“Miles?” I whisper.
When he looks at me, there’s nothing but heartbreak in his eyes.
How can someone so young be so sad?
I’m not sure I’ve ever known a sadness like his. Maybe Miles just needs a friend.
Right then and there, I make it my mission to become his friend so I can see him smile.
“How old are you?” I ask.
“Ten,” he says.
“Hey, I’m ten too! Do you like tadpoles?”
“Yes,” he says.
“So, we’re both ten, and we both like tadpoles.”
I declare it as if that’s enough to bond the two of us for life, but Miles doesn’t seem to make the same connection, so I try something else.
“I was thinking about bringing a bucket down here tomorrow and hunting for tadpoles. Do you want to come with me?”
“Okay,” he says.
“Okay!” I grin.
I was hoping for this. I just didn’t think I’d find it from the empty-looking trailer next door. He’s not Cozy, but I could make a new friend. A summer cabin friend.
Gosh, maybe I need this friendship even more than he does, I think to myself.
But then, out of the corner of my eye, I see the edges of his mouth tilt toward the moon in the sky, and I change my mind.
I made Miles smile.
I find him on the dock the next morning. He’s shirtless, peering over the edge into the crystal-clear water, his oversized swim trunks sunken low on his hips. He’s wearing a bucket hat that saysBear Lakewith a canoe stitched below it. His scrawny arm holds up a red bucket with a white plastic handle.
“Miles!” I yell, running with my yellow pail down the grassy slope. “Have you spotted anything yet?”
He’s squatting now, hanging over the side of the dock, inspecting something. One degree forward and his body would tip right into the lake.
“Look,” he whispers.
I squat too, just as a pod of tadpoles drifts by a foot below the water’s surface.
“Wow!”
I examine them up close. There’s maybe ten all together with long, squiggly tails.
“Can tadpoles hear?” I ask him.
He gives me a quizzical look beneath the rim of his hat. “I don’t know, why?”
“Because you’re whispering,” I say.
He drops his gaze back to the water.
“Sorry,” he mutters.
