glanced down at her hands in her lap. “My other brother, Grant, is missing. He’s almost eighteen, so they think he went up to Newport with some friends.” She looked up at me fearfully. “But I think he ran away.”

“Why would he do that?”

“My dad is strict. Very strict. I heard them arguing this morning in Dad’s study.

They were shouting about where Grant was going to go to college.

Dad has plans for him… He has plans for all of us, but Grant didn’t like it.

” Emery’s eyes filled. “When Grant came out, he had a funny look on his face. Then he gave Jack and me big hugs and walked out the door.”

He walked out the door. Just like my mother. On the same day.

Emery’s pain seemed to be seeping into me. I didn’t think I could hurt worse than Mom leaving, but seeing Emery hurt doubled the ache in my heart.

“Maybe he did go to stay with friends,” I said awkwardly. “I’ll bet he did.”

“With no luggage? No nothing?” Then she stuck her smile back on and gave her head a shake. “No, I’m sure you’re right. I’m sorry.”

“For what?”

“Mom says to always be mindful of how I’m behaving in front of other people. To always be polite and not make a fuss.”

I frowned. “You’re not making a fuss. You’re worried. It’s okay to be worried.”

Emery smiled at me, her lower lip quavering, sending new cracks into my heart.

The urge to pull her close and protect her somehow came over me.

Instead, I awkwardly patted the exact middle of her back.

As soon as my palm touched the soft fabric of her dress, she tipped against me as if she were very tired.

I froze but let her rest against my shoulder if that was what she needed.

I know I did. We sat that way for a few minutes until the dad at the grill called her again.

“Emery! Come get something to eat!”

“Coming!” She wiped her eyes and slipped off the rock. “Are you hungry? Did you have dinner?”

“I’m not hungry,” I said. At that moment, my stomach made a loud, embarrassing growl.

Emery’s grin came back. “Umm, it kinda sounds like you are.”

“I guess I could eat.”

“Wait right there!”

A few minutes later, Emery came back with two paper plates containing hot dogs in buns, potato salad, and big wedges of watermelon.

“I couldn’t carry drinks,” she said, handing me a plate. “Do you want a drink? I can go back…”

“No,” I said. Her charity was already too much. But mostly I didn’t want her to go away again. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”

For a few moments, there was silence—just me and this girl sitting on a boulder as the sky grew darker, eating our hot dogs and waiting for fireworks.

I already have fireworks.

From a scientific standpoint, it didn’t make any sense—I’d just met Emery and we were just kids, but it was true all the same.

Emery finished her hot dog in record time and started on the potato salad. She caught me staring and laughed. “My mother would freak out if she saw me now. But I’ve been so worried, I haven’t eaten anything all day.”

“Why would she freak out?”

“She says I have to be careful about my weight.” Emery rolled her eyes. “She used to put me in those dumb pageants, and if I didn’t fit in a costume just right, she’d get really upset. Like, embarrassed.”

I scowled. “You look fine to me.” You’re perfect.

Emery grinned and took a big bite of potato salad. “She’s not here to nag me anyway, so I’m going to eat whatever I want.”

I put my gaze on my own plate and assessed the data I’d acquired so far:

Emery’s father didn’t want her (or her brother) to attend a fun Fourth of July picnic.

He had “plans” for his kids that made them run away.

Her mother seemed to be trying to give her an eating disorder.

Emery’s parents were either dimming her light on purpose or couldn’t even see it, which seemed impossible to me. She was luminous. A Class A1 star, for sure. But that was the kind of observation that got me funny looks and made me zero friends, so I kept it to myself.

“So, Xander,” Emery said after a minute, “you’re a genius and your dad’s a famous scientist who works for the government. What does your mom do?”

The potato salad in my mouth turned to gooey cement. “She works for the government too. The State Department.”

“Wow,” Emery said. “Where is—?”

“What do your parents do?” I asked, cutting her off before she asked that question.

“My dad owns Wallace Industries. It’s a big textiles company. And my mom doesn’t do anything except hold charity events.”

“That sounds nice.”

“It’s just for show,” Emery said. “Mostly she throws dinner parties and stuff like that for Dad’s company.”

“Oh.” I struggled for something else to say and glanced behind us. At the picnic tables, boys shrieked and threw food at each other. “Which one is your brother Jack?”

Emery squinted in the falling light. “Don’t see him.” Her face fell again. “He didn’t want to come here. He wanted to search for Grant. They’re best buddies. I’m worried about him too.”

My giant IQ rarely failed me, but I was failing Emery.

I didn’t know what to say to make her feel better.

I’d already decided to never speak of my mother ever again, but Emery had told me about her brother.

Maybe if I told her about Mom, she’d know that I understood a little of how she was feeling.

Wasn’t that what friends did? Share the hard stuff so the other didn’t feel so alone?

Or she might wonder what was wrong with me that my mom didn’t want me.

“My mom…” I cleared my throat. “She left too.”

I braced myself for Emery to laugh at me, but she stared at me with a strange expression, almost as if she were scared.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, she packed up her bags and drove away.”

“When?”

“This morning.”

“ This morning ?”

Emery’s eyes actually filled with tears. Her crying made me want to cry, but I’d made a promise to myself, so I stuffed it down.

“It’s no big deal.”

“Yes, it is!” Emery cried. “She can’t just do that! Where did she go?”

“To Paris, I guess.” I sat up stiffly. “I don’t know for sure, and I don’t care.”

“Gosh, Xander, I’m so sorry.”

Emery threw her arms around me in a sudden hug, sending her dinner plate into the dirt at our feet. I froze, shocked by the comfort of her soft touch, how her little arms squeezed me as if she were trying to hug all the pain out.

After a moment, she let go and shook her head. “Wow, isn’t that weird? My brother and your mom? On the same day?”

I nodded. The odds were improbable, but even more improbable was that, out of all the kids at the park, this girl would choose to sit with me. “I hope your brother comes back, Emery.”

She smiled sadly. “I hope your mom comes back, Xander.”

“Thanks,” I said dully.

I didn’t have much hope, but Emery’s brother had to come back. I didn’t want to think about how it would hurt her if he didn’t.

“I made a mess,” Emery said with a small laugh, glancing at the spilled food on the ground.

“I got it.” I jumped down and picked up the watermelon rind, coated in dirt, and used her napkin to get the potato salad.

“You don’t have to…”

“Done,” I said with a smile and tossed it all in a nearby trash can.

“Thank you,” she said.

Now she was on the rock, and I was standing in front of her. I stuffed my hands in the front pockets of my jeans, not sure what to do next. Sit down beside her again? Was that okay with her?

“Umm…” I cleared my throat and rubbed the back of my neck. “Do you want to…feed the pond fish?”

I cringed. A girl like Emery wasn’t going to want to get down on her knees in the muck and—

“Yes!” she cried and jumped off the rock. “I’ll go get some more hot dog buns.”

“Oh, okay.” I smiled a little. Maybe I was doing okay at this friend stuff.

Emery raced away, then raced right back. “They wouldn’t let me take more than two.” She bit her lower lip. “Is that enough? Or maybe I should get something else?”

I frowned. “It’s fine.”

“Oh. Good. My dad is always telling me I don’t know how the world works and that I’d better ask.”

“About hot dog buns?”

She shrugged and glanced away.

I added another bit of data to my collection: 4. Emery’s dad makes her doubt herself. A lot.

“Two’s perfect.”

She beamed and took my hand. “Let’s go!”