Mia's Golden Bird

  “Certainly,” Gail said.

  Mia went in the back and found her mother, who was mixing up a new batch of muffins. “Mamá, Gail is here, but Lacy stayed home. I really need to talk to her, so Gail said the driver could take the two of us back to her house. That’s all right with you, isn’t it?”

  Mia’s mother put the spatula down and wiped her hands on a towel. “Are you sure this is such a good idea? If she’d wanted to see you today, she would have come with Gail.”

  “I have to talk to her,” Mia said. “I just have to. I feel like this might be my only chance to try and make things right.”

  Her mother nodded. “Okay. But you must prepare yourself for the worst. If she doesn’t want to see you, then you return home. I don’t want you making a pest of yourself.”

  “I know,” Mia said.

  Her mother gave her a kiss and a hug and wished her luck, and then Mia walked to the car with Gail. Mia sat in the back, alone, and it felt strange, not having Lacy there next to her. Since it was Sunday morning, the roads were fairly empty, and they made good time. Mia used the miles to rehearse in her mind what she wanted to say to Lacy.

  She rubbed her bracelet for luck. And then, hoping for a bit of help from her friends, she slipped the bracelet off the left wrist and moved it to the right one. Just as she expected, a camp memory came into focus. She leaned back into the leather seat and closed her eyes.

  This time, she saw the four girls canoeing on the lake. Mia and Caitlin sat in the back with paddles, while Hannah and Libby sat toward the front.

  “Let’s pretend we’re explorers, about to discover the American West,” Hannah had said.

  “Like Lewis and Clark, right?” Caitlin had asked. “They spent lots of time on the river, going to Oregon.”

  “Don’t forget Sacajawea,” Mia had said. “She was with them.”

  “Look, explorers, there’s a bear!” Hannah had called out, pointing across the lake. “Over there.”

  Mia and Libby had both jumped out of their seats, excited about the possibility of seeing a bear. The sudden movement at both ends of the canoe had caused the boat to tip right over, dumping all four girls into the lake, screaming and laughing as they went.

  Of course they all had on life preservers, so they were perfectly safe. And completely soaked.

  “Where’s the bear?” Mia had asked, still trying hard to see it.

  Hannah had splashed water at her. “I was teasing, silly. We were pretending to be explorers, remember? And explorers find things.”

  “Well why didn’t you say so?” Caitlin had asked. “It’s not like we could read your mind.”

  “But where’s the fun in that?” Hannah had said. “Oh, girls, look, it’s a pretend bear across the way. If I had said that, none of you would have looked!”

  “And we wouldn’t have fallen out of the canoe either,” Libby had teased.

  Although they kind of gave Hannah a hard time about it, none of the girls were truly mad. In the coming days, they joked a lot about the bear.

  “Hey, do you see the bear hiding behind the art easel?”

  “Wait, is that the bear standing over by the cereal station? I bet he likes the Fruity O’s best.”

  “The bear got into your underwear and is prancing around the cabin wearing some of it!”

  Lying? Or pretending? What had Hannah really done?

  The girls had never questioned it, when Hannah had explained that in her mind, in that particular moment, she had been pretending.

  Mia knew what she had done to Lacy was much different. She had lied to her friends about her relationship with Lacy. And in the process, she’d hurt Lacy’s feelings.

  But there was one little thing in that memory that Mia pulled out and held on to tightly. Whether it was lying or pretending or a little bit of both, Hannah hadn’t told the truth about the bear. And yet, the girls had found it in their hearts to forgive her.

  “Hello?” Gail called out as she and Mia walked into the gigantic house. “Lacy? Are you downstairs somewhere, sweetheart?”

  Gail handed Mia the envelope of photos. “They are marvelous. Do show them to Lacy, for they will surely make her feel better.”

  “I will,” Mia replied.

  Though Mia suddenly wondered if this was such a good idea. What if Lacy refused to see Mia, like her mother had suggested might happen? Could Mia really ask the driver to turn right around and take her home? How completely embarrassing.

  No, Mia thought. She would make Lacy hear her out, even if she had to do it through a closed door.

  Alice appeared, once again wearing her simple black dress. Mia decided it must be a uniform of sorts.

  “Oh,” Alice said. “Hello, Mia. I didn’t know you would be paying us a visit today.”

  “Hi,” Mia said. “I’m sorry if I shouldn’t be here. I heard Lacy wasn’t feeling well, and I have something I want to give her. Is she up in her room?”

  “Yes, she is,” Alice said. “Why don’t you go on up?” She turned to Gail. “Is there anything else I can do for you?”

  “Nope,” Gail said. “Just helping out a friend here. Think I’ll leave the two girls alone. Anything I can help you with, Alice? I’m as free as a bird today.”

  “Well, now that you mention it,” Alice said, “I could use some help filling up the bird feeders.”

  Gail grinned and rubbed her hands together. “Absolutely. Perfect. That’s just the job for me.” She gave Mia a little wave. “See you later, and best of luck to you.”

  “Thanks,” Mia said.

  She made her way up the stairs, her bag with the photos slung over her shoulder. She counted as she went, all the way to thirty-three at the top of the staircase.

  Mia took a deep breath before she turned and headed in the direction of Lacy’s room. When she reached her door, she leaned in and listened to see if she could hear anything. What if she’d gone back to bed? The last thing Mia wanted to do was wake her up.

  Knock, she told herself. Just put your hand up, hit the door, and get it over with. And yet, she couldn’t. She had come here, uninvited. Lacy would be surprised. More than surprised. Shocked. What if she called security and had Mia arrested?

  Wouldn’t the kids at school love talking about that story?

  Mia knew she was being ridiculous with all of these “what-ifs,” and yet, her heart was beating ridiculously hard and fast. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d been this nervous.

  It’s like a Band-Aid, she thought. You just have to rip it off.

  Knock, knock, knock.

  She waited, wondering if Lacy could hear her pounding heart from the other side of the door.

  “Come in,” Lacy said.

  “But you don’t know who it is,” Mia called back. “What if it’s someone you don’t want to see? Do you still want me to come in?”

  Lacy didn’t reply for a moment.

  “You can come in,” she finally replied.

  A step in the right direction, Mia thought.

  When Mia walked into the room, she found Lacy sitting at the coffee table, photos spread out all over. She was working on her scrapbook.

  “It’s so weird,” Lacy said. “I was just thinking about you. And then you knocked. It was like …”

  “Magic?” Mia said, finishing the sentence for her.

  “Yes,” Lacy said. “Like magic. Now if I just had a spell to make you disappear….”

  Mia gulped. The words stung. She turned back toward the door, mad at herself for thinking this might work.

  “Mia, I’m kidding,” Lacy called out. “I’m sorry. That was mean.”

  “I probably deserve it,” Mia said.

  “Did you bring the photos from last week’s birding trip?”

  “Yes.”

  Lacy jumped up. “Ohmygosh, hurry up and get over here! I can’t wait to see them.”

  Mia was confused. Lacy didn’t seem very angry. At all. Things almost seemed normal.

  As Mia hobbled towar
d the couch and the coffee table, she spoke quickly and without taking a single breath. “Before I give them to you, I want you to know I’m really sorry about what I said last week. About not being your friend. The kids just got to me and I didn’t know what to do. I wanted them to leave me alone. I hated that they were making fun of us, and I just wanted it to stop. I really want to be friends, and I hope you can forgive me.”

  With all of the words out there, Mia sank into the couch, trickles of sweat dripping down her back.

  She’d done it. Mia had gotten Lacy to see her, and she’d said what she wanted to say. What happened next was up to Lacy.

  Mia waited. Lacy kneeled by the coffee table and tinkered with the photos she was working on, trying them out in different places on the page.

  Finally, Lacy put the photos down and looked at Mia. “It’s hard being a celebrity. But I know I’m not supposed to complain about that because there are also a lot of good things about it too. The thing is, Mia, being a friend of a celebrity is probably hard too. Maybe even harder than being the celebrity, I don’t know. I hadn’t thought of that before we met. And I decided, after we dropped you off on Sunday, I probably shouldn’t do that to you.”

  “So wait,” Mia said, trying to understand. “You weren’t really mad at me then?”

  “No. I mean, I guess it hurt for a few minutes, but your voice mails and texts told me you felt bad. I figured it was just something you said to get them to knock it off.”

  “But you let me think that you were mad.”

  Lacy moved from the floor to the couch. “Yes.”

  “Even if that meant we might not see each other again?”

  Lacy nodded. “Yes. So you could go back to your regular, drama-free life, and I could keep all the drama to myself.”

  “Why?”

  “Because drama comes with the job. And like I said, while there is bad stuff with this job, there’s also a lot of good stuff too. But as my friend, you wouldn’t get any good stuff, just the bad stuff. How is that even fair?”

  Mia couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Lacy hadn’t been upset, she’d simply been trying to protect Mia. “Of course there’s good stuff!”

  Lacy looked at Mia like she couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “Like what?”

  Mia threw her arms out wide. “You! Our friendship. That’s the good stuff.”

  Tears filled Lacy’s eyes. “Really?”

  “Yes, really.”

  “I think that might be the nicest thing anybody’s ever said to me,” Lacy said softly.

  “And by the way,” Mia said, “when we go birding next time, I’m not going to take your money. Now that we’re friends, it wouldn’t be right. I’ll find some other way to pay for camp next year.”

  Mia’s hand flew to her mouth after the last sentence was out. She hadn’t meant to say that to Lacy. She didn’t want Lacy to know about her money problems.

  Lacy gave her a stern look. “You have to let me pay you, then.”

  “No.”

  “Yes.”

  “No.”

  “You are so stubborn,” Lacy said, trying not to smile. “Hey, can I see last week’s photos now?”

  Mia reached into her bag and pulled out the envelopes and handed them to Lacy. Then she said, “Oh, I almost forgot, I have one more thing.” Mia took the frame out and gave it to her. “A little gift. To show you how sorry I am.”

  Lacy gasped as her eyes took in each of the pictures Mia had framed. “Ohmygosh, Mia. These photos are gorgeous. Your best work yet.”

  “You think so?” Mia asked.

  “Absolutely. I can’t wait to show this to Grandma.” She paused. “And someone else I know too.”

  “Who?” Mia asked.

  Lacy’s eyes twinkled. “I think I’ll let it be a surprise for now. You like surprises, don’t you?”

  “Usually,” Mia replied. “Except when I fall off a stool and am surprised to find out I broke a bone. Not a fan of surprises then.”

  Lacy laughed. “This will be a much better surprise. I promise.”

  The following week, Mia got her cast off. “My foot is free! Just in time for Halloween,” she told her mom as they drove to the mall after the doctor’s appointment. “I can go trick-or-treating and I won’t slow anyone down.”

  “What do you want to be this year?” she asked.

  “I’m going to dress like a bird-watcher,” Mia told her. “Lacy’s letting me borrow her binoculars along with her grandma’s hat she wears every time she goes birding. And I’ll use that old canteen you kept of Dad’s, and wear that too.”

  “Do you think people will know what you are?” her mother asked.

  Mia smiled. “They will when they see the owl going trick-or-treating with me.”

  “An owl?” Mia’s mom asked. “Who’s dressing up as an owl?”

  “Lacy is, and we’re going to go trick-or-treating together. It’s the coolest costume. She ordered it online. It has an amazing mask and when she wears it, no one will have any clue that it’s her. Mom, she hasn’t been trick-or-treating since she was like four years old. Can you believe that?”

  “You two will have lots of fun, then,” Mia’s mom replied.

  They pulled into the mall parking lot, and Mia felt her excitement growing. Her mom had asked Mia what she wanted to do to celebrate the cast coming off. Mia had told her she wanted to go to the mall and get a big cinnamon roll and then shop for a charm for the bracelet so she could send it on to the next girl. So that’s what they did.

  When they reached the jewelry counter, the saleswoman asked how she could assist them.

  “Do you have any bird charms?”

  “Yes,” she said. “Right here.”

  When she saw the charm, she said, “It’s perfect. I’d like to buy it, please.”

  “Certainly,” the woman said. “Would you like me to put it on your bracelet for you, so you can wear it home?”

  “Oh,” Mia said, unfastening the bracelet. “Sure. That’d be great.”

  “It’s a lovely bracelet,” she told Mia as she took it and stepped away to add the new charm.

  All the way home, Mia fingered the two charms, occasionally looking down and thinking how cute they looked together. Later, when she took off the bracelet, she stared at her empty wrist as she realized how much she was going to miss wearing it.

  With a big sigh, she wrapped the bracelet in some tissue paper and then sat down to write a letter to go with it.

  DEAR LIBBY,

  SURPRISE! YOU GET THE CHARM BRACELET NEXT! I KNOW HOW HARD IT CAN BE TO WORRY ABOUT YOUR FAMILY BUSINESS, SO I FIGURED YOU COULD USE ALL THE LUCK YOU CAN GET.

  DO YOU LIKE THE CHARM? BIRDS HAVE BEEN A BIG PART OF MY LIFE FOR THE PAST MONTH, SO IT SEEMED LIKE A GOOD CHOICE. IF YOU EVER GET A CHANCE TO GO BIRD-WATCHING, YOU SHOULD GO. I KNOW THAT IT SOUNDS LIKE A WEIRD THING TO DO, BUT IT’S FUN. REALLY! THERE ARE SO MANY DIFFERENT TYPES OF BIRDS, I’M KIND OF AMAZED. SOME ARE PRETTY UGLY AND SOME ARE GORGEOUS. THERE ARE A BUNCH OF THEM THAT I’VE SEEN AND ADMIRED, BUT I THINK MY FAVORITE WOULD HAVE TO BE THE LIGHT-FOOTED CLAPPER RAIL.

  HERE’S THE THING ABOUT THAT BIRD. IT CAN BE DIFFICULT TO FIND, AND WHILE WE SEARCHED AND SEARCHED, WEEK AFTER WEEK, I STARTED TO WONDER IF IT WOULD BE WORTH IT.

  I KEPT TELLING MYSELF THE SEARCH IS PART OF THE FUN. AND IT WAS. BUT WHEN I FINALLY DID SEE A CLAPPER RAIL, I FELT SO THANKFUL TO HAVE SPENT JUST A LITTLE BIT OF TIME WITH IT. LIKE MY LIFE WAS BETTER BECAUSE OF THE TIME WE SPENT TOGETHER AND THE MEMORIES I NOW HAVE OF THAT SPECIAL BIRD.

  IT REMINDS ME OF MY NEW FRIEND, LACY BELL. (EVERYTHING IS FINE WITH HER, BY THE WAY. I APOLOGIZED, SHE FORGAVE ME, AND WE’RE GOOD.) I WASN’T SURE AT FIRST HOW THINGS WOULD TURN OUT WITH HER, BUT NOW, MY LIFE IS BETTER BECAUSE OF THE TIME WE’VE SPENT TOGETHER.

  SOMETIMES IT CAN BE HARD OR SCARY SEARCHING FOR A GOOD FRIEND. BUT THE CLAPPER RAIL WILL ALWAYS REMIND ME THAT IT’S WORTH THE TROUBLE IN THE END.

  NEXT WEEK, AFTER HALLOWEEN IS OVER AND OU
T OF THE WAY, LACY IS PICKING ME UP FOR A SPECIAL SURPRISE. I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT IT IS, BUT I’M DYING TO KNOW.

  MY LAST PIECE OF NEWS IS THAT MY CAST CAME OFF TODAY. HOORAY!!!! I CAN’T WAIT TO GO SURFING ONE DAY SOON.

  I MISS YOU, LIBBY. HAVE FUN WEARING THE BRACELET. I WISH I COULD MAIL MYSELF ALONG WITH THE BRACELET. INSTEAD, I’LL JUST HAVE TO WAIT AND SEE YOU AT CAMP NEXT SUMMER. IF WE’RE ALL BACK AT CAMP AGAIN NEXT YEAR. I HOPE WITH ALL OF MY HEART THAT WE ARE.

  YOUR CABIN 7 BFF,

  MIA

  * * *

  There was a knock on the door. Lacy got up and answered it. Josie and Salina stood there, dressed in their wetsuits, holding their surfboards.

  “Well. What are you waiting for?” Salina asked.

  “You guys,” Mia said with a smile. “This is really sweet of you, but I still have to take it kind of easy. No surfing for a few more weeks.” She looked at the clock. “Did you even look at the time? It’ll be dark soon anyway.”

  Both Josie and Salina groaned. “We were just so excited for you,” Josie said.

  “We need to figure out something else we can do then. To celebrate,” Salina said.

  “I know,” Josie said. “Let’s go out for pigs in a bunk bed. The restaurant serves breakfast all day.”

  “And I’m happy to drive you girls there,” Mia’s mom said.

  “Sounds perfect,” Mia said as she pulled out her phone. “But on one condition. We invite a friend of mine to come along.”

  The girls’ eyes got big. “You mean, you’re going to ask Lacy to come with us?” Josie asked.

  “I promise you’ll like her,” Mia said. “And there’s no better time to meet her than over plates of pigs in a bunk bed. She’s probably never even heard of them before.”

  “Seriously?” Salina said. “But that’s so sad.”

  “I know, right?” Mia said. “You two go home and change and come back here when you’re ready to go.”

  Salina and Josie said good-bye just as Lacy answered the phone. Mia invited Lacy along to join them for dinner. Well, breakfast for dinner.

  “I’d love to, but what if the paparazzi follow me there? It could get pretty annoying, them taking pictures of us all night long.”