Dancing Through the Snow (17 page)

She opened the freezer and saw two containers.

“Hey, Tobe, double yum,” shouted Min.

And she did not let herself think about lost babies again that night.

16

T
HE EXCITEMENT BUILDING
as the date of the concert neared pushed Laird Bentham out of Min’s mind. But two days later he turned up, horrible as ever. Min had seen him before, but had managed to avoid him, since they were in different homerooms. She had never told the others all the details of how he had tormented her over the years they had gone to the same school. She could not bring herself to admit the things he had said, the names he had called her and egged other boys into joining in. Girls had added their bit, too. Min had hoped he was gone from her life.

But she should have guessed it was not going to be that easy. When she came out onto the playground he was waiting, leaning against one of the trees, smiling his fat, nasty smile. It was a smile Min had learned to dread, but she did not see it at once.

Penny and Jennifer and Amy came out right behind her. They were all deep in a happy discussion of the concert.

Then his slimy voice called, “Hey, Minnie McDumpster. Do those girls know you were picked out of a garbage bin? Did you tell them you’re trash?”

Min went rigid. She could not have moved if she had wanted to. She did her best to control her facial muscles, but her eyes burned and her knees shook. What could she say? What was Penny thinking?

Then Penny sprang into action. While Min had been home “sick,” she had talked to her cousin, as she’d promised, and she was primed for action. She had told the others the plan, and she had started to explain it to Min over the phone once, but had been interrupted. Min had not quite understood it and had not thought of Laird since, what with getting ready for the concert. She looked at Penny now, trying to remember exactly what she had said.

“Let’s shut his lying mouth,” Penny shrieked to her friends. “Let’s give him a dose of Bully Run.”

Min felt Penny grab her arm and pull her own arm through it. In seconds the four girls were joined in a line, their elbows linked. And here came Sadie and Hannah.

“Bully RUN!” Penny began to shout, as they advanced like a mighty army. “Bully RUN! Let’s see the BULLY RUN.”

Laird did his best to hold his ground and keep his sneer in place. But when a line of six girls came at him, moving as one, shouting something he could not quite make out, his nerve shattered and the sneer vanished from his face. He turned and fled. Glancing back over his shoulder, he saw them still coming, still chanting. And now there were eight of them and more latching on with every step. And they were laughing at him!

Min was the only one who was not yelling. She was too stunned. Friends were standing up for her. Even Sadie, who had not been in their class as long as Min. Even Gloria, the class beauty. Everyone was taunting Laird. He was running for his life. When he stumbled, they cheered.

“Need any help?” a boy’s voice called.

“No way,” shouted Penny. She was dancing about now, shrieking with glee as the boy who thought he was all-powerful tried to escape and went floundering into a snowbank.

“He’s actually blubbering,” Amy reported, peering after him.

Min snapped out of her trance and began to laugh too. She had never seen anything so wonderful as Laird Bentham fleeing with his face all red and tearful and with snot coming from his nose. Penny leaned down and scooped up a wet handful of snow and sent it flying after him. It landed in a sloppy smack on the back of his neck that sent the girls into fresh whoops of delight.

“What is the meaning of this?” a deep voice demanded.

It was Mr. Smithson, the Phys Ed teacher.

“Ask Laird, sir,” Jennifer told him.

“We’re teaching a bully not to mess with us in future,” Penny said sweetly, dusting the snow off her mitts. “But we have not laid a hand on him, have we, you guys?”

“No,” they chorused. “Didn’t touch a hair of his head.”

The teacher went after Laird, but he did not hurry.

“It was Penny’s cousin’s idea. I bet it’ll work every time,” Jennifer said. “I almost wish there were more evil boys around so we could do it again.”

“But what if …?” Min began, uncertain what she meant to ask.

“If he had a gang with him, you mean?” Penny said. “Somebody would go for help then, I guess. But I don’t think old Laird will be able to come up with a gang, not after Bully Run. My cousin says people who make friends with bullies usually follow after them because they are scared that if they don’t, they’ll be beaten up. Cowards, he says.”

“I was always the one who ran before,” Min whispered, her cheeks reddening with memories of her years of being publicly humiliated.

“You were alone, right? He’s big and he’s mean,” Penny said scornfully. But bullies are usually pure mush inside. You only need some friends to help you stand up to them to scare the pants off them. My cousin Edward told me. If nobody is with you, get people and go for them next time. What a creep that Laird is!”

Min thought of how exultant she had felt watching him run. She supposed she should have pitied him, but he had never pitied her, not once. Now she was positive he would never mess with her again.

She hesitated before telling Jess what had happened, but finally she could not keep the jubilation to herself.

“Oh, the power and the glory!” Jess said. “Bravo for Penny. She sounds as though she’s a great friend to have.”

“Yep,” Min said.

“Would you like me to speak to the principal about Laird?”

Min opened her mouth to say yes when she realized that Laird was in the principal’s office day after day. She had seen him there, hunched over, on the bench where kids waited to be told off.

“If there’s a next time,” she said slowly, “but I think maybe my friends fixed him.”

“Good,” Jess said. “It’s wise to fight your own battles whenever possible. You tell that Penny I think she’s a wonder.”

Min nodded. She stared at her hands, which were balled into fists in her lap. What would Jess have said if she had seen Min before, standing like a post, scared witless? Or fleeing down the street?

“When I got chased like that,” Jess said quietly, but with the hint of a smile, “I used to wet my pants. In public!”

And Min knew she understood everything.

17

S
UDDENLY IT WAS FEBRUARY
and the concert was only days away. Penny and Min practised their duet daily. Min wished she felt her singing was improving.

“You need to PROJECT, Min!” Penny’s mother urged her. “Shy voices, however sweet, don’t reach the ears of the audience.”

“Maybe Penny should sing by herself,” Min mumbled, scuffing her toe back and forth on the rug and not looking at the woman.

“No way!” Penny yelped. “I can’t do it alone. Besides, Ms Spinelli already has us down as a duet, you nut.”

“You have a very nice voice, dear,” Penny’s mother said hastily. “And it is improving daily. Just try to throw it out at your listeners more.”

Min felt like a pitcher who is about to be sent down to the minor leagues after having a tryout with the stars.

“Start again,” their pianist ordered and began to play the opening bars. When they had sung it through twice more, she said,”I’m sure it’ll be fine on the night.”

Maybe it would be, but Min had a sinking feeling that she might open her mouth and no sound whatever would emerge.

Every class in the school had become involved and most were performing. There were lullabies and silly songs and even rounds. The French teacher had them all singing a song in French and then Ms Spinelli suggested that they insert three or four recitations.

“They’ve actually got my little brother doing ‘Wynken, Blynken and Nod,’ dressed in a nightshirt,” Jennifer told them, trying hard not to giggle. “He looks like a cherub — which he definitely is not. Mum said she would murder any of us who laughed at him, and I think she means it.”

Valentine’s Day fell on a Monday so they had their last rehearsals on Thursday and Friday. Jess had a class on Friday, but she came to listen on the Thursday afternoon. She sat at the back and told them how Jessye Norman’s mother had commanded her to “stand up straight and sing out.” Min had no idea who Jessye Norman even was, until they played a CD of her singing spirituals that evening. Her voice filled the house with mellow sound and feeling too.

“Wow,” Min murmured. “Penny and I don’t sound a bit like that.”

“I’m planning to sit at the very back on Monday,” Jess said, “and I want to hear every word. If I can’t, I’ll stand up and shout, ‘Sing out, Jessamyn and Penelope. Stand up and sing out.’”

Min giggled. “You
wouldn’t
,” she said.

“Don’t be too sure,” Jess said, her eyes gleaming.

Min felt more and more anxious as the time neared. She sat on the floor stroking Emily. “Maybe we will both get braver soon,” she said.

“Well, I have some good news about that little dog,” Jess said. “I went out to see how Miss Hazlitt was doing. I wasn’t going to say anything, just see if she was having troubles. And I found out she was leaving on the weekend for a month in Florida with her niece, who has rented a condo and has invited Miss Hazlitt to come along and have a rest from the snow. I told her that was wonderful and I did not tell her why. But I know she won’t be home until over halfway through March. Stop grinning or I’ll call you Minerva.”

Min leaped up and began to dance, feeling as though a huge weight had been lifted off her shoulders. Emily shrank back and Jess laughed.

“Keep that up, young lady, and your rescued dog will be begging you to find her a safer place to hang out,” she said.

Then the dreaded day of the concert arrived. Min peeped through the curtains and spotted Raymah and her sister Lisa in the second row. Then she saw Mrs. Willis. No Enid, thank goodness. Laura and Baxter were there with the Dittos, who waved wildly every time the curtain twitched. Toby was nowhere to be seen. She was about to give up on him, with a pang of disappointment, when she saw him sitting beside Jess at the very back.

“Let me have a turn, will you?” Pravda hissed and Min stepped back, satisfied that everyone she cared about was there. Now if only she could make her voice strong and sure — or even just audible!

Twenty minutes later, when she and Penny walked onto the stage, side by side, and looked over at Penny’s mother and saw her wink at them, Min found herself actually excited. She was even looking forward to singing.

Remember the foundlings,
she whispered to herself as the first chord sounded.

Then they had started, their voices blending, and she felt fine. As they reached the last wistful notes, she saw Jess, actually on her feet with both hands in the air, applauding like mad. Toby, beside her, was still seated and was hiding his face behind his two hands. Then he dropped them and grinned right at her.

Although Min knew, when they finished, that she was never going to be the singer Penny was, she felt thoroughly pleased with her performance.

“Boy, am I glad that’s over!” Penny exclaimed when they were safely backstage.

Min stared at her. “Didn’t you have fun?” she asked.

Then it was Penny’s turn to stare. “I was petrified,” she said.

Jennifer’s little brother brought the house down with his recitation. He really did look like an impish cherub.

When it was all over, and the money was counted, the students had raised over nine hundred dollars. The parents matched the amount and boosted it a bit so that two thousand dollars went from Victory School to help all the orphaned babies.

When they got home, Min wanted only to fall into her bed, but her attention was caught by what she saw on the wall on either side of the long mirror. On the left hung the framed Christmas tree picture she had given Jess. On the right, also beautifully framed, was her Rock-a-Bye, Baby poster.

“Oh, Jess, they look so … so …” she started.

But she could not find the right words.

“Professional,” Jess said calmly. Then she added, with a twinkle, “To think I kidnapped you without ever suspecting I was getting myself such a gifted daughter.”

Min blushed and then went to bed humming a song. The tune was from
Oliver!
but she made up new words that started, “Here is love.”