Birthstones

“Hey.”

I see him in the street. I go into his personal space, and slowly bend down to reach for one of the pieces of chalk at his side. When he doesn’t say no or grab the chalk back or yell at me, I feel like we are almost friends.

I sit by him and the chalks. I start to draw a jellyfish on the ground. I like the way it makes powder on my fingers. Tentacles all bloopity bloopity bloop bloop. So funny, jellyfishies.

I have finished the face (smiling!) and body and two (out of eight!) tentacles when I break the silence. “Um, can I ask you something?” I ask him.

He keeps drawing. Did he not hear me?

“Hey. Hey! Can I askyousometing??” Oh yeah, he could hear me now. He looks up a little. Towards me.

So, it’s like he’s saying, yeah sure. Go ahead and ask me anything.

“Um, how old are you?”

He starts drawing again, and he says, “I’m six.”

Wait okay. Hold on. We are definitely friends now.

“ME TOO! I’m six-and-tree-quarters. Um, when is your birfday? Mine is July nine, and my birfstone is a ruby. What’s your birfstone — hey, can I tell you someting? I love rocks and minerals and gems and I almost know all the birfstones for every month. I can tell you if you don’t know what yours is. Well. Maybe.”

He keeps drawing. I think he’s trying to draw a person in the rain or something? Wait no, like, that’s a pirate? I’m not really sure.

“My birthday is in September. I don’t know what a birthstone is.”

“Oh! Sapphire! You’re a sapphire I love that one. Hey, want me to tell you more about birfstones? I love them but we can talk about something else if you want.”

He looks at me for the first time, putting his eyes on my eyes. My momma says that’s what kids are supposed to do. To use their eyes, like to say thank you. And to sit their butts in chairs and to pleaaase plant their feet in one spot for just five seconds when we have to stand in line or something.

His eyes are not a birthstone, because they are browns. There are no brown birthstones, but there are other brown stones like, tiger eye. But no, he doesn’t have no tiger eye eyes. Ha. Aye aye captain.

They’re just brown eyes.

My eyes are blues. Not like turquoise or sapphire. No, they’re just blue eyes. I wonder if he had the brown eyes that started blue when he was borned then changed to brown, like they say can happen. I’m lucky my blues stayed, my grandma says. She has browns too. She calls her eyes cloudy but I don’t know how eyes can be cloudy. Now gems, gems can be cloudy though. The sky.

He still doesn’t tell me what he wants to talk about, but I can tell in his browns he wants to talk to me. I can help. I’m good at talking.

“So are you going to be a first grader? I am. I just finished kindergarten.”

“Yeah, I finished kinder.”

“Oh cool. Hey, do you like to read? Have you read the Magic Tree House books yet?”

“Uh I can read some, yeah. What are those?”

“The Magic Tree House books? Oh they’re my favorite so far, I have all of them and have almost finished. I read a LOT. I’ve basically read like, a million pages already and my teacher told my parents I’m reading at a FIFF grade level. Crazy! Um where do you live? If we are neighbors I can share my books if you want. What books do you have?”

Nope. He looks back down at his drawing. Shoot, maybe I was bragging? I know I’m not supposed to, I didn’t mean it like that.

“Sorry like, you don’t have to or anyting. Hey, where do you live? You live near here?”

More quiet from him.

Darn.

Then he speaks again.

“I don’t live in this neighborhood. My mom got asked to come to this thing by someone, and she thought it might be a cool experience and brought us. I wish we had never come though.”

Wait what? That’s crazy.

“Wait, what? That’s crazy… um. Hey, what’s your name?”

“My name is Abel.”

“YOUR NAME IS APPLE?!”

“It’s Abel. You can call me Able if that’s easier for you to say, a lot of kids in my class call me Able.”

“Okay. Okay hi Able. I’m Jack. That’s actually the same name as the main character in Magic Tree House who goes on all these adventures with his little sister Annie, and so I definitely am kind of like him because we share a name. Except he has dark hair like you and wears glasses. Okay so…. So… wait, why don’t you want to be here? The Midsummers Block Party is like, the most awesome day of the whole summer because the grownups let us stay up and there’s a huge fire and something called a maple? And they basically don’t care what we do at all. Like, at all. You could eat three popsicles and nobody would be mad at you. Or like,” I start cracking myself up here. “You could, you could take your shirt off and run around and be like…” I look around for a moment. “You could be like, ‘I’M A NAKED JELLYFISH!!’ and it’s the only time when the grownups don’t get mad at you for stuff like that because they’re all laughing and having fun and don’t really care. There’s a bonfire later and everyone dances more, oh wait I said that. But yeah we stay up and then we basically sleep forever tomorrow. This is my fird one I think, and I’m trying to stay awake ALL night.”

He’s still drawing. My new friend is not the kind of friend who seems to want to run around shirtless, being a crazy jellyfish.

“Able? Like, you seem kind of serious? Why don’t you want to be here? It’s really fun. For real life.”

He pushes his chalk even harder into his drawing (I think it’s two people on a roof now? I can’t tell, he’s not that good actually) and it breaks. My momma would say, right now if she saw him, Able seems frustrated.

He sighs, and sets down his chalk. “Jack, right?”

I set my chalk down too, and look at him. “Uhhuh?”

“I saw something bad happen, and I don’t know what to do. I haven’t told anyone yet, but I’m not sure if I have to or if it will only make things worse.”

This is just like something that would happen to Jack on an adventure. I can try to help too.

“Is it like a surprise kind of secret you’re not supposed to tell? Because I mean, I’m almost seven, so maybe I can help you if you want to tell me. I promise I won’t tell anyone.”

I’ve heard my momma say at Midsummers, the grownups can get a little crazy. They eat and drink and have more fun than any other time, and we might see them act a little different because they’re just enjoying themselves. Last year when I went to help Jaime look for her flower crown, we saw Bailey’s dad kissing Riley’s dad behind a tree. I didn’t tell no one.

“If you swear on something serious, I’ll tell you. It’s not for you to share.”

Our friendship is getting so close now. Maybe he will invite me to a sleepover if I prove how I can keep his secret.

“Oh my gosh, I will swear on my life and like, my amefist gem which is my most favorite thing ever. I can show it to you if you want, it’s up in my room by my nightstand. It can mean protection, I read, so I really mean it. I swear.” I sit up straighter, showing my seriousness.

He sighs again. “I don’t know how it happened, but after we got here my little sister, Alma, needed to use the bathroom. So my mom let me take her into the lady’s house because she was busy helping. We kind of work for her, and when she saw us here she tried to be all friendly, said we could. But Alma walked out of the bathroom while I was going too, and I got kinda mad at her for that. I had to decide, ‘do I wash my hands how I’m supposed to or do I go find Alma first?’ And I decided to wash my hands really quickly,” he wipes his face on his shirt here, almost like he has a tear. “But then, I wiped up the water around the sink and tried to put the towel back nice and everything so it would be like we were never there. And when I got out I couldn’t find Alma anywhere. I got nervous. And I had to walk around the house how we shouldn’t and finally found her in the lady’s closet, and knew we’d get in so much trouble for that if anyone found out—”

“Oh like because of boundaries? My momma says if you go somewhere you’re not supposed to it’s crossing a boundary.”

“Sort of, yeah. But, it gets worse. You promise not to tell? On your gem?”

Best. Friends. “I promise. On my amefist. For real life.”

“So Alma was holding the lady’s jewelry and when she heard me say her name — I was mad so I said it pretty scary when I found her — she got extra scared. She kind of jumped and then...”

He’s still looking down mostly.

I can be patient.

Well, sorta. “And then what!?”

“She started coughing really bad. Alma had put some of the lady’s jewelry in her mouth. Like she thought it was a piece of food or something, I don’t know. But then she was all jumpy when I caught her and she swallowed it. And we both totally freaked out. I mean. I really freaked out Jack, because I worried she’d cry and choke and die or something right there, on that lady’s cheetah rug in her fancy closet, and it’d all be my fault for washing my hands and trying to make those dumb towels nice. But, she seems okay. I guess? Except, now Alma has this lady’s ring in her pa- in her stomach or wherever inside of her and I don’t know what to do. So I’ve just been over here drawing by myself to try to figure out how I’m supposed to make it right and I can’t yet. Sorry. I don’t usually talk so much.”

Whoa. This is exactly like something that would happen to Jack and Annie. This is going to be, for me, the best Midsummers ever.

But I feel pretty bad for Able, because it is definitely not so great for him. Jamie cried when she lost her crown last year, and that was just some plain old flowers.

“Are you…. Okay. I won’t tell. That’s crazy. What kind of jewelry was it again?”

“Alma said it was a diamond ring? Seems impossible, right? But I don’t know what to believe. It’s bad, Jack. I don’t know what to do. I don’t want Alma to be hurt or anything, but it’s bad for my mom and dad if the lady… I don’t know.”

I understand. Able knows if the lady finds out, she’ll probably be angry and tell them they are not invited to stay at the party anymore, because the little sister crossed a boundary. And–

“Oh like, because your sister stole something!? Diamonds are really valuable!” I whisper now, understanding completely. He is worried they will not get to stay at the party. That would suck for me, to lose my new friend on the best night. I’m not supposed to say sucks, but since he’s already told me about his sister almost dying and accidentally swallowing a super valuable diamond and all, I feel like I can say that it sucks.

Because it does.

He keeps talking. “I just feel like if I tell my mom she’s going to feel really scared the lady will call the police or someone. And my parents have been saying that we have to be ‘under the radar’ for a while because we can’t afford to do anything wrong right now. But then I’ve been thinking, not telling them if something bad happens to Alma is basically doing something really wrong too. Worse even maybe. Do you know what I mean?” He looks up at me.

“Well yeah, stealing is bad. But I don’t know… is eating a ring like eating a seed or a cherry pit? They’re not that bad. Can you tell your mom after the party, like tomorrow?”

Oh, maybe that wasn’t the right thing to say; he rolls his eyes and rubs his hands back in the chalk.

“If we leave without putting the ring back, I just worry it might be a big problem for my parents. But I don’t know how to fix it. And don’t want anything bad to happen to my sister. Or my parents.”

So I believe what my momma said. It is one long, crazy day. And maybe it’s up to us kids — like our mission, for real life — to figure things out, make things go back to normal before it’s all over. I am Jack, and I have to help find flower crowns and return lost diamonds. Jacks help Able (and Alma!) and save the day.

I can do that.

Maybe?

We never found Jamie’s crown that night; it wasn’t until way later we saw it near Danny’s yard, all old and browned with the purple ribbons still on it.

“I’ll help you.” I look behind us at the rest of the party. Past all the grownups laughing too loudly, past the other kids playing, and some running in a sprinkler. I’m trying to see if I can find her in all that. Like Where’s Waldo?

“Um, Able? Where is Alma right now?”

I start to get up, brushing the chalk off my swim trunks and knees. Pattycake myself, clapping the chalk off my hands. I’m leaving my happy-face jellyfish not doned.

Able doesn’t get up yet, he’s still circling his finger in his chalk mess. Doesn’t look like people anymore. Looks more like a kid’s finger-painting. Just a messy blob of green chalk next to my undone sea creature. Bloopity blob.

I look back to the people having fun, wondering what a girl with a jewel belly would look like. Where’s Alma?

It sounds like we need Alma, to get this diamond baby out of her belly. And then, somehow, we have to put it back. That’s our mission. A whole lot of crazy boundaries in one adventure, if you ask me.

And then we can go to the bonfire and dance around the maple. Me and my old friends with my new friend, Able. And his little sister Alma.

The girl who’d birth a stone.