A Distant Music

by BJ Hoff

  In that moment an idea came over her that made the hair at the back of her neck stand on end.

  This occurrence was deemed the “angel touch” by Grandma Vinnie, who wasn’t Maggie’s real grandmother but was called so by most of the town because of her advanced age and wisdom. Maggie had learned from experience that when an idea merited the “angel touch,” it was almost always a fine idea. A real dandy of an idea. On occasion, according to Grandma Vinnie, it might even be a heaven-sent idea.

  She shook off the chill and started writing notes to herself, hoping Mr. Stuart wouldn’t call on her just yet. She wanted to get her thoughts down immediately, while they were still foremost in her mind, so she could present them to the others after school.

  Of course, she already knew they were going to go for it.

  Ten

  Predators

  If you’re the only one that knows you’re afraid—you’re brave.

  Old Irish Saying

  From the moment Maggie related her plan for Mr. Stuart’s surprise birthday party, a wave of excitement swept the school yard. The fact that there was so much to do and so little time in which to do it only lent more enthusiasm to the undertaking.

  As a group, everyone committed to lunch hour meetings, and, except for a few, each student agreed to try to enlist their family’s help. In fact, those who thought they could get away with it went so far as to volunteer their houses for special meetings.

  Fired by the exuberance of the others, Maggie could hardly wait to tell Summer the news. First, however, she needed to tell her parents. She could only hope her da would be more agreeable about this idea than he had been about the notion of the collection.

  Maggie was only vaguely aware that she had reached the Hill and was about to turn onto the path leading upward to Summer’s house. So pleased had she been by the reaction of her parents to her idea for Mr. Stuart’s birthday party that she’d nearly lost track of time and place since leaving home.

  Not only had her mother committed to do some of the baking for the occasion, but Da had actually offered to help set up the schoolroom and put together a makeshift table for the refreshments. This was more than she could have hoped for. She knew Summer would be excited too and anxious to hear all the details.

  The unexpected sound of muffled laughter off to her right jerked her out of her thoughts. She stopped and looked in the direction of the railroad tracks across the road, but seeing nothing, she took up walking once more.

  When she heard it again, she stopped short, straining to see where the sound was coming from. But the thick copse of trees and brush that followed the railway tracks revealed nothing.

  She waited, and then she went on walking, this time picking up her pace, shivering a little even though her coat was buttoned tightly all the way up to her throat. Earlier the day had warmed, melting the snow and leaving puddles of slush and water that, as the night grew colder, began to freeze. Every now and then she skidded on a patch of ice or slick mud.

  The laughter grew louder. Maggie kept going, picking her way carefully but walking faster as she started up the Hill.

  She wasn’t exactly afraid. Coming and going in the dark was nothing new to her. But it was a lonely kind of night, with nothing but the sough of the wind in the pines and the occasional crunch of ice under her feet to break the silence. The kind of night that made her feel as if no one else was outdoors except her.

  Even though the low rumble of laughter and talk on the wind told her all too clearly that she wasn’t alone.

  She reassured herself with the thought that, most likely, some of the miners had stayed over to work on the track or the coal cars. Probably having themselves a drink over there in the trees where they couldn’t be seen.

  All the same, she took the path up the Hill as quickly as she could.

  Suddenly, she realized that the laughter had shifted and was now coming from behind her. At the same time she heard the snap of dead branches and the sloshing sound of someone coming at a near run through half-frozen puddles.

  Not someone…more than one…

  She stopped and whirled around to look.

  Her mouth went dry, and her heart took up a heavy pounding, the blood slamming hard in her ears.

  Orrin Gaffney and Billy Macken were trotting up the hill, grinning at her.

  Mustn’t let them know I’m afraid…

  None of the other boys at school worried her a bit. The worst they ever did was tease, and Maggie could give back as good as she got. Even Duril Crawford at his bossiest didn’t scare her none.

  But Orrin Gaffney and Billy Macken were different. Maggie had long had a sense that these two weren’t like the other boys at school.

  They were almost always together, and they seemed to delight in terrorizing the younger children. Her older sisters were leery of them, calling them “creepy,” and even Mr. Stuart sometimes regarded them with a watchful kind of expression, as if he half expected them to stir up trouble at any moment. He didn’t trust them, that much was clear, and his suspicion was enough to keep Maggie on point anytime they were around.

  Billy and Orrin weren’t merely ornery. They were mean. Just plain mean.

  They were both big for their age. Billy was only fourteen, but he stood as tall as his father and was nearly as broad. Orrin wasn’t as heavy, but he was tall too, and he had the hard, wiry look of a scrapper about him.

  One of them alone was trouble. The two of them together made a train wreck.

  Fear seized Maggie in earnest, but she stood her ground, unmoving, watching the two approach.

  They didn’t stop until they were directly in front of her.

  “Hey, Carrottop,” said Orrin, still grinning.

  It was a name that unfailingly made Maggie grind her teeth and long to punch anyone who dared to use it within earshot. It wasn’t a fair name either. Her hair was a full shade darker than carrots.

  “What’re you doin’ out so late, Carrottop? Past your bedtime, isn’t it?” asked Billy.

  Maggie clenched her hands into fists at her sides, ready to fight if it came down to it, refusing to think about what kind of chance she would have against these two great lumps.

  “I’m on my way to see Summer,” she said evenly.

  “The ghost,” said Billy Macken, winking at Orrin.

  The blood roared in Maggie’s head. “Don’t call her that!”

  They both laughed. “Ghost,” Billy said again. “That’s what she looks like. Carrottop and the ghost. What a pair.”

  Orrin cackled and slapped Billy on the shoulder as if he were the cleverest thing ever.

  Maggie swallowed hard, turned her back on them, and started up the Hill again.

  She managed only two or three steps before Billy Macken’s beefy hand caught her by the shoulder and stopped her.

  “Hey—no one said you could go yet, Carrottop! Hold on.”

  He gave her a hard tug, forcing her around to face them. Shocked by this unexpected roughness, Maggie refused to look at either one of them. Instead, she stood staring at the ground. “Let me go, Billy Macken,” she said, trying hard to keep her voice from quivering.

  “Let me go,” Billy mimicked.

  “I don’t think she likes us very much,” Orrin said.

  “Maybe she’s afraid of us.” Billy ducked his head to make Maggie look at him.

  Maybe she was, but she’d never let them see it. Maggie forced herself to laugh. Loud.

  Orrin reared back and raised a hand as if to strike her, but Billy shook his head, holding on to Maggie even tighter. “Now she is scared. Just look at her face. It’s as red as her hair.”

  Maggie somehow found her voice. “It would take more than the likes of you two to scare me.” If she hadn’t been a girl, she might have spit at him. As it was, she just glared at him as if she were about to spit.

  Something changed in Billy’s face. His eyes went cold as a snake’s, and he leaned closer to Maggie with a look that was pure menace.

&n
bsp; “Oh, is that so, Carrottop? Well, just what would it take to scare you, you bein’ so tough and all?”

  His voice was as hard as his eyes, and Maggie thought she might be foolish entirely to say another word. But she had seen these two in action at school, and she knew that if she let them intimidate her—or, worse, if she should start to cry, and she was all too close to doing just that—she would only encourage them.

  “Oh, stop it, Billy Macken! Summer’s folks know I’m on the way. They’ll be out looking for me. You’d better stop with your tomfoolery.”

  “They know you’re on the way,” Billy taunted. “Then for sure we’d better not keep you.” He stopped, his hateful eyes raking over her in a way that made Maggie feel as if something rotten had touched her.

  “Tell you what, Carrottop. You give me and Orrin a squeeze and we’ll let you go.”

  Maggie looked at Billy and then at Orrin. And in that moment she knew something had shifted. She wasn’t sure what it was, but she recognized a different kind of threat, one more dangerous than the usual school yard bullying.

  Maggie had any number of tricks at her disposal for dealing with smart-alecky boys. Her favorite, and the one that seemed to work nine times out of ten, was the poke-fun-at-them-and-make-them-feel-ignorant maneuver. She’d discovered that this one worked especially well on the older boys, who hated being thought dumb, even though some of them behaved as if they had no more sense than a worm on a hook. It usually did the job with the younger ones too, who tried to act older but ended up just looking stupid.

  In truth, though, she’d never been sure just how to handle Billy Macken or his pal, Orrin. They were an odd pair and then some. In the first place, they were the oldest boys in school, past the age when most of the boys in town had already gone into the mines. Stranger still was that neither of them seemed to have any shame. Even when Mr. Stuart came down hard on them for misbehaving, Orrin and Billy would simply stare at him as if they hadn’t heard, and then when the teacher’s back was turned, grin at each other as though they thought it all a big joke.

  They were grinning now, the two of them, smirking at Maggie. Orrin was dancing around behind and then in front of her while Billy held her fast.

  Maggie was genuinely afraid now, and she knew she was that close to not being able to hide it any longer. Her mind raced, and though she looked wildly around for a way of escape, she already knew there was little if any hope that she could get away. Still, if she could break free of Billy’s hold on her, she had a chance to outrun them. She was the fastest runner in school, never losing a race.

  But Billy Macken was as strong as he was mean, and his peculiar, glazed stare made it clear he had no intention of letting her go.

  She was trapped.

  Eleven

  An Unlikely Hero

  That in my action I may soar as high

  As I can now discern with this clear eye.

  That my weak hand may equal my firm faith,

  And my life practice more than my tongue saith.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Kenny heard them before he saw them. He was on his way home from exploring around the slack dump and the old abandoned hunter’s shack in the woods. He could usually find some good stuff lying around if he took his time.

  By now he had nearly all the wood he needed—a nice, solid block of pine and some hickory sticks, as well as some other stuff he planned to use. Tomorrow night after his chores and homework, he could start building. It wouldn’t take him long because he already had the frame started.

  He was almost to the railroad tracks but stopped at the sound of voices coming from partway up the Hill. With his canvas bag slung over his shoulder, he ducked into a stand of pine trees and stood staring at the scene across the tracks.

  Although it was completely dark now, the sky was clear. But even if the moon hadn’t cast enough light to reveal the figures on the hillside, he would have known them by their voices.

  At first he was confused by the sight of Maggie with Billy Macken and Orrin Gaffney, but it didn’t take him long to figure out what was going on. Billy had hold of Maggie while Orrin was circling around her, again and again, snorting that maddening horsey laugh of his.

  Maggie was trying to get away from them, but he could tell even at this distance they had no intention of letting her go.

  Carefully, he put his bag down on the ground. Then, with pine needles scraping his face as he went, he began to inch his way forward through the trees, moving as soundlessly as he could, actually going on tiptoe as if to muffle his steps.

  Just before he reached the clearing, he stopped and parted the branches of one of the larger trees so he could see better.

  Even in the dark, Kenny could tell that Maggie was plenty scared. Her voice was higher than usual and shaky, as if she were trembling.

  Like him.

  And why wouldn’t she be scared? He was scared too. Billy Macken and Orrin Gaffney were the bane of the school yard, the terror of the younger students, and a constant reminder to Kenny of just how defenseless he was anytime they felt like picking on him. Which was often.

  He was scared of them, all right.

  But when he heard Maggie’s shrill demand to let her go, heard the fear in her voice and their hateful, mocking laughter in response, the blood roared to Kenny’s head in a fury.

  He had to make a move now, before he lost his nerve. With a sharp pull of breath, he broke through the trees, stopping only long enough to bend over and scoop up the largest rock in sight. Then he took off barreling toward the Hill, yelling as he went.

  Maggie had almost decided she would resort to biting if she must. As a rule, she held nothing but contempt for biters—it was such a babyish, cowardly way of fighting. But at the moment she wasn’t past biting or anything else that would get her out of this fix.

  This time when Orrin moved in on her, Maggie was ready for him. Drawing her leg up, she kicked him as hard as she could. She knew where to aim too. Da had taught her and her sisters how to protect themselves should any of the strangers that sometimes passed through a mining town try to bother them.

  Her aim was right on target. Orrin went to his knees, grabbing himself and screaming like a girl.

  Billy gave her arm a vicious yank, forcing it behind her as he called Maggie an awful name. The ugly name hurt nearly as much as his pressure on her arm. No one had ever used words like that in front of Maggie. Not ever.

  “Stop!”

  Reeling from pain and the shock of Billy’s curse, Maggie looked around, confused, thinking it was Orrin yelling at them to stop. Only when she saw Kenny Tallman charging toward them did she realize it was Kenny shouting.

  Billy was plainly caught off guard by Kenny’s arrival, enough so that his grip on Maggie slackened—though not enough for her to break free.

  “Let her go, Billy!”

  Kenny stopped a few feet away. He was breathing so hard Maggie thought he might strangle, and as she took a closer look she realized that he was shaking from head to toe. But his eyes behind his spectacles were blazing, his mouth set in a hard line. He was clearly in a rage.

  Maggie stared at him, scarcely able to recognize this wild-eyed youth who suddenly looked a lot older than the twelve-year-old boy she saw every day at school.

  “I suppose you’re gonna make me let her go, Four-eyes!” Billy taunted. “Go on home, you worthless little sis! Get outta here!”

  “I said to let her go!” Kenny roared.

  As Kenny stepped forward, his arm came round from behind him, and Maggie saw the large rock in his hand. She stared in amazement as he raised his arm and reared back.

  “Duck, Maggie!”

  Maggie ducked. And just in time. The rock split the air with a deadly aim that defied Kenny’s delicate appearance and Maggie’s once-held opinion that he might be a bit on the puny side.

  The rock slammed into Billy’s chin with a crack. He cried out, grabbing his chin and dropping his hold on Maggie. Blood was oozing fro
m the corner of his mouth, and he covered the bottom of his face with both hands as if to hold it together.

  “Maggie! Run!”

  It took Maggie another second to realize she was free. She took off running down the Hill toward Kenny, who stood waiting for her.

  Billy Macken was screaming, yelping in pain and letting go a stream of awful curses and threats. His chin must really hurt because his words sounded like corn being fed through a grinder. “You’re gonna pay, Tallman! You just wait till I get my hands on you!”

  When Kenny made no move to run, Maggie grabbed his hand and tugged at him. “Kenny, come on!”

  “They’re not going to come after us now,” Kenny said, his voice strangely calm. “We took the wind out of their sails.”

  Maggie gaped at him. “What?”

  “Besides,” he went on, “we can outrun them.”

  Maggie knew she could, but she wasn’t so sure about Kenny. But then she’d obviously misjudged him before. Maybe she ought not to doubt what he said from now on. Still—

  To her amazement, he released her hand and started up the Hill.

  “Kenny! What are you doing?”

  He lifted a hand to indicate that she should wait, and then he turned back to the other boys.

  Orrin Gaffney had finally got to his feet and was standing—stooped over and moaning—next to Billy, who clutched his chin with one hand as he shook his other fist in the air. He shot Kenny a murderous look. But Kenny simply stood, both hands at his sides, as if waiting to have his say.

  When he finally spoke, his voice was strong, again surprising Maggie, who would have expected him to be shaking too hard to say anything.

  Shaking like she was shaking.

  “Don’t you even think about touching Maggie again, either one of you. Not ever.”

  “Don’t you tell us what to do or what not to do!” Billy spluttered. “Just you wait! I’m gonna make you and your ugly little girlfriend eat that rock you threw at me!”