Leo gave me one of the tens and kept the other. He also kept the five, which meant he got fifteen dollars and I got ten. Which seemed fair, since he’d done more of the work and planning.
“When you start talking more on the tours, we’ll split it evenly,” he said. “And maybe we should have some shirts made. Those ones the ladies had on were genius. I bet we could sell a bunch.”
“You love making money, don’t you,” I said. Then I wished I hadn’t because he also obviously liked people. It wasn’t totally about the cash.
But Leo didn’t mind at all. “Oh yeah. I love money. And I want to have a lot of it.”
“What is it you’re saving up for?”
“I’m saving up for a plane ticket to England.”
I should have known.
“And I have to earn the money soon,” he said. “I need to be in London in two months, and plane tickets are going to start getting more expensive the closer I get to my departure date.”
“Why do you have to be there in two months?” I asked. “That’s right during school.”
“Barnaby Chesterfield is playing Hamlet onstage in London,” Leo said. “And I need to be there to see it.”
“Why?”
“He’s the greatest actor alive,” Leo said. “And I’m going to be able to say that I saw him do Hamlet in person. It’s going to change my life.”
Barnaby Chesterfield was a famous actor. Like Lisette Chamberlain, he had been a stage actor before hitting it big on TV and in the movies. And even though I might not know everything about Lisette Chamberlain, I did know a lot about Barnaby Chesterfield.
My dad and I used to watch Darwin, the show where Chesterfield got his big break, together. We both loved it because we loved science fiction and science and alternate realities, and Darwin was about a brilliant scientist who lived in the future. My mom and the boys weren’t into it like we were, although sometimes Ben would stop and watch for a few minutes because he liked the sound of Barnaby Chesterfield’s very deep voice. Ben always liked different sounds, things that had resonance.
“How is it going to change your life?” I asked Leo.
“I’ll be in the presence of greatness,” he said. “I think I was born for greatness too.”
I wanted to laugh at him, but the truth was I used to think the same thing. Just a tiny bit, in my heart. I felt like there had to be something special for me to do. But lately I didn’t think that anymore. And even when I had, I never said it out loud.
“What kind of greatness?” I asked.
“I’m still not sure,” Leo said. “But I have ideas.”
“That Hamlet has been sold out for months,” I said.
“How did you know that?”
“It was in the news,” I said. “It sold out faster than any other London stage show in history.” It made headlines in the weeks after the accident. Every time I saw the words Barnaby Chesterfield I felt like I had been punched in the stomach.
“We bought the tickets last year right when they went on sale,” Leo said. “With my dad’s credit card. I had the money so he let me do it and we got one for him too. So I can go, and my dad’s going to come with me, but I have to earn the money for my own airfare. I’m not there yet, but I’m getting close.”
“And if you don’t?”
“We can sell the Hamlet tickets to someone else, no problem,” Leo said. “The theater will buy them back because the demand is so high. But the deadline my dad set for me to have the money for the plane tickets is coming up. I don’t have enough money yet.”
“And we don’t make very much money selling concessions.”
“Right,” Leo said. “I need to supplement my income. That’s why I came up with the tour.”
We were almost to our street. “Do you want to come eat breakfast at my house?” Leo asked.
I did and I didn’t. Mostly I didn’t want to see him with his normal family eating breakfast together. My family ate cold cereal on our own whenever we felt like it because my mom, who used to get up super early, now got up at the last possible minute. She stayed up too late. This summer because she was building the deck; during the school year it had been lesson plans and grading. She had to tire herself all the way out, she said, before she could fall asleep.
“Thanks,” I said. “Maybe another time.”
“Okay,” Leo said. “I’ll see you at work.” I watched him go the rest of the way home and walk up the steps to his house.
As soon as he’d gone inside I wished I’d said yes instead.
17.
I sat out in the backyard eating a bowl of cereal and looking at the mess that was our deck. My mom came outside. She had her gym clothes on.
“All done running?” she asked.
I nodded. It seemed less like lying if I didn’t say the lie. “Look,” I said. The birds had started swooping around, big and dark and freaky. “Do you think they might be eagles?” I asked, even though I knew they weren’t.