Chapter 20: Three Blocks Alone

Nolan's POV

By noon on Tuesday the front window was a sheet of plywood and I was still finding glass in the floorboards.

Lana had taken Junie to her sister's.

I had told her the shop was no place for a child until the new pane went in.

I was alone with a broom when I looked up and saw a small shape in the doorway.

It was Eli.

He stood on the sill in his school jacket with his backpack on both shoulders.

He had walked up to the plywood and stopped, because the bell was gone and he did not know whether to knock.

I put the broom against the wall.

"Hello, Eli."

"Hi, Mr. Pins." He looked at the floor. "Junie calls you that. Is it okay if I do?"

"It's okay."

"Is Junie here?"

"Not today."

His mouth wobbled, and he held it still.

"Uncle Brad said she'd be here," he said.

"He told me to wait on the step for Junie's mom. He said she'd take me home."

"Where is Uncle Brad now?"

"He said he had to lie down. He went to the motel by the highway."

He pushed his hands into his pockets.

"I'm not supposed to tell you that."

I knelt on the swept part of the floor, so we were the same height.

"Who told you not to tell?"

"Nobody. I just think I'm not."

I did not touch him.

I had spent a month learning how to wait for small people to decide what they would allow.

"Will you sit with me?" I said. "I have a bench in the back, and I have cocoa."

He thought about it with great seriousness.

"Okay."

I sat him on the bench by Lana's sewing machine and put a mug in his hands.