Chapter 6: Rules

I sent the photo to Johnny at twelve oh four.

"Him?"

The dots came up right away. He was awake too.

"Him. Same pin. Same face."

"He drove me to school for eleven years," I typed. "He taught me to ride a bike."

A long pause.

"I'm going to go talk to him."

"No. He'll say he doesn't remember you. He'll tell my father you asked. Then it's gone."

Another pause.

"So what do we do?"

"Rule four," I wrote. "Sunday. Spaghetti."

His reply came back:

"Terrified."

He showed up Sunday at five with three grocery bags and the face of a man walking into a playoff overtime.

Lulu opened the door before I could reach it.

"You're late," she said. "You're always late. Come see my room."

"Can I put the noodles down first?"

"Fine."

He put the noodles down. She dragged him away by one finger.

Stevie was sitting at the kitchen table with her arms crossed and a notepad in front of her.

She'd made a list too. Hers was longer.

When Johnny came back from admiring every drawing on Lulu's wall, Stevie pointed at the chair across from her.

"Sit."

He sat.

"Name."

"You know my name."

"Full name."

"John Castelli."

Lulu giggled from the hallway. "That's a TEACHER name."

"My mom only calls me John when I'm in trouble," Johnny said.

Stevie wrote something down.

"What's her favorite color?"

"Purple. Every note she sent was in purple."

"Favorite food."

"Spaghetti. Obviously."

"Wrong. It's cucumbers. Spaghetti's second." She tapped her pen. "What are your intentions?"

He glanced at me.

I was at the stove pretending to read the back of a pasta box.

"To be somebody she can count on," he said. "That's it. That's the whole list."

Stevie stared at him for a long moment.

Then she tore the page off, folded it and put it in her bra.

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