E. Egg's Arc

Chapter 4 of 4

The voices faded into the distance. Jamie's hand was still in his, warm and steady. E. Egg looked at her profile as she watched the last of the crowd disappear past the tall grass. She turned to him and smiled, but the smile didn't quite reach her eyes. She let go of his hand and stood up, brushing grass from her jeans. The banner at the field's edge hung limp now, the bright letters proclaiming the hunt that was already over. Jamie looked at it, then back at E. Egg. "I have to go," she said. Not an apology. Just a fact. E. Egg stayed sitting in the wildflowers, his throat tight. He wanted to say something—not to make her stay, but to tell her what this meant. That she was the only one who never treated finding him like winning. That the hiding only worked because she knew where he was. But the words felt too heavy, too much like asking for something he'd never needed to ask for before. Jamie reached up and unclasped her wooden bracelet. She held it for a moment, running her thumb over the carved initials, then crouched down and tucked it into the grass beside him. "For next time," she said quietly. E. Egg stared at the bracelet, at the way it settled among the candy wrappers scattered here from years of hunts. All the small pieces left behind, year after year, in the same spot where he'd always hidden. She'd known. She'd always known. He looked up at Jamie and nodded. Not because he understood what next time meant or when it would come. But because she'd just shown him something he couldn't unsee: the hiding wasn't just his. It never had been. Jamie stood and walked toward the banner, her footsteps quiet in the grass. E. Egg picked up the bracelet and closed his hand around it, feeling the smooth wood against his palm. The tall grass still held him. The ritual still worked. But now he knew why.