Fleeting Spring

"I think we're neighbours now!" The voice startled Katie, but the speaker brought a delighted grin to her face. There was another kid here on this miserable island, in this dreary campground! She wanted to introduce herself, but her mouth wouldn't open... as usual. The other girl didn't seem to notice, and plopped down next to her on the drop cloth outside the tent. "I'm Monica," she said. "Mum and I were over by the ironwoods, but the tent leaked. We're moving to the tent next to you, since it was empty. We're going to the beach when we get settled, do you want to come?"

Katie nodded, even though she didn't know where the beach was. "I'm Katie," she said when her mouth would finally work. "I'm homeschooled, so I thought I was the only kid here... because holidays haven't started..."

"I'm homeschooled too!" Monica said. "Are you adopted?"

"Doubt it," Katie replied.

"Mum adopted me in Bulgaria when she lived there," Monica said. "She's a reporter and she used to travel a lot. I wish we could now, but I..." She seemed sad for some reason.

"That must be why you're too smart for school," Katie said. Monica laughed.

~~~

The ocean was cold, but Monica's mother had brought an inflatable raft. Katie and Monica lay on their stomachs on it, each with one arm trailing in the calm water, paddling it slowly toward the line of buoys. Monica sneezed and looked nervously at Katie.

"They didn't hear that," Katie said, glancing back at the three adults watching from the beach. Mommy would make them come in if she thought they were getting cold, so it was a good thing she was lost in conversation with Monica's mother.

"I thought you'd jump in the water to get away from my cooties," Monica said.

Katie pondered that, then took a deep breath and produced an explosive fake sneeze. "Now we're even," she said, and looked back at the shore to make sure her mother hadn't heard that either. Seeing the adult conversation undisturbed, she continued, "Friends share cooties."

"Not all of them," Monica said. "Not from a sneeze. I wish the kids at school understood that back when I went there."

That made sense to Katie. People didn't get sick just from being around sneezes. "The kids at school are stupid," she said. "That's why they have to go to school." Stupid like the ones who all talked at once, their voices echoing around the room as the fluorescents flickered overhead until flowers of pain bloomed in her head and she had to cover her ears and sit on the floor with her eyes closed.

"I don't get to have friends normally," Monica said. "I'm glad I get to have one this week, at least."

"Forever!" Katie said. They could swap addresses later.

"Forever... has some problems," Monica replied, with that same sad look.

They paddled on, into a glittering day in the spring of 1996.