Page 175 of Everything Under the Sun

“What about Jeffrey and Esra?” I asked. “We can ask them if they’d like to go with us, but I have a feeling Esra is pretty set in his ways.” I propped my chin on the top of her head. “And even as much as Jeffrey likes you, I don’t see him leaving his grandfather behind.”

“I know, you’re right,” she agreed. “But with or without them, we have to go.”

“What about Jeffrey’s canoe? I’ll feel a little like shit not finishing it for him like I promised.”

“He’ll understand.”

Thais reached up and pulled away more strands of hair as the breeze blew them across her mouth; simple gestures like that made me feel a little dizzy with love for her.

“I think if you show him how to do the rest, he’ll be proud to finish it himself.”

“Yeah, he probably would.”

Thais smiled at me. “You’re going to miss him, aren’t you?”

I nodded slowly. “Yeah, I’m going to miss him.”

She kissed me on the mouth. I lifted her into my arms and carried her back inside the cabin and made love to her.

55

ATTICUS

Jeffrey made his grand appearance right on time the following day, pushing a rusted old wheelbarrow in front of him; it bumbled and swayed precariously on its one front wheel.

“What’s all that?” Thais asked as she went down the steps toward him.

I was sitting on the porch in a rocking chair.

“Your big surprise!” Jeffrey’s eyes were radiant, his smile enormous—his head had been bleeding, I noted.

“I found it! I looked all over Grandpa’s and found it!”

Jeffrey released the wooden handles, setting the wheelbarrow safely on the ground. In it was a small solar panel, a battery, and two black boxes wrapped in a cluttered swirl of black wires; some wires had been bound by electrical tape. Whatever the contraption was, I thought it looked like a fire hazard.

Jeffrey turned the boxes over. Ah, speakers, I realized.

Jeffrey and I set up the speakers, hooking this to that and tinkering with this and that, while Thais watched from the sofa.

“No, you stay there,” Jeffrey told Thais when she tried to help. “It’s your surprise.”

And so she sat back and let us put the contraption together, her legs drawn up on the cushion.

The small solar panel I placed on the porch railing where the sun was hitting; black cords extended from it into the open window behind Mr. Graham sitting in his rocking chair.

Lastly, Jeffrey produced a digital music player from the pocket of his overalls and hooked it into a USB.

When the first few seconds streamed through the speakers, Thais perked up and her eyes grew wide with wonder and her smile lit up her face like a child at a carnival awed by the flashing lights and bright colors.

“Music! It’s music, Thais! It’s your surprise!” Jeffrey hopped toward her on the sofa with his arms straight out in front of him. “Let’s dance!” Before he could reach for her hands, Thais had grabbed his.

“It’s so wonderful, Jeffrey! It’s the best surprise ever—thank you!”

They stood toe-to-toe, their fingers interlocked, their weight evenly distributed between them as they leaned backward and spun around in a wide circle.

And when the music picked up and Madonna sang Like A Prayer, Jeffrey and Thais were dancing around the room with joyful abandon, moving their hips and swinging their arms. Thais bounced and spun, and tried to sing along though it might’ve been her first time ever hearing the lyrics, but in a little time she knew the chorus by heart almost word-for-word. The hem of her yellow dress twirled around her legs, left and right as she changed direction; her long, dark hair whirled and fell against her back and into her face, only to float back around her again when she went into another graceful twirl.

I shoved the sofa out of the way to give them more space. And then I sat down on the floor and watched Thais with the biggest smile, fascinated by her carefree innocence and joy, adoring her. When the choir sang, Thais and Jeffrey raised their hands in the air and clapped.

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