A Summer of Sundays

by Lindsay Eland

  “It’s a pretty terrible sight to see. But he doesn’t mean any harm.”

  “Maybe you should make sure he doesn’t run away at all,” Jude said. “Then you wouldn’t have to worry about him getting stolen or hit by a car, and Mrs. Potts won’t get mad at you.”

  Muzzy turned to me. “You seem to be very good with dogs, Sunday. Maybe you have some advice?”

  “I don’t know about that. But I love dogs, and I guess I’ve had enough practice taking care of my brothers, and sometimes they’re worse than dogs.”

  “Well, if you think of anything let me know,” she said, stopping at the corner of a street. “My house is down this way. Do you two want to come in for a snack?”

  “Sure,” Jude said.

  I grabbed on to his arm and pulled him away. “No thanks. We have stuff that we need to do. Remember, Jude?”

  Muzzy said good-bye and then half jogged down the sidewalk toward her house, Mr. Castor leading the way.

  The sound of the triangle clanged through the air just as Jude and I were walking up the driveway for lunch. We sat on the front porch thinking about what to do next. In my head, I went over the all the evidence we had:

  1. Old letters and an old manuscript

  2. They’d been locked up together inside the library.

  3. The letters belonged to the Librarian.

  I bit into my sandwich and stared across the field.

  4. Ben Folger. He is a hermit. And he’d also been a librarian.

  Surely there was a connection between him and the story I’d found. And even if there wasn’t, there had to be a way to get him to talk to me.

  “I think I have an idea,” I said.

  Jude had been busy seeing how many grapes he could stuff inside his cheeks. He gave a gurgled wha? and a grape shot out of his mouth, rolling into the dirt.

  I ignored it and stared back over at the house across the field. “How do you like the idea of being a spy?”

  Jude followed my gaze to Ben Folger’s house, the rest of the grapes plunking out of his mouth. “No way.”

  I nodded. “Tonight.”

  “LET’S go through the plan one more time,” I said, pacing back and forth across the porch. Jude had his head in his hands. “I’m going to sneak out of my house and go to yours. Then, I’ll—” I waited for him to finish my sentence. He didn’t, so I repeated it one more time, louder. “Then I’ll—”

  “Shine your flashlight in my window twice.” His voice was muffled. I tried to ignore his lack of enthusiasm.

  “Then we’ll creep over to Ben Folger’s, peek in the windows, and see if we can find out any information on him that will help us—” I stopped again and waited for Jude.

  “Bring him out of hiding,” he said robotically. “We can’t break into his house. You know that, right?”

  “I already told you, we’re not going to break in.”

  “Well then, why are we going over there?”

  “To get information.”

  “Like what? It’s not like we’re going to look in and see a sheet of paper lying on his coffee table that says ‘I wish someone would befriend me’ or ‘I wrote the letters and story that were locked up in the library.’ ”

  “I know that. But we can get a peek inside his house. Maybe it’s full of cats, or maybe we’ll find him playing a piano. You know, reconnaissance. That way, when we go over to see him again, we’ll be able to talk about something that interests him.”

  “Fine,” Jude said. “But just know that I don’t think this is a good idea.”

  “Fine.”

  “Fine.” And he stomped off to his house.

  “Be ready!” I yelled after him.

  Of course the one night that I wanted everyone to go to bed early had to be the night that Mom and Dad decided to grab pizzas and have a family movie night.

  The movie started, but I didn’t hear two words of what was going on. My mind was running through the plan again and again. I was itching to get moving.

  Finally when the credits rolled and Mom sent my brothers off to take baths, I scurried up the stairs and closed the door behind me.

  Below I heard the water running and Henry crying about having to go to bed.

  Jude and I had read each of the letters a few times and gathered this much:

  * “Me” and “Librarian” were friends.

  * “Me” lived in New York City but had lived in Alma once and wanted to go back.

  * “Me” sounded like a girl.

  * They knew each other when they were kids.

  * They hadn’t seen each other in a long time.

  * “Me” didn’t go to her dad’s funeral.

  * “Librarian” still lived in Alma.

  * And it sounded as if “Me” liked “Librarian” the way I liked Robo Matthews and Jude liked Emma.

  Not a lot to go on.

  I glanced at the clock beside my bed. Nine o’clock.

  Laughter erupted from the bathroom. Setting the letters aside, I pulled out the manuscript:

  By summer, the glow returned to Mark’s face and strength, slowly, to his limbs. Though his mother and father refused to let him outside for long, he and Lilly managed to enjoy the summer.

  It was Lilly who found the place that would be forever theirs.

  “You need to open the window a little,” she said, twisting the handle and allowing the sounds and smells of summer in. “If not, you’ll suffocate in here.”

  It had been looking out the window at the orange sunset that drew her attention to the small piece of roof outside Mark’s window, just wide enough for two friends to sit on. The oak in front of his house had a limb that would drop her right onto the ledge.

  She did not tell Mark her idea, not wanting to fail in front of him. Failure had never been acceptable to Lilly, and she didn’t plan on starting now.

  Later that evening, after she had stayed for dinner she returned home. Though not for long. She waited until her aunt and uncle left for their bowling night, then secreted away the old astronomy book they kept in the basement. The cover was ripped and pages were missing, but she loved to look at it. Mark had recently read a book about space.

  “I’m going to learn all the constellations,” he told her one day. “That way I can navigate using the stars, and when you and I go somewhere we’ll never have to worry about being lost.”

  Lilly tucked the book under her arm. They would start learning that night.

  Even though the air was warm, she filled a large thermos with watery hot chocolate and carried the book over to Mark’s house.

  She shined her flashlight in his bedroom window twice—their signal to each other—and moments later, Mark appeared at the glass.

  “What?” he whispered.

  “I’m coming up, but I can’t carry these up the tree. Do you have anything you could lower down?”

  Mark disappeared inside his room, and Lilly watched as a small light flicked on and his shadow moved across the curtains. She knew he would come up with something. He always did.

  He came back, and soon she, her book, and the thermos were sitting on the little ledge.

  Mark stuffed a blanket out the window for them to sit on. “We should do this every night.”

  Lilly smiled, pleased. “We will. Now, hurry up and open the book. The sky is clear, but you never know when clouds are going to start moving in.”

  They found the North Star, Cassiopeia, the Big Dipper, and the Little Dipper. But Orion’s Belt was their favorite.

  Lilly searched the sky. “Where is it again?”

  Mark leaned in closer, so close that she could smell the shampoo in his hair. She looked at him, her heart thudding harder in her chest.

  He pointed up at the sky. “Right there.”

  She followed his finger and nodded. “I see it.” She got up, reaching for the now-empty thermos. “I better go. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  Every night after that, they met out on the small space right below Mark’s window.
And each night they searched the sky for Orion’s Belt.

  At first, Lilly spent a long time staring at the blackness, frustrated because all the stars looked the same. But each night Mark calmly pointed it out. Eventually it became like a familiar friend.

  Lilly searched for it in the sky every night after.

  Orion’s Belt.

  Orion’s Belt.

  Where had I read that?

  In The Life and Death of Birds? Princess Academy? No. I grabbed for the letters, sifting through the envelopes until I found the one that Jude had read aloud. Skimming it, I came to the PS—Because of the city lights, I haven’t seen Orion’s Belt in longer than I can remember. So trivial a thing, but it makes me sad.

  Orion’s Belt mentioned in both the letter and the manuscript! That had to be a connection. I couldn’t wait to tell Jude.

  Complete darkness had overtaken the sky, and I ran to my door, pressing my ear to the wood.

  No noises. No footsteps.

  Of course, Mom and Dad and my sisters were still up, but for the first time in my life, as I slipped out the door, I silently prayed that I would be invisible. Just for tonight.

  “Ouch.” I brushed away the sharp branches and found a more comfortable spot. Ben Folger’s house was dark except for a light on the second floor. Jude was in the bush next to mine. I couldn’t see him, but I could hear his heavy, nervous breathing. Mine wasn’t much better. I pointed my flashlight at the ground and clicked it on and off.

  “Did you bring the binoculars?” I reached out blindly and grabbed hold of the cold, heavy glasses. “Thanks.”

  “We just gotta be careful. They’re Wally’s.”

  “Don’t worry. Did you go out with him for ice cream?”

  “Yeah.”

  “And how was it?”

  “Same as always.”

  Wow, wasn’t Jude Mr. Talkative tonight? “Aaaand, what does that mean?”

  “Oh, you know. Ice cream, playing catch, saying he’s proud of me and loves my mom. Stupid stuff like that.”

  “That doesn’t sound stupid.”

  He sighed. “You wouldn’t understand. Wally is a dork who is just trying to trick me into liking him. He doesn’t know how to fix up houses or sand floors or remodel or anything like that. Not like your dad. Your dad is cool and loves your mom. You can tell he loves all you guys.”

  “Oh, just like how Wally is with you and your mom? Besides, Wally can fix cars. My dad can’t do that.” I knew as soon as the words came out of my mouth that I probably shouldn’t have said them.

  “Look, Sunday, I didn’t come out here to get a lecture.”

  I reached out into the darkness and felt for his arm. “No, wait. You’re right, I don’t understand, just like you can’t understand what it’s like to be the middle-of-the-middle child. Sorry.”

  “It’s fine.”

  “But from the little I’ve heard about Wally and the few times I’ve seen him, he seems like he’s a good guy. Maybe he really does love you and your mom.”

  Silence.

  “Jude?”

  The bush rustled beside me. “Yeah, I’m here. Let’s stop talking about it, okay?”

  Just then a light flicked on in the front window, and Ben Folger walked across the room and disappeared. He was probably sitting down in a chair or something.

  “There,” I said. “We’ll be able to see inside and now we also know where he is.”

  “So what do we do?”

  I tried to judge the distance to the nearest window but couldn’t see a thing in the dark. “I think we need to run to that window over there and—”

  A twig snapped somewhere behind us.

  “What was that?”

  I searched the darkness. Thick clouds had moved in, covering the moon. “Hello?” I whispered.

  Nothing.

  Then another snap followed by a shuffle. Clicking on my flashlight, I pointed the beam toward the noise, again finding nothing. “It’s probably a squirrel,” I said.

  Jude shifted, rustling the leaves. “I think we should go. What if it’s Ben Folger?”

  “It can’t be. We just saw him walk by the window.”

  “I can’t decide which is better. Ben Folger behind us, stalking us in the woods, or Ben Folger waiting for us ahead. I bet he has his cane ready.”

  I looked toward the house again. If we were going to look in the windows, we might as well do it now. “All right, Jude. On the count of three, we’ll run to the window.”

  “I can’t believe we’re doing this. You know if we get caught he might—”

  “He’s not going to kill us,” I said, finishing his thought. “Besides we already proved there’s no curse on his yard. Ready? One.” My heart thunked heavily in my chest. “Two.” I took a deep breath in and closed my eyes. “Three.”

  I bolted from the bush, Jude panting behind me.

  When we’d crossed the yard, I flung myself underneath the window, plowing through a bed of soft dirt. Jude did the same, and we looked at each other in the dim glow from the window. We sat, catching our breath, staring into the darkness. My house sat in the distance, a few lights still on.

  I prayed that Bo wouldn’t try to come into my room.

  “So now what?”

  “Well,” I whispered. “We’ll turn around and peek into the window. I’ll use the binoculars to get a good look at everything across the room, and you try and get a good look at things close by.”

  “And don’t get caught. You forgot that.”

  “Of course. We can’t get caught.”

  I slowly turned around and peered over the lip of the window into the lighted room. It didn’t look like the home of someone who ate raw squirrels and tortured people in his basement. A dusty piano stood against one wall with a piece of music sitting above the keys. There was an old couch, a small rug, and an even smaller TV that sat on a rickety metal tray table. The TV was mostly covered by small green plants, and I got the idea that he probably didn’t turn on the television very much. On the other wall was a humongous bookcase. The spines were neatly arranged—like a small library. He had been a librarian, so obviously he loved books. That was something I could definitely talk to him about. I continued my spying, looking for photographs, but saw only paintings hanging on the walls. Ben Folger got up from a chair and walked into the kitchen and then back into the living room. I ducked down more.

  “What?” Jude whispered. “Did you see something?”

  I waved him away and watched the old man. He went to the bookcase, selected a book without even looking, and then sat down at the small wooden dining table.

  “Sunday, what is it?”

  I brought the binoculars up to my eyes and peered through them into the room. “Just a second. I can almost make out the title of the book he’s reading—”

  A small voice called from the woods, followed by a lot of scuffling. “Wait! I’m scared!”

  “Sunday,” Jude said, tugging on my arm. I had already turned toward the voice. “I think someone’s out there.”

  Another plaintive whine. “CJ, I want to go back.”

  No way. They wouldn’t. They didn’t.

  But they did. The three forms of my brothers emerged from the woods and dashed toward us.

  No, no, no.

  “What are you doing?!” I stood up all the way and let the binoculars drop from my hand. They clunked loudly against the windowsill. I ducked back down just as I saw Ben Folger’s head whip around to the window.

  “He saw us. Run,” I half spoke, half whispered.

  I whisked Henry up into my arms and we all dashed for the field, pumping our legs harder when we heard Ben Folger’s screen door slamming and his angry voice yell out. “Stay away from my house!”

  We all dropped to our knees when we reached the other side of the field.

  I tried to catch my breath for a second before I laid into my brothers. “You just ruined everything! What were you thinking?”

  CJ glanced up at me and sh
rugged, his words coming short and ragged. “Same thing you were thinking.”

  “Well, you weren’t invited!”

  Jude grabbed of my arm. “Sunday, just let it go.”

  I jerked away. “No, I won’t let it go!” I turned to CJ. “You ruined everything. And you almost got us caught! He didn’t know we were there, but now he does, and it won’t take him long to figure out it was us and then he’ll call the police and haul us off.”

  “But I don’t want to go to jail,” Bo sniffled.

  “Well, you should have thought about that before you tagged along uninvited,” I snapped.

  CJ slung his arm over Bo. “Ignore her, Bo. They won’t come for us. And I wouldn’t let them haul you off to jail anyway.”

  Bo swiped the tears that had started to drip down his cheeks. “Promise?”

  CJ nodded, stood, and then pulled Bo to his feet. “Promise. Come on, Henry. Let’s go back inside. Let’s leave Sunday and Jude aloooone.”

  I watched my brothers leave, feeling a little jealous seeing Bo’s hand tucked into CJ’s. If they hadn’t messed everything up, I wouldn’t be so mad.

  “I gotta get going, Sunday,” Jude said, brushing off his shorts. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  I stomped toward the house. The night had started full of promise. Now I felt like I’d swallowed a big rock.

  “Sorry it didn’t work out,” Jude whispered. “We’ll find out more tomorrow.”

  A soft yeah was all I could muster.

  THE NEXT morning was cloudy and wet, mist hanging over everything like a blanket. Even though I’d stayed up late reading The Life and Death of Birds, I couldn’t sleep. I kept thinking that Ben Folger was going to appear on our doorstep at any moment.

  Bleary-eyed and annoyed, I walked into the kitchen and found my three brothers huddled over bowls of cereal, drips of milk splattered across the table.

  Bo smiled and skipped over to me, hugging me tight around the waist. “ ’Morning, Sunday,” he said.

  Feeling his wiry arms around me and seeing his hair stuck up in every direction made it impossible to hold on to my anger. I squeezed him against me. “ ’Morning, Bo. Where’s Mom and Dad?”