Bat Summer (15 page)

Lucy is stuffing the dead kite into the entrance to the cave. She's lying on the floor of the cave and pounding it out the opening with her feet. I watch her do it. It sure is a small opening. Even broken, the kite takes a lot of effort to get out.

Something clicks inside my head and I can't help giggling. Maybe it's because I'm nervous. Lucy stops stomping and looks at me. I didn't even think she knew I was still here. I'm terrified of what she's going to do to me, but I can't help it anymore. I'm laughing. I'm hysterical.

“What?” she says. Her voice is calmer now. She looks angry at me. “What is it?”

I'm trying not to laugh. I swear. But I look at her being angry at me and I can't help breaking up. She bangs her hand against the top of the cave and some dust comes down. I fall down on my back laughing.

“Terence! What are you laughing at?” I point at the door.

“I don't know how we thought we were going to get that kite out the door in one piece.” I manage to get the words out between laughs.

Lucy gives one more stiff kick to the plastic jammed in the mouth of the cave. She pounds it with her feet a few more times.

Then she starts laughing, too. She laughs and kicks at the plastic. I go over and help her. We kick at
it and kick at it, like we're trying to kill it, like you can kill plastic by stomping on its head. Our feet are going so fast, it's like those cartoon feet on that Tasmanian Devil guy, where you can't even see his feet, that's how fast they're going.

Then the plastic is all the way out the door and we just keep on kicking because it's fun.

I look over at Lucy and she looks at me and we both stop and just look at each other for a while.

And I get this strange feeling.

It's like when I used to have these nightmares about a crocodile in my bed, and I'd go to Mom's room and crawl under the covers and go to sleep feeling safe. It's just that exact feeling, of knowing that even though there's a crocodile in
your
bed, it doesn't meant there's crocodiles everywhere you go.

It's like somehow me and Lucy just closed a big gap full of nightmares.

I turn around and look out the cave. It's a beautiful sunny day. That didn't matter to me five minutes ago, and now it's like… it's like the whole world. Lucy turns around and pokes her head out, too. We both have to squint a bit. I push the plastic out of the way so we can see farther.

“Here!” someone shouts.

I want to hide, but then — it's over. I know it's over. Lucy starts to crawl back into the cave but I hold her by the arm.

“Lucy,” I say. “I think the kite's done now.” She nods, peels my hand off her arm and crawls out of the cave.

“Is that where you've been hiding out?”

It's Russell. I should have known. I crawl out of the cave and brush off my knees. Russell is hugging Lucy.

“Come on, now. It's time to go home.”

“How did you know where I was?” she asks. I grit my teeth.

“Well, I'm afraid Terence isn't as good at hiding as you are.”

“Lucy! Hey, she's over here.” Daphne and Rico appear at the edge of the hill and Daphne starts running down sideways. She can't go too fast or she'll fall. That's one killer hill.

I look down at the broken plastic kite and think how close I came to letting Lucy try to fly.

Russell must have followed me. He must have collected Daphne and Rico on his way through the park. If I hadn't run all the way from Wells Hill to the ravine, they probably would have found us right away.

Now Lucy is in her sister's arms.

“Thank God. Thank God,” Daphne keeps saying. “I am so sorry, Lucy.” And then, “Don't you ever run away again. We thought…”

I go back into the cave because I can't stand all that corny crud. It's just like television, only worse, because it's three-dimensional.

I start gathering up Lucy's stuff and Elys sticks her head in the cave.

“Gotcha!” she says and pokes me in the arm. “I
knew
you were coming here, and when Russell called… wow. Is this where she was?”

I should have known it was too easy getting out of the florist shop.

“And you knew all this time?” she says. I keep still. “Why didn't you tell anyone, Terence?”

“I promised Lucy. If she didn't come with me today, I was going to tell.”

“Do you realize what could have happened? She was out here alone for three nights. You can't leave a friend in a dangerous position, even if she asks you
to. You have to take care of your friends when they're in trouble like this. You have to say something.”

“How do you know how to help someone?” I spit out. “No one was taking care of Lucy at home. No one cared about her until she ran away. Maybe I was helping her. Seems like everyone cares now.”

Elys grabs my wrist. I try not to look at her. Adults think they know everything. Just because she's got a job, now she thinks she's Queen of the World Smartypants.

“You don't know what it's like to think that maybe your kid is dead, Ter. She didn't even tell her parents she had lice. Don't you think she could have given them the chance to make good?”

“But why should she have to? They should have known. They should have been paying attention.”

Elys looks in my eyes and then folds me into a hug. She softens right up.

“That's right. They should have been paying attention.”

I don't know why, but I start crying. Elys hugs me tighter. “Maybe people don't pay enough attention to the important things. We get preoccupied. It's bad and wrong — and it happens all the time. It shouldn't, but it does. That's why you need to learn how to YELL.”

She actually yells when she says that. It echoes all over the cave.

Elys is cool, like a bat.

Her hollering makes me realize where I am. Even though it's better that everyone knows where Lucy is, I'm going to miss our secret hideout. I wonder how a bat like Lucy will survive outside her cave.

I wipe my eyes and start packing stuff up in the knapsack. Elys is looking at the kite book.

“You really were making a kite, weren't you?”

“Lucy was. She was going to ride it all over town. She had it all built. It looked like it was going to work, too. See?” I point to the mess in the mouth of the cave. Elys picks up one of the branches. You can tell from the size of the branch how sturdy the thing would have been.

“She would've killed herself.”

“I wasn't going to let her do it, Elys.”

“How did you stop her?”

“It's a long story. She kind of stopped herself.”

“Tell me.”

I shake my head.

“Nope. Bats don't rat on bats.”

We crawl outside and everyone is standing around talking. It's like a wedding reception or something.

Rico rubs Lucy on the head and says, “What happened to your hair, Loser?”

“Get your hands off me, Moran.”

At least Lucy's sane enough to still hate Rico.

Those two cops come down the path and Russell goes out to meet them. He points up to the cave, then over at Lucy and next, at me. I feel myself blush hard. The police woman comes over to us.

“You all right?” she asks Lucy.

“Yeah, I guess,” says Lucy. Daphne puts her arms around her again.

“You stayed in there?” the cop motions toward the cave. Lucy nods. “Nobody put you there? Nobody forced you to do anything?”

“No. I put me there.”

The police woman goes and pulls the man cop aside. Then he wanders over.

“You know this man?” He motions at Russell.

“Yeah. That's Russell,” says Lucy. You can tell from her eyes that she's just cluing in to what's been going on while she's been holed up in the cave.

“Is he in trouble because I ran away?” Lucy looks at me. “Did I get Russell in trouble?”

The cop looks over at Rico. Lucy's looking at everyone looking at Rico.

“Not exactly, Lucy,” I say. “I think Rico got Russell in trouble. You shouldn't have run away, but Rico was the one who told them he thought Russell was a…” I can't say it with Russell standing here.

“A what? What did you tell them, Moran?” she yells at Rico.

Rico looks like he wants to take off, but the
police man has him by the arm.

“I think you'd better tell them, Rico,” says the cop. “And then you'd best apologize to the man.”

Rico's big face is all tight, and I can tell he's blinking back tears. But he won't open his mouth.

“'fess up, Rico,” I say. He looks at me.

“I called him a pervert, okay? Satisfied?”

“I'm not satisfied,” says the police man. I'm beginning to like him a little. “Are you satisfied?” he asks Russell.

Russell has his hand on his chin. He looks like he could throw boulders with his eyes, he's so angry.

“No,” he almost whispers. His being so quiet makes him sound even angrier.

“Apologize,” the cop says to Rico. Rico looks up at the cop.

“I'm sorry,” he says.

“Not to me,” says the cop. “To him.” He points at Russell. Rico looks up at Russell and bursts into tears.

“I'm so sorry, mister.” He wipes his nose with the back of his arm. He's still looking Russell straight in the eye. “I didn't think, mister. I'm sorry.”

Russell softens up, slowly, while Rico bawls. Finally, the cop lets go of his arm.

“I think it's time we all went home,” says Russell.

We all start heading out of the ravine. All except for Rico. I wouldn't mind leaving him there, but
Russell calls back for him. “Come along, Rico.”

Rico catches up, but not all the way. He tags behind us a bit as we make our way up to the street.

“By the way,” Elys whispers in my ear, “I phoned your mom. She should be home by now.” I look up at her and she gives me this huge, evil, no-teeth smile.

We all walk together toward Wells Hill Park. I feel like it's been a million years since I was here.

Tom will be home in a couple of weeks. It doesn't seem like a lot of time anymore. I mean, I want to spend more time with Lucy before he gets back. I want to play her at chess.

How am I going to explain to Tom how a bald girl could be so beautiful? He'll never believe all this stuff. Even if he does, he'll pretend like it's no big deal. I don't think he could stand to know that life goes on without him.

When we get to where it's time to split ways, Lucy breaks away from Daphne and the cops and comes over to me. She seems like another person already. I feel kind of embarrassed.

“Well, anyway, thanks,” she says. She puts out her hand for me to shake. I take it. I have the strangest urge to kiss her, like I could just do it and get away with it and not have it be any big deal.

I give her a huge smile instead. I'll kiss her later. I'll kiss her next week. I'll kiss her sometime when it's just her and me.

“You're welcome,” I say.

“I still want to make the Save the Bat kite. We'll do it properly this time. We'll, like, read books and stuff. You'll help, right?”

I nod. She leans forward toward my ear. I feel a chill run down my back. Then she whispers, “Eep, eep, eep.” She turns and runs back to Daphne and the cops.

You can't take the bat out of Lucy.

I wonder if there's enough of Lucy that's human to keep her from flying off again. She's getting a police escort home to her parents, but what happens then?

I watch Daphne put her arm around her sister and make for home. Russell and Rico are going that way, too. They're walking beside each other, but neither of them is talking. The cops pull up the rear.

Elys and I watch them all go until there's nothing more to watch. Then we start walking home.

“Don't worry,” Elys says. “Lucy will be all right.”

“How do you know?”

“She's got you, doesn't she? Friends take care of friends. And you're a good friend, Terence.”

The sun sifts through the branches that hang over the street. I watch my shadow move slowly down the road. I feel like I'm chained to my shadow, like there is a dark part of me — a bat part of me — that will follow me from now on, no matter where I go.

Elys sighs and throws her arm over my shoulders. It should weigh me down even more, but it doesn't. It makes me feel so light, like if I opened my arms, I could fly.