Last Meeting of the Gorilla Club

by Sara Nickerson

  She was tiny but full of energy. When her grandmother came to live with them, the two became great friends. Maxie loved her nonna with all her heart. Nonna taught her Italian words and fried up slices of salami and green peppers because that was Maxie’s favorite. She taught her granddaughter how to dance, too, swirling her around the kitchen table. “I never knew a time when I couldn’t cook or couldn’t dance,” she told Maxie, adding sounds to her words that no one else did.

  The area was growing. Every year, a developer would approach with a new deal. “Your land is in the way of our plans.” Or, “We need to build a road and you’ll have to move.”

  But the Cascalenda-Moon family didn’t budge. Like giant hands dropping cookie cutters into the forest, the developers carved out the land. Except for the Cascalenda house. The house in the woods.

  And then came the tragedy. But even after that, they stood firm on one thing: The house and land would remain. How could it not? Their beloved child would always be there.

  Lucas knew the house was still there. He knew because of the real estate agents that passed through and the FOR RENT notices and the moving trucks that came in with new families and then left not too long after.

  He knew because of the stories they told, as they moved to another house, a house in Hidden Peaks or Silver Pines or Cougar Ridge or any one of the other developments. The stories were mostly the same.

  Doors that slammed in the middle of the night.

  Sounds of crying from the upstairs closet.

  A smell of smoke that just wouldn’t go away.

  No one had stayed for an entire year. Most left after a few months. With every new family, the people who remembered held their breath. Maybe it would be different this time? Maybe the story would end? The house had been empty nearly two years—the longest stretch since it happened. Fences had gone up and NO TRESPASSING signs. Still, the Moon family was not about to sell it. Ever.

  On Saturday morning when Lucas woke up, he didn’t just roll out of bed as usual. He bolted upright. Had he been dreaming about the house? The house in the woods?

  He knew what day it was. It was a date he didn’t like to think about, not ever. But especially not on this particular Saturday, because of the note. And because of that kid, Josh Duncan.

  He dragged out of bed and went downstairs. His dad was outside doing something in the yard, his mom in the shower, and his little sisters were playing checkers at the kitchen table. When he poured himself a bowl of Cheerios, they asked for bowls, too.

  “Are you coming to our soccer game?” they asked at the exact same time.

  Lucas told them that he couldn’t since he had to finish his Marvelous Mysteries project. “But I will next week.” They made him pinkie promise.

  Twins, he thought. My sisters are a Marvelous Mystery.

  He set down their bowls of cereal and said, “If you had to ask one big question about the world, the biggest mystery ever, what would it be?”

  Isabel said, “Where can I find a unicorn?”

  Ava said, “Why can’t we get a dog?”

  Lucas took out his Marvelous Mysteries brainstorm sheet and pretended to write both down. His sisters giggled.

  Then Isabel said, “How about the house in the woods?”

  Lucas felt his heart speed up. He stared at the bright yellow box of cereal and took a deep breath. “Who told you anything about that?”

  “Everyone talks about it at school.”

  “Those are just a bunch of stories.” He tried to keep his voice light. “There’s nothing interesting there. So just—stay away from it, okay?”

  OLD SPICE AND NAILS

  As the day dragged on, Josh Duncan thought about the note. He carried it in his pocket so he could read it, over and over. It seemed like something alive, something that required attention and tending. No, that wasn’t it. Not exactly.

  It was heavy. That’s what. But paper couldn’t be heavy, could it? Josh eventually slipped the note back in the book of Robert Frost poems, as he’d found it. He left the book in his room. He even closed the door.

  When he went downstairs, he found his mom in the living room, pulling more photos out of boxes, ones he’d never seen before. “More photos?” he asked.

  “I thought about what you said. About setting everything back in the same place. I thought we could line these up on the wall next to the stairs. That would be different.” She pushed the hair away from her face. “But I think we need more nails. How about a trip to the hardware store?”

  Josh rode along, staring out the window, wishing the ride would last all day. More than anything, he wanted to keep busy. If he just kept busy enough, he thought, he’d be able to stop thinking about the note. And the house in the woods. And Big Brother.

  In the hardware store on Main Street, his mom pulled down the biggest box of nails she could find. Josh tried to make a joke. “Are we building a new house?”

  His mom laughed with him. “It’s cheaper to buy in bulk.” But her rash was covering her hand, and she was walking too fast.

  The minute they got home Josh dashed upstairs and read the note again. He went through the checklist of what he knew. The note was real, that was the main thing. So even though the sparkly girl had been the one to use the words Gorilla Club, someone real had actually written the note.

  The girl had also mentioned Lucas Hernandez as the one other kid in Mr. K’s class who had seen the gorilla in the video. And—Lucas Hernandez was the one who had helped Josh reclaim his book and the ten dollars at the football game. He was the only other person who had held the book in his hands. So, maybe it was real. And maybe there would be a meeting. In a house. In the woods. At sundown.

  Josh paced his room. He studied the map. Because of the time he’d spent on his bike, he knew exactly where the map was directing him—to the edge of the Bear Creek development, where the new houses were being built. And then, the trail into the woods.

  His mom was hammering nails into the smooth taupe walls. The house was shaking from her pounding. She was hanging pictures he’d never seen before. Every time she pounded another nail with her rash-covered hand, he remembered. All the family photographs she wanted to hang made him think about his big brother, the only one he would ever have. He remembered the awful words he’d said to him. He remembered how he’d walked off into the night, like a shadow.

  Josh grabbed his backpack and shoved in the book of poetry and the note. He was sweating in his armpits again, so he went to the bathroom and searched through the cabinet of his parents’ weird stuff until he found what he was looking for. He took off the lid and sniffed. The smell was strong and confident and reminded Josh of his dad. He missed him right then, but he was also glad he was not there for the moment that Josh rubbed the deodorant on his underarms and transformed into a grown-up lumberjack.

  Josh squared his backpack and marched down the stairs. As he squeezed past his hammering mom, he glanced at a photo of his six-year-old self in a pumpkin patch. He remembered the day: Big Brother had been there, too. He’d pointed out the best pumpkin for him to pick.

  “Where are you going, Josh?”

  “To a friend’s house,” he said, which wasn’t exactly a lie. “I joined a club at school. We have a meeting.”

  His mom followed him down the stairs, sniffing. “I smell something. Old Spice. Did you use your dad’s deodorant?”

  “Well, yeah,” Josh admitted. “Sorry—”

  “No, no, that’s perfectly fine. I’ll buy you your own—”

  “That’s okay.” Josh and his mom stood there awkwardly, the smell of Old Spice filling the air with something new. “Well . . . ,” he started.

  “What time will you be home?”

  “I don’t know.” He didn’t know. He had no idea.

  “You’re really growing up. Riding your bike to school. Joining clubs. Going to high
school football games—”

  “Well, not—”

  “I was going through a box of your old baby stuff—” She stopped talking. Her eyes filled with tears.

  “Okay, Mom. I should go. I can’t be late for the meeting.”

  She nodded and wiped her face. “What do you want for dinner tonight? Would you like pizza? I found a place that delivers.”

  “Actually I don’t know how late I’ll be.” That was true. Not a lie. “I’ll probably stay there for dinner.”

  She was still nodding. “So what kind of club is this?”

  “It’s sort of a science club. With some kids from my class.”

  “That’s wonderful. How about I drop you off?”

  “That’s okay. I’ll ride my bike. It’s really close to our house.”

  “But what if it’s dark when you’re done?”

  “Then I’ll call and you can pick me up. Or I can get a ride home.”

  His mom came close. “I knew this move would be good. I knew you would—” And then she sort of crumpled. Josh didn’t know how else to describe it. She sort of fell over herself and started to cry. At first he didn’t know she was crying because no sounds were coming out.

  “Mom?” Josh was alarmed. “Are you okay? Do you want me to call Dad?”

  “No, don’t call your father. Don’t worry.” She wiped her cheeks with the back of her hand. “I’m okay, honey. I just haven’t looked at this stuff in such a long time. Really looked at it, you know. And these photos of you as a baby—” She raised her hands helplessly. “I just love you so much. You know? And suddenly, here you are, smelling like Old Spice.”

  Josh nodded. Only he didn’t have any idea what she was talking about. He thought it had something to do with the move and the boxes she had to unpack. He glanced again at the wall. So many nails. So many pictures. It was too much to take in, so Josh studied the details.

  The button on the back of a chair.

  The way the lampshade was tilted half an inch.

  This perfectly round mark on the coffee table, the shape of the bottom of a cup. All things that told him these moments frozen in time—they had been real.

  His mom stood close, watching him. “If it gets dark I don’t want you riding home. Promise?”

  Josh held up his hand like a Boy Scout. “I promise.” And as he lowered his hand, he made a silent vow. No more lies. After this one night he would come clean about everything: the alien-ship library; Great-Aunt Evelyn; the sparkly girl; and everything else. Especially Big Brother. After this night. He gave his mom a tight hug and went to the garage for his bike.

  When he was halfway down the driveway, he heard the hammer start up again.

  STONEHENGE

  After class on Friday, when Mr. K had pulled Lucas aside to ask what topic he’d chosen for his Marvelous Mystery presentation, Lucas had blurted out the first thing that came to mind.

  “Stonehenge! I’m doing it on Stonehenge.”

  Lucas had always been interested in Stonehenge. When he was younger, he used to collect rocks and make tiny replicas of the circle of stacked stones. He and Maxie would do it together. That hadn’t occurred to him, when he’d blurted out the word to Mr. K. The very last thing he wanted was one more thing that made him think about Maxie Moon, but it was too late to do anything about it.

  When his sisters were off to their soccer game and the house was quiet, Lucas settled at the table with the research books he’d checked out from the media center. He started by writing a tidy introductory paragraph.

  Stonehenge is a prehistoric monument and one of the most famous landmarks in the United Kingdom. It is in Wiltshire, England, and people come from all over the world to see it. It is a group of standing stones and archaeologists think it was put together around 3000 BC. No one really knows what Stonehenge is, or how it came to be. Some people think it’s a burial ground. Some people think aliens built it. It is a (marvelous) mystery.

  He stopped. The words were flat, the paper was flat. There was not a bit of magic or mystery in any of it. What if, instead of writing a paper, he made a replica, with rocks, the way he and Maxie used to?

  For the very first time Lucas felt a spark of excitement about his project. He took out a fresh sheet of paper and began to sketch, using the photo in his book as a guide. When he was finished, he grabbed a grocery bag from the pantry and went out to collect rocks.

  He found himself heading for the strip of forest between his development and the next one over, Bear Creek. It was where he and Maxie Moon used to look for rocks, when they were playing at his house. Most times, though, they played at hers. Her house in the woods.

  It made him remember.

  They’d met on the first day of kindergarten. Lucas and his family had just moved from the city and because he was new and hadn’t gone to preschool with anyone, he was shy in class. She came up to him right away on the playground and smiled with her whole mouth open. He was impressed because she was missing a tooth. In circle time the teacher had asked, “Maxie, did the tooth fairy visit you?”

  “The tooth fairy doesn’t come if your tooth gets knocked out by a soccer ball,” she answered, grinning. “That’s what Nonna said.”

  Her big grin and missing tooth made her look older and slightly creepy, but in a good way. She and Lucas played together all that day, and then his mom got a call from her mom. “All she talks about is Lucas Hernandez! We’d love to have him over to play.”

  There was a road, of course, but the kids soon discovered the shortcut trail just behind the Bear Creek Development and through the woods. They were back and forth on it several times a day.

  Lucas wasn’t shy with Maxie like he was with other kids. They took turns deciding what to play. Maxie liked running and climbing. Lucas liked hunting for rocks and digging for treasure. It was always fun, no matter what they did, and Lucas felt he was at home in Maxie’s house.

  Now, bent over to pick up a rock, Lucas froze. Why was he thinking about all this today? He’d given the note to Josh Duncan so Maxie would go away and leave him alone, forever. Because that’s what he’d wanted, more than anything. But here he was, suddenly thinking about all that stuff—her smile, her grandmother, the games they used to play. All the stuff he’d tried to forget about, ever since the accident.

  He dropped the rock into his bag and moved to find another one. He worked fast and tried to concentrate on the task, but he couldn’t stop the images that crept back into his head. He saw fog. Or was it smoke? He saw the small grave. He heard the sound of wailing from the funeral. The horrible sound.

  It was this day, in the fall of first grade.

  A gorilla stepped into the circle and beat its chest. No one saw. No one but the new kid. The kid who now had the note.

  Without noticing, Lucas had filled his sack so full of rocks it was almost too heavy to carry. He dragged it back home across the forest floor, and then across the driveway, and then the neatly mown lawn. On the porch, he fumbled with the bag and the doorknob, and once inside, he noticed how very quiet the house was.

  He wished he’d gone to the soccer game with his sisters and mom and dad. After the game they were going to their uncle’s birthday party, which would last all day and into the evening. He’d begged his parents to let him stay home. “I need to finish this before Monday,” he’d explained. “And I haven’t even started.”

  They had finally agreed. Now he wondered, what had he been thinking? An entire day alone? And on this day—of all days? He guessed his parents had forgotten, or if they remembered, they must have hoped he had forgotten.

  Lucas found the glue. He spread out an old newspaper and arranged the rocks on the kitchen table, looking for shapes and smooth surfaces that were similar to the ones in his book. Each rock was just a rock, on its own. But when they began to pile up, that’s when the magic happened.

 
The rocks worked their magic on Lucas, and he found himself absorbed by the task. Rocks! Even just holding an ordinary-looking gray stone made him feel close to something ancient and magical, and made him remember that the world was full of one marvelous mystery after another.

  He was nearly done with the second column. He sat back to look at what he’d done. With all the rocks he’d collected, he seemed to be missing a certain shape, so he put the second column aside and started on the third.

  The phone rang and he jumped. He looked out the window to the darkened sky. He answered the phone and talked to his mom. She told him the party was fun and everyone missed him. “Everything okay? You getting your project done?”

  “Still working on it,” he said, and they talked a little more. After he hung up he realized he was hungry, so he pulled out a large mixing bowl and filled it with the rest of the Cheerios. He dumped in milk and settled back down to puzzle out his rocks. He wondered if the twins had won their soccer game.

  The tooth fairy doesn’t come if you get your tooth knocked out by a soccer ball.

  Lucas hunkered down and studied the Stonehenge photo. He separated his rocks. He would need another shape to make it work.

  Where can I find a unicorn?

  Why can’t we get a dog?

  How about the house in the woods?

  He slurped the last of his milk and rinsed out the bowl. He would go looking for the rock he needed, before it got dark. He turned on the kitchen light, and then went through the house and turned on all the lights. The house seemed so quiet. Why didn’t he go with them? Why did he stay here alone?

  Lucas slipped on a sweatshirt. He would have to find just the right rock. Maybe he’d have to venture a bit deeper since he’d scoured his patch of woods pretty clean. He pushed away troubling thoughts as he walked down the hall, thoughts of the note and the kid and the day it was.

  He opened the front door and then he stopped. Right in the center of the welcome mat was a rock. A perfect rock. The exact rock he needed for his Stonehenge project.