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Nancy was sitting at the Byers’s kitchen table, drumming her fingers against the wooden surface and waiting for Jonathan to come out of his room. She had been instructed to sit and wait there, a surprise wouldn’t be a surprise if Nancy saw it in his room before he gave it to her; she had helped him fix the clattering in his car engine earlier that day and he had apparently gotten something to say thank you. As she sat, passing the time by studying her fingernails, she noticed there was still oil on her hands. Her mother would start on her “ladylike” speech again if she came home with oil and dirt on her clothes.
Nancy stood and walked to the bathroom, immediately running the water and trying to scrub the black residue off her hands. Nancy didn’t want to look anywhere but her own face in the mirror, not wanting to seem like she was prying, but her eyes found interest in the clutter on the sink. Half empty soap bottles, hair products no one used, and a cup of combs. Nancy reached for the towel beside the sink, but accidentally caught the combs and pushed it into the wastebasket on the floor. She crouched down to grab the cup, but found something strange under it, wrapped in tissues.
“Jonathan?” Nancy called, pulling it up from the trash. “Why is there empty camera equipment in your bathroom trash?”
“What?” He answered, something banging before his footsteps advanced towards the bathroom. “What are you talking about?”
“This. It looks like camera stuff.” She held out the black cartridge, metal clips in the center. “Why is it in your bathroom trash. What were you doing in here?”
“I don’t shoot Polaroid.” He said, shaking his head and taking it from her. “This isn’t mine.”
“It’s not?” She asked. “Is it your mom’s?”
“No… She’s not that good with technology.” Jonathan muttered. “Maybe Will? But where did he get his hands on a camera?”
“You said he’s been cutting grass for the neighborhood lately… Maybe he saved up?” Nancy offered, shrugging. “He’s young; he doesn’t really have anything else to buy yet.”
“Does Mike buy a camera with his arcade money?” Jonathan countered, lifting his eyebrows. “They’re thirteen.”
“And you’re Will’s big, hot-shot photog brother.” Nancy laughed, taking the cartridge back. “It’s probably just Will trying to follow your lead.”
“I guess.” Jonathan hummed. They stood silently in the bathroom, mulling the idea over. The silence lasted only a minute. “I have to see what model he’s using.”
“Let’s go.” Nancy followed Jonathan as they rushed down the hall to Will’s room.
It looked like Mike’s; organized but in a way that was clean to only children. There were clothes still folded on the dresser and not put away, the bed wasn’t made, and there were papers and crayons all over Will’s desk. Nancy stopped by the desk to see what Will was working on before arriving at her house earlier that day. There was a sketch of two figures, both boys she assumed--although not everything Will drew was human-- holding their hands out to a monster attempting to burn them alive. The fire deflected from their hands and they stood tall and proud on the clean white portion of the paper, green grass under their feet. She moved the paper aside, seeing if there was a follow up for the two heroes and spotted the glossed white strip of the bottom of a Polaroid photo.
The first photo was of Will; the focus was terrible, the lighting not properly contrasting with Will’s face as he laughed and tried to spot the person behind the camera from snapping the photo. The next photo was of Mike in the same setting-- which explained why the focus in the other photo was off; Mike didn’t know anything about cameras. Mike was sitting in a wooded area, standing and writing in the dirt with a stick. He was oblivious to the photo, his nose scrunched at his creation. The angle was wrong for Nancy to see, but there seemed to be a heart drawn in the dirt.
“Hey, look. I found your brother’s pictures.” Nancy held the two photos out to him, the others in a stack she waved out to Jonathan. “It’s sweet; he’s trying to be like you. Taking unknowing pictures of a Wheeler.” Jonathan rolled his eyes and urged Nancy to page through the rest. “Do you know where he is?”
“Castle Byers. It’s out back.” Jonathan said, pointing in the background of the photo of Mike to the wooden sign, slightly unfocused.
“Oh, that’s cute.” Nancy flipped the photo to the back of the pile and reached the third. Mike had noticed Will and was giving him an annoyed look, his hand blurred as it tried to wave the stick at him.
“Same reaction as you too.” Jonathan laughed.
In the next photo, Mike was a lot closer to the camera. His grimace had melted to a smile that Nancy had never seen before. His eyes were bright and his cheeks were red, his eyes focusing just above the camera lens. He was looking at Will. Nancy flipped to the next photo and found no faces in the frame at all, only the ground Mike had been marking up before. There were two words, although being upside-down, Nancy had a hard time reading them.
“What does that say?” She asked, handing it up to Jonathan’s eyes. “I can’t read that.”
“Uh,” he squinted. “I think it’s just their names.”
“Jonathan.” Nancy had handed only one photo to Jonathan, the rest of the stack still resting in her hand. The next photo on the top was exposed and showed it to be the two boys again. It wasn’t clear, the camera being jostled as it was being taken. Mike’s arms were seen to be wrapping around Will’s shoulders, his lips pressing against Will’s cheek. “Jonathan, look at this.”
“Oh, wow.” He said, taking it from Nancy gingerly, careful to not shuffle the figures.
“That explains why I found it hidden in the bathroom trash.” Nancy muttered. “He doesn’t want anyone to know… I feel guilty we went snooping.”
“I had no idea.” Jonathan whispered, still staring at the picture. “Did you?”
“Not at all.”
“Do you think they are scared to tell us?” Jonathan asked, slowly sinking on Will’s bed. “I mean, do you think they think we’ll be mad or something?”
“I don’t know.” Nancy shrugged. “I mean, my family is different than yours.” Nancy had brought Barb over to her house with one too many negative comments by her father to know that Mike knew what not to say.
“But we love Will!” Jonathan exclaimed. “He has to know that!”
Nancy sat down with Jonathan and stared at the picture again, the two boys blurred but their smiles in crystal clear focus. Nancy hadn’t seen Mike smile like that before. It was the happiest she had never seen, but definitely knew what it felt like; it wasn’t naive kid infatuation. There was something undeniably sincere in their eyes, the twinkle flashing in the frame.
“Here! Let me just grab my coat and we can go back out.” Two voices entered the front door, sending Nancy and Jonathan to their feet.
“Will?” Jonathan called, quickly trying to put the pictures back on the desk. “Is that you?”
“Jonathan?” Will responded, following the sound straight back to his room, the boys both facing their siblings riffling through Will’s things. “What are you doing?”
“I found your Polaroid clip in the trash… I wanted to see what model you were shooting with.” Jonathan held up the camera he had placed on the desk. “I want to buy more film for you if you’re getting serious.” Will eyed them both curiously before stepping inside, with Mike close behind, and reaching into his closet.
“No… Nothing serious. Just something for fun.” Will said, pulling his coat off the hanger. He smiled at the two of them before his eyes fell to his desk, his face falling. “Were you two going through my things?”
“What? No!” Nancy gasped, shaking her head. “I mean, I was looking at your drawing but--”
“Don’t look at my desk! Those are my things!” Will cried, rushing forward and pushing everything under his books and folders. “Don’t look at them.”
“What the hell, Nancy?” Mike asked, walking past her to comfort Will, who was far more distressed than expected from the shifting of a few coloring pages. “What were you doing?” Mike had no idea what was hidden under the pages.
“Admiring Will’s photography.” Nancy said, producing the picture of her smiling brother that she had quickly stuffed in her pocket. “I think it’s really beautiful.”
Mike grabbed it and quickly shoved it in his own pocket, his face turning bright red. “That’s-- uh, that’s not… It’s, uh--”
“It’s not a big deal, Mike.” Nancy said, reaching out to put an arm around him. Will was still hunched over his desk, trying to hide the evidence that was already well known. “Really, it’s okay.”
“A--Are you gonna tell dad?” Mike asked. His hand dropped from his pocket to his side, reaching out and tugging on Will’s sleeve, trying to bring him back to his side. Nancy couldn’t imagine the shared fear they had, having to walk into the middle of the woods just to do what Nancy was able to do on the playground with her first crush back in the third grade.
“No. Of course not.” She hugged Mike, who pulled Will from his desk to join them.
“I’m sorry, Will.” Jonathan said as he placed his arms around the three of them. “I wish you had told me.”
“Mom said to wait before telling you.” Will said beneath his arm. “She’s still scared of Dad.”
“You don’t have to worry about him. Mom and I’ve got you.” Jonathan promised, tightening his grip on them. “Nancy too, right?”
“Definitely.” She said, placing a hand on Mike’s head and holding him tightly. “You shouldn’t have to be scared.” Nancy got to be in love and be limitless-- her brother deserved the same thing.