9Izzy, always the gentlest and most peaceable of the Digi-Destined, more so even than Joe, became a different person over the next few weeks. He was snappy and sarcastic, and more withdrawn than he had ever been.
One evening he was in the computer lab at his old school, installing a firewall on the server. Normally he was pleased and honoured to help out his former teachers, but today he was itching to get home and check his mail and the problem at school was an unwelcome delay. He found himself unable to lose himself in the computer as he usually did, and tapped his fingers impatiently while the software uploaded.
Cody was sitting at one of the terminals, Upamon snuggled in his jacket, waiting to open the Digi-Port and cross over into the digital world. He watched with his usual bright-eyed curiosity as Izzy fiddled. Then he asked a question.
"Leave me the hell alone!" Izzy snapped back. Without looking, he flapped his hand as if swatting a fly and caught the younger boy across the cheek. Cody fled, choking back tears of shock and anger. Next to Grandpa and his late father, Izzy was the person he looked up to most. His rejection hurt solemn little Cody to the centre of his soul.
Everyone noticed Izzy's behaviour; no one could explain it. He was a closed book, an enigma. He insisted that nothing was wrong, and indeed there seemed to be nothing in his life that could possibly upset him so. His college work was fine, he had a loving family. He had been offered placements at any number of companies after he graduated, so the future was secure. But his friends' enquiries into whether anything was bothering him met with a stone wall.
The group was too strongly knit to abandon one of their number, even if he or she were being a jerk (in Tai's words). In the years they had known each other almost everyone had been through their personal difficult patch, and the rest of the team had always provided shoulders to lean or cry on. But there was a concensus among the Digi-Destined to leave Izzy in peace - not ignoring him or leaving him out of their plans and discussions, but letting him keep his privacy - until he came to them. They had seen him despondent before and knew that he always wanted to work out his own problems by himself, painful as it might be for those who loved him to watch. It was part of his character, as bearer of the Crest of Knowledge.
Tentomon alone knew what was troubling Izzy and he kept his mandibles firmly shut, only wishing he were there in the physical universe to help his friend.
I want to hold him close. Izzy wrote to his Digimon partner in one of his less and less frequent e-mails. I want to talk for hours, and share jokes and laugh. Me! Can you imagine it?
Tentomon mailed back: That's love? Then, Izzy, I guess I love you. I wish you the best of luck.
Izzy was comforted a little by this. Whatever else he might lose, the bond between boy and monster was unbreakable. But he had reached the stage of his Great Fear: did Willis feel the same way as he did? Might he, in time? If he didn't, could they still be friends? He was afraid to tell Willis, but if he didn't he felt as if he might explode. And then, telling him too early, too late or at a bad moment might wreck everything. It felt to Izzy as though he were in chemistry class stirring a highly volatile mixture that needed exactly the right amount of the right ingredient added at the right time.
He had tried to apply logic, but love and logic seemed to be incompatible. Logically, if he and Willis were so similar and thought so much alike, the probability was high that Willis' thoughts and feelings were akin to his own. But it was equally logical to assume that a blond sports star like his American friend would have a girlfriend. If that was the case, though, wouldn't he have mentioned her? Izzy sighed; his thoughts were going round and round like a programming loop. With all this going on in his head, small wonder he daydreamed his way through class and snapped at his friends.
He had even tried to convince himself that this was a simple adolescent crush. Izzy's heroes and role models were all men and women of intelligence; in the third grade he had followed his science teacher around like a little dog begging for treats, until he overheard her telling another teacher how Ôcute' he was. That crush had melted fast.
Willis was smart and brave. He was an excellent programmer and a logical thinker. It would be natural for someone like Izzy to develop a crush on him. But crushes were usually on remote idols - your teachers, older kids, then later sports players or musicians. You got a crush on someone you barely knew, and became disenchanted when you learned more about them. That wasn't the case with Willis. Izzy knew his character inside out, and he loved every bit of it. Puppy love? Not a chance. This was the real thing.
If only he could meet Willis in person! How wonderful, and terrifying, that would be. Izzy was no great judge of character; he was too much of a recluse for that. But he was sure that if he searched Willis' face and voice for clues he would find some scrap of information to help him decide how Willis felt. Besides he longed just to see him, to add the sound of his voice and the way he looked to his private store of Willis-knowledge.
And if it didn't work out? Maybe Willis would dislike him on sight - maybe he would dislike Willis. Would Izzy even have the guts to meet up with his closest friend, after years of online correspondence? He had no idea. But he wished he could be given the chance to find out.
"Izzy! Phone call!" Her son had been 'Izzy' for so long that even Mrs Izumi habitually called him by his nickname. "An American boy." Izzy's heart hit the roof of his mouth, but he had American friends at college. He mustn't allow himself to get too excited. Nevertheless he ran down the hall, skidding the last few metres in his sock feet.
"Hello?"
"Um, Izzy? Is that you?"
It was him. It had to be. There was the faint time-delay echo of an international connection, and the voice belonged to someone of the right age. Willis had phoned him up all the way from America! Could it be true? What did he want?
"Hello? Izzy?"
"Sorry...Willis? I was thinking." Izzy said carefully, holding the receiver as though it might bite.
"Typical. Your thinking is costing me a buck a minute." There was a friendly laugh behind the complaint that told Izzy beyond all doubt that it was his friend; he spoke just as he wrote.
"And yeah, it's me. Who else would want to call you from the States?" Willis confirmed. "Hey, listen. This is going to sound a bit weird, but is there any way you can come and see me? There's something I need to talk to you about and I don't want to do it online."
Izzy sat down cross-legged, one hand to his head. His wish had been granted. He was going to meet Willis! In five minutes he had gone from desperate to ecstatic. It was all too much.
"Izzy? Quit the silent treatment! Next time, you call me."
Izzy apologised again, stuttering. "Sure I'll come. When?"
Together they hashed out a plan. Spring break was starting soon for both boys, and Willis was going to be alone in his apartment. He had said a friend was coming from Japan; his parents assumed it was one of the kids he had met on vacation, the younger Digi-Destined. ("They'd freak if I said it was someone I met on the Net!" Willis confessed.) Izzy could easily afford the flight, since he had had a summer job at Nintendo the previous year and had saved all he earned. So Izzy was going to the USA for a week. He was shaking as he put the phone down.
"Are you sure this is a good idea, darling?" his mother asked. "You've never met this Willis. How do you know he's not a pervert or a murderer?"
Izzy laughed out loud. "Mom! Of course he's not. And I know him almost as well as I know you and Dad."
She frowned at this, finding it difficult to believe, but Izzy's wide, dark eyes were full of confidence and determination. "Well, OK then. But be careful. And ring us every night."
"I promise," Izzy said happily, hugging his mother.
He was nervous, of course. Soon he would have to tell Willis everything. And what was it Willis wanted to tell him? Surely not that he was in love with Izzy. That was too much to ask. Izzy burned with impatience and curiosity. But things were moving at last, and he shed his depression straight away. Just as things had got better for the Digi-Destined once they decided to confront the Dark Masters outright, so Izzy's mood lightened now his meeting with Willis was fixed and inevitable. He could not put things off any longer; something had to happen.
He told his friends about the forthcoming trip, and was so cheerful and happy that from then until the day of his departure he was everyone's favourite friend. He was talkative, almost hyper. Pizzas were on him. Most important of all, he sought out Cody on his own and apologised manfully. The night before he left, the two boys hugged goodbye with more affection than ever before.
"I guess Izzy just needed a change of scene," Joe shrugged. "Hey, I wonder if he'll be able to meet up with Mimi?"
"You're obsessed, man!" Tai yelled, giving him a shove. And Izzy's mysterious behaviour was forgiven and forgotten.
His suitcase had disappeared along the conveyor belt and he had only his laptop as hand luggage. Izzy reached up to kiss his mom's cheek, then trotted off towards the departure lounge. With a last wave over his shoulder, he had disappeared.
"Our little boy, off to America!" Mrs Izumi sighed. "Such a big place."
Her husband put his arm round her shoulder. "Izzy's been to a whole other dimension. I'm sure he can cope with the States. Come on - I'm double-parked."
To Be Continued...
