For a moment, all Ed could do was stare at Jet's outstretched hand.
Ed hit the ground, his entire body rattling from the impact, the hot asphalt burning his hands. His mother was late to pick him up from school again, and so was the bus the class bully took home.
"You want it back?" Jake held up Ed's mother's copy of 'The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes', one hand on the front cover and the other holding the rest of the book, as though about to rip it off. "Come and get it!"
BREAK THE BOOK AND I'LL BREAK YOUR PINKY!" a high, shrill voice shouted from across the field. A girl his age sprinted toward Jake, a dozen colorful, striped cloth bracelets on her wrists accentuating her balled fists. The two braids of deep brown hair held with mismatched scrunchies--one pink, the other green--streaming out behind her. Ed had seen her at recess, though she was in one of the other classes.
Ed pushed himself to his feet. "Don't!--"
Jake laughed. "I'd like to see you try, Loopy!" He ripped the cover of the book off, then the next page, then the next.
The girl slammed into him, and the book went flying.
"OWOWOWOWOWWW!!!" Jake howled. "Stop! You're going to break it!"
Ed hung back. He should probably intervene, but--
"Lupita! Vamanos!" An older woman called.
Lupita let go, and picked up the remains of the book. Jake stumbled backward, face red and wet with tears.
She turned to Ed. "Can I take it? Nana works at the library--she can fix it for you. I'll bring it back tomorrow. Pinky promise!" She held out her hand, curled loosely with a pinky extended.
For a moment, all Ed could do was stare completely baffled.
"You're supposed to link pinkies, Holmes."
Ed reluctantly held his hand out, copying her. She linked her pinky with his, and squeezed. She slipped one of the bright bracelets off of her hand and onto his. Then she let go, and ran.
They stood together outside the school, as they had for the past two years, waiting to be picked up--Lupe by her grandmother, and Ed by Peter.
"Sherlock, what's wrong?" Lupe asked. "You've been quiet all day."
"He's moving me to a different school," Ed muttered. "He say's you're a bad influence."
"That's because un pendejo. Either way, we can still meet at the library after school. I'll ask Nana if we can hide notes for each other if you miss me!"
"Yeah, that would be fun, he hasn't banned me from the library yet."
"Promise you'll come visit? Pinky Promise!"
Ed smiled. He linked pinkies with her, and slipped the bracelet he'd just finished making during recess off his wrist and onto hers. "Pinky promise."
Lupe smiled. "Break your promise, and I'll break your pinky," she teased. She slipped one of her bracelets onto his wrist.
"You'd have to find me to do that," Ed replied.
"I know where they keep the records for all the library cards," Lupe said. "It has your address on it--I'll find you."
Ed spotted Peter's Rolls Royce turn into the school pick up zone, and tugged his sweater sleeve down over Lupe's bracelet. "Peter's here. See you tomorrow!"
Ed paced the length of the library, front to back, just as he had for an hour every Wednesday for the past two months. They'd met every Wednesday for the past year without fail, but not once has Lupe shown up in the past eight weeks. He hadn't seen her grandmother at the library, either. His note was still where he hid it, and he hadn't found hers, if she had written him one.
Ed whirled around to find Lupe come in through the front door, her hair still in mismatched scrunchies --pastel blue and yellow this time-- and her wrists covered in the same bracelets. She threw her arms around him in a hug.
"Marple!" he beamed. "Where have you been?"
It was only then that he realized that her face was wet, and she was shaking. "What's wrong?"
"She--Nana's gone. Tito and I--We're moving to North Carolina to live with my Tio Javier."
Ed's heart sank. "I'm so sorry."
"That's all the way across the country, Holmes! I don't want to! I won't know anyone, and I'll miss you."
"We could still write letters and mail them to each other. Pen pals could be fun, and you know my address."
Lupe giggled. "I could! I'll write to you once we've moved into the new place."
"Pinky promise?" Ed asked.
"Pinky promise. And you pinky promise you'll write back, that we'll always be friends."
Ed chuckled. "Pinky promise."
Lupe slipped her bracelet onto Ed's wrist. Ed retrieved the bracelet he'd been working on, and awkwardly tied it onto her wrist.
"Break your promise and I'll break your pinky," she teased.
"You'll have to find away back across the entire continent to do that," Ed replied.
"I'll do it! I'll find a way!"
Ed had written back--for a whole year, until Peter caught him, and was angry that he couldn't read his encoded message, and then his father forbade him from mailing Lupe, and then they'd been in England for a year and by the time Ed was in college and could mail her, he had no idea where she was living, if she was still in North Carolina or had moved elsewhere.
Jet wouldn't break a promise, but Ed had.
He could barely stomach the thought of contact with another person, and he didn't have a bracelet to give Jet.
Still--he didn't want to upset Jet, didn't want to risk losing a friend he'd just found again.
It was just for a second. Surely he could bear someone to touch him so briefly.
Slowly, he reached out to link his finger with Jet's, careful to keep his neutral and any hint of discomfort buried.
Somehow, he doubted Lupe's joke, break your promise and I'll break your pinky, would go over well.
