Blair’s Nightmare (19 page)

David was staring again, but this time it was with astonishment. Pete Garvey was in love with Amanda. He couldn't believe it. “You—er—like Amanda?” he asked.

Pete nodded. “Yeah,” he said. “For a long time. Since we met out there in the woods that day.”

“You mean—since she . . .” He didn't go on, but Pete did.

“Yeah. Since she . . .” He doubled up his fist and did a slow motion punch. Then he shook his head. “She sure has a great right hook.” He sighed and went back to staring at his knees. “You think she hates me, Davey?”

“No. I don't think she hates you. In fact, she told me once that you were a real hunk.”

“Is that good?”

“Sure. She says that about Magnum and Burt Reynolds.”

“Yeah?” Pete looked delighted.

“Of course, that was a long time ago. She's pretty changeable.”

Pete nodded, looking miserable again.

“You know what?” David said. “I thought you were hanging around to get a chance to punch me out.”

Pete frowned. “What for?”

“For getting you in trouble that day in Mrs. Baldwin's class.”

Pete thought for quite a while before he said, “Oh that. I forgot about that a long time ago. Besides, I don't sneak around punching guys out in private. I usually don't bother unless people are watching.”

“Why not?” David thought maybe he knew, but he wondered what Pete would say.

“I dunno.” But then Pete sighed and said, “Yeah, I know. I like having people watch me do something I'm good at. I'm not good at much else.”

“I'm no good at fighting,” David said.

“Yeah,” Pete said.

No one said anything more for quite a long while. David's depression returned with a vengeance. He felt lousy—and the reasons he was feeling lousy were poking long painful fingers out of the dark corners in his mind; then Pete opened his mouth and put another big clumsy finger right in the middle of the problem. Dead center.

“Hey,” Pete said all of a sudden. “You're a real big shot. In the papers—on TV—a real hero.”

He was grinning, chipped tooth and all, and for some reason it made David mad. “Big deal. I find a couple of half-dead escaped prisoners in the woods, and if anybody captures them it's Nightmare not me, and I get all the credit. Everybody talking about how brave I am and all that. I'm not.” Speaking distinctly, pausing between every word, he went on, “I am not brave, and I know it. I've known it practically all my life.”

“Hey, wait a minute,” Pete said. “That's dumb. You're supposed to be a real smart guy, but that's the dumbest thing I ever heard. Just because you don't like to fight don't mean nothing. What about when we thought those crooks were outside your house and you went running out in the dark? And what about Friday when you went up in the hills all alone to look for Blair?”

“I was scared, that's what. I was scared to death.”

“Yeah,” Pete said, “that's what I mean. That's guts. That's real guts. Hell, Davey. You know what I think. I think nobody's got more real guts than you.”

At first David just said, “Oh sure,” and laughed sarcastically; but the more he thought about what Pete said, the more sense it made, and the better it made him feel. He was just about to tell Pete so, when they heard Molly calling. Pete rattled off on his bike, and David went on in to have dinner and answer a lot more questions about his big day at school. It was no big deal.

A
FTER DINNER THAT NIGHT
D
AVID
Copperfield
was on television, and everybody watched. At least, everyone was in the room for quite a long while. Blair was sitting next to David on the couch, and he did seem to be pretty restless, but David thought it was just because Dickens was a little over his head. Finally he got up and went out of the room. Right after that the movie got more interesting—it was the part where David Copperfield runs away from London—and nobody thought about Blair's absence. It wasn't until the next commercial that Molly suddenly asked where he was.

“He went out,” David said. “I think he—” He was about to say that Blair had probably gone up to bed, when he happened to look toward the hall and the words froze in his throat. Blair
was standing in the door to the hall, and Nightmare was with him. Blair was smiling and holding onto Nightmare's collar. On the dog's huge bristly head—exactly level with Blair's curly blond one—the floppy ears were tilted forward in their alert position. He looked tense and watchful and—even when you were used to him—incredibly enormous.

David started shaking his head and making “go away” gestures, but he was too late. Molly, who was sitting on the floor leaning against Dad's legs, saw what David was doing and leaned out around Dad's chair. “Saints in heaven!” she said in a high, thin voice.

Dad looked around and jumped to his feet. Then everybody was jumping up and running in all directions. David was trying to get in between Dad and Nightmare, Molly was trying to get to Blair, and most of the other kids were trying to stop her. David yelled, “Get him out of here, Blair,” and Dad yelled, “Blair, come here.” Everybody else seemed to be yelling something; and to make matters worse, Nightmare started to bark. The yelling and barking and pushing and pulling seemed to go on for a long time before it suddenly got quiet. It ended with David standing in front of Dad with his arms stretched out as if he were trying to block a pass, and Esther and Janie and Amanda all holding onto Molly. Blair and Nightmare were still standing in the doorway.

The quiet lasted for several seconds, and then Dad said, “My God, Blair. What is that enormous creature?”

“My dog,” Blair said. “This is my dog.”

There was another long silence, and then Molly began to giggle. “It's his dog. His dog, Jeff. Blair's imaginary dog.”

She laughed harder, and after a minute Dad began to laugh, too. They stopped laughing once and looked at each other and started all over again. When they finally stopped laughing, Dad looked at Blair and Nightmare and shook his head slowly, as if he still couldn't quite believe his eyes. “Son,” he said, “is this the dog you've been talking about? The one that was lost last week?”

“Yes,” Blair said. “We found him again. His name is Nightmare.”

“I can well believe it,” Dad said. “Well, bring him on in and let's get acquainted.”

“Wait a minute,” David said. “Nightmare is nervous about men. You'd better let him get used to you a little first.”

Dad looked at David sharply. “You knew about this?” he asked.

David swallowed hard. But before he could think of a good way to start explaining, Molly interrupted. “Will he let me pat him, Blair?” Then she giggled again and said, “Will your imaginary dog let me pat him?”

“I'll tell him,” Blair said. He put his hands on each side of Nightmare's face and pulled his head around and whispered in his ear. After a minute he smiled at Molly. “Okay,” he said. “It's okay, now.”

Molly went up to Nightmare then, moving slowly and talking in a soothing voice. As soon as he'd sniffed her hand, he began to wag his tail. It took a little more time with Dad. When he began to move forward, Nightmare growled softly; it was only after Dad squatted down and talked to him softly for several minutes that he stopped growling and let him get closer. Everyone stood around and watched and told Nightmare what a good dog he was, and at last he let Dad scratch behind his ears, while the little kids crowded around and patted him, too.

When the introductions were finally over, Nightmare trotted over in front of the fireplace and flopped down on the rug. He put his chin on his front paws and rolled his eyes around, looking from one person to another. Then he sighed a tremendous sigh and thumped his tail twice on the floor. Everybody laughed.

“Okay,” Dad said, when they'd stopped laughing, “now how about some explanations?” He was smiling, but his tone of voice made it obvious that he meant business.

“I'll explain,” Janie said. “I can explain everything.”

“Fine,” Dad said, “but I think we'll start with Blair. After all, he's got some catching up to do. He's been trying to tell
us about this dog for a long time, and I haven't been listening. Where did he come from, Blair?”

Blair went over and sat down beside Nightmare on the rug. “He came from the hill,” he said, “at night. At night he came and sat in the garden, and I went down to see him. And I fed him, and then he went away. And then I told Janie and Esther, and they fed him, too. And then David and Amanda and Pete found out, and they helped, too. And—and—that's all.”

“That's all?” Dad said.

“Dad,” Janie interrupted. “Do I get an extra week's allowance, now? Because I didn't really do what you told us not to. You said not to talk to Blair about imaginary dogs, and . . .”

“I get your point,” Dad said. “Okay, Janie. Not guilty on that particular charge. But how about what I said about no more pets. I'm afraid you've all been more than a little guilty on that particular ruling. You all agreed—no more pets, and then you all apparently entered into a conspiracy to adopt a dog and keep it a secret from Molly and me.”

It suddenly got very quiet. With a sinking sensation David remembered his own predictions about what Dad would say and do if he found out about Nightmare. What was Blair thinking of, to drag Nightmare right into the house in front of everybody? And just when things were going so well, too, with Nightmare learning to stay in the tool shed and his foot
beginning to heal up. And now Dad was going to start with all the logical and reasonable reasons why Nightmare wouldn't be able to stay. Wait till I get him alone, David thought. Just wait till I get Blair alone.

It was Amanda who broke the silence first. “Okay. We are guilty, I guess. All of us. But before you and Mom start handing out judgments, I think you ought to hear the whole story. Like for instance, how Nightmare was with David and Blair when they bumped into those guys in the woods—and what might have happened to them if he hadn't been, and how . . .”

“Wait a minute. Wait a minute,” Dad said. “David? What's this about—the prisoners?”

“Well,” David said. “I guess it would be better if we started at the beginning.”

So they did. First David told how it had all started with Blair going out alone to feed and play with Nightmare at night—when everyone thought he was just walking in his sleep. And then how Esther and Janie got in on the act, and the stormy night when he and Amanda and Pete discovered what was going on. Molly was amazed when he told about Nightmare hiding in the closet with Blair the night she came to the room. “I can't believe it,” she kept saying. “That monster was really right there in the closet that night. I can't believe it.”

When he started on what they'd found out about Nightmare's
history, Janie interrupted and said that since she'd found out about it, she ought to be the one that got to tell it. So she did, in great detail, and when she got to the part about Sam Plenty and how he'd tried to make a killer out of Nightmare and then took him out in the woods and shot him, Molly said, “How terrible! What a dreadful man. The poor dog.” When she said “poor dog,” Nightmare did his mournful eyebrows number and wagged his tail, and she got up and went over to him and petted him and called Dad over to feel the scar that ran across the side of his head.

David took over again then and told about the capture of the criminals. He tried not to leave anything out, and when he did, one of the other kids would remind him. The whole thing took a long time. He was only about halfway through when Esther said she was hungry, and everybody took time out to go into the kitchen and get cookies and milk. Nightmare went along too, and the little kids gave him bites of cookie and showed Dad and Molly how carefully he took food from your fingers, without biting off your whole hand, like he could have done easily if he'd wanted to.

David really began to hope when he saw Dad sneaking Nightmare a bite of his cookie on the way back into the living room. He wasn't sure, though, not even when Dad sent Janie to his study for his first aid kit and changed the bandage on Nightmare's foot himself.

When he'd finally finished, and all Dad and Molly's questions had been answered, it suddenly got very quiet. Everyone was looking at Dad. Dad was looking at Molly. “Molly,” he said, “most of the burden would be on you.”

Molly was smiling. “How could an imaginary dog be a burden?”

Dad grinned. “But a pet is time consuming—even the best behaved . . .”

Molly got up off the floor and sat in Dad's lap. “Jeff,” she said, “checking to see that all the doors are locked after you've all gone off to school is time consuming. Worrying about funny noises when I'm here alone is time consuming. Nightmare's going to save me a lot of time.”

“Right,” Dad said, and everybody cheered. Nightmare's head came up off his paws, and he wagged his tail.

“Just a minute, now,” Dad said. “We will have to check with the authorities. There may be problems.”

“Daddy,” Esther whimpered.

“But, I imagine we can solve them,” Dad said.

David was sure that they could.

D
AVID COULDN'T GET TO SLEEP.
Across the room Blair was curled up in one corner of his bed, and Nightmare was stretched out across most of the rest of it. David turned and flopped and unwound himself from the covers—and then wound himself up again. Finally he got up and, taking a blanket with him, he went to sit on the window seat. Wrapping himself in the blanket, he stared down into the silent moon-shadowed garden.

He didn't know why he couldn't sleep. Normally when he had insomnia, it was because he was worried about something, and tonight he wasn't. For the first time in quite a while there was nothing concerning Nightmare to worry him, but that wasn't all. A bunch of other stuff that used to keep him awake
nights had suddenly disappeared, or turned into something a lot different.