I stood and descended the bookcase stairs, hopping down each step with a lightheartedness I hadn’t felt in years. I was going to show Callum Tate my favorite thing in the entire world. I’d never shown anyone for fear they’d try to take it from me. It’d been hidden in my possession for so many years, it felt liberating to finally feel comfortable enough to show someone.
I grabbed my bag and dug my hand through my meager belongings. When my hand hit the carefully wrapped book, I gently pulled it from the bottom and walked over to the coffee table next to Callum’s makeshift bed. I knelt to sit on my ankles and placed the wrapped book on top of the table. I nodded my head at the lamp above Callum’s head and he turned it on.
I unwrapped the book carefully, exposing its cover.
“To Kill A Mockingbird,” he said with reverence, “by Harper Lee.”
I flipped the hard cover open and revealed Harper Lee’s signature.
“Signed!”
“I know!” I said giddily.
“How did you get this?” He asked, bringing his face reverently toward the signature.
“I won it. If you can believe that.”
“But how?”
“The Strauss’ took me with them on a summer vacation to visit family they had in North Carolina. It was the best and only trip of my life,” I said, looking back on the memories. “Anyway, there was some sort of beach carnival going on. Apparently, they’d been planning it for weeks because they had this jar full of buttons sit on the front counter at their local grocery store. You would pay twenty dollars to enter a guess at how many buttons filled the jar.
“Well, I didn’t even know the prize but I, now don’t freak out on me,” I laughed, “but I am a freak when it comes to guessing these things. I’ve never lost.”
“Never?”
“Not once. Of course, the other prizes were always lame. Although, I did win a bike once when I guessed how many cherries were inside a canning jar when I was nine but that was taken from me.”
“What? Why?”
“My foster parents thought I stole it. I mean, I was a bit of a thief back then but when I tried explaining to them that they could verify my story, they refused to check on it. I think they just wanted to give the bike to their niece who lived in Jersey.”
“That’s pretty shitty.”
“Yeah. Anyway, so I entered with some leftover birthday money from the Strauss’ not even aware of the prize. A couple of days later, I had forgotten about it, actually. We went to the beach carnival and rode a few rides but an hour into our visit, that’s when it happened.
“I can remember everything about that moment like it was yesterday. I was wearing a white linen sundress that was a hand me down but still so beautiful. I had my hair up in a pony tail and was carrying a pink cloud of cotton candy on a paper cone. My flip-flops smacked against my feet as we walked the sandy beach.
“I didn’t think I could be happier until we all heard a buzz over the carnival P.A. system.”
“What did they say?” Callum asked. He’d sat up for the story and was on the edge of his seat.
“They said, and I quote, ‘Harper Bailey of New York City, you are the winner of our button contest. You have one hour to claim your prize.’
“I was so ecstatic, I dropped my cotton candy on the ground and Philip Strauss, who was just a year younger, followed me closely until we reached the carnival gazebo. People were milling about waiting to see the girl who won and the prize she was gonna’ get.
“I walked right up the steps to the gazebo and yelled, ‘I’m Harper Bailey!’ I don’t think they were expecting someone so young. You should have seen the look on the man’s face.” I said, laughing a little. “He asked if I could provide some sort of identification. I whipped out my New York State I.D. so fast, his head spun. “Then he revealed my prize.
“I’m gonna’ be honest with you, Callum. It was the furthest thing from my mind but it was the most wonderful thing I could have possibly gotten. My favorite book of all time and the author was my namesake. I was in the local paper and everything. It was such a strange coincidence.”
“That’s wild, Harper.”
I sighed. “I know.”
We sat in silence as I re-wrapped the book and placed it back in my messenger bag.
“Why did you leave them?” He asked, breaking the sleepy quiet.
I took a seat on the edge of Callum’s couch and my chin sunk into my chest. “I didn’t. They left me.