Enchanted Forests (45 page)

only you could see through this water. Black tadpoles zipped by.

She wished she had a paper cup, but Mom would only make her

throw them out, and they would die.

Carefully, she started to climb the rocks. She'd never made it

to the top but maybe she could today. Behind her. Lisa and Beth

were talking as they splashed along. She knew they wouldn't

want to catch up. They'd be too scared.

She wasn't scared. Not of strangers, not of monsters, not of

anything as long as she was in this park. The old trees with their

leaves overhead like a princess* canopy bed made her feel safe-

When she was here, just hiking or learning to shoot a bow at a

target, or row a boat, she felt grown-up and strong. She wanted

to come to the M&S Day Camp every summer till she got to be

a Senior Camper. And then, maybe, if she ever grew up, maybe

she could be a counselor with a car and kids.

298

Susan Shwartz

She waded across a rock where the moss grew springy under-

foot toward another one that glinted in the sunlight. Under the

mud and the green slime, it was shining white, the biggest

luckystone in the world. She'd never be able to dig it up and

carry it home, the way you were supposed to when you found a

luckystone. And even if she did, what good would it be? There

probably weren't enough dimes in the world for the fairies to pay

for a luckystone that size.

Good campers had to try.

So Marty dug her stick in at the tucky stone's base and started

to push and dig it out of its bed. For a while, pushing and puffing

and panting and splashing filled her whole world.

Finally, the rock budged, and Marty rested, leaning on the

stick.

Splash ... splash, the girls were behind her over in that shad-

owy patch near where the caves were. They were making so

much racket they could forget it if they wanted to catch any fish

or tadpoles.

She turned to tell them that. And froze. Lisa and Beth weren't

standing there. It was a man. Her blood froze worse than her feet

in the water. A Stranger.

He had a beard and a dirty face. His clothes were torn, and he

had his hands out below his waist. In them ...

"What's that you've got?" Marty asked. "Is it a rabbit's foot?"

He started toward her, making a goony laughing sound.

She stamped her foot in the water, an angry splash. She hated

it when grown-ups didn't answer her questions. "What is that?"

she asked again.

Again, the laughter. She didn't like the way he laughed. She

didn't like the way he looked. His eyes were ftmny, bloodshot

and sort of flat.

"You're crazy," she told him. "Crazy!"

Her voice was louder than it should be when a kid talks to

grownups, especially if the kid is talking back. She knew Beth

and Lisa heard because they screamed, and she heard them fall-

ing and running, always screaming, toward the shore.

"Go 'way, you crazy, you," she said. She pulled her stick out

of the water and shook it at him.

He jumped forward and tried to pull the stick out of her hand.

Now Marty screamed. He was going to grab her and drag her

into that cave and then ... she didn't know what happened when

strangers dragged little girls into caves, but she knew it was Bad.

THE MONSTERS OF MILL CREEK PARK   299

If she tried to run, he'd tackle her and she'd drown. So she

had to face him.

"You go away!" she said, keeping the stick between them like

she'd seen in Robin Hood. Maybe she could knock him over, and

then she could run.

He grabbed for the stick again.

"No!" she shouted.

Then she screamed again. What looked like a wall of brown

fur dashed growling from the rocks between her and the Stran-

ger, grabbed him, and flung him like Manitou flung the Monster

of Flaboongie into the pond.

The Stranger belly-flopped. For a moment, Marty thought he

was dead. Then he crawled out of the water as fast as he could

and ran away.

The monster that had saved her turned to look at her. She let

her stick drop with a useless little splash. She looked at her hand

with its turquoise ring. It wasn't a real ring from outer space. If

it was, she'd have magic powers and could fight or get away.

Her hand, stupid ring and all, came up toward her mouth, the

baby way it did whenever she was going to cry. Her eyes blurred

and her nose ran—and the monster picked her up and carried her

into the cave.

The monster set Marty down on her feet inside the cave. She

got ready to run. You couldn't let monsters see how scared you

were. Then she forgot her fear and just stood there. For one

thing, she wasn't in a real cave. It was just two or three rocks

standing on end and hanging over each other. Light shone in

through the spaces between them, plenty of light to see that two

other monsters lived in the cave, and they were watching her

and, as best she could tell, giving her friendly monster smiles.

There was the great big monster who had brought her into the

cave—call it the papa monster. There was a middle-size monster,

a little rounder than the great big monster—a mama monster?

And, even though it was me size of a regular grown-up, half-

hiding beside its mother was the baby monster-

Marty had seen bears in the zoo. These were monsters,

though, not bears, and Marty wasn't Goldilocks. The biggest

monster had thrown the Stranger harder than any bear could.

They didn't have claws on their paws, hands, whatever, or she

would have felt them when the monster picked her up. And what

was strangest about all three monsters was their feet. They were

the biggest she had ever seen. If she set her daddy's shoes in a

300 Susan Snwartz

line, she'd need three or four shoes to be as long as one of the

biggest monster's feet.

Maybe they weren't monsters at all, but space people, Marty

thought. She only knew three words of space-people talk, and

maybe "Klaatu barada nikto" wouldn't mean anything to them if

different kinds of space people had different words for things

like Americans and Russians.

Marty raised one hand How the way they did on TV and

opened her mouth to try.... But the smallest bigfooted monster

came over and laid its hand over hers and stared at her. Just like

meeting new little kids at a birthday party. Marty looked at the

bigfoot child—the other child—and smiled.

Something in the cave changed. Grown-ups were grown-ups;

you could always tell if they were mad or scared or happy with

you. These acted like they had found a kid they'd lost in a park-

ing lot- Relieved. Or the way Marty's parents did when she used

a new big word: trying not to smile and hurt her feelings. Unlike

bears, which had little squinchy angry eyes, these monsters' eyes

were gray and calm: they were smart, the idea came to her.

Voices touched inside her mind. Marty jumped a little. The lit-

tle bigfoot holding her hand let out a squeak and backed off to-

ward its mommy. She looked up at the gray eyes and knew the

voices came from inside the bigfoots' heads.

creature as the others?>

come to a human child any more than to you and ... the

thought-word didn't make sense. Maybe it was a name.>

Marty wanted to play with the monster kid. With feet like that,

she'd bet he'd never fall down in the water. And maybe he could

catch better fish than any of the campers. The boys could show

him how to hit a ball, but she could show him the swings and

merry-go-round and maybe bring him home for dinner. She

couldn't wait to show these .... they were people ... to her par-

ents. Daddy gave her books about bigfoots and spacemen. He

would know how to talk to them. Lawyers could talk to anybody.

THE MONSTERS OF MILL CREEK PAJRK   301

shining in the cave, reaching out to touch her like a hug>

Yes, Marty thought. Oh, yes.

She smiled her best smile at the bigfoot family and tried to

make her thoughts real clear. Couldn't you stay? You could live

here, and he could go to school with us. And we'd be friends.

The mother bigfoot shook her long mane and turned away.

The young one darted to a rock, sat down, and pushed at it. The

biggest bigfoot—and his feet were huge—came over and

dropped down so his eyes could look into hers.

But your forest was so beautiful we stopped here for a while ...

you would say "vacation. ">

Marty blinked. Pilgrims wore gray and black with big hats.

They carried muskets and you drew them in November.

They gave her a great idea. "/ know!" she cried before she re-

membered to think instead. "You're hunting for religious free-

dom. Aren't you?"

She reached into her blouse and pulled out the tiny gold Star

of David her mommy gave her two years ago. "My people came

here. Couldn't you be our neighbors? This is a good place."

The other child was holding out something to her. She held

out her hand and felt him put something into it. It was warm

from fee monster's hand and it felt smooth, except where it had

been cut. It was a tiny statue with such a friendly happy look on

its hairy face that maybe it was a holy statue like the kids at St.

Edwards got to have. If you wore a Jewish star, you couldn't

have a statue. But it would be mean not to trade for it. Monster

or not, he was a real nice kid, and Marty knew his people

worked hard to bring him up right.

She took off the star and held it out. The strange kid's eyes lit

up, and he smiled.

And the monster mommy and daddy spoke over the children's

heads, just like real grownups.

And we will keep voice/name sound safe with us when we go->

you hear them shouting outside? Soon, they will come .. ->

302 Susan Shwariz

The mother went to the mouth of the cave.

"I don't want to forget!" Marty let her voice rise, though that

was bad manners. TV had a word for what the monsters planned

to make her have. Am-nes-ia. You were hit on the head, and they

found you. You woke up in the hospital and didn't remember.

The papa bigfoot put his hands ... paws ... whatever—they

were big, too—on her shoulders. He smelled like a wet dog. She

loved dogs, which should have made her feel safe; but remember

that they are animals, Dr. Thomas said. He raised them, so he

knew.

Marty shook her head.

He looked

over at his boy like Daddy looked when he kissed her good

night.

a promise to him, and I won't break my word to you. I promise

I won't hurt you->

He was asking, not telling, not making Marty do anything; and

she knew that, big as he was, he was getting scareder the longer

he waited.

"Let me say good-bye first."

He waved his son over. He wore her star on his wrist because

he was too big to wear it round his neck.

"Sorry, I can't keep this," Marty told him and handed him

back the statue.

She watched him set the statue in a little hollow in the rock.

Its big feet didn't quite stick out.

So, the bright star followed the ivory statue. He set a flat rock

gently on top of them, then laid a bigger rock on that. She had

seen hiding places like this on Spin and Marty. They were called

caches. Even if the monster daddy said he'd make her forget,

Marty'd remember. She always did. She even remembered in the

doctor's office when he put the mask over her face and she woke

up with her tonsils out.

She turned to meet the eldest bigfoot's eyes. "I'm ready," she

THE MONSTERS OF MILL CREEK PARK   303

said. Then, what felt like the doctor's mask came down over her

face,

Marty started to forget.

Sun slanted down on her face. The water below her rippled

and flowed, making Marty feel like she really ought to get up