Jason hesitated at the door, his courage almost failing him. The nurse who had guided him down the halls noticed his hesitation, patted his arm and left. He clenched his fist and opened the door, putting on a carefree smile.
His sister looked up and smiled. “Jason!”
“Hey twerp! Geez, what are they pumping into you?” he asked, walking up to the IV stand.
“I dunno. Like fifteen different things. Mom has a list, but they thought that since I’m just twelve I wouldn’t understand the big words,” she said, rolling her eyes.
“And they thought Mom would?”
Tessa giggled.
“Anyway, I have a thing for you,” he said, tossing a necklace into her lap.
She picked it up and looked at the pendant. “A bear?”
“Yeah.” He put on his smart-person voice. “According to Native American tradition, the bear represents courage, strength, and good medicine. It is a protector and a healer.” He dropped the voice. “Not sure why a bear is supposed to mean medicine, but I’m not the one who started the tradition.”
She was smiling. That’s all he wanted to see. “Did you steal it? Mom says I’m not allowed to have things from you if they’re stolen.”
“Why would I steal something like this? It’s just a carved rock.”
“Technically, those diamond earrings were also just carved rocks.”
“Technically it’s a gift and I don’t have to tell you if I paid for it or not.”
“If a good luck thing is stolen wouldn’t it know and become a bad luck thing?” Tessa asked.
He rolled his eyes exaggeratedly, pulling a receipt out of his pocket. “Fine, here, take this too! Sheesh, I try to do something nice and suddenly everyone’s questioning my morals!”
She laughed. “I’m not! I’m just saying Mom would! And the bear would, too!”
He smiled, a real smile this time. It faded. “So… How scared are you?”
“I don’t know. A lot? But doctors have to go to like eight years of school so they probably know what they’re doing, right?”
This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.
“Probably,” he agreed.
“I’m not as scared as you would be.”
“Probably.”
“Hey, if everything goes ok I’ll be able to be your sidekick in two years. And then everyone will realize I’m way smarter than you and they’ll make you my sidekick.”
He picked up a paper and one of her colored pencils. “Note: figure out how to make Tessa more dumb so she doesn’t become a better thief than me…”
“Note: figure out how to get Mom to let me stay with Jason…”
He put the paper back down. “Oh that’s easy. I’ll just shove the patio table under your window and you can climb out any time you want.”
“Oh yeah, I’ll be able to climb!”
“Climb, run, jump, do cool backflips through rooms filled with lasers, all that.”
“Are there really rooms filled with lasers?”
“In most museums, yeah.”
She checked the receipt he’d left on her bed. “So what are you going to steal from the Native American Cultural History Museum?”
“Note: never give Tessa a receipt ever again.”
She laughed. “See, I told you I’m smarter than you.”
“Would you believe someone is paying me to steal a board game?”
“Really?”
“Yeah. I’ll bring it over after I get it and we can play.”
“Is that allowed?”
“Absolutely not.”
“Ok!” She hesitated, then looked at him thoughtfully. “Hey, if everything goes ok, could you get something for me when I wake up?”
“Sure! What do you want? A giant stuffed whale, antique emerald necklace, the Mona Lisa?”
“The Mona Lisa is in France, idiot, you can’t get it by tomorrow,” she said.
“Ha! Shows what you know! The real Mona Lisa is actually in Greenland.”
“Really?”
“Has been for like thirty years now.”
“Greenland is still too far away,” she pointed out.
“Ok then, I can’t get you the Mona Lisa. Sorry.”
Tessa laughed.
“What do you want, twerp?”
“I want to see fireworks when I wake up.”
“Fireworks?”
“Yeah. Out that window.” She pointed.
Jason looked at her seriously. “Fireworks are illegal to set off on all but two days of the year, and are only legal to be sold for the two weeks leading up to those days.”
“So what you’re saying is that it’s absolutely not allowed?” she asked, trying not to smile and failing.
“Absolutely not.”
“I want the ones that have two colors in them.”
“Ok.”
He stayed and talked with her until his mom and stepdad arrived. He was glad Tessa had asked him for fireworks. She probably knew he needed something to occupy him until she was out of surgery, she was smart like that. If she really wanted them or not it didn’t matter.
Tonight he would set the sky on fire.