It was halfway done, but Emil doubted Makai would mind. He went to put the can on the kitchen counter and listened to Makai and Joey talk as they went out of the door.
Emil followed them and dug out a folded piece of paper from his pocket. It was today’s main assignment for him and Joey.
Lotte had decided to stop with any official school things with Joey for the summer, but she liked to keep him active as much as she could, and Emil agreed. Working the kid’s brain seemed to be the most efficient way to tire him out, really. Well, both of them, because Emil was usually wiped out as well after his days with Joey.
“Hey, Joey? I’ve something for you,” he said when he got outside. He’d made sure to close the door so Mouse wouldn’t wander out, just in case.
“What is it?” Joey bounced to him like an overeager puppy, and both Emil and Makai grinned at him.
“Here, let’s show it to Makai, maybe he can help.” Emil didn’t pay attention to what he was doing and ended up standing so that they could all see the paper, only an arm’s length away from Makai. “So here, this is a scavenger hunt, okay? Here are things that you need to find.”
“Treasures!” Joey squealed, and Emil couldn’t suppress the flinch. “Oh, sorry, sorry,” Joey whispered.
“It’s okay. Just, keep it down a bit,” Emil assured him, and started to point things out. “Okay, this is a list. So there’s something red”—he pointed at a square colored red—“a pine cone, a stick, a flower, and rock, and a leaf that’s smaller than your hand.” He then showed the bottom row of the sheet. “You get one point for each of those, and two points if you find any of these.” He showed Joey the feather, a piece of trash that didn’t belong in nature, and a leaf that’d be bigger than the boy’s hand.
He handed over the list but didn’t let it go yet. “More rules, buddy,” he said when Joey looked at him with clear impatience. “You can’t go where we can’t see you. You can’t go inside the forest or in buildings, unless one of us is with you. And no going too close to water, okay?”
Joey nodded solemnly. “Okay.”
Emil let go of the list and watched as the boy bounced to the edge of the yard where some plants were growing.
Emil smiled and looked up and saw that Makai was practically inside his bubble. “Oh,” he breathed, then, as Makai was about to move, shook his head. “No, don’t. I….” How did he explain that he wasn’t feeling the usual way when he got close to people? That his skin didn’t feel two sizes too small, and his heart wasn’t beating out of his chest while his hands shook and his throat tried to close up. “It’s okay.”
Makai looked at him quizzically, then shrugged. “Okay, you know best when it comes to you.” Then he gestured to the highest point of the yard’s edge, and they walked there together. Not quite as close as they’d just been, but close enough for it to feel new.
Emil glanced at where Joey was and called out to him. “We’re going down to the dock soon, so be quick. We can’t see you from there!”
“Okay!” Joey yelled back but concentrated on looking at the ground in his search for the items.
“There’s still plenty for him to find down there,” Emil explained. “But I didn’t want to keep you from your work.”
“Oh, it’s fine.” Makai smiled briefly. “We could walk with him toward the boat shed if you want? I bet there are things for him to find there as the path goes through that patch of forest there.” He pointed at a copse of trees opposite from where Emil and Joey would come to Makai’s property.
“Sure, works for me.” They stood quietly for a few moments, and Emil tilted his face toward the sun, finding that he enjoyed the warmth quite a bit.
“I heard this song the other day and then again this morning. I don’t know what it’s called, but I’d like to find it again.”
“Well, first of all, if you remember how it goes, I might know it, and secondly, if you get a smartphone, you can get this app called Shazam, and you can use it to figure out what a song is called. It’s really neat, let me show you,” he said and turned to see where Joey was. “Going down the hill, Joey!”
“Be right there!”
Makai and Emil walked to the table as Emil dug out his cell from his pocket. “Like this,” he said and held the phone so that Makai could see the app. “Do you know this song?” he asked, nodding toward the radio still playing on the table.
“No, haven’t heard of it before.”
“Okay, so you’d do this, then.” He touched the screen and the app “listened” for maybe ten seconds, then changed the display to show them the song title and artist. “Ta-da!”
“That’s impressive,” Makai said, sounding a bit awed. “I didn’t know there was such a thing. Really handy.”
“Yeah, it is. I’ve held it to my headphones at home when a song comes up in the background of a show I’m watching or something. Works that way too.” He put his phone back into his pocket. He hated it when people were on their phones while socializing one-on-one.
“What kind of shows do you like?” Makai asked in an almost shy tone, and Emil realized more than before how awkward Makai really was underneath the facade he put up when he was in town.
“I should write you a list,” he said, grinning. Then Joey came barreling down the hill, showing them what he’d found so far. “That’s great, buddy. How about we go take a walk on that path. Just be careful, okay?” He pointed toward the boat shed he couldn’t see from where they stood.
They started to walk slowly after Joey, who rushed ahead on the path, in search of something red.
“What did you like to watch, you know, before?” Emil asked, wondering what he could recommend to Makai.
