Al Capone Shines My Shoes (10 page)

“Bring a magazine,” Theresa whispers.

“Sure, but once she presses her face on each page, she’s done with the magazine. My talk with Mr. Purdy’s gonna run much longer than that.”

“Bring an index. You don’t need me.”

“I can’t read to her and talk to Mr. Purdy at the same time.”

“She’s there without me all the time,” Theresa growls.

“Yeah, but not when I’m there. If I spend my time talking to Purdy, she’s not gonna like that.”

Silence again, but there’s a different feel to this silence, like maybe Theresa is thinking about this.

I tap the flat part of the bedspread near what I think is Theresa’s leg. “Natalie is going to expect you to be there. What am I going to tell her?”

This elicits a big complicated sigh from the white bedcover. “Tell her I’m stupid. Tell her I’m the stupidest person in the whole world and she’s lucky I’m not there.”

“Theresa, you’re not stupid. You made a mistake. I make mistakes all the time. I made at least 150 mistakes in the last hour. Wait no, 151.”

Theresa’s voice is so quiet I almost don’t hear it. “He almost died.”

“Yeah and you did the right thing. You let Jimmy and me know he was in trouble, and we got him to Doc Ollie and Doc Ollie got the penny out. And now he’s fine.”

More silence.

“I wished Rocky would go away.” She can hardly get these words out.

“Yeah, okay,” I whisper back. “But that doesn’t mean you don’t love him. Do you know how many times I’ve wished Natalie would go away?” As soon as I say this my armpits begin to sweat and my hives burn. I don’t mean this. I don’t.

“Really?” Theresa whispers, her voice yearning.

My hand steadies myself on the bed. I can’t lie to Theresa, but I sure as heck don’t want to talk about this. “Sometimes I feel that way,” I admit.

The covers are moving, like she is nodding.

“But Natalie’s not going to understand any of this. All she’ll know is you aren’t there.”

“I’m a jinx,” Theresa says.

“No, you’re not.”

“Am so. That’s what Piper said.”

“Since when do you listen to her?”

“Since never,” she concedes.

“Exactly. Piper is full of crap. You of all people know that.”

The covers move again in a nodding motion. “Why do you like her then?” Theresa whispers.

“I never said I did.”

“You do, though.”

“It’s a small island. We all have to get along.”

“You
like
her!” Theresa’s voice is strong now.

“Right now I don’t.”

This gets her. She sits up straight in bed and takes her covers off. “Why? What did she do?”

“She . . .” I stare into Theresa’s disheveled face. “Look, I’ll be there tomorrow on the ten a.m. I need you to come, okay? I really do.”

Theresa doesn’t answer, but I can tell by the way her eyes are looking straight up, as if to see what’s in her own head, that she’s thinking about this.

Boy, do I hope she decides to come.

13.

EVERYBODY LIKES MOOSE

 

 

 

 

The next morning I head straight for the dock, the
Definitive History of Baseball
under my arm and all the money my grandma ever sent me in my pocket. I think about stopping by the Mattamans’ on the way down, but I decide against it. My dad says when it comes to girls the fastest route from A to B is hardly ever the best one.

Once I’m down at the dock, I begin to stew. What if Theresa doesn’t come? Luckily, it isn’t long before I see her dark uncombed head poke out of her front door, her church coat and hat in her hand.

But wait. What’s she doing now? She’s going upstairs, not down. Uh-oh. She’s not headed for Annie’s house . . . is she?

She is.

Theresa’s decided not to come? But then why is she wearing her good clothes? Okay, she’s back outside now, tugging on Annie’s arm. Annie has her church clothes on too.

Annie’s coming? Uh-oh. And what’s Annie have with her? A bag with her baseball bat sticking out of it. She’s wearing her church clothes and she has her baseball gear?

By the time they get down to the dock, Jimmy appears. He must have been watching from the canteen. “Where are you going?” Jimmy asks Annie and Theresa.

“Gonna visit Natalie,” I tell him.

“Me too, and Annie’s coming, aren’t you, Annie?” Theresa smiles up at her.

“I thought you were never leaving your room,” Jimmy mutters.

“I had to,” Theresa explains. “Moose needs my help, don’t you, Moose?”

“And you?” Jimmy’s eyes dart to Annie. His tongue pokes his cheek out of shape. “You got your baseball gear?”

“Don’t look at me,” I say. “I have no idea why she’s bringing her baseball gear.”

“Like I believe that,” Jimmy says.

“I don’t,” I insist, watching a gull land with a live crab in its mouth. The bird sets the crab down gently, then snaps a leg off and swallows it.

“I thought I’d just see, you know, if he was at the field,” Annie explains.

“
He,
meaning Scout?” Jimmy asks.

“Scout’s not going to be there,” I tell Annie.

“How do you know?” Annie asks.

“I just do,” I explain, watching the gull snap another leg off the still-moving crab.

Annie grinds her teeth. Her lids lower on her pop-out eyes. “You just don’t want me to play with him.”

“I don’t want you to pull a stunt like you did the last time, if that’s what you mean.”

She shrugs, her eyes focused on her trousers, which I see she is wearing under her dress. “I can’t stop you from playing in the city.”

“You can’t stop me? What’s that supposed to mean?” I ask.

Annie shrugs. “It was for your own good what I did. But maybe I know more now.”

“What are you talking about?” Theresa demands.

Annie looks over the top of Theresa’s head. “I’m just looking out for you.”

“Sure doesn’t feel that way,” I say as the gull swallows the crab’s legless body whole. Is this what Capone’s hit men are going to do to me?

The boarding whistle blows.

“Look, go get your gear. Hurry or we’ll miss the boat!” Annie puts on her bossy voice.

“Yeah, Moose, hurry,” Jimmy echoes dryly.

No way I’ll be playing ball today. I’m just hoping I don’t end up like that poor crab, eaten alive one leg at a time. Still, I go get my gear. I never say no to baseball. On the way up to my apartment, I try to sort out this mess. How am I going to get roses for Mae if Annie’s with me? How am I going to get back on the 2:00 boat with Theresa and the flowers if we go to visit Natalie and then go to the Marina to play with Scout?

I should have told Annie she couldn’t come with us because Natalie isn’t allowed that many visitors. Is it too late for this? I could say I forgot this rule. People forget . . . don’t they? Then maybe Jim won’t be mad because he won’t feel so left out.

This is a good plan I decide. But when I get back to the boat, Jimmy is gone, and my father, in his officer’s uniform, and Mrs. Mattaman, in her apron, are both standing with Theresa and Annie.

My dad pats my back. “What a good idea, Moose. Natalie will love having a whole Alcatraz contingent come visit her.”

What am I going to do now? I could say my hives are bothering me and I can’t go. But then how will I get on the boat an hour later? I could send Theresa and Annie off to find Scout, while I get the roses. Or maybe I could . . . I could . . .

“Natalie’s going to be pleased as punch to see you three,” Mrs. Mattaman says as the key sails down the guard tower guy wire. She hands me a package all tied up with string. “You eat the others already, Moose?”

“Might have.”

My father laughs.

Mrs. Mattaman’s eyes glow with this information. “Glad you’re not my son. Between you and Jimmy, you’d eat me out of house and home,” she coos.

“You girls keep a close eye on him, okay? Make sure he saves some for Natalie.” My father winks.

“Probably should have baked a lemon cake.” Mrs. Mattaman winds her finger around her apron string. “You tell her I will soon as she gets home. You betcha.”

“Last call ten a.m.,” Trixle bellows, his bullhorn directed at us.

“You heard the man. On the double, you three.” Mrs. Mattaman shoos us down the gangplank. She stands on the dock watching us as we push off. The boat rail gently moves up and down. The motor rumbles under my feet.

“My mom sure likes Moose,” Theresa tells Annie.

“Everybody likes Moose,” Annie says. “That’s the trouble.”

“Why is that the trouble?” I ask.

Annie shakes her head. “It just is.”

14.

DEAD TWELVE-YEAR-OLDS

 

 

 

 

The whole way to the Esther P. Marinoff School I try to plan everything out. I’m going to take Annie to the wrong field, so we don’t run into Scout. I hate the idea of missing out on a pickup game, but this is my life we’re talking about. I’m not sure what kind of pickup games they have in heaven. I don’t think there are that many dead baseball-playing twelve-year- olds up there.

The more I think about this, the harder I work to wiggle the string off the cannoli box and worm my big hand inside. I’ve just managed to eat two when Annie rips the box out of my hands. “What’s the matter with you, Moose?” she asks as we walk up the steep San Francisco street with the cables rumbling underground and the cable car bell clanking in the distance.

We’re almost to the Esther P. Marinoff now, which is good because my legs feel wobbly, like I just climbed up twenty flights of stairs. We didn’t have hills like this in Santa Monica. We didn’t have mansions like this either.

Up ahead is the familiar white house with its large, well-cared-for garden full of flowers. Orange flowers drape from a trellis and tiny pink and purple flowers the size of a lady’s thumbnail spill over the side of a planter. It smells sweet like honeysuckle. A metal placard reads in elaborate cursive
The Esther P. Marinoff School
.

I look around for roses. Just my luck, there are none.

“Es-thur. Pee. Mary-noff. Lookee, you guys! This is it!” Theresa runs around behind me and gives me a shove, head-butting me up the stairs to the massive front door. Annie laughs as I ring the doorbell and Theresa pounds on the solid oak door.

It takes a while, but eventually the big door is opened by a small woman with hair the color of tarnished nickels and a velvet dress thick as movie curtains. Her eyes are a clear gold, the color of beer.

“We’re here to visit Natalie Flanagan,” I tell her.

“And you are?”

“Moose, I mean Matthew Flanagan, her brother, and Theresa Mattaman and Annie Bomini, her friends.”

“Ahhh, the Alcatraz kids!” The woman smiles, takes my hand in her tiny one, and pumps my arm. “I’m Sadie,” she says.

Though she must be my grandma’s age, there’s something about her that seems young, like the graying hair and wrinkled skin are a costume change and not the real person at all. We follow her inside.

“I’ve heard a lot about you kids. Natalie talks about you all the—”

“Yes, ma’am.” I cut her off before I can stop myself. I don’t want to hear about Nat missing me while I’ve been home with my mom and my dad all to myself.

Sadie blinks like she has dust in her eyes. “Well then, you must be anxious to see Natalie. You wait right here. I’ll bring her up.”

Annie’s watchful blue eyes take everything in. The room reminds me of Sadie herself: full of once-elegant things that are well worn. Chairs with old-fashioned carved legs and threadbare seats. Brocade curtains, faded smooth in spots. But nothing about this place seems like gangsters, and Sadie sure doesn’t look like the kind of woman who would mix it up with mobsters. How did Al Capone do it? How did he get Natalie into this school?

Theresa bounces on the lumpy seat of her straight-back chair. She jumps up when she hears the sound of Natalie approaching, dragging one foot along the carpet. Step, drag. Step, drag.

“She’s here!” Theresa cries, clapping her hands together.

When Nat appears she’s wearing the yellow dress my mom and the convicts made for her, but the belt is gone and there are two extra buttons sewn to the front.

For a second Nat’s clear green eyes flash past me, then flip down to the carpet again.

“Sun get up okay today, Natalie?” Nat mutters.

Sadie’s thick velvet dress sweeps past us. “Natalie. Look at the person with whom you’re speaking. And speak in proper pronouns, please.”

I don’t like Sadie’s tone. What gives her the right to talk to Natalie this way? “Natalie loves the sunrise. She gets up for it every morning,” I explain. “When I get up, I always ask her if the sun got up okay.”

“She loves the sunrise and the garden too, but she can speak more directly,” Sadie informs me, her eyes trained on Nat.

“Three and oh. No hits, no runs. A fly ball. Ten base hits. A runner on third,” Natalie mumbles, digging her chest with her chin.

Sadie cups her hand under Natalie’s chin to prevent the digging. “No baseball talk,” she says.

“What’s the matter with baseball talk?” I ask.

“She’s just repeating random phrases. We’re working on the art of conversation,” Sadie explains. “Say what you mean. I am . . .” Sadie prompts Natalie.

Natalie tries to dig at her chest again, but Sadie’s hand won’t let her chin dip down. Nat looks quickly and fleetingly across the tops of our heads. “Moose, Theresa, Annie hello, hello, hello,” Nat mutters.

“Hi, Natalie,” we all say.

“You have new buttons.” Theresa points to the two extra mismatched buttons sewn to Natalie’s dress.

Natalie runs her hands over the new buttons, carefully, lovingly, tracing the outline of each one. “Good day new button,” she whispers.