Page 45 of Switch!

“You just don’t wanna have sex.”

“What? Of course I want to!”

“Then take her swimming. Get her in a bikini. Don’t take her shopping so she can putmoreclothes on.”

I roll my eyes at him. “Haven’t you ever been in love?”

Eddie pulls his head back. “Wow. You’re serious about her, huh?”

“Yeah.”

“That’s fine, but you still gotta make a move before some other dude sweeps in and steals her. You’ve gotta, I don’t know, mark your territory.”

“When she asks me why I’m peeing on her leg, I’ll be sure to tell her it was your idea.”

Eddie cackles at this. “Do it! Chicks love that, man!”

I shake my head at him. “I’m done taking advice from you.”

“Seriously,” he says. “You can make it romantic or whatever, but it’s gotta happen soon.”

Ah, the joys of peer pressure. I always wondered what that would feel like. I grab the scissors off the floor and use one of the blades to slice open the final box. Once I fold open the flaps… “You’re kidding me.”

Eddie leans forward. “What’s that?”

I plunge my hand in the box and pull out a fistful of thin cardboard rectangles. Baseball cards. “Do you collect these?” I ask. “Because you’re welcome to them.”

“You sure? They might be valuable.”

“Take them home with you and find out.” Caleb doesn’t have any recollection of them being worth money.

Eddie digs around in the box, pulling out cards and reading the player names before reaching the same conclusion. “Too much of a pain in the ass. Hey! You ever go off-roading in that truck of yours? I know the perfect place.”

That’s what I love about him. I might not agree with everything Eddie says, but there’s never a dull moment when he’s around.

— — —

The day is almost over. After cruising down shallow creeks and tearing across empty fields, Caleb's truck ended up caked in mud. Eddie helped me get it clean before we went back to his place to play video games. Now I’m home again. The house is quiet when I go inside. Mrs. McCain makes a brief appearance to let me know there is fried chicken in the refrigerator, if I’m still hungry. I call Sarah once I’m in my room, mostly just to hear her voice, but when she mentions making plans, I suggest we go swimming. She agrees.

I guess Eddie’s advice isn’t so bad after all, since I do want to see more of her, in every sense of the word. I let myself imagine what that would be like. My fantasy takes place in the bed I’m in, and just when it’s getting to the good part, I look around and realize how embarrassed I would be to have Sarah in this room. It doesn’t represent me. I’m not sure what does, but I can at least finish unpacking to appear responsible.

I start by setting a few of the trophies on the windowsill, where they can be easily hidden behind the blinds. If anyone asks, they’re there. Otherwise I won’t have to look at them. The rest I stash in my closet. I have a few more things to sort through, and when I’m done finding places for those, I turn my attention to the box of baseball cards. I know exactly where they can go.

I carry the box to the garage and pour the contents into the blue recycling bin while imagining their future as toilet paper. I’m amazed how many there are. I check Caleb’s memory and discover that, once his relatives caught wind that he was collecting these, they kept sending them to him as gifts, even once he felt he was too old. Although he secretly liked them anyway. I do not. I’m shaking the box when something heavy falls out. I look into the recycling bin and see a book. That surprises me, since I’ve officially been through all of Caleb’s possessions now, and the one thing he doesn’t own is any sort of reading material. I set aside the cardboard box and reach for the book, expecting it to be a price guide for the baseball cards it was stored with. When I check the cover, I’m shocked to discover one of my favorite novels,The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.

The cover art conjures up old memories, which is odd, because only some of them are mine. The rest belong to Caleb. He loved this book. It had been assigned to him in the fifth grade, which he pretended to be annoyed by, when in truth… I can scarcely believe it, but he was secretly glad for the excuse to read it. Or anything! He just didn’t want to get caught. Why?

A memory answers me.

“Come on.”A small, square book had been ripped from Caleb’s hands, the pictures inside each accompanied by a few basic sentences. Caleb had been young. And confused, because this was one of the first times he’d been confronted by his father’s angry tone and scowl.“Outside. Now! Your mother has you reading too much of this crap.”

The Mr. Men books. I barely remember them, but at one time, Caleb had an entire collection. I guess that’s not so shocking. Most kids have books scattered among their toys, even if they don’t enjoy reading as adults.

“Hey!”Another memory. Caleb was sitting on the couch, so lost in the book he was reading that he didn’t hear his father until it was too late.“You have a softball tournament in two days. What the hell are you doing?”

Caleb’s hands were shaking when he held up the same book I’m holding now.“It’s for school. I have to read it.”

Major McCain had rolled his eyes in response.“Ask one of your friends to tell you the plot, I don’t care. Let’s go to the park. You need to work on your swing.”