Page 23 of Trial Run

Marco shook his head. His eyes flicked down to Ben’s hand, where he held the oval brown rock.

“It’s a kind of rock with crystals hidden inside. From the outside, it looks ordinary. I picked this one out of the dirt nearthe trail. I took it to a rock shop and asked them to cut it in half with a special saw. And look.”

He broke the two halves of the rock apart, revealing the dark purple crystals lining the interior. Marco’s jaw fell open.

“These crystals are called amethyst. But you never know what you’ll find inside a geode. They can be all different colors—white, green, or pink, too. The surprise is part of the fun.”

Ben held out the rock. “Do you want to look at it?”

Little fingers brushed his as Marco took the rock from his hand. He turned the pieces around, twisting the two halves until he figured out how to put them back together into a seamless whole.

Ben smiled and turned to face forward, just as Nell returned from her delivery.

“Everything going okay in here?” she asked.

“Fine,” Ben said.

As they drove to the next delivery stop, Marco played with the geode halves, opening and closing them. After a few minutes, he clutched the halves in his fist. He hadn’t gone back to watching the show on his tablet.

The next time Nell got out of the van, Ben turned to face Marco again.

“I bet you’d like looking for geodes the next time you’re outside. Do you want to know the secret of how to find them?”

Marco nodded, his expression serious.

“I’ll tell you my best rock-hunting tips. First, you look for a rock that’s rounded, like an egg or a golf ball. A lot of geodes have a hollowed out interior, and it affects the shape of the rock on the outside.”

Marco nodded again.

“Two, you look for rocks with a bumpy exterior. Like the peel of an orange. And three, you can tap it, to see if it sounds hollow.It might feel lighter than a normal rock, too, because there’s air inside.”

Ben kept up the one-sided conversation as they did the rest of the deliveries. Marco never replied, but he listened the whole time. As they made the last stop, he turned again to face the boy.

“You can keep it, if you want to.”

Marco’s eyes widened.

“Th-thank you.” His voice was quiet and rough, an old man’s voice in a seven year-old’s body. As soon as he’d spoken, he pressed his lips together tightly.

“You’re welcome. Maybe you’ll find some crystals for your mom. Do you think she’d like them?”

“Sh-she would. She likes colors.”

“Good.” He turned once more to face the front of the van, ignoring the rush of satisfaction that filled him.

It shouldn’t matter that he’d earned a few words from Nell’s quiet son. He would never find out whether Marco went rock hunting or not. A tightening sensation in his chest accompanied the thought.

A few minutes later, Nell dropped back into her seat and started the van.

“We’d better take you back home. If you want, I can text you when we finish the last of the deliveries to your patients. So you know it’s all done.”

“I’d like that.”

She pulled out her phone and opened her contacts, and Ben told her his number.

Nell was quiet as they drove back. Marco returned to watching TV on his tablet, headphones over his ears.

The air in the van was thick with flowers and leaves, and her citrus-scented hair, and he’d miss all of this, even though it had only been a week. He would miss her.

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