"Have you met my friend, Leah?" Elliot asks.
We stop in front of a cheap table with a cheap plastic covering blowing in the wind. There's a sign reading: face painting $5, and the red-haired girl from the forest poised with a paintbrush in hand. She paints yellow stars and a crescent moon on the chubby cheeks of a small girl with violet hair.
I nod at Elliot because I don't trust the words to form over the tightness in my throat. Somehow the word friend hits me in the chest. Though, that's what we are. Elliot and I are friends. Why can't he have other friends?
"Did you find the onions you were looking for?"
The smile Leah gives me is strained, like the conversation we had in the forest. The smile I return mirrors Leah's.
"I... did. Yes, thank you."
Elliot turns his attention to me, "Oh, you went foraging?"
I nod again, still smiling with full effort.
"Well, Willy and I will have to teach you how to collect urchins in the tide pools," Elliot says.
My stomach sours at the idea of more fishy smells related to the former.
"Maybe later," I say.
"Just say the word." Elliot smiles broader before shifting his gaze back to the woman behind the table. "Well, I've got my date — though, it's just friendly fun," Elliot winks at me, "so where is yours, Leah?"
Leah scrunches her nose and tries to hide a curse under her breath, but the big violet eyes of the girl widen in mischievous glee. "She had to work, okay? She has a big show coming up."
Oh.
Ohh.
Shit, I'm an idiot. An assuming, presumptuous, idiot.
"What does your girlfriend do?" I ask trying to cover up a cold sweat of relief.
"Kel's a painter in Zuzu." Leah pauses to examine her own painting. "She's really good."
"Leah is a great sculptor and a great painter," Elliot adds special emphasis to his words, and I can tell that there are words understood between the two that I will never know.
Just as the artist in question opens her mouth to retort, a whistle sounds in the center of the square. The little girl at Leah's fingertips jerks to attention. Leah's paintbrush streaks white across the canvas of the child's face, but the girl barely seems to register.
"It's time!" the young girl shouts before leaping from her seat.
"Jazz! Come back!" Leah yells. "Let me wipe your face at least!"
Elliot squeezes my arm. I feel the pulse of sensation even in my toes. "That's your queue."
"My what?"
"It's time for the egg hunt."
Every muscle in my body tenses as Elliot leads me stiffly to the center of the festivities. Mayor Lewis stands with a clipboard and something that looks like hairspray with a wide mouth. Sam, Vincent, the little girl Leah called Jazz, and Abigail stand behind a rope laid in the grass.
"Ah, Junox," Mayor Lewis smiles, "join us at the starting line if you will."
Feeling more lost than anything, I move to Sam's side where he's waved me over. He stands with feet apart and shoulders taught. In his hands, he holds a light blue basket.
"Where's your basket?" he asks.
I give him a blank expression to answer.
"Mayor," Elliot says from behind me just loud enough to be heard over the throng but not to be heard by everyone, "this is Ms. Junox's first egg hunt. She may need to be allowed a few grace points."
"Like first ever?" Sam questions.
Abigail scoffs. "Grace points are for children. She can figure it out as she goes."
"Abigail is right, Elliot," Mayor Lewis says without mercy. "Rules are rules; she is welcome to join us next year as well if she feels inclined to brush up on her hunting skills. However, as I see no basket has been provided, you are welcome to borrow one from any table you like."
"I got it!" Sam blurts before running to snag a yellow basket filled with colorful straw and flowers which he promptly drops onto the ground. "M'lady?" He offers me the basket with a flourish.
I accept the basket with blazing cheeks. I'm going to have to slaughter that god after this. "Thank you," I manage to whisper.
"No problem!" Sam smiles big and bright. "Just stick close to me since it's your first time."
He winks, and my face burns brighter.
"Since we have a first-timer," Mayor Lewis starts," I will explain the rules quickly before we begin. There are one hundred eggs hidden throughout the town in a variety of colors and hidden places. The yellow eggs are only for our participants twelve and younger. They will be judged by the number of eggs alone. All other colored eggs are for our older contestants. White eggs are worth one point. Blue eggs are worth five points. Green eggs are worth ten. Then, of course, the elusive black egg is worth twenty-five points. You have ten minutes following the sound of the horn. I will sound a two-toot warning with one minute remaining.
"On your mark... Get set... Go!"
A loud sound explodes from the can of hairspray in the mayor's hand. I slam my hands over my ears. The mayor spoke so fast that I'm still trying to replay the rules in my head as slender fingers clamp onto my wrist and pull me forward. I stumble a few steps until my shoulder bumps into the hard surface of Sam's arm.
"Come on, Junox!" he shouts. "We have to beat Abby!"
My feet falter again. Sam is practically lugging me across the town. I try to bite back memories of a different hand clamped onto me, swinging me over the guardrail, and landing in a pile of broken glass...
"Oh, am I pulling too hard? Shit! You should have said so!" Sam slows us to a trot and releases me. "I'm sorry, Junox. I just really want to beat Abby; she wins every year."
I stare at San blankly. He is Sam, not Josh. I am not in Zuzu; I'm in Pelican. I'm not going to end up in a hospital. We are going to win this egg hunt!
"It's okay," I say honestly. "Show me what to do!"
Sam breaks into a grin. This time, he grabs my hand and pulls me toward a nearby tree and shrubs. He explains that the eggs are most likely hidden in nooks and crannies, under leaves, in holes, or above our heads. The eggs hidden in plain sight are nearly all yellow. Sam takes a few saying that he'll dump them in Vincent's basket before the count.
"Vinny never wins," Sam whispers as he reaches around me to grab a blue egg, "so a couple extra eggs never hurts."
We work as a team once I find the rhythm of spotting eggs. Sam takes up the higher hiding places, and my small hands are good for the knots in trees. There are far more white eggs than any other. For every five white eggs we collect, Sam I might come across a blue. So far, we have only found two green eggs, and there is no sign of the elusive black egg.
"I don't know if my basket can hold anymore," I groan as I try to fit another white one on top.
"We should prioritize colored eggs now. There won't be much time left—"
Toot. Toooot.
We both glance up across the throng of people to see Mayor Lewis furiously checking his watch. His other arm is hoisted in the air with the absurd spray can still poised to strike. How such a sound can come from such a small thing, I may never know.
"That's the minute mark!" Sam says in a rush. "You go ahead and cross the finish line; I'm making one more sweep." As he says this, Sam places a few more blue eggs into my basket. Then, he gives an odd wave with two fingers to his temples and dashes away dropping white eggs here and there.
It takes me nearly the full sixty seconds to carefully tiptoe the basket back to the center of town without dropping any eggs. Just after me, Abigail rolls in carrying a deep bucket twice the size of my little wooden basket. It's not all the way full, but there are definitely more eggs than mine.
"Fifteen seconds!" Mayor Lewis shouts.
"Sam's cutting it close," Abigail mutters as her eyes watch him slip three yellow eggs into Vincent's basket without the child noticing.
"Ten seconds! Nine... eight... seven..."
Now, the town joins in. A roar fills my ears as everyone is chanting with eyes fixed on Sam.
Four... Three... Two... ONE!
Sam stands upright with arms held high and palms empty. Despite the fact that he has no basket and didn't make it over the finish line, Sam looks pleased. He even gives Abigail a shiteating grin with a playful wink to match. Only when I look down, do I realize why.
Resting carefully in my basket is a solid black egg.
Happy Egg Festival, haha! Enjoy this token of my most sincere thanks for reading : )