sure until nighttime, when the day was all over, except for the day that was SBWP. The SBWP day went bad in the
morning. For real, it was the night before when it went
bad, but he didn’t find out that night. For him, morning.
So far today was Okay. To wake him up his mom
touched his cheek, which made his eyes pop open. Then
she touched his hair, which made him smile. Then she
kissed his forehead and said, “Good morning sleepy-head.
I love you so much. Time to get up,” which made him
get up.
While his mom was making waffles downstairs, he
pulled out the box in the hiding place under his bed. The
box had his baseball in it and his flashlights. He looked at the baseball and tried to decide if—yes or no—he should
bring it to camp for Show and Tell. The yes would be because at school they always had a Show and Tell on
the first day and if you didn’t have something to show,
it felt bad. The no would be if they didn’t have a Show and Tell at camp and if you brought something to show,
it felt embarrassed.
Why he hid the box under his bed was because he
shouldn’t have sneaked it into his moving carton. It was
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against Grandma Sylvie’s rule, which he heard her tell
his mom, “Rule Number Five: If You Don’t Unpack It
in the Old House, Don’t Bring It to the New One.”
He put down the baseball and looked at the three
flashlights in the box. He had two regular and one constellation flashlight. The constellation one was his favorite. It came with twenty-four caps so you could shine twenty-four different constellations on the ceiling or, if he made a tent under his blanket, twenty-four constellations on
his sheet. It was his dad’s idea to shine them under his
blanket. His dad said it would be a good idea for his mom
not to see constellations on the ceiling. When he asked
why, his dad said, Because and then he said, Sorry buddy.
Some questions are too hard to answer.
The day after his dad said that, Henry wondered if
maybe the reason his mom wouldn’t like constellations
on the ceiling was because she was worried they might
leave marks. He decided to ask his dad about that when
his dad got home that night. But his dad never got home
that night or any other night, so no questions. No answers.
To decide whether or not to take the baseball to camp
for Show and Tell, he did Eeeny, Meeny, Miney, Moe.
He got as far as Catch a Tiger by the Toe when he re-
membered how Show and Tell worked. The Show part
was fine. He could pass around the baseball and people
could ooh and ahh or not. But the Tell part meant he
would have to say something about the baseball out loud,
so, no. No Show. No Tell.
He put the baseball back in the box and took out the
This Is For Real Hank Aaron’s Baseball letter that came with it. When his dad read him the letter, his voice was
the most happy possible. Henry used to think the reason
Hank Aaron was his dad’s favorite was because they both
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had Aarons in their name. But one night at Tell Me That
Story, he found out the real reason. When Hank Aaron
tried to win Best-Ever at home runs, everyone got mad
at him. The reason they got mad was they liked the
person who’d already won it more. The surprise ending
to the Hank Aaron story was that people being mad at
him made him work even harder. He worked so hard,
he finally won Best-Ever. The happy ending to the story
was that people ended up liking him after all. That was a
Never-Give-Up story. His dad had a lot of Hank Aaron
stories. Another one was about how Hank Aaron learned
to play baseball with bottle caps and sticks, because he
didn’t have enough money to get a baseball and bat. That
was another Never-Give-Up story.
One time he asked his mom why his dad told so many
Never-Give-Up stories and she said, Gee. I don’t know. Oh well. One time his mom told him that Grandma Sylvie said, Oh well, when she didn’t know what else to say so probably that’s why his mom said it too.
Not every story his dad told him had a secret special
meaning. How he knew a story had a secret special mean-
ing was that his dad’s voice got very slow and very quiet.
Now his dad didn’t have any voice.
When his mom first read the This Is For Real Hank
Aaron’s Basebal letter she told him, Fifty-fifty chance that letter is real. Fifty-fifty she told him later, was the same as Maybe yes / Maybe no. She said either way, he should play with
it if he wanted because baseball was a very good game.
He wasn’t sure if that meant his mom wanted him to play
baseball instead of drawing or if she wanted him to play
baseball and keep drawing. He’d have to Wait and Sea.
Miss Mary was the one who taught him about Wait
and Sea. She said Wait and Sea was a good way to figure
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things out. His mom liked to figure things out by Let’s
Dream on It. They used Let’s Dream on It when they
had to decide big things, like move to New Jersey now
or never, or visit Florida now or never, or invite his dad’s brother over now or never so Henry could at least meet
him for Goodness Ache.
Sometimes Let’s Dream on It meant they would talk
about it again in the morning. Sometimes it meant they
would talk about it again never.
The Bad part of the first day at camp started when
he got to the bottom of the box and saw that underneath
the Hank Aaron letter and the twenty-four constellation
caps there was another letter, from his dad to his mom.
He knew it was to his mom because it said Dear Lane.
He knew it was from his dad because his dad did scribble
writing that was hard to read. Sometimes his mom and
dad fought about the scribble writing but his dad kept
doing it anyway.
Henry tried to imagine what his mom’s face would look
like if he told her he found a letter from his dad. To help figure it out he drew her face all the ways it might look.
The faces he drew were: Mad, Sad, Disappointed, Happy.
He counted three Bad faces, one Good. So, probably not
a good idea to show it. He crumpled up the drawing and
put it in the garbage underneath the drawings he made
yesterday, which his mom said were Good but not Good
Enough to Keep.
Henry imagined what his mom’s face would look like
if she found out he found the letter and didn’t give it to her. To help figure that out, he made more faces. This
time the faces he drew were: Mad, Sad and Disappointed.
Three Bad, no Good. He crumpled that paper into a small
ball and put it in the tippy-tippy bottom of the garbage.
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He still wasn’t sure which do to, show or not show,
so he decided to Dream On It.
h h
h h
Grandma Sylvie wasn’t at breakfast yet, so Henry decided
to ask his mom if she would be mad if she found out
he broke Rule Number Five, Don’t Put Things
in the
Moving Box That Weren’t Opened on the Last Move.
His mom said, Forget all those silly rules, and her face turned red and when he turned around he saw Grandma Sylvie
standing there.
Grandma Sylvie’s nose looked crinkly, like she smelled
something she didn’t like, but the only smells in the
kitchen were waffles and coffee so probably her crinkly
nose meant, Sad.
Miss Mary said he was a good guesser because he no-
ticed clues. The clues he usually saw on Grandma Sylvie’s
face were a mouth in a straight line and sighs. Grandma
Sylvie never used her yelling voice, not even in Florida,
but she used a lot of sighs.
One time when he was sad, his mom held his hand
and his sad went away, so he decided to try and see if
that would work with Grandma Sylvie. He reached over
to hold her hand, but he only got three fingers. His
mom was busy making waffles so she didn’t see that
when he touched Grandma Sylvie’s fingers her hand
jumped, like it was Surprised. Her hand was very soft,
especially the parts that had bumpity veins. Grandma
Sylvie’s eyes looked like they wanted to smile but her
mouth didn’t agree. Her mouth won. She pulled her
hand away but not speedy fast. Maybe she did it slow so
he wouldn’t notice.
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He didn’t tell his mom anything about the letter from
his dad at breakfast because sometimes Dream on It took
more than one night. Also his Grandma Sylvie was there
so he couldn’t talk. When Doctor Bruce first told him that not talking was his Super Power and that Invisible could feel very boring, he forgot to tell him it could also feel very Sad.
Usually his mom acted regular around his Super Power
but today it was making her twitchy. To get less twitchy,
she filled up the room with questions. They were yes-
or-no questions, the kind he could answer, but she asked
them fast, all in row. Did he like swimming in the pond
and drawing with Nathan and sitting on the deck with
Grandma Sylvie?
He couldn’t answer about swimming in the pond
because he hadn’t done it yet, so he didn’t know if it
had a slime bottom or a sand bottom. If it was slime,
the answer was going to be no. He could answer about
drawing with Nathan. He liked drawing with Nathan
because one, Nathan never tried to make him talk and
two, he always liked his drawings, no matter what they
were of. Sometimes he liked them so much he asked if
he could have them.
He wasn’t sure how to answer, Did he like sitting with Grandma Sylvie on the deck. The answer was yes, except when she shivered, but since she shivered most of the
time the answer was also no.
It took him such a long time to decide which question
was the best to answer that his mom got tired of wait-
ing and asked a new question, Are you excited about Camp Eclipse? But before he could answer that one, Grandma Sylvie asked another. Why do they call it that for Heaven’s Ache?
His mom told her that was how the camp worked,
every year it got a new name. Last year it was Camp
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Shark and all the activities were about sharks including
they had a visit from a real live shark scientist. This year it was called Camp Eclipse and all the activities would
be about that.
Grandma Sylvie’s mouth got so small it almost disap-
peared, but not so small that she couldn’t talk. What she
said was, I do not like the sound of that one bit.
Henry wasn’t sure which bit she didn’t like the sound
of. Maybe it was the name Camp Shark because she was
afraid of sharks. Maybe it was the name Camp Eclipse
because she was afraid of the dark. Maybe it was his mom’s voice, which was very strict when she explained about
the camp. Maybe it was the sound of his fork accidentally
hitting the edge of his plate. He didn’t think it was that, but he stopped eating anyway, just in case.
h h
h h
The first person to say hello at camp was a counselor
called Dylan. Henry remembered Dylan from Opening
Party. That night Dylan was too busy talking to the other
counselors to say hello. This time Dylan came right over
and said, “I’m Dylan and I’m going to be your favorite
counselor.”
Henry did not know how Dylan could know that. So
far all Dylan knew about Henry was he had round eyes,
long eyelashes, and curly hair.
For getting oriented, Dylan told them about morning
and afternoon activities. Morning activities were: projects or board games. Afternoon activities were: go in the pond.
If it was raining or the pond had too much bacteria, it
was morning activities all day. No Show and Tell.
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Dylan told Henry he could sit at whichever activity
table he wanted. All the activities were about the eclipse.
The first table he showed them was finger painting on
paper plates. That was for the littlest campers. They had
two colors. Yellow for the sun. Black for the dark side
of the moon. The next table was a teaching table, where
they had constellation cards. Dylan started to explain
about constellations but Henry’s mom said, “He knows
all about constellations. He studied them with his dad.”
Henry was surprised to hear his mom say that. It made
him wonder if maybe now she wouldn’t mind him using
could ask his dad about it but, no dad.
His mom turned out to know a lot about constella-
tions. She told Dylan that Orion was his favorite and that the Big Dipper used to be his dad’s favorite.
Dylan said, “Cool,” and then asked Henry what his
dad’s favorite constellation was now.
His mom’s cheeks turned bright pink and she said,
“What are the children over there doing?” Dylan looked
where she pointed and forgot about Henry’s dad, which
was the point.
“They’re making up constellations.” He put his hand
next to his mouth and said, “Kind of lame, right? The
best table is that one, in the back. Pinhole boxes.”
Henry glanced toward the table Dylan thought was
lame. His mom noticed and said, “I think Henry would
like to give a try at drawing at the table where they’re
making up their own constellations.”
“Really? Okay, little man. But the pinhole boxes are
way more awesome. Useful too. First you make it, then
you use it to watch the eclipse. Without going blind. I
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don’t want you to grow up regretting that you didn’t
have a pinhole box so you couldn’t see the total eclipse.
My dad still regrets that he didn’t get to see the last one.
Want to know what happened?”
Henry guessed from his mom’s face that she didn’t,
but Dylan was not a good guesser.
“The last time there was a total solar, he was little,
like you, and everyone b
ack then was super scared all the
kids would look at the sun and go blind. It would be, like, a whole world of blind kids. They closed his school. He
had to watch it on TV.”
Henry’s mom’s forehead got crinkled—Worried—and
she said, “Henry, you know you can go blind if you look
at the eclipse without special glasses, right?” He nodded
and his mom said, “Okay, good.”
“That’s why the pinhole boxes are super cool,” Dylan
said. “My dad makes the most awesome pinhole boxes.
He’s legit obsessed with them. It’s all because he wasn’t
allowed to see the last one.” Dylan turned to Henry’s
mom and asked if her school got closed too that time and
if she had to watch it on TV like his dad did.
His mom shook her head and then she saw Amanda
across the room and she called over to her and thanked
her for helping the other night, when the scary dog came.
Henry didn’t know what his mom meant by that and
from how Amanda’s and Dylan’s faces looked, he guessed
they didn’t either.
His mom reminded her, “At Opening Party. The dog
in the window? Griffin?”
Dylan laughed and Henry felt his mom’s body get
stricter and he guessed Dylan felt it too because Dylan
stopped laughing and said, “I’m sorry, Mrs. Meckler.
It’s just Griffin isn’t a dog. He’s a person. No need to
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be scared of Griffin, little man. Me and Griffin were in
school together. He’s a couple of years older than me. He
looks like a giant on the outside but inside he’s still a little kid. He likes animals more than people. He doesn’t mind
people as long as they like animals. My favorite animal is a horse. Want to tell me your favorite animal, little man?”
What Henry wanted to tell him was that he did not
like being called Little Man but he didn’t say that or anything. He just shrugged and his mom said, “He likes all
animals,” and the counselor Amanda said, “Want to come
draw animal constellations with me?” and he nodded.
The first constellation Henry drew was a cow. He drew
it very fast so he would feel calm, which worked. Just as
he was starting the second one, which was not going to
be an animal, his mom came over to get a goodbye hug.
After the hug, Amanda walked his mom to the door. They
talked for a long time. He didn’t hear everything but he