Come Fall

by A. C. E. Bauer

No! How was I to explain any of this to the queen?

  “Visit this Robin Puckett’s dreams, Puck. Visit his dreams!”

  And as I watched the king disappear, I cursed my position.

  11—Lu-Ellen Zimmer

  Waterfalls

  Dinner at Lu’s house was noisy. Everyone talked at the same time, her brothers vying for Mom and Dad’s attention. Lu usually tuned out. She lived in a house full of boys. Everything was about sports and video games and Jack’s acting and Ron’s fencing and Ricky’s latest boy genius project—when he wasn’t just being a total pain. Salman seemed different.

  Lu picked at her food. Salman was nice—a loner and a bit weird, but definitely nice. Older, too, she guessed. He looked like someone Ron’s age. And Bird—well, he was magical.

  She frowned. Kids were calling Salman “Crow.”

  She bit her lip and began to build a hill of peas on one side of her plate. This wasn’t about her, she reminded herself. She was only his d.b. Salman was a strong kid. He’d weather it. She squashed some of the peas, and one rolled off the plate. As she leaned over to retrieve it, she realized Mom was speaking to her.

  “… tomorrow evening. It’ll be nice to see them.”

  “Tomorrow evening?” Lu said.

  “We’re meeting the Drummonds,” Mom said. “I was speaking to Natalie….”

  She stared at Lu.

  “Haven’t you been listening?”

  Lu reddened. Natalie? Frances Drummond’s mother? They were meeting the Drummonds?

  “She’s dreaming about her new boyfriend,” Ricky said.

  Lu wanted to kick him, but he was across the table, too far to reach. Dad’s fork stopped halfway to his mouth.

  “Boyfriend?”

  Oh great. She had better put a stop to this, fast.

  “I’m a designated buddy,” Lu said. “I showed my buddy how to write a report for Mr. Ho.”

  Dad nodded.

  “Seems like a nice boy,” Mom said.

  He is, Lu thought.

  “What were you saying about the Drummonds?” she asked.

  “I spoke to Natalie this morning. She and the girls will be in town. We arranged to meet for dinner.”

  Dinner. Dinner with Frances’s mother and the girls—that meant Frances and her little sister, Johanna.

  “The whole family’s going to have dinner with them?” Lu asked.

  “No. Just you and me.”

  Lu and Mom. No brothers. This sounded good.

  “No fair,” Ricky said. “I wanna come, too.”

  “You have soccer practice, young man,” Dad said.

  Go, Dad!

  “And who’s gonna take me?”

  “I’ve made arrangements with Jimmy Puckett’s mother,” Mom said. “You can ride with them.”

  “It still isn’t fair—”

  Jack interrupted. “Mom, can I sign you up for the costume committee?”

  Chaos resumed. Mom and Jack talked about the high school play. Ricky, still mad, began whining about how mean his soccer coach was. Ron chose this moment to ask Dad whether he could purchase a new fencing foil.

  “What’s wrong with the one you used last year?” Dad said.

  “Well …”

  Lu let her thoughts wander. Dinner with Frances. She should be more excited. Two weeks ago, she would have been. But now she wondered what she’d tell Frances. And what Frances had to say. Should Lu mention Salman? What about his crow?

  When Lu got to school the next morning, she saw Rob Puckett and a bunch of other guys snickering as they climbed the stairs. She would have ignored them, except that Rob caught her eye and gave her an evil smile. She was halfway to her homeroom when she ran into Salman, his mouth drawn into a tight frown.

  “What’s up?” she asked.

  He hesitated before pulling a sheet of paper from his pack: a picture printed off the Internet. A dead crow’s body lay splayed on the ground.

  “Found it on my locker,” he said.

  Why were they picking on Salman? Then later, during math class, Bethany Addams sent her a note.

  You like him, don’t you.

  What had she done to Bethany?

  When Lu searched for Ruthie at lunch, hoping to get some explanation from her, she found her in deep conversation with Bethany. Lu headed to the back of the cafeteria, behind a post. Best she let this blow over, she figured.

  By the end of the day, she had almost forgotten the note. She had begun thinking about her assignments for tomorrow, and how little time she had to complete them, when Rob ambushed her on the way to the front doors.

  “Hello, Bird Tamer,” he said.

  Sean, a heavyset boy, blocked her path.

  “Get out of my way,” she said.

  “If you show us how you tamed Crow,” Rob said.

  She glared at him. What kind of idiocy was this? Kids were streaming past. At that moment Blos Pease ran up, on his way to the bus line.

  “Hey, Lu. Ms. R said I can work for the paper.”

  Blos didn’t seem to notice Rob and Sean, who were now smirking.

  “I wanted to tell you at lunch but I did not see you.”

  “That’s great, Blos,” Lu said.

  Blos checked his watch. “The bus loads in five minutes. Bye.”

  He dove between Lu and the boys, aiming for the line, forcing the boys aside. Lu grabbed her chance and ran out the doors before they could corner her again. She’d have to thank Blos sometime for having helped her.

  But she didn’t have time to dwell on it. She spent every minute at home trying to finish all of her homework.

  “We’re leaving!” Mom yelled from the stairs.

  “Be right there!” Lu yelled back.

  She fished out a light sweater from her closet to wear over her T-shirt.

  During the fifteen-minute ride to the restaurant, she tried to calm her jitters. She was having dinner with Frances. Their last conversation hadn’t been great, but they were still friends—at least, Lu hoped so. Maybe this was their chance to work out whatever distance had crept between them and get back to the friendship they used to have.

  At the diner, Frances, her mother, and her seven-year-old sister, Johanna, waved from a circular booth as soon as Lu and Mom walked in. Lu gave Frances a shy smile. Frances smiled back. Natalie—she was never to be called Ms. Drummond—rose and hugged Mom.

  “Marianne, you look fabulous!”

  Fabulous? Natalie—with her blond hair cut straight just over her shoulders, tasteful makeup, silk shirt and crisp trousers fitted to her slim frame, and a gold necklace with a large blue stone that matched her eyes—exuded fabulous. Mom, on the other hand, wore no makeup; ringlets of red hair escaped her ponytail; and she had on one of Dad’s dress shirts over preggie pants—“because they fit,” she had explained. Something of a mess, Lu thought.

  They sat themselves around the table, Lu next to Frances. Johanna sat between the two moms.

  “Hi,” Lu said.

  “Hi,” Frances replied.

  A split second of awkwardness was interrupted by Mom.

  “Tell me about your house.”

  “It’s beautiful, Marianne,” Natalie said. “Everything we ever wanted.”

  That wasn’t what Lu had heard.

  When Frances had first moved in, she complained that the house was cold. Built among ginormous homes on two-acre lots, the Drummond house was just like the rest: too big with fourteen rooms and a three-car garage.

  “They forgot to give the place a soul,” Frances had said. “I feel like I live in a fancy furniture catalog.”

  “It can’t be that bad,” Lu had said.

  “It’s worse. I keep on expecting someone to tell me it’s closing time and I need to leave the showroom so they can lock up.”

  They had laughed over the phone.

  But now Frances was nodding at her mother’s glowing description.

  “We put a pool in next spring,” Natalie said.

  Johanna squirmed. “I
want lemonade,” she said.

  “We’ll order in a minute,” Natalie replied.

  Lu rolled her eyes at Frances. Johanna was acting just like Ricky. Frances rolled her eyes back. “Little sisters,” she was saying. They both giggled.

  “The furniture—” Natalie began.

  “Can I have chicken fingers?” Johanna interrupted.

  “When we order,” Natalie said.

  Lu gave a tiny shake of her head, so that only Frances noticed.

  “It’s almost like home,” Lu said.

  “Is Ricky still blowing things up?” Frances asked.

  “He’s moved to floods.”

  “Naw …”

  “You should have seen the kitchen after he built his wave machine.”

  Frances grinned in anticipation.

  Lu described how Ricky had cut up almost all of the plastic containers Mom used for leftovers and had connected them with duct tape to make one long basin. Then he built a tall frame over one end, and from it hung a piece of wood into the basin.

  “He filled the contraption with water and a few boats and then started pushing the piece of wood back and forth.”

  “Did it make waves?” Frances asked.

  “Oh yeah,” Lu said. “Beautiful big ones.”

  Even Johanna’s eyes, at this point, were dancing. “Did it make a mess?” she asked.

  “Only when the waves broke over the sides,” Mom said.

  Lu began giggling.

  “And then … the duct tape … sprung a leak….”

  Frances, too, began laughing.

  “He had waterfalls going off the ends of the table,” Lu finished.

  “His next experiment,” Mom said, “was with a mop.”

  Lu grinned.

  “Now he’s into paper airplanes.”

  “Everywhere,” Mom said, waving her hands.

  Natalie dabbed a tissue at the corners of her eyes.

  “I don’t know how you manage, Marianne,” she said. “Four children over ten. Jack about to graduate high school. And now a baby on the way …”

  Mom’s smile tightened.

  “I feel fortunate carrying another child.”

  “Of course you do!” Natalie said.

  What she meant, Lu understood, was “Better you than me.”

  Mom steered the conversation back to Natalie’s choice of furniture. The waiter arrived and took their dinner orders.

  “Tell me about your classes,” Lu said to Frances.

  While they ate, Mom and Natalie chatted about upholstery, the state of education, the gardens they had planted. Johanna chimed in with her opinions. Lu and Frances talked about old acquaintances.

  After ordering dessert, Frances said, “You mentioned you were a designated buddy.”

  Lu froze. The dinner had been pleasant so far, even warm. Their old friendship had returned, little by little, although not completely. They had skipped past being polite with one another but still hadn’t revealed much about themselves. How much did she dare tell Frances, especially with their mothers and Frances’s sister overhearing every word?

  But Frances had remembered. She had paid attention during that short phone call when Lu thought she had been distracted.

  “The kid’s a nice guy,” Lu said. “He’s new to Springfalls.”

  “What do you do with him?”

  “I’ve shown him stuff around the school.”

  “Oh?”

  “Well, yesterday, for example, I showed him how to write a biology report for Mr. Ho so he wouldn’t have to do it twice.”

  Lu and Frances had labored over Mr. Ho’s reports together last year.

  “That’s really nice,” Frances said.

  She had said it as if she meant it. Lu had her opening. She could tell Frances about Salman’s tiny handwriting. She could mention how raggedy his clothes were and speculate whether he picked them out or didn’t have a choice. She could talk about his crow.

  But no, she realized, she couldn’t. She wasn’t ready to talk about Salman. Not with Frances. Not right now.

  “Does your school have designated buddies?” she asked.

  Frances sighed.

  “I wish it did. Those first few weeks were really tough.”

  They moved safely away from Salman. Soon, it was time to go. Frances took Lu’s arm in hers as they walked behind their mothers and Johanna toward the cars.

  The night was clear and cold. Even under the city lights, Lu saw a few stars and the quarter moon. Beautiful, she thought.

  “Did you see that dress?” Frances said.

  She pointed to a display in the store next to the diner. A headless mannequin wore a glitzy gown with at least three bows too many.

  “Frilly,” Lu said.

  “Martha’d have a field day,” Frances said. She began laughing. “You should have heard her talking about all the dresses after the summer ball at the pool club. She had me and Josie in stitches.”

  Lu smiled, but only halfheartedly.

  They reached Frances’s car first.

  “Take it easy, okay?” Frances said.

  “Okay,” Lu said.

  Frances gave her a real hug. Lu hugged her back.

  As she watched them drive away, Lu shivered in her light sweater.

  12—Blos Pease

  Feathers

  Blos remembered when Frances Drummond moved away. She had been Lu Zimmer’s best friend, and whenever he saw Lu at school, he knew that Frances was probably nearby. Frances always made him feel queasy inside. So he never stayed around Lu for very long. Except sometimes Lu ate lunch with him—with him and their d.b., Elaine Egger—without Frances. He never felt queasy then. Lu always said hi. And after Frances moved away, he could say hi back and not worry that Frances was going to show up and make him feel queasy inside.

  What Blos really liked about Lu was that she never told Blos things she knew were not true. Not like Rob Puckett. Rob Puckett always told Blos lies.

  Just before first period, Rob had told him, “Your feathers are showing!”

  The other kids laughed. Blos did not. He did not have any feathers on him. His mother bought him a down jacket last winter. Down was a kind of feather that trapped air very well and kept you warm. It was the only thing with feathers he owned. But the weather had not been cold enough to wear his down jacket. He could not have had any feathers on him.

  He told his mother at dinner, “Rob Puckett said, ‘Your feathers are showing,’ but I did not have any feathers.”

  “No,” she said. “You didn’t.”

  “The other kids laughed.”

  Mom let out a big breath. She did that sometimes.

  “It’s one of the things you have to ignore.”

  “Lu Zimmer had feathers.”

  “Oh?”

  That morning, a whole lot of feathers stuck out of Lu’s locker. Blos had seen them when he was storing his lunch bag.

  “She took them out of her locker and put them in the trash.”

  Blos was not sure why Mom nodded. Maybe she thought that feathers belonged in the trash, too.

  “Do you see Lu a lot?”

  “Mostly at lunch. Maybe for the school paper.”

  They were going to have their first school paper meeting Friday morning, half an hour before the first bell. Yesterday, Mom had promised to give him a ride.

  “You sit with Lu at lunch?”

  “Yes. Her and Salman Page.”

  He had told Mom about Salman, the very day he had met him. Salman was from Bridgeport.

  Mom was smiling. Blos knew that was a good thing.

  “I like it when I have lunch with her,” Blos said.

  “I like it, too,” Mom said.

  Blos was not sure why he had said that to Mom, but it was true. Lunches with Lu were good days. Even last year, before Frances Drummond had moved away, when Elaine Egger was their d.b. Lunches were even better now because Salman was there, too.

  The next day he saw Lu and Salman all the way acros
s the cafeteria.

  “Hi!” he called.

  He rushed over and put his food on the table. But just as he began sorting his food, Salman spoke up.

  “Lu says you’re joining the paper. Is that right?”

  His food lay all over the place, the carrots perched over the cookies, the eggs under the rolls, and the sliced apple off to the side. Mom had told him, “When someone speaks to you, you have to acknowledge him or her.” So he nodded first, then quickly put everything in its place before answering, “Ms. R said I can take pictures.”

  Blos was worried. What if Salman asked him another question and he had to answer that one, too? He eyed his food. It needed to be eaten. And Mom had told him, “Don’t talk with your mouth full.” He had trouble with that rule, so they worked it out so that he only talked after he ate his meal. But this was school. What if Blos had to eat and speak at the same time?

  “It’s okay,” Salman said. “Have your lunch.”

  Blos was relieved. Salman even waited until he had finished before asking him his next question. Like Mom.

  “You have a camera?”

  “Digital,” Blos said. “It is brand new.”

  Mom had given it to him a week ago, for his birthday.

  “Really?” Salman said.

  “I like new things.”

  “Have you taken any pictures yet?” Lu asked.

  “Two,” Blos said.

  “Can we see them sometime?”

  Blos panicked. The pictures were still in the camera. And Mom had said he had to be careful with the camera, so he was not supposed to bring it to school unless he needed to use it for official school paper business. Mom had agreed to that. But there was no paper business today.

  “I—I have to print them … print them out….”

  “Only if you want to,” Lu said.

  He wanted to. The pictures were of his mother in their living room, and the front of his house—the ones he took when his mom asked him to test the camera. They were not bad pictures. But, he thought, Ms. R had told him to take many pictures for the school paper so they could pick out the best one. He needed more pictures. Yes. If he took more pictures, he could show those to Lu, too.

  He checked his watch. Just two more periods before he could go home, take more pictures, and print them out.

  “Okay,” Blos said. “Goodbye.”