by Nancy N. Rue
“Maybe you just haven’t practiced enough lately,” Sophie said. “How old were you when you stopped playing pretend?”
“I never started,” Maggie said.
“Nuh-uh! Everybody plays pretend when they’re little.” Sophie grinned. “My parents get upset because I didn’t ever grow out of it.”
Maggie’s face got smushy, like she was forgetting to do something with it that she always did to hold it in place. She said, “I wish — ”
And then she stopped, and her face went tight and smooth again and she said, “I’m just not a pretending kind of person. My mother says life isn’t a fairy tale. She says we all have to grow up sometime.”
“Oh,” Sophie said. “My mama never says that. She — ”
And then it was Sophie’s turn to stop. Maybe that was what was happening with Mama. She didn’t believe in fairy tales anymore. Or playing. Or even laughing. Maybe Mama had grown up.
Sophie felt a wave of sadness that nearly knocked her sideways. Most of it seemed to land right on her chest.
“All right, Nimbus, back to work,” said Captain Stella Stratos. She tried to make her voice crisp, like the people on the Discovery Channel. “I must continue to document our progress on film. Look scientific, would you?”
Maggie blinked at her and went back to copying. Captain Stella Stratos zoomed in for a close-up. The eyes that had never imagined herself as a unicorn or a princess or a world-famous astronaut went back and forth across the page like the blinking cursor on a computer screen.
I’m so sorry for her, thought Captain Stella. She has no place to go when she’s afraid.
Then the captain sighed and closed her eyes and guided the space capsule through a whole shower of flying rocks.
“Don’t be afraid, Nimbus!” she cried.
“I’m not,” said Maggie.
But somehow Sophie knew she was.
Ten
Sophie decided that for the next two days when she was up in the tree house with Maggie, she was going to be Captain Stella Stratos the whole time. Then maybe Maggie would have to start using her imagination more.
The first day, Sophie tried being Captain Stella by herself the whole two hours. Maggie just logged in her information and stared at Sophie every few minutes — as if she were watching an elephant fly.
The second day, Friday, when they had the just-before-dark shift, Sophie peered through the aluminum-foil window and called out, “Meteor alert! Meteor alert!”
Maggie calmly told her that those were not meteors, they were pinecones being pelted at them from below by Izzy and Rory. Seconds later Kateesha appeared and whisked the whole meteor shower into time-out.
Next, as Sophie handed Maggie the granola bars Kateesha transported up to them in the basket, she said, “These are our dried space rations for the day.”
Maggie said, “Those were five dollars for a box of fifty at Sam’s Club.” Then she added, “My mom makes her own.”
“She does?” Sophie said. “My mama does too. Well, she used to — ”
It was too sad to go there. Sophie picked up her camera.
“Be Nimbus,” she said. “I need some footage of you walking around the space station, hanging on to things so you don’t float away.”
“I’m not gonna float away.”
“Just PRETEND!” Sophie took a deep breath. “We’re going to use it in the project,” she said. “I need it for GATE points.”
Maggie gave that a few seconds’ thought, and then she stood up and moved woodenly around the space station, now and then putting a limp hand on an old doorknob turned into a gauge or a lever constructed from a toothbrush handle.
She looks like she’s counting heads, Sophie thought. Fiona’s eyes would be rolling right up into her brain by now.
“Is that enough?” Maggie said.
“Sure,” Sophie said. Just as she was about to push the Off button, Maggie looked down at her feet.
“I can do this one thing,” she said. “It’s sort of like outer space.”
“Do it,” Sophie said.
Maggie put one foot behind her and rolled the toes back, and then did the same thing with the other foot, so that suddenly she looked like she didn’t have any bones.
“What’s that?” Sophie said. She zoomed the lens so she could get the full effect. Maggie was oozing backward, but it seemed as if neither foot ever left the ground.
“Moonwalk,” Maggie said. “My mom taught me. We do it in the kitchen all the time.”
“Show me how!” Sophie said. She set the camera on top of her locker box and hurried over to stand beside Maggie.
Maggie broke the steps down into slow ones so Sophie could imitate her. It took a couple of toe stubbings to get the hang of it, but within a few seconds they were both gliding around the space station like two astronauts strolling across the moon.
“Look at us!” Sophie said. “We’re amazing.”
“We could do it faster,” Maggie said.
She sped up the steps, legs sliding like she was walking on glass. Sophie tried it and landed square on her buns, feet sprawled out in both directions.
“You fell,” Maggie said.
“I did!”
“You can’t fall in space. There’s no gravity.”
Sophie’s eyes widened. Was this Maggie pretending?
If she wasn’t, she was close enough. Being as fluid as she could with a splinter stuck in the seat of her sweatpants, Sophie got up and tried it again. Maggie watched her for a minute, and then her face slowly broke into a grin.
“What?” Sophie said. “What’s funny?”
“You. You look like you’re a windup toy. Y’know, like you get in a Happy Meal.”
“No, I do not!” Sophie said. A giggle bubbled out with the words.
But Maggie nodded. “Yeah. You do.” And then she actually laughed. It was a deep sound, and it made Sophie think of chocolate. She had to laugh with her.
“Uh-oh,” Maggie said. She pointed a finger at Sophie’s camera. “You left it on.”
“My battery!” Sophie said. “My father is gonna have a fit.”
She picked up the camera and looked in the viewfinder.
“Did you get us?” Maggie said.
Sophie nodded and moved the camera over so Maggie could watch with her. There they were, moonwalking all over the space station, complete with Maggie giving instructions and Sophie dropping on her behind.
Maggie let loose with her rich laugh again, and her shoulders shook so hard, she jerked Sophie’s arm and almost sent the camera orbiting into outer space. Then suddenly she stopped.
“Hey,” she said. “Am I always that bossy? Like I am on this film?”
Sophie gave her hair a chew. “You know how to do a lot of stuff,” she said slowly.
“But I’m bossy,” Maggie said. “Don’t let my mom see that movie. She’ll say I was being President of the World again.” Maggie ducked her head, sending the splashy hair down to meet over her nose. “She hates when I do that.”
“You and your mom have fun, huh?” Sophie said. “Moonwalking in the kitchen and stuff.”
Maggie looked up, and she smiled a very soft smile. “She’s like my best friend.”
Later, when she was chewing a pencil over her math homework at home, Sophie went back to the picture in her mind of Maggie and her mother dancing in their kitchen, having fun. Every time she thought about it, she felt a sadness flicker through her. It wasn’t sad that they had fun together. It was that Maggie’s mother was her best friend. That Maggie didn’t have one her own age at school.
I remember what that felt like when I first moved here, Sophie thought. Everybody had a friend but me, until Fiona came.
But who wanted to be Maggie’s best friend? She had said herself she was bossy.
But she could also moonwalk. And she had a chocolate laugh. And she was way smart.
Three reasons why I like her, Sophie thought.
Fiona spent the night with Sophie Friday n
ight. They sat in the middle of Sophie’s room with some mini-pizzas from the microwave and the lights off and the covers draped over the headboard to make a tent where they could shine their flashlight. With Lacie and her friend Valerie playing Beyoncé on the stereo in Lacie’s room and Zeke out in the hall pretending he was Spider-Man and trying to climb up Sophie’s door, they had to seclude themselves if they were going to get any best-friend stuff done at all.
“So, Soph — is it awful?” Fiona said.
“Is what awful?”
“Being up in the space station with Nimbus?”
Sophie carefully licked some tomato sauce off her fingers. She knew Fiona wanted her to say it was absolutely heinous —
“It isn’t awful,” she said.
“But doesn’t she boss you around?”
“Sometimes.”
“How ’bout all the time?” Fiona peeled a piece of pepperoni off her pizza. “Once this project is over, I think we should just — ”
“She taught me how to moonwalk,” Sophie said.
Fiona stopped, pepperoni on her lips. “You mean that dance thing?”
“Yeah. It’s so cool. I’ll show you — ”
“I’ve seen it.” Fiona’s gray eyes were looking stormy.
“I thought you said you agreed with her about the stakeout idea,” Sophie said.
“A lot of good it’s doing. Since she’s the one we’re staking out, you don’t think she’s going to break something else while we’re up there, do you?”
Sophie put down her half-eaten piece of pizza.
“What?” Fiona said.
“I don’t really think Maggie’s the one who broke our robot arm.”
“Oh — so now you’re her best friend,” Fiona said.
“No!” Sophie said. “You’re my best friend.”
Fiona slanted her eyes down toward the pizza, but Sophie could tell she wasn’t seeing the cheese. “Am I your only best friend?” she said.
“You can only have one!” Sophie said. “Du-uh!”
“Yeah,” Fiona said. “Well, sometimes people forget that. I’ve had it happen.” Then she shrugged and held back her head and let a string of cheese drop into her mouth. “Okay — so let’s talk about our film. You know all the kids are going to be totally astounded by it.”
Sophie nodded, but her mind was twirling around other things.
She’s scared I’ll like Maggie more than her.
Should I stop getting to like Maggie so Fiona won’t get all jealous?
What if I do like Maggie and Fiona stops being my friend?
Sophie looked at Fiona, who was opening their purple book. Her eyes were shimmering again, the way they always got when the two of them were planning something astounding. She was the made-especially-for-Sophie-LaCroix best friend.
But thinking about Maggie made her squirm. Maggie, who didn’t have a special bud. Maggie, who was up to three reasons for being liked. Maggie, who was probably giving everything she had.
The next morning when she and Fiona were brushing their teeth together — with matching toothbrushes — Sophie made a silent decision.
Today the whole time we’re up in the Freedom 4, I’m going to find out more reasons to like Maggie. When I get up to ten — then Fiona will understand.
When they climbed into Daddy’s truck for him to take them to Fiona’s, Zeke was already in his car seat in the crew cab.
“Z-Man’s going with you,” Daddy said as Sophie slid in beside him and let Fiona have the front seat. “He’s going to hang out with Izzy and the Ror-meister while you’re working.”
“Where are you going?” Sophie said.
She thought she saw the crinkles around Daddy’s eyes get deeper.
“Your mother and I are going on a date.”
“But you’re married,” Fiona said.
“You don’t think a husband and a wife can go on a date?”
Sophie thought about that. Basically, adults could do anything they wanted, so why not? Besides, this sounded good. Mama and Daddy going to a movie and holding hands in there and eating out of the same popcorn. People didn’t go on dates if they were about to … No, this had to be a very good thing.
“I’ll watch Zeke and I’ll even take care of him tonight if you guys want to go on a really long date,” Sophie said.
Daddy broke into a grin. “Okay, who are you and what have you done with my kid?”
To her own surprise, Sophie got a tight feeling in her throat, like she was going to cry.
It’s all I have to give, she thought. It’s like MY loaves and fishes. Daddy, don’t laugh at me.
The minute they got to Fiona’s, Zeke leaped out of his car seat and crawled across Sophie before Daddy could get the door open. He took off to join Rory and Izzy, with Fiona on his heels toward off a puppy pile of three kids in puffy coats and with runny noses. It was definitely the coldest day they’d had the whole winter. Icy breath was puffing out of everyone’s mouths.
“You sure you want to go up in that tree house today?” Daddy said to Sophie. “You’re going to freeze your nose off.” He reached down and caught her nose gently between the knuckles of two fingers. “It’s too cute for you to lose.” Then he looked at her closely.
“Are you crying, Soph?” he said.
“I think so,” she said. She blinked hard. “I just wanted to help.”
Daddy put his hand on her cheek. It almost swallowed it up. “You do help,” he said. “Just by being you.”
Then he coughed and reached back into the truck. “If you’re determined to go up there,” he said, “you’re going to need this.” He pulled out a thermos. “Hot chocolate. They drink it in space. I have it on the best authority.”
It made Sophie smile a damp smile.
Maggie was, of course, already up in the space station when Sophie climbed the ladder, trying to write down more stuff with her gloves on. She had a bright yellow scarf pulled over her nose and mouth.
Sophie pulled out the blanket she had stuffed into her backpack and wrapped up in it. Then she produced the thermos and dug in her locker for two cups.
“Maybe we should watch the station from inside the house,” Sophie said as she poured. “It’s way cold up here.”
“I will not abandon the Freedom 4 in her time of need,” Maggie said.
Sophie almost poured the rest of the hot chocolate right over her hand. She sucked on the glove finger where it dripped some and tried not to stare at Maggie.
Reason Number Four: Maggie is loyal.
Maggie joined her and took a cup with steam curling up from it. As Sophie was blowing on hers, Maggie said, “I’m not trying to be the boss of you, but I think you did something you weren’t supposed to.”
“For real?” Sophie said.
“You left your camera up here yesterday.”
Sophie spit the sip she’d just taken back into the cup.
“I put it in your locker when I got up here this morning. Are you gonna get in trouble?”
Maggie’s eyebrows were scrunched up, like she was really worried.
“Only if it’s broken,” Sophie said. She squeezed her eyes shut. “I can’t look. You check it.”
“I already did. It works okay.” Sophie opened her eyes to see Maggie nodding very seriously. “You’re lucky it didn’t rain last night.”
“Please,” Sophie said. “That would be so heinous.”
She was about to take another sip of her hot chocolate when there was a scream so loud from the direction of Huntsville, they both abandoned their cups and got to the railing.
“They shouldn’t be doing that,” Maggie said, voice as calm and heavy as ever.
Sophie’s was not. “No kidding!” she squeaked.
Rory was hauling a little red wagon across the lawn, bouncing it through the now-empty flower beds and nearly turning it over when he got to a walkway. Which was not good, since Izzy was in the wagon, holding on to Zeke. Sophie realized she had to hold on to him because he couldn�
�t hold on for himself. He was wrapped up in enough rope to tie all three of them up. He was the one doing the screaming.
“Somebody’s gonna get hurt,” Maggie yelled down at them.
If Rory heard that, he ignored her. He careened the wagon around a curve in the walkway on two wheels, just missing Kateesha, who was coming at him with both arms out. She had to step off the walk to avoid being plowed over, but that didn’t stop her from reaching into her coat pocket and pulling out something that she put in her mouth. A high-pitched whistle made Sophie put her hands over her ears. And it definitely brought Rory to a sneaker-screeching halt.
In minutes Kateesha had Zeke untied and she was dragging both Izzy and Rory toward the house by the backs of their collars.
“Captain Stella!” she called over her shoulder. “Could you take Zeke on board for a few minutes?”
“I’m not allowed to,” Sophie called back to her.
But Kateesha was too busy telling Izzy and Rory how long their time-outs were going to be to hear her. Sophie looked down at her little brother, who was looking up at her with his eyes twice the size they usually were. He looked smaller than ever from outer space.
I can’t just let him stand there and freeze to death, Sophie thought. Mama will understand.
Sophie tried not to think that maybe the new grown-up Mama wouldn’t, and helped Maggie get the still-hollering Zeke up the ladder. While Maggie closed the hatch cover, Sophie poured enough hot chocolate into him to make him stop howling. Then he looked around, and his eyes started to shine.
“This is COOL!” he said.
“He shouldn’t touch anything,” Maggie said.
Zeke looked at Sophie. “Is she the boss of me?”
“She’s the president of the whole world,” Sophie said.
“Nuh-uh!” Zeke said. And then he peered at Maggie from under his knit cap and said, “Are you?”
“No,” Maggie said. “I just act like I am.”
Reason Number Five: Maggie didn’t lie about herself.
Maggie smiled at Sophie like they had a secret. Sophie made that Reason Number Six.