Authors: Diane Munier
He
grins and looks at Easy and he grins back.
“C’mon
Abigail,” I say, ready to walk her home. But now that I had a better look Cap
does not at all look like Dr. Kildare. But that other one Easy, he might be the
cutest boy I ever did see in my life.
“No,”
Abigail pulls away wiping the backs of her hands under her eyes. She steps back
from me. “They want to take me to Florida,” she cries again.
“Who?”
I say.
“Mommy,”
she says.
I
look at Ricky. “Who’s they?”
“Get
in the house, Abigail May,” Ricky says through his teeth.
“No,”
she says and she takes off running down Darnay Road.
Ricky
takes off after her, but no one catches Abigail when she’s wearing her Keds,
and she is.
So
Cap runs back to Abigail’s yard and here he comes on his bike taking off after
the Brodys. I step out near the road. All I can think is Aunt May’s going to
come out that door any minute looking for Abigail and we’ll all get in trouble.
And
I know my face gets as red as those letters but I make myself look straight at
him cause no boy ever makes me afraid to even talk or something. But then no
boy is ever allowed to touch my hair.
So
I just say, “Yes.”
Darnay
Road 8
The
last thing I expect to see in my whole life is Abigail May sitting in between
the raised handlebars on Cap’s bicycle with her arms lifted like she is on the
roller coaster called Red Baron at the school picnic. But that’s what I see all
right, her whizzing past while that big boy pedals and grins like a fast
pumping fiend.
I
nearly have no words except to whisper her name, “Abigail May.” Well, she isn’t
crying any more, that’s for sure.
Poor
Ricky is somewhere up the street where he’d gone on a run for Abigail.
“You
want to ride?” Easy says to me.
I
hold up my cast.
“It
won’t get in the way,” he says.
Well
I am so scared to say yes to such a thing. It is nearly ten o’clock even though
I’m not wearing my Cinderella watch because of my bath. And my Granma is
upstairs sawing away and God only knows if Aunt May is also in the land of
dreams or staring from her window right now—staring in shock and horror.
“Well…I…,”
I say.
Then
Easy looks in the direction Ricky went and he takes my good arm and says, “Come
on.”
And
that’s what Granma always says. “If someone asks you to jump in the lake,
Georgia Christine, you going to do that too?”
If
it’s Easy doing the asking, I guess it’s possible I’ll jump right in.
We
run across the street and along Abigail’s side yard and through the back yard
and Paterson’s old dog goes to howling and Easy’s bike is back there laying on
its side and he lets go of my arm and gets it, and I see how big he is again,
and I just swallow my good sense and I hitch up my nightie with my good hand
and put the backside Granma is going to wallop regardless of my beautiful eyes
right there in the middle of that u-shaped bar and Easy is breathing loud as he
pushes off and takes off on the grass, and I feel the power in his legs as we
go right over that rough patchy grass, but we don’t go for the street, we ride
behind the yards, setting the dogs off one by one, and he says something and I
say, “What?” and he says to take ahold of my hair cause it’s pretty much
attacking him I guess, so I sink my behind more over the bar and I have to let
go with my one hand and I gather my hair up then and he’s breathing right by my
ear and I keep my eyes straight ahead cause I don’t know what the heck I’m
doing.
Darnay
Road 9
Well
I do honor her, but those little questions under the commandments that Sister
Karfarik, then Sister Eladine, then Sister Sponza, then Sister Margaret Mary
her replacement, then Sister Mary Elizabeth always asked before we made
confession, those are the ones I hate, hate. They just get about everything a
kid can think to do.
But
I can’t let Abigail May go riding off into the night with a boy from Scutter
Road now can I?
So
Easy is pumping his legs off behind me and I wonder how he can be so strong,
but the arms either side of me have muscles and smoking has not stunted his
growth at all.
But
it’s so dark and scary along these tracks. Many’s the time Abigail May and I
have looked back here during hide-and-go-seek and said, “Not back there,
compadre
.”
And
here I am now and Easy don’t seem to know he’s supposed to be scared of the
bums that run along here. He’s pretty brave. Well strong and brave but I’m
still so wide-eyed I wouldn’t blink if a bug hit me in the eye.
Finally
he goes around the house on the corner and hits the sidewalk and my teeth can
stop rattling. He hits the street like he knows where he’s going.
“Where
we going?” I say.
“Trestle,”
he says.
The
trestle bridge? Is he out of his mind?
“Where’s
Abigail May?” I say.
He
don’t answer for a minute and I let my hair go and grip that bar cause Lord a
mercy I’m being kidnapped and I suddenly want Granma so powerfully.
“Whoa,”
Easy says cause I sit up some and I hear his shoe slap the ground a couple
times, then he’s got it again. Even if he’s kidnapping me I pretty well knew he
wouldn’t let us fall.
“Take
me home!” I say.
He
slows to a stop and we’re there near the curb and I hop off and it makes my arm
ache. Facing him is harder than I thought. He’s a really big boy and I don’t
know what I’m supposed to do but I’m trying not to cry.
“Are
you afraid?” he says.
“No!”
I say too loudly.
“Get
on. I’ll take you back.”
He
has the kindest eyes. If he had a bath and some new clothes he could be in the
movies maybe or in the Mickey Mouse Club for sure. But then he’d meet Annette
Funicello and so long Easy.
“Little
girl?” he says.
Well
he shouldn’t call me that. I ain’t so little I can’t answer to my real name.
“Where
did your brother take my friend Abigail May?” I say ruffling my feathers like I
do when Granma calls me Missy and says something about my high horse.
“The
trestle,” he says and he’s got a half smile. Just one side. It’s very
interesting and I’m afraid I do the same thing just to see what it feels like
cause I generally lift both sides at the same time if I smile at all. But I do
not show my pearly whites. I hate to look like a beaver.
Wait
a minute. We’re solving a mystery here. This is number one in our notebook
even. Well that makes everything so much better.
“Is
that where you boys go every night?”
He
has hair under his arms. Ain’t he eleven? Lord a mercy what am I doing with a
man?
Then
we hear, “Caghan.” It’s Ricky on his bike. He’s mad which is pretty much like
usual.
“Get
on,” Easy says, and I do, and Ricky is saying not to, yelling that, but Easy
says get on, and I just do.
And
I am telling you it is the ride of my life after that, that’s for sure.
Darnay
Road 10
Ricky
does catch up eventually, but I know that’s because we hit rough ground again
and Easy just doesn’t seemed worried about a thing. You can’t get to the
trestle without going over hill and dale. So I tell Easy, “Let’s walk it,” and
that’s when Ricky catches up, his scowling self that is, cause he takes this
world very, very seriously Abigail always says.
“You
and Abigail May are going to get in so much trouble,” he tells me moving off
his bike while it’s still going. He don’t even care, he lets it go off by
itself and just fall over and it’s an almost brand new ten-speed he got for
Christmas with money his mom sent from Tampa.
No
sooner am I looking at that then a fight starts right behind me. Ricky went for
Easy and Easy’s bike has fallen over but it don’t even matter for that bike and
he is holding Ricky’s arms which is making Ricky madder and madder.
“You
don’t ever take off like that,” Ricky’s yelling at me while he struggles.
Easy
ain’t saying a thing, and his arms are a little longer than Ricky’s cause he’s
holding him tightly enough that Ricky can’t get away, but Ricky’s trying to
kick so Easy just gets Ricky turned around and he holds him up close with his
arms under Ricky’s and hands clasped at the back of Ricky’s neck and I feel
real sorry for him and very scared cause me or my granma have not seen anything
like this except for
Wrestling at the Chase
on Sunday mornings on
channel eleven and it’s just terrible to behold in real.
Next
I know Easy is taking Ricky down to the ground and he’s got himself on Ricky’s
back, he’s kneeling on him and telling him to settle down.
Ricky
has his face turned to the side and he’s yelling at me and yelling at Easy and
I am trying not to cry, but I say, “They didn’t do anything, Ricky. He’s taking
me to find Abigail, that’s all and I saw her and she’s real happy.”
I
tell Easy not to hurt him, not to hurt Ricky. I don’t know who to help, or what
to do.
“Just
stop Ricky,” I say cause maybe that will fix this.
Ricky
says, “Get off me damn it. Let me up.”
Ricky
curses when he’s mad. Abigail told me. He says the thing that holds back water,
and the place where the devil lives and he says poop only that bad way. Aunt
May says he’s going to have to suck on a bar of soap, but she can’t make him
cause he’s too big.
“Let
him go,” I tell Easy cause he’s looking at me like I’ve got to decide.
Ricky
gets up and takes a sissy swing at Easy, but Easy just slaps at Ricky’s fist
and barely pushes at it.
“Did
he take Abigail to the trestle?” he asks Easy.
“Yeah,”
Easy says. “She wanted to.”
“That
is my sister,” Ricky says. “You and your ape brother have no right.” He’s
telling me to come on, Ricky is.
He
grabs me too tight and I say, “Ow,” and Easy is picking up his bike and he
says, “Leave her alone. I’ll take her back.”
“You
will keep your filthy hands off her and my sister. When I find Abigail May I am
going to kill Cap.” He looks at Easy and he’s squeezing my good arm and he
says, “I’m going to kill him.”
“Don’t
do her like that,” Easy says. He’s laying his bike on the ground again.
I’m
picking at Ricky’s grip but it ain’t doing me much good. But Easy is taking a
couple of steps. “Let her go,” he says.
Ricky
is telling him to get the hell away from him, keep your filthy hands off or
something. He swings at Easy with his fist but he don’t let go of my arm and
Easy grabs the wrist where Ricky grips me, grabs Ricky’s wrist and squeezes and
Ricky lets go and there they go again. I back away, and Easy has him on the
ground real quick again, but this time he sits on Ricky’s stomach and has his
hands spread out and he’s close to Ricky’s face. “You’re going home,” he says.
Ricky
says stuff.
“You’re
going home,” Easy says again. He just keeps saying that.
“What
about Abigail?” Ricky finally says.
“I’ll
have him bring her home,” Easy says in this deep voice, real sure.
“Let
me up,” Ricky says.
Easy
takes a big breath and he gets off him again. Ricky gets up and goes angry and
mean to his bike. He gets on it then. “I’m going for her,” he says. “Her dad is
a cop. I’ll be telling him about you and your brother.”
Easy
looks at me like I just grew horns.
“He
don’t ever come see me,” I say really quick. I don’t know why I tell such a
personal thing. Granma says I get diarrhea of the mouth sometimes.
He’s
staring at me, and Ricky calls back, “Come on.” He’s not going home like Easy
said. Looks like he’s going for the trestle.
I
don’t know what to do. Maybe Easy doesn’t want me anymore.
He’s
standing there waiting, staring at me and waiting. I walk slowly forward and
turn to get on and he surprises the bejesus right out of me and takes hold of
me around the ribs and lifts me up like I’m a feather or something and I sit
there in the middle.
“You
want to go home?” he says pretty close to my ear.
“No,”
I say very quickly like there is another girl speaking inside me.
I
don’t know why but I feel like I picked him somehow, picked him over Ricky and
maybe my dad. And I don’t even know him. But I want to. It’s just true inside
me.