As I ate breakfast, two images kept replaying in my head. Now he’s there!...Now he isn’t!... ...Now he’s there!...Now he isn’t! Kinda like the eye doctor I saw on Saturday. “Better like this?...Or better like this?”

“Well that’s a first!”, mom said, which made me jump. “Are you okay?”, she added.

“Yeah. You just scared me, is all.”, I said. She kept watching me.

“What’s a first?” I asked.

“What?”. A quick wrinkle flicked over on her brow.
“Oh.. I just saw you eating homefries without ketchup. Are you sure you’re okay?”

“Yeah. Uh, I was just hoping Mr. Raegle isn’t our gym substitute again.”, I lied. “All he does is make us march. Someone said he was, like, a Marine or something.”

Mom was saying something about not being very creative, when Travis walked in with a loud, “Good morning, Mrs Bunten!”

“Good morning, Travis.”

“Hey little man.”, he said to me. He looked over his shoulder
at where my mom had been, then leaned in toward me and whispered, “Hey, can you keep a secret?”