Kai closed his eyes and put on headphones, but he was restless. Typically, he had no trouble falling asleep, but after having all his summer plans shattered in one phone call, his mind was in too many places. He sat quietly at the edge of his bed for a moment before deciding he needed to get outside. Perhaps a bike ride would clear his head.
Kai’s bicycle tires kicked up little water droplets as he rode across the damp grass to get to Uncle Moodie’s Books, where he’d been working for the last year.
When Kai walked in, his nose was immediately filled with the strong scent of coffee beans mingling with the faint aroma of printed pages. A smile spread across his face. Uncle Moodie’s Books was part coffee shop, part bookstore. When you first walked in, rows of comic books brightly displayed alongside collectible action figures lined the right side. To the left, a few bistro tables sat in front of the large cashier counter, which also served as a coffee bar complete with a pastry case. Directly behind the counter was a multipurpose staff room that functioned as a kitchen, office, and break room, with a spacious closet for storage and stock. It was the perfect spot to do inventory in peace or prepare drinks and food away from the customers’ eyes.
The jingling bell above the door alerted Kai’s boss, the enigmatic Uncle Moodie, to Kai’s arrival. His eyes crinkled at the corners ashe acknowledged Kai’s presence. He was hairless except for a full salt-and-pepper beard and mustache as he clung on to the last of his thirties.
“You’re late, young buck,” Uncle Moodie said as Kai unhooked his helmet and placed it on the counter. “D&D Night just ended.”
“You know I’m not here for a shift, Big Mood,” Kai replied, giving a sidelong glance. “I just wanted to see what you got into when I’m not around.”
“So that’s why you’re not going to Hollywood? And here I thought you were sticking around for my famous pies.”
“Berkeley isn’t Hollywood, Mood,” Kai replied, settling on a tall stool as Uncle Moodie fetched him a slice of hisfamouspeanut butter pie and matcha hot chocolate with extra gelatin-free marshmallows. Exactly how Kai liked it.
Uncle Moodie wiped his hands on his apron before he reached to close the dessert case door. But as he pushed it, the faulty door caught an obstacle, refusing to budge any farther. He muttered obscenities under his breath as he gave the door another firm tug. Despite his efforts, the door remained jammed, and he let out a sigh.
“I knew you couldn’t manage without me, Mood,” Kai said with a twinge of pride as he took a bite of pie.
Uncle Moodie wiped his brow. “Can you do repairs?”
“No, sir,” Kai replied honestly. He was never good with his hands. Mama always said that his talents were in more highbrow areas, though he wasn’t certain how being able to draw the entire cast ofBuffyfrom memory was going to help him in situations like this one.
“Hopefully, my nephew Eli’s got a few more calluses on his hands than you,” Uncle Moodie said with a wry smile. “This ol’place is falling apart, and I’m getting too tired to manage her.”
“I’m sure he’ll do fine.”
Kai didn’t even know Uncle Moodie had a nephew until recently, but the nephew was staying for the summer to help out in the store.
Leaning against the counter, Uncle Moodie rested his head in his hand. “Why did you really stop by?” he asked.
“I don’t know,” Kai answered, wiping the foam from his mouth with his fingertips. He wrapped his arms around himself and shifted back and forth. “I thought I was spending the summer with my friends, but now it looks like you’ll be my only friend. I guess it’s settling in that they’ll really be gone. I knew I’d miss them, but I didn’t think it’d feel so much like getting left behind.”
“You can still go to Berkeley, can’t you?”
“Probably, but I don’t think I could handle going that far.”
Uncle Moodie’s eyes softened. “What doyouhave to be afraid of?”
Kai’s boss was almost half a foot shorter than he was. Uncle Moodie commented on their height difference regularly, so Kai tried to shrink himself, mostly in vain. He had to tilt his neck when he went through certain doorways and duck every time he passed a light fixture. He barely even had to look where he was going anymore. It was like he instinctively knew he would bump his head, so there was a permanent curve in his neck from the world not accommodating him. However, Moodie was gentle with Kai and didn’t mean anything by it. He had said the first time they met that it was because there was something small about Kai—that he looked like a little boy who started to grow and forgot to stop.
“I’m not ready to go off to college,” Kai said, his rocking picking up pace. “I don’t think I’m ready to do anything on my own. I don’t even know how to tie my shoes.”
Moodie let out a deep breath. “As you get older, there mightbe moments, even years, when you think you’ve got everything figured out. But then you start to see maybe you’re just pretending because folks are watching. No one knows what they’re doing. Don’t let anybody ever fool you into thinking they got all the answers. You’re a good kid. You’ll find your way.”
“What if I just stayed right here instead?”
Moodie appeared to contemplate for a moment, probably trying to come up with some answer that would earn him the Uncle Moodie nickname that made him sound old and wise. He grabbed one of the freshly washed mugs and turned it right side up. He filled it with steaming hot water for his tea. “We all have to do things sometimes that we don’t want to do,” he said. “But growing up means learning when those things are going to help us out in the long term or when we should say no.”
“So you’re saying I made the right choice in staying home?”
“I’m saying that only you can decide if it’s the right choice for you.”
Kai blinked rapidly, disguising the glimmer of tears with a quick smile as Moodie gave him a few rough slaps on the back.
“Any chance you want to go to a concert on Friday?” Kai asked, disguising a sniffle as a laugh.
“You know I can’t stay out late like I used to,” Moodie replied.
