“I’m totally gonna be the coolest girl in school,” I squealed as I held up my outfit for my first day of fourth grade.
My brother rolled his eyes and crawled into his bed, a trundle that pulled out from underneath mine.
As I was staring at the ceiling from my own bed, imagining boys lining up to flirt with me at recess, I heard Josh crying.
“What’s wrong?” I whispered.
Josh stuffed his face into his pillow.
“I can still hear you,” I said. “Why are you crying?”
“Will you just shut up?” Josh said, lifting his head up to glare at me.
“Mom!” I shouted. “Josh is crying and he just told me to shut up!”
The door flew open. “What’s going on in here?”
“Josh is crying.”
“I don’t wanna talk about it,” he mumbled.
“Are you nervous about your first day of kindergarten?” Mom asked.
“A little,” Josh said. “What if I don’t make any friends?”
I started to laugh.
“Of course you’ll make friends!” I said. “On my first day of school I made friends, and I had crooked teeth and crooked bangs.” My mom had trimmed my bangs herself the night before because they’d been hanging in my eyes.
“I sure hope you’re right.” Josh said.
The next day Josh came running up the driveway hollering, “I made a friend! I have a new best friend!”
“What’s your friend’s name?” I asked.
“Um,” he hesitated. “It’s either Computer or Paper.”
I started laughing.
“Honey,” Mom said, “I don’t think your friend’s name is Computer or Paper.”
“Yeah,” I interrupted. “Those aren’t real names.”
“Don’t make fun of my friend!” Josh said. “Computer and Paper are cool names!”
“Josh, buddy, we’re not making fun of your friend,” I said. “But maybe you’re not remembering his name right.”
“I know my friend and you don’t. His name is either Computer or Paper!” he said. “I just hope I can find out which one it is without having to ask him. I must not be a very good best friend if I can’t remember his name.”
The next afternoon Josh came blasting through the front door laughing hysterically.
“I found out my friend’s name,” he said. “It’s a ridiculous name!”
“Is it really Computer or Paper?” I asked.
“His name’s Reid!” Josh said. “Like Read a book! It’s the weirdest name I’ve ever heard.”
Mom gave me a look that meant, “Don’t you say another word.”
Josh must have imagined a book when he heard the name Reid, and at that moment pictured a computer and some paper, like in a vocabulary book of things that go together, or a picture of a classroom. I looked at him shaking his head in disbelief at the weirdness of his friend’s name, Reid, and I wondered if his unique way of thinking was a kind of genius. Or maybe it was an aftershock from the time Mom had accidentally dropped him on his head as a baby when a bee caught her by surprise. Our dad caught him after one bounce, but ever since, we all wondered.
*****
I read this little story at Dime Stories Open Mic night at San Diego Writer's, Ink,