The Wild Kid (7 page)

“Not me.”

“It's not even cold anymore.”

Kevin put a toe in the water. “Okay, I'm in. How's that?”

“All of you,” Sammy said.

Kevin let himself into the water and dog-paddled around, staying close to the edge.

“You don't swim that good,” Sammy said. “Put your face in the water. That's the dead man's float. Only you're not dead. And you kick your feet.” He demonstrated, making a big splash.

Hanging on to a log, Kevin made a bigger splash.

“Want to swim to the other side with me?” Sammy said.

“Is it deep?”

Sammy let himself sink down. His toes touched mucky mud. He popped up. “Just a little deep.”

“No, thanks, I'm staying right here. And if you get in trouble, I'm not going to save you.”

Sammy swam around him. “Don't be afraid, Kevin.”

“Hey, who's afraid?” Kevin let go of the log and took a couple of strokes.

“That's the way,” Sammy said.

Then something happened. Kevin swallowed water and choked and started thrashing around. “I'm drowning!”

“Get on your back,” Sammy said. “Turn over, Kevin! I'll help you.” But when he got near, Kevin caught him and wouldn't let go, and they both went under.

Sammy kicked loose and popped up to the surface.

Kevin came up. He went down and he came up. His eyes looked crazy, and he went under again.

When he came up, Sammy was behind him. “Don't grab me,” he shouted. He got hold of Kevin's hair. “Let me…don't grab.” He pulled Kevin into shallow water.

Kevin staggered to the rock. He was coughing, spitting up water. He sat in the sun, shivering.

“I saved you,” Sammy said.

Kevin pulled a towel around himself.

“You were learning to swim,” Sammy said.

“Man, I was learning to drown.” Afterward he sat on the rock, picking at scabs on his legs while Sammy swam back and forth across the pond.

“We're going on a special trip,” Kevin said.

“Where? What is it? Tell me what it is, Kevin.”

“You'll see. You'll like it.”

“Because we're friends?” Sammy said.

“That's right.”

Before they left, Kevin looked Sammy over and told him to wash his face. He gave Sammy one of his black T-shirts to wear under his jacket and watched while he tied his shoelaces. He wore a black T-shirt, too.

“Exactly two thirty-eight in the
P.M.
,” Sammy said when they left.

“Perfect,” Kevin said.

They went up over the rocks, but when they got to the dead trees, Kevin went a different way.

They came out of the woods in the back of a cemetery, where the grass mowers were kept. There was a garbage heap of clippings and discarded ribbons and empty flowerpots.

“If I say duck,” Kevin said, “you duck. If I say run, you run. If I say don't breathe, you don't breathe.”

Sammy practiced not breathing. He could hold his breath a long time.

They walked through the cemetery. A line of cars were parked along the curving road, and people were clumped together under a canopy. “Funeral,” Kevin said. “That's good.”

Were they going to a funeral? Was that the special thing Kevin had promised him? But, instead, they returned to the back of the cemetery.

“You wait here,” Kevin said. “If anyone comes, just duck into the woods. Don't talk to anybody. Got that?”

Sammy nodded. “Got it.”

“We're partners, right?” Kevin held out his hand, and Sammy slapped it. Kevin left his knapsack and jacket with Sammy and ran down the road toward the cars.

Sammy folded the jacket carefully on top of the knapsack, then sat down to wait for Kevin. The sun was shining, and the wind chased the leaves around in little circles.

Kevin appeared suddenly behind him. “Come on.” He grabbed his jacket and knapsack, and they ran back into the woods. Kevin threw himself down on the ground and pulled a wallet from his pocket and another wallet from his other pocket. He took the money from them and buried both wallets under leaves. Then he led the way out of the woods.

Sammy followed. He was holding his breath, practicing swimming underwater. Or the dead man's float. Maybe somebody gave the wallets to Kevin. Some nice person who said, “Take the money and throw that dirty old wallet away.”

They walked along the edge of the woods, past some big old buildings, then followed a long driveway to the main road. Kevin ran his fingers through his hair and tucked his shirt in. Sammy did the same. He looked at the pocket where Kevin had all the money. He knew nobody had given Kevin the money. Maybe Kevin was going to give it back someday. Or he would. He'd just go up to the person and say, “Sorry, my friend made a mistake.”

There were six lanes of cars going in both directions. Sammy had forgotten there were so many cars in the world. He almost got dizzy. Cars, cars, cars. “Boy, oh boy,” he said.

They went halfway across, then waited on the divider for a break in the traffic. On the other side, they ran across a half-empty parking lot to a huge mall. Buses were lined up in front of one of the entrances.

Sammy stopped to read the numbers. “One oh four. That's my bus,” he said. “That one!”

Three boys sitting on a bench looked at him. “One oh four,” one of them repeated. Sammy got a sick, scared feeling in his stomach. “Hey, baby!” they mocked. “Hey, one oh four. Here's your baby bottle.”

“Hey!” Kevin glared at them. “Shut up!”

He made them stop. Sammy looked up at Kevin admiringly. “They were bad boys, weren't they, Kevin?”

“Jerks,” Kevin said. He let Sammy hold his hand.

The inside of the mall was like a barrel of light and noise and big, echoey voices. Sammy hadn't been inside a real building in—how long was it? He started counting, then stopped to look and sniff. The smell of food made him dizzy.

In a bathroom they used the toilets and washed up. Sammy stood in the stall, flushing bits of toilet paper. A man was waiting to go in. “How about it, sonny?”

Sammy held the door open and smiled. “I'm done. Your turn.” He washed his hands and face. He waved his hands under the faucets to make the water come.

“Okay,” Kevin said. “Let's go. And keep that big voice down.”

When they walked into the food court, Sammy wanted to start eating right away. Kevin bought egg rolls and fried rice from one counter, spaghetti and meatballs at another, and pizza and drinks.

Sammy kept sniffing the food. “Boy, oh boy, this looks good.”

“Remember what I told you about your voice,” Kevin said. He found a table in the middle of the room, and for a while, they just ate.

Sammy was too hungry to talk. He ate everything: spaghetti, meatballs, pizza slices, even Kevin's crusts.

Kevin leaned back in his chair. “What do you want next?”

“Pancakes and ice cream.” Two women at a nearby table were throwing him smiles. He didn't think he knew them, but he smiled back. “I eat six pancakes every Sunday with maple syrup and butter. But this is the best meal I ever had in a long time.”

“Hey, in your whole life, man!”

Sammy patted his belly. “Right, man!” He liked saying things the way Kevin did. It gave him the same good, full feeling that he had now in his belly from eating.

Kevin kicked his foot. “See that fat lady.” He pointed to a woman at the bagel counter. “She could be my mother.”

Sammy's head swiveled around. “Your mother?” What if his mother was here? One of the friendly ladies nearby looked sort of like his mother, except she had really short orangy hair. The other one had a big excited face. She was popping gum.

“What're you smiling at?” Kevin turned to look.

The two ladies were looking at them and whispering to each other.

“I think those ladies like me,” Sammy said. His mother's friends always liked him.

“The whole world likes you.” Kevin got to his feet. “Let's go, man.” He took Sammy's arm and pulled him along.

“Where're we going now?” Sammy asked. He stopped at the ice-cream counter. “I think I want an ice-cream cone.”

“Okay.” Kevin glanced back. “But hurry it up.”

Sammy ordered a cone with sprinkles. Just as the girl handed it to him, the woman with the orange hair tapped him on the shoulder. “Aren't you the boy whose picture I saw in the paper?”

Sammy smiled politely. Kevin was at the counter, paying. Sammy examined his cone for drips and licked them up.

“What's your name, honey?”

Before Sammy could answer, Kevin took his arm. “Let's go, Mike.”

“Mike?” The orange-haired lady turned to the other woman. “Mike? Was that his name? I know I saw his picture. Let me get a look at you, honey. You look like that boy, the one who disappeared. Doesn't he, Connie?”

Kevin took the cone away from Sammy and tossed it away. “Move, Mike. Mom's waiting.”

“Mike…Mike!” The orange-haired woman hurried after them. “Mike, is this your brother?”

Sammy nodded.

“It is?”

Sammy looked at Kevin and nodded again.

“Connie, see if there's a security man around.” The woman held on to Sammy. “Is this boy your brother? Let me hear you say it.”

“He just said it,” Kevin said. “Let go of him.” He pulled Sammy away. “Mom's waiting.”

“Boys,” the woman called. “Mike! Boys, just a minute, I'm not through talking to you—”

The boys went around a corner. “Run,” Kevin ordered. They ran through the double doors and out into the parking lot.

It was dark in the woods, except for the circle of light made by Kevin's flashlight. Kevin was mumbling and talking to himself. “Stupid. Moron. Didn't you know what was going to happen? You didn't think. Stupid stupid stupid.…”

“You're not stupid, Kevin.” Sammy kept a hand on Kevin's shoulder. Every time Kevin said something, the flashlight went shooting all around, and Sammy couldn't see where his feet were supposed to go. “You're really smart, Kevin. You have a good brain.”

“Did I have to go to the mall? Make the kid happy. Play the big shot. Couldn't I figure out his picture would be in the papers? How come I never thought of that? Dumb moron.”

Sammy had never heard Kevin say so many bad things about himself. It happened when those ladies came. They kept saying, “Who are you? Who are you?” And Kevin said Sammy was his brother. Sammy didn't have a brother. He had two sisters, but if he had a brother, it would be Kevin. And his name wasn't Mike. That was funny. Would his mother be mad if she knew he said he was Kevin's brother Mike? He had to say it or Kevin would get in trouble.

If he saw those ladies again, he'd tell them Kevin wasn't really his brother.
I'm Sammy,
he'd say, and then the orange-haired lady would take him home. But where would Kevin go? They'd blame him because he didn't bring Sammy home, and they'd put Kevin in jail. And then Sammy would never see his friend again. So that was why he couldn't say his true name to those ladies.