Cassie had already started another song—I think it was “Old Town Road”—so most of us started either singing or trying to dance, or acting like they were riding a horse.
“This seat taken?” Noah asked when he reached me, rubbing his hands over his head.
I waved my hand, hoping it translated into It’s all yours. I guess it did, ’cause he stopped there and leaned into his walker like he was leaning against a wall—all nonchalant. He stood there for a minute, then plopped into the chair as if he’d planned to all along.
Okay, okay, I’m screeching inside. I put on my best smile like this kind of stuff happened every day.
“You like this song?” he asked.
I hit “Oh, yeah” on my board.
“Me too,” he said.
We listened in silence for a minute. He seemed a little nervous. Me, I had “Flight of the Bumblebee” playing inside my head. Thanks, Mrs. V, for giving me the perfect background music! I gave a little laugh.
“What’s so funny?” he asked.
I scrunched my nose. I was not going to tell him I had bumblebees in my head! “You like music?” was what I tapped.
“Yep. All kinds.”
“Hip-hop?”
“For sure.”
“Bebop and hot rock?”
“I guess—whatever those are!”
We both laughed.
“Look them up when you get home. They’re pretty cool,” I typed as fast as I could.
He tapped his temple as if he was making a mental note. That made me smile.
“R and B?” I asked.
“Oh yeah.”
“How about blues?” I tapped out.
“I could listen to B. B. King all night!”
“Jazz?”
“Some, like Herbie Hancock, but sometimes I don’t get it—too way out.”
“Same! Like they get lost in their heads!”
“Totally!”
I continued to nod. “Heavy metal?”
“Nope. Makes my head all jangly.”
“Country?”
Now he lit up. “My mom loves country! She says those songs tell the best stories.” His eyes kinda sparkled. “There’s always a girl that somebody lost, and a guy to cry over, so we listen to it all the time.”
“Oh, you’re lucky!” My brain was frantically trying to remember everything Mrs. V and I had ever listened to on the huge, amped-up stereo in her living room. Then I tapped, “What about classical?”
“Okay, so this might sound weird, but guys like Beethoven and Mozart help me fall asleep.”
I wondered if he’d get what I wanted to tell him next. I didn’t want him to think I was some kind of nutso. But what the heck.
“Not weird,” I tapped. Then I went for it. “When I hear music, I see colors.”
He leaned forward so fast he almost fell. “No way! You too? I tried explaining it to my parents, but they don’t really get it.”
No way. I’d never met anybody who really understood this! And now I get to camp with a counselor and a friend who both do this!
So I took a chance and told him. “Jazz to me sounds brown and tan and it smells like wet dirt,” I tapped carefully. Okay, now he was gonna think I was crazy.
Instead he almost shouted, “And Beethoven is the color blue!”
“Like fresh blue paint!” I tapped with excitement.
“What about country?” he asked.
“Orange!” I tapped triumphantly.
At this point Cassie was playing that song about a horse with no name. Noah couldn’t resist singing the la-la-la parts while I did my best to tap out the rhythm on my board.
Clouds gave the moon an almost night-light glow. It was all so… comfortable. I spied Jocelyn back from the bathroom, sitting squished beside Athena on a towel. She had a little smile on her face, and I told her thank you in my head. And I just knew that she knew I’d done that.
I thought about how Cassie had called tonight a night of wonders. True that. But to me, the real wonder was that three days ago, none of us knew each other! And here we were, all comfortable. And I was talking to a boy, and acting like this happened every day. How did that even happen? That’s what I wondered!
CHAPTER 30
Just when I thought nothing more could happen in one day—something did. I rarely have this problem, but tonight, in the middle of the night, I had to pee! It was probably all those strawberry slushies, but I couldn’t wait until morning. I tried, but when you gotta go, you gotta go.
Trinity was sleeping pretty hard—I could hear her steady breaths in the bunk above me. But I couldn’t wait, so I tapped on the wall. Nothing. I thumped harder. Still nothing. Could I wait till morning? Uh, probably not. So I scooched myself to the edge of my bunk, stretched over, and managed to touch my shoe—the new white Nikes. Slowly and carefully, I pulled it up. Thump. I dropped it. Dang!
I reached again. Grabbed again. Pulled again. Annnnd… I got it! Now I could thump the bottom of Trinity’s bunk. This time one thump did it. Trinity woke up right away.
“What’s wrong, Melody?” she whispered, hanging over the side of her bunk, braids dangling. “You sick?” She jumped down and unhooked our lantern.
I let her know I had to go to the bathroom.
“Okay, no problem, kid,” she chuckled. Both Jocelyn and Athena had had nighttime episodes since we’d been here, so I didn’t feel too bad.
She slid on her flip-flops, grabbed a thin blue bathrobe, pulled it on, then plopped me into my wheels. With a Falcons blanket around me, the lantern hung on the arm of my chair, and a flashlight in Trinity’s hand, off we went.