Summerlost (11 page)

22.

It had been so long since I'd found anything on my windowsill.

But there was something that night. Maybe the lollipop had done the trick.

It was an old pocket-size map of Iron Creek, folded up neat and small. Ben would have liked to look at the roads and think of places to drive. Last summer he was learning to read a map and to tell time. “It's seven forty-three,” he would say. “At eight o'clock, I go to bed.”

I lined up the things on my windowsill. The screwdriver, the purple toothbrush. The map.

They were all so specific. So tangible. And I knew it could never be Lisette Chamberlain's ghost who left them.

Leo.

It had to be.

Even though he hadn't known Ben.

Leo was the kind of person who did his research. He would have found out about Ben from someone. Maybe his mom had overheard something in the dentist's office where she worked. My grandma went there for her checkups. My grandma thought
Ben was an angel but not in the way I hated. When Ben was alive, she looked right into his eyes and saw him there.

I looked at the things again. Screwdriver, purple toothbrush, map. I thought about how Leo had helped me get a job and how he let us watch
Times of Our Seasons
at his house every day and how he listened whenever I talked about Ben and my dad but also didn't expect me to talk about Ben or my dad and how Leo always shared the lollipops from the bank with me. (And now I'd given him one back.) How he'd shown me
The Tempest
with Lisette Chamberlain as Miranda. How he'd completely understood when I'd cried after I'd seen it.

And a thought came to my mind. Even though I'd only known him for part of a summer.

Leo Bishop might be the best friend I'd ever had.

I decided it was time to do something for him. Something biggish.

What could it be?

I stood at the window, looking through the diamonds into the dark. I thought about the costume shop and bullies and Barnaby Chesterfield and England. About birds and being buried alive. I thought about everything. And then I had an idea.

23.

It took me a few days to sort out my surprise for Leo but I worked it all out at last. After the tour one day, I told him I had somewhere to go.

“I have to run,” I said to Leo. “I can't walk home with you today.”

“You mean, you're literally going running?” he asked, because I did have on black shorts. And running shoes.

“Kind of,” I said. “I have to get back fast. But I'll see you later after my mom leaves. For
Times of Our Seasons
.”

“Okay,” he said, and I hoped he hadn't figured out what I was going to do.

I ran all the way over to the Summerlost Festival. It was exhausting. Also sweaty. I'd have to wash my Lisette T-shirt for sure before the next tour. My bag bumped against my side the whole way.

I'd tried to plan for everything. I'd called Leo's mom at the dentist's office to ask if he was free on a certain night and sworn her to secrecy. I'd thought she might be mad or annoyed at me for calling her at work, but she'd been a good sport about
the whole thing. I'd told my mom what I wanted to do and she'd agreed to let me go. I guess because we'd be surrounded by people the whole time. She'd promised to pick us up after the play was over.

I skidded around the corner to the box office so fast I had to put my hand on the exterior wall to stop myself. The stucco scratched my palm. A couple of older people in tall socks and khaki shorts exclaimed in surprise as I hurried past them.

There was no line for same-day tickets at the box office. Either the line had moved quick this morning or they were all sold out.
Please please please
, I said to myself as I stopped in front of the glassed-in window.

“Hi,” I said, breathless. “Do you have any same-day tickets left for
As You Like It
?”

“We do,” said the lady at the box office, and I breathed out a sigh of relief. “Do you have proof of residency?” she asked.

“Yes,” I said. I was proud of myself for remembering that I'd need something to prove I really lived in Iron Creek so I could get the discount. I pulled out one of our utility bills that showed our address and my mom's name on it. “I'm her daughter,” I said.

She looked at the bill and then at me and I started to panic. What if you had to actually be the person on the utility bill? Or
what if you had to be older than me? Had Leo's mom always bought his tickets for him?

“All right,” the ticket agent said, and I breathed out. “And you're aware that these are the bench seats at the back, and that there are no exchanges or refunds?”

“Yes,” I said.

And then when she asked, “How many tickets do you need?” instead of saying “Two,” I said, “Three.” I handed her thirty dollars.

One for Leo, of course. One for me. And one for Miles.

I don't know why I did it. Maybe because my mom would feel better about it not being a date if Miles came too? Or because I felt bad about
Times of Our Seasons
and wanted Miles to see something cultural and well acted instead of something that gave him nightmares?

“Nice shirt,” said the box office lady. “Is that Lisette Chamberlain?”

I froze. In all my planning, I'd forgotten to bring an extra shirt to wear. “Um, yes,” I said.

“Did you buy it at the festival gift shop?”

“No,” I said. “A friend had it made for me.”

“Very cool.” She handed me my three tickets. “Enjoy the show.”

I couldn't freak out too much about the shirt and possibly
blowing our cover because I still had to do the hardest part of my plan. Talk to Gary. And I wanted to do it immediately, before I lost my nerve. So I went into the bathroom and turned my shirt inside out before I went over to concessions.

“Hi, Gary,” I said.

“Hi,” he said. “You're here early.”

“Yeah,” I said. “I, um, came by to ask if Leo and I could leave early from work tonight. We're going to the play.”

Gary shook his head. “You have to ask for time off two weeks in advance. And even then, it's not guaranteed.” He sounded stressed and his forehead wrinkled. When that happened, he looked as old as my grandpa.

“I know,” I said. “But we can't afford the full-price tickets. So it had to be a Tuesday. And I didn't know if we'd get the tickets until now.” I took a deep breath. Was Gary really going to say no? Leo was his best seller. And I wasn't bad either. I should have done this differently. Asked for the day off in advance and
then
hoped to get the tickets. But it was too late now.

“You didn't follow the rules,” Gary said.

“What rules?” asked someone behind us.

Meg. She must have come through the hidden hallway. “Here are the costumes you needed fixed, Gary,” Meg said. “Emily mended them. And I came over to talk with you about the concessions costumes for next year. Is now a good time?”

“It's fine,” Gary said. He glanced at me. “I can't give you the time off. You didn't ask far enough in advance.”

“But I already have the tickets,” I said. I couldn't give up that easily. Especially not in front of Meg, with her sharp eyes and her collar of safety pins and her gravelly, no-nonsense voice.

“What are you trying to get away with, Cedar Lee?” Meg asked.

“She wants to leave work early so she and her friend can go to the play,” Gary said. “Tonight.”

“And you're not letting them go?”

Gary looked surprised. “I can't. It's against the rules.”

“But,” Meg said, “this is the very
purpose
of the Summerlost Festival. To bring people to Shakespeare. Did you buy the tickets with your own money, Cedar?”

“I did.”

“And you're taking your friend?”

“Yes,” I said, and then for good measure, I added, “and my younger brother.”

Meg raised her eyebrows at me. Did she think I was lying? I held out the three tickets so she could see. “His name's Miles,” I said. “He's eight.” Meg's eyebrows went down but she still had a quirk to her mouth. Maybe I was laying it on too thick bringing up Miles.

“Gary,” Meg said, “I think it would be nice to let her go.”

Gary frowned, thinking it over. “Okay,” he said. “Meg's right. Shakespeare wanted everyone to see his plays. And you're investing your money back into the Summerlost Festival, which is good. But next time you
have
to ask two weeks before.”

“Thank you,” I said to Meg as Gary turned toward his office.

“You work in the costume shop every day for free,” Meg said. “The least I can do is make sure you get to see one of the shows.”

24.

“Hey, Miles,” Leo said. “Looking good.”

The trumpet had sounded for people to leave the courtyard and take their seats inside the theater for the evening performance. I turned around and there was Miles, wearing a button-up shirt with his favorite jeans. He'd even combed his hair. His timing was perfect.

“Are you going to the play or something?” Leo asked.

I shifted my basket of programs to my other arm and waited. This was Miles's part, and he knew his lines. I could see that he was having a hard time keeping from grinning.

“Yeah,” Miles said. “So are you.”

“What?”

I held out the tickets. “We're all going to
As You Like It
,” I said. “I got you a ticket.”

I hadn't been able to think of a good way to leave it on Leo's windowsill (what if it blew away? what if he didn't see it?) so I'd decided to do it like this.

Leo didn't seem to understand. “We still have to help clean up,” he said.

“Not tonight,” Miles said. “Cedar talked to Gary.”

“You did?” Leo asked. “Really? And he said yes?”

“Yup,” I said. “But we have to go now. And we probably won't have time to change out of our costumes.”

Leo's mouth and eyebrows shot up in a smile. The sunset turned his brown hair orange and his eyelashes golden. “You are kidding me.”

“I'm not.”

I gave one ticket to Leo and one to Miles.

The sun was behind the pine trees now, winking at us. For once, we were going inside with everyone else to see the play. We'd be part of the Summerlost Festival in a different way. I put my hand on the wooden railing of the theater as we climbed up the stairs and listened to the sound of many feet walking on the old boards. A smiling usher showed us to our seats. “Enjoy the show,” she said, and I said, “I will.”

“Here we are,” Leo said. We slid down along the bench. Leo, me, Miles.

“Did you read that synopsis I gave you?” I whispered to Miles as we sat down.

“Um,” Miles said.

“He'll catch on even if he didn't,” Leo said. “It's a lot easier to understand when you're watching it instead of reading it.”

“Everyone always says that,” Miles muttered.

“We're going to be so tired when we give the tour tomorrow,”
Leo whispered in my ear. “But it's going to be worth it.”

I don't know what it was, but my heart started racing. Being at a play with a boy? The way the lights went down but the stars were about to come up?

Blue and green leaves hung down in ribbons from dark archways on the stage. The slightest breeze sent them moving. They were meant to be the forest of Arden, but before the actors came on, it looked like the leaves could be many other things. Seaweed, for mermaids to swim through. Strips of cloth hanging over a door, for men and women to slip past as they entered a castle, a cave, a tent. The stage was dappled with blue-and-green light, like water, like precious stone.

The actors came onstage. Miles leaned forward.

I didn't recognize Caitlin Morrow for the first part of the play. I didn't even think about Caitlin Morrow being the character of Rosalind. I saw Rosalind, clever, smart. I saw the other characters, and I felt like I was with them, in the forest.

And then Miles coughed next to me, and for a moment I came back out of the woods and was me.

And I wondered if Caitlin felt the way Lisette Chamberlain did before she was
Lisette Chamberlain
. Before everyone watched to see a movie star, a celebrity, but instead saw her as the characters.

I glanced over at Leo, who had that look on his face, the one I used to see all the time when we first met and still saw
a lot now, even with the bullies and the worry about money. The look of being alive. He wasn't smiling, but his eyes had a brightness. He didn't even notice me looking at him. He was still in the forest.

So I went back too.

25.

When intermission came, the three of us sat there for a moment after the lights came up. Then I looked over at Leo.

“Wow,” I said to him.

“Right?” he said. He looked over at Miles, who was stretching and standing up. “What do you think, Miles?”

“It's not bad,” Miles said, “but my butt hurts from sitting.”

“We could call Mom and have her come get you,” I said. “I won't be mad. I know it's really long.”

“No way,” said Miles. “I'm staying for the whole thing.” And even though he'd been fidgeting a bit, I wasn't surprised. Miles never wanted to seem like the young one. He would never back down. Once he started something, he did not quit.

“Let's go walk around,” I said. “We have twenty minutes.”

“Eighteen, now,” Leo said.

We merged into the mass of people and went downstairs. The courtyard was dark, and the lights strung on the massive old sycamore tree glimmered. I'd forgotten that I was still wearing my costume until someone asked me where the restroom was, which made Leo and Miles laugh.

“I'll go get us each a tart,” I said, after I'd pointed the woman in the right direction.

“No,” Leo said. “You bought the tickets, I'll get the treats.”

“I don't think so,” I said. “You need to save your money for England.”

“You can both stop arguing,” Miles said, “because look what I brought.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out four huge Atomic Fireballs.

“Oh man,” Leo said.

We all put them in our mouths. Tears came straight to my eyes, but they were
really
streaming down Leo's cheeks. “I don't believe it,” I said. “I think you're even more sensitive to this stuff than Miles.” But it came out all garbled because of my Fireball.

“I can't understand you,” Leo said. At least I think that's what he said. And then he pointed at Miles, who had a Fireball in each cheek. “What does he think he's doing?”

Right then another lady came up and asked me where the restroom was.

I tried to answer but she couldn't understand me.

Leo snorted and then his eyes widened in pain. He spit out the Fireball into his hands. “Fire,” he gasped. “Fire went up into my nose.”

“Like a dragon,” said Miles, barely intelligible around the Fireballs in his cheeks, and the woman
tsk
ed in disgust and walked away.

The three of us stood there, helpless with laughter. The sycamore tree stretched its branches over and around us. We stayed like that until the trumpet sounded for us to go back in.