by Lisa Bullard
In the end, hadn’t I proved I could pull off that walking-catfish thing? When the water in the California pond had started to feel toxic . . . no problem, I just moved myself along. Same went for here—if it turned out Daddy-O had made choices that left me high and dry in Minnesota, then I would just move myself along again, testing out ponds until I found one that I could call home.
Funny thing was, despite all the crap that kept getting dumped onto my head, I was starting to really like the Minnesota pond. Iz and Kenny and Gram all seemed to have their own way of helping me feel like this was where I belonged. So I hoped the pond wouldn’t have to dry up too soon.
I stopped bouncing. “Whatever I find out about my dad, I’ll be okay—I promise you.” I paused, trying to figure out how to say it. “And you know, I’m, uh . . . sorry. About your mom and your dad and all that stuff that you’re going through. I know how it must be for you.”
She jerked a shoulder in acknowledgment. Then she turned away to look out over the lake.
Her head suddenly whipped back around to me. “There’s a boat pulling up to the island. Where’s Kenny?”
Right then he came out holding the binoculars and a sandwich. Iz grabbed the binoculars away from him. “What took you so long, other than stopping to fill that endless pit you call a stomach?”
“The binoculars weren’t in the house, so I figured they were in one of the cars. But I had to wait because Dad was in the garage. If he saw me plowing through all that crap in the van, he’d get it into his head I should clean the whole thing out. Then where would you be when you needed my help to catch the bad guy?”
Iz let out something of a snarl and kept adjusting the eyepieces. Kenny looked out toward the lake for the first time since returning. “Hey, a boat’s pulled up on the island.”
“Really, Mr. Observant?” Iz dropped the binoculars from her eyes and sighed. “False alarm. It’s Jill Iverson and that college boyfriend of hers. They’re just out there to—” She stopped abruptly and her eyes shot around to me. I’d never seen anyone go red that fast.
It didn’t take a brain surgeon to guess what Jill and her boyfriend were up to. I felt my face go instantly hot.
“What? Lemme see.” Kenny grabbed the binoculars away from Iz and raised them to his own eyes. “Whoa! Gotta give the dude points for that move!”
“Perv!” Iz turned her back on us and folded her arms over her chest with a huff.
“Hey, you were the one to bring it up in the first place.” Kenny lowered the binoculars and winked at me. “Show’s over. They must have moved into the trees. I guess our bad guy will wait until their boat is gone before heading out there too, huh?”
“Probably.” I nodded.
“Kenny!” I hadn’t noticed Krissy and Linnea until they were standing right next to us. “What are you doing with those? Mom’s gonna be mad if you’re peeking at girls again.”
Kenny scowled at his younger sister. “So Mom doesn’t have to know, if certain bigmouths just keep their traps shut.”
Krissy scowled back at him.
Linnea gave a solemn nod. “If you took us out tubing, maybe we wouldn’t have time to tell your mom.”
You had to give the kid credit—she’d pulled out that bit of blackmail without blinking.
Kenny shook his head. “Can’t right now, Squid. I’ve got more important stuff to do.”
Iz leaned over and punched Kenny in the arm, then gave him an intent look. “Actually, I think that’s a great idea.”
Kenny looked confused, so Iz continued. “Weren’t you just saying you’re worried that your dad will make you clean out the van if he sees you here? And how much you’d rather spend the afternoon out on the water? Circling around the island? Watching all the other boaters come and go? Tubing would be perfect.”
“Oh—oh, yeah. Yeah, that’s right. Okay, everybody go put on your swimsuit and find your life jacket. And tell Mom we’re taking you tubing but don’t mention the binoculars or I’ll throw you overboard.” The girls scattered and Kenny looked at me. “You too, man.”
Tubing at munchkin speed proved to be the perfect way to keep our eyes on the island for the rest of the afternoon without looking too obvious. Other boats zipped past us; some held people fishing, some were pulling water-skiers, and one big pontoon boat was loaded down with high school partiers. Kenny almost ran us into a sailboat while cranking his head around to check out the bikinis on board. But none of those boats landed on the island.
We had only two small glitches. The first happened when Kenny insisted it was my turn to try tubing. I had to admit, it didn’t look all that exciting as far as rides go; “three-toed sloth” seemed to be Kenny’s fastest tubing speed. But Linnea wouldn’t leave it alone until I agreed to go, so I tore myself away from covertly staring at Iz.
As soon as I’d settled into the tube for a relaxing cruise, Kenny cranked the engine so high that I was bouncing like crazy over the water, almost—but not quite—flying. Then the tube hit some backwash and I had to make a choice between saving the ride and saving my dignity, because it suddenly became clear that my swim shorts had maybe one more good bounce—if I was lucky. No way I was risking an early moon sighting with Iz and the little girls watching me from the boat, so I let go and made a grab for the shorts just in time, drinking about a gallon of lake water in the process and coming up for air to hear the rest of them cackling like maniacs.
The second glitch happened when we were around the other side of the island and the boat suddenly sputtered twice, coughed, and then stopped altogether.
“Uh-oh,” said Linnea.
Kenny kept jiggling and unscrewing things on the motor. Then he dropped his hands down and just sat there.
“What’s the matter?” asked Linnea.
Iz sighed her biggest sigh yet and opened her mouth to say something. Kenny gave her a look and she closed it again. Then he ripped out a fart louder than anything even Kalooky could manage, and Kalooky was West Coast champion.
“It’s like this, Squid,” he said, over the top of Linnea’s giggles. “I’m not out of gas, but the boat is.”
Big Ken eventually showed up in a neighbor’s boat with a gas can and an order for us to head straight home for dinner. “Come over when you’re done with supper, Trav, and bring your grandma,” he said. “Jen’s decided we need some family time and we’re building a campfire.”
I kept an eye on the island as best I could during dinner, but nobody else landed on the side I could see. By the time I’d helped Gram finish the dishes, the sun was starting to sneak its way out of the sky.
I was sucking in wood smoke and competing with Kenny to see which of us could stuff the most marshmallows into our mouth at once when Kenny’s mom came over and dropped down next to us.
“Stop trying to choke yourself and go burn your poor old mother a marshmallow,” she told Kenny. She waited until he’d gone over to the fire and then turned to me. Fortunately that gave me time to choke down my own mouthful; it was clear she had plans to grill me about something.
“It’s so good to have you here, Travis,” she said. “I know your grandma loves it. And I think it’s made somebody else pretty happy too.”
I thought she was talking about Linnea; the kid had decided to thank me for the bike by charring me a series of increasingly sticky marshmallows. But when I followed Jen’s eyes, I realized she was watching someone else instead: Iz, who was sitting across the fire with her arms curled around her upraised knees. She had this faraway look and a little I’ve-got-a-secret smile just at the corners of her lips.
I dropped my eyes and felt this big blush rise up my cheeks. I hoped that between the dusk and the heat of the fire, Jen wouldn’t notice. She looked me over for a while without saying anything else, long enough for me to figure she’d guessed the truth. Then she chuckled and patted my knee before getting up to go pull Krissy farther back from the fire.
Eventually everybody but me, Kenny, and Iz got too full of marshmallows an
d too tired of swatting the buzzing mosquitoes, and they drifted inside in ones and twos.
“Fifteen minutes,” said Jen, giving Kenny and Iz a look before she pulled Linnea away from me and off to bed. “Tomorrow’s a big day, and I can tell you two haven’t had enough sleep lately.”
The three of us sat watching the fire die down into gray ash, not really saying much, but it was quiet in that good way, where you don’t feel the need to mess things up with words. The full dark settled around my sunburned shoulders like a warm blanket. Somewhere in the distance a series of fireworks popped in an uneven rhythm, like when the first few kernels of popcorn start heating, and I remembered that tomorrow was the Fourth of July. Independence Day.
“Time!” Jen’s voice drifted out of an upstairs window.
I watched Kenny get to his feet and poke at the dead embers with a stick.
“Gram says I have to go to church in the morning. You going to be there too?” I asked him.
Kenny nodded. “Sorry about running out of gas today.”
“It’s okay. I figure our bad guy decided to wait for dark. Maybe after he’s read my note, he’ll show himself tomorrow.” The adrenaline buzz I’d had earlier in the day had been smothered by too many marshmallows. I yawned and hauled myself to my feet.
Iz jumped up too. “I’ll walk you home.”
Kenny looked over at her in surprise. Then he looked at the short distance separating Gram’s house from his. Finally he turned and gave me one of those looks that tells you somebody is trying to work something out in his head.
I had the thought that maybe people didn’t give old Kenny nearly enough credit for brain power, because I saw the light bulb go on almost right away. He winked at me and said, “Good idea. Wouldn’t want you to get lost, bro. See you tomorrow.” And he loped up the slope to his front door.
Whoa—I owed him bigtime for leaving us alone without any flak. Not that I was stupid enough to think he was really going to let it die there, but I’d take whatever harassment I had coming from him without a whimper in the morning.
It really wasn’t more than twenty-five feet between the fire ring and the door to Gram’s place. I walked as slowly as I could manage, since I suddenly had a lot of big thinking to do. Part of me was thinking how grateful I was that the loon was quiet tonight. Part of me was thinking that I’d have to check for the new tattoo that I apparently had plastered across my forehead, which must have said something like “I ♥ Iz,” since it seemed as if everybody was clued into this little thing we had going, despite the fact that I wasn’t completely sure what was up with it myself.
But most of me was thinking about how exactly you got the kissing thing started and what exactly you were supposed to do with your noses and where exactly it was safe to put your hands.
We had reached Gram’s house, and I guess I was just staring off into space, looking like an idiot with all that overthinking, because Iz finally said, “Trav?” with this big question mark at the end, sounding confused but kind of hopeful, too.
This was it! I tipped toward her, closer and closer, watching her eyelashes fan against her cheeks as she closed her eyes.
Then Jen’s voice floated out the window again. “Iz! Now!”
Iz’s eyes popped open. She sighed and turned toward Kenny’s house. Then she quickly leaned back toward me and gave me a soft kiss on the cheek, running off before I could do more than blink.
I stood there alone, listening to the breeze gossiping its way through the trees, whispering about the two of us like the newest rumor working its way down the school hallways at lunchtime. Then I ran my fingers down the cheek she had kissed and squeezed my fist, tightly. If only I could catch hold of the kiss, maybe I could hang on to the feel of those soft lips despite everything else that was going on.
I glanced at the lake as I turned to go inside. And saw a boat’s running lights gliding across the dark, headed straight toward the darker bulk of the island.
CHAPTER 20
I admit, I have a lot of questions about the Big Guy in the Sky. But Gram had made it clear that as far as she was concerned, He had game, man. So when the two of us settled into a church pew the next morning, I tried, for Gram’s sake, to grab on to some holy.
Plus, I was thinking that if the worst happened and the note writer came gunning for me, it might help to have the Big Guy on my side.
Problem was, on that particular Sunday I was too distracted to make time for The Man Upstairs. I was too busy trying to figure out that other man in my life, the bank-robbing one, and all the problems kicking up around him.
Not to mention that I got extra distracted once I recognized the back of Iz’s head just six pews in front of us.
But I was sitting next to my grandmother in a church, so I really worked to push any thoughts of Iz aside. As soon as I cleared out a little space in my brain, this other thought popped through, and I started obsessing about the Monopoly money and the note we’d buried on the island and wondering whose boat I’d seen traveling out there in the dark.
I checked out the other heads in church—well, the backs of them, anyway—and wondered which one of them was trying to catch me while I was trying to catch him. When would he make his next move? And what would it be?
Was I going to need a miracle to stay in one piece?
Then Iz turned and looked over her shoulder all casually, like she was just scanning the room, but as soon as her eyes lit on me, they stayed stuck and she gave me that secret smile, and next thing I knew, Gram was having to poke me in the shoulder because everybody else was standing up to sing and I was just sitting there, all caught up in thinking about Iz.
Then the service was finally over, but rather than making the speedy exit I had planned, I got trapped by Gram’s peeps, who were circling like turkey vultures to pluck up the backstory about my winning chicken-crap ticket.
I finally escaped the posse and headed outside. I was kind of hiding out in a little nook, trying to spot Iz, when some lady who looked like a walking flower garden planted herself in front of me.
“Travis, right?” She had one of those smiles where you could see way too many teeth. “My, you do look like your father, don’t you? But I suppose the real question is, are you like him both inside and out?”
I thought I had perfected my delivery-to-the- following-recipient-failed-permanently look. But Mrs. Flower Garden must have misinterpreted my blank stare, because she just kept plowing on.
“Of course, none of us knew exactly how much trouble your father had in him until it was too late, did we?”
She was giving me the same look that the wolf had given Little Red Riding Hood. Just as I was opening my mouth to comment on what big teeth she had, a hand slipped into mine.
“Hello, Mrs. Svengrud,” said Iz.
Another Svengrud? What was with this family? Why did they hate me so much? Maybe one of them had written the anonymous note, even if it wasn’t Cody. At the very least I was sure they were the reason the whole town had turned me into their fall guy.
Maybe they had actually found the stupid money long ago and now they were the ones spending it; Iz had said King Svengrud had been searching hard for it. Had he somehow pretended to find the bait money the day I’d been in his store so he could frame me for having the cash and then finally spend it himself?
The Teeth turned on Iz and then her eyes dropped down to check out our PDA. “Isabella, you poor dear, how are you feeling after all that trouble with your father the other night?”
I felt Iz’s hand jerk in mine, but then she gave me a squeeze that clearly meant “be quiet.” “Oh, how nice of you to be thinking about me when you have your own worries. Kenny told me Cody is having big trouble in summer school. Poor thing—did he have to stay home and study? Is that why he isn’t at church this morning? I can’t imagine how hard it will be on all of you if he flunks again and can’t play football in the fall.”
I was so happy to see the return of the evil fairy that I couldn’t com
pletely hold back a smirk.
Queen Svengrud heaved a big breath that set all her flowers waving in the breeze. She stared at Iz for a moment, but then she seemed to figure out there was no way she could make her fighting weight class and she turned back to me.
“I just worry for your poor grandmother, don’t you? After all those years of coping with your father’s wild ways, she really deserves to just relax, doesn’t she? But now . . .”
“There’s Trav’s grandma now. Mrs. Stoiska, here he is.” Iz raised her voice and yanked me away before I could say, “Bite me,” or rearrange the barracuda’s teeth to match Linnea’s.
Gram didn’t seem to be anywhere in sight but I wasn’t about to argue. We pulled up next to Kenny.
“I saw boat lights heading out for the island last night, right before I went to bed,” I said as soon as it was just the three of us.
“Whoa—so today really could be D-day.” Kenny stuffed a whole doughnut into his mouth. I checked out the other two he was still holding, wondering how I could snatch one away without his noticing.
He must have sensed I was posing a threat to his food supply, because he pulled back a step. Then he started giving me this look that was a cross between the evil eye and a smirk. I followed his eyes down and realized he had picked up on my whole hand-holding thing with Iz. Man, it was starting to seem like I was setting myself up for even more crap from Kenny than from the note writer.
And while I was busy turning red, he shoved both remaining doughnuts into his mouth at once.
“Kenny!” We looked over and saw Big Ken pointing at his watch. Kenny swallowed the last of the doughnuts and looked from me to Iz. “I gotta go get in the lineup. You two coming to the parade?” he asked.
Earlier that morning Gram had said something about a Fourth of July parade, but I hadn’t paid much attention.