#doverstar posts

Masani Scraps

The Missing Necklace

For a moment, Mason glowered at the shell in his hand. Then his fingers tightened around it, and he threw it as hard as he could into the sea. It didn’t go very far, and the splash was too small. He wanted to make more noise. He wanted to punch someone. He wanted, maybe for the first time, to be like Stitch and bite something. It was no use. Kai had already given up, and so had Maya and David. And without that little red anteater on duty, Mason knew there wasn’t any real hope. He’d never find it; he’d never ever see his necklace again. His stupid eyes were stinging. Stupid eyes. Stupid beach. Stupid necklace. He swiped the back of a wrist across his nose, sniffling, glad nobody was around to notice. Or tell him to get a Kleenex. When he turned away from the waves, intending to head back home, hating the sunset more with every passing second, Mason had to stop.

Ani was standing a short distance away, half bent over, scanning the sand. There was a layer of intense concentration all over her. The wind kept kicking up her hair, and Mason watched her push it fussily away, ignoring it as it got into her mouth and eyes. No Kai, no Uncle David. No blue alien furball. Not even a surfer in the distance. Apart from the two of them, the shore was empty. Why was she still here?

Then Ani glanced up. Before he could look away or turn around so she wouldn’t see his face, she waved hard. “Don’t worry, Mason!” she called. “We’ll find it!” Mason felt the pressure in his throat build, hurting. Making him angrier. “No we won’t.”

“Huh?” Ani was back to looking at the ground, shouting over the ocean spray. Mason found himself storming up to give her a great big shove. It felt good to shove something. “Just go home!” Ani staggered a step or two and stared at him. Maybe she was surprised because this time, there was no Stitch or Lilo or long noodle great-uncle guy to defend her. Or Kai to laugh at her. “But—” “Go away!” Mason felt his fingers digging hard into his own palms. “Go home! Leave me alone!” “It’s okay. It’s still light out,” Ani began again, as if he hadn’t spoken. “Look, see? The sun’s still here! We can—”

“There is no we!” Mason snapped. He was breathing too fast. “It’s my necklace, and I don’t—I don’t even want it anymore!” “But—Mason—” “And I definitely don’t want your help, anyways, so just get lost, Maggot Breath!”

He gave her another shove, this time so angrily that Ani sat down hard in the sand, hands flying out behind her to catch herself. As she looked at him with her huge brown eyes, Mason marched past her with a second loud, wet sniff he couldn’t contain, heading up the beach.

Up the beach. Faster, louder. Kicking up dirt, stomping with every step. Back through the woods, back into town. Back to Mrs. Bridge’s house to eat toast for dinner, probably, and maybe throw the toaster out the window, just because pushing Kai’s cringy cousin hadn’t been enough to get rid of the aching in his chest. He felt like there was a rocket inside him, getting ready for liftoff, but the engine was taking too long to explode.

Stupid necklace. Stupid shark’s tooth. Stupid Ani. Stupid beach. Stupid sunset. Stupid, stupid, stupid—

What was really stupid was the face that Ani had made when he shoved her. What was really stupid was that she thought he even cared about the necklace, because he didn’t. He didn’t at all. And what was even stupider than that was his dad, and how he’d bought something as tiny as a necklace, which was so easily lost on a big crazy island like this.

Why hadn’t Dad bought something bigger? And why was this the only thing he ever gave Mason? Why was it so tiny, why did it make Mason feel tiny too? It was a shark’s tooth. Sharks weren’t tiny.

Mason slammed the screen door when he got inside Mrs. Bridge’s, and he knocked his elbow against the handle when it came swinging back, like he always did. He always knocked his elbow. But for some reason, this time he was crying. He was holding his elbow, and crying in the middle of the hallway, and it echoed in the empty house. He was actually crying. That was the stupidest thing of all.

At 10 o’clock, Mrs. Bridge came home. Mason had been lying with his back to the door on the couch, and he didn’t stir when she came in. He didn’t stir when she put the green throw blanket over him, and he didn’t stir when she went to her own bedroom to change. He wasn’t asleep, but she didn’t need to know that. He didn’t like it when she yawned and asked him if he’d eaten and tried to keep her eyes open when he answered. He didn’t like it when she didn’t do that, either, which was confusing, but it didn’t matter. He very especially didn’t want any of it tonight. As soon as he heard her bathroom door close, Mason opened his eyes. He could hear something else—footsteps—running footsteps, right outside. Nobody ever came over here. Not even Kai—there was no need; Mason made sure to be awake first, visiting first, going to find him first. Had Mrs. Bridge been followed? Was it a stalker? Or a secret agent? Or Cobra Bubbles—he was kind of both.

There was a rattling knock at the front door. Mason scrambled off the couch to open it before Mrs. Bridge could hear a second knock. He wanted to be the first one to see the secret agent. It wasn’t a secret agent. It was Ani. Ani had only been here once; how had she found it again? And she was alone—she was never alone. Where was her ugly blue bodyguard? Or her mom, or anybody? “What do you want?” he spat out, and he realized his throat was sore. She was standing on the stoop, covered in sand. Smiling. There was a cut on her wrist, and the ends of her hair were wet. And she was holding up his shark-tooth necklace. Mason’s mouth went slack. The shark’s tooth was fake and shiny in the moonlight, turning slightly in the island breeze. The twine cable was darker near the tooth, like it was wet, too, and maybe Ani had washed it off. He didn’t know what to do. Because he wasn’t moving or saying anything, Ani took his hand and pulled it into a cupped position so she could drop the necklace into it. Like she didn’t even mind the cooties. “It was on the rocks,” she explained, and when she spoke it seemed like her throat must hurt too. “I think a crab took it. They probably didn’t know it was special.” Mason blinked at the necklace. The rocket ship inside him was disappearing, as if somebody was taking it apart so it couldn’t stall anymore. So his chest could stop aching. He looked from the necklace to Ani and paused, noticing something running down her arm. “How come you’re bleeding?” he asked numbly. “Oh. The rocks did that.” Ani twisted her arm around to look at the cut. “Ow, cool!” It was cool. “We have glow-in-the-dark Band-Aids,” he said, practically mumbling. “No thanks!” She was hopping, very lightly, on her toes. Up, down, up, down, and swinging her arms even though one of them was hurt. “I wanna show Stitch.” Then there didn’t seem to be anything else to say. Except— “Hey—I said I didn’t want it, y’know.” “I know.” “So why’d you keep looking?” Ani swung her arms harder, further behind her back this time. “Because you were lying. Because it’s from your dad.” Mason scowled, but before he could argue, she went on. “And if it was me and it was my necklace from my dad, I would want it back. Even if I had to fight a million crabs. That’s all.”

He blinked at her in the dark. She smelled like salt and stinky seaweed. And she’d dug around in the sand and cut her wrist on the big black rocks to find his necklace. In the dark. After he pushed her down. And called her Maggot Breath again. Did she want him to say he was sorry? “I don’t owe you now,” he warned her, eyebrows drawing together. “Nope.” Ani waved brightly, backing away down the steps. “Well—I have to go home. Bye, Mason!”