"What?" I ask, though not turning around to see for myself because I'm pretty sure of her answer.
"It's raining. I guess we're stuck inside." She lays her head on the table on top of her hands, her face in a crooked sort of frown that makes her much younger than she is.
"I guess so," I say, thinking.
"I just really like sleeping outdoors," she says. "I haven't been camping since I was living with Dad last."
"Wait here," I say, abruptly standing up from the table, almost knocking over my tea.
I'm halfway out her back door when I hear her hesitant "Okay?" in response.
I vault myself over her short side gate and into my own back yard. I streak over to our garage and wrench open the door, and run inside and turn on the light before the door rolls back down on top of me. I dig around in the piles of my father's things, knowing that if I went deep enough, it would be there.
Then I see it- there's no mistaking that bright turquoise polyester bag anywhere.
I run back to Emily, getting sopping wet in the process.
"You're back," she says, standing with a massive smile on her face.
"Just wait," I say, rushing to her bedroom. I'm sure it's big enough. I'm sure there's enough room.
"Uh, Aug?" she asks while I take it out of its bag, standing in the middle of her bedroom. "Whatcha got there?"
Once I have it out of its bag, all it takes is one small toss and fwop! there's a bright blue two-man tent in the middle of Emily's bedroom.
"How the Hell did you just do that?" she asks, after a second, her mouth refusing to shut.
"It's the type of tent- you don't ever take it apart, you just twist it to put it away, and toss it to set it up," I say proudly.
"Another thing- why is it in my room? As opposed to being outside?" She says with that "you silly thing" look on her face that means she thinks she's right.
"Oh. Well, we lost the stakes and the rain slick, so-"
"In any other situation, it would be useless."
"Yup. Climb in."
I unzip the door and she crawls in, me right behind her. She sits cross-legged on one side, and I mirror her.
"So? What do you say?" I ask. "Are we going to camp indoors?"
"I guess so." She smiles.
Just then, her mother and stepdad come home- they take a couples Tai Kwon Do class on Fridays, Emily tells me.
"Emmy? Are you home, baby?" I hear her mother call.
"Yeah, mom! Come here, check this out!" Emily calls back.
They walk into her room to see us peering out of the tent's door, grins on our faces.
"Emily, what are you doing?" asks her stepdad. He says it like it's directed to her, but he's staring straight at me, one eyebrow cocked.
"We're camping!" she says, looking giddy like a little kid.
"Indoors," I add, cooly looking her stepdad in the eye.
"Oh, you crazy girls," says Emily's mother, shaking her head with a smile. "Have fun."
They both leave, and Emily and I get on with our night. But I can't stop thinking about her stepdad and how he stared at me.
YOU ARE READING
Tea For Two
Humor"Just wondering, Shoemaker. Are you going to tell your parents? Or should I?" When I was little, I was terribly afraid of heights. One day, in a bleak attempt to rid me of this, my father climbed onto the roof of our one story house with me on his b...
