Ruby Lu, Empress of Everything

by Lenore Look

  “I was hoping you’d be back!” he said cheerfully.

  “Oo er?” Ruby’s tube said.

  “Of course I was!” Danny said. “I wanted you to come back so I could teach you to swim like a shark.

  “I see you brought a friend!” Danny pointed to Emma. “Good for you!”

  “I am of er en,” Emma mumbled through her tube.

  Ruby gasped.

  “You’re not her friend?” Danny repeated. He was fluent in air tube. “Well, I’m sure you’ll be friends by the time the summer is over.”

  Emma’s face mask fogged over.

  Ruby felt the same way about Emma. She could hardly stand clinging to the same section of wall. They were two enemy barnacles, each stuck with the other, unable to move away.

  It was going to be a long, soggy summer.

  maybe

  A Regular Lifeguard

  “The first sign of a drowning person is flailing arms….”

  Ruby gasped. She was watching a video from the library, Basic Lifesaving. Ruby’s father had taken her to the library and did not do the usual inspection of Ruby’s selections the way her mother did. Ruby stared at the flailing arms. She wondered why someone would film a drowning person instead of saving him.

  “Bee! Bee!” Oscar shouted excitedly, pointing at the screen. “You, Bee?”

  “A drowning person makes no noise or calls for help,” the narrator droned. “So you must watch for signs.”

  Ruby could not drag her eyes away.

  “Oh,” said Oscar. He sounded like a little owl in a tree.

  Oscar was in his swimsuit.

  And so was Flying Duck.

  But Ruby was not.

  “C’mon, Ruby,” Ruby’s father called, scooping Oscar into his arms and carrying him out to the car. “We’re already late!”

  Ruby’s mother had taken Flying Duck’s parents to job interviews. So Ruby’s father was in charge.

  “I’m coming!” Ruby called back.

  But she was not. She ran into her room to look for her swimsuit.

  It was not under her bed.

  It was not behind her bookcase.

  It was not among her rock collection.

  It was not even under her magic carpet, where other things had been known to mysteriously appear and disappear.

  And it was not in the UtterPrincess box, which had never been opened….

  Slowly and carefully, Ruby lifted UtterPrincess out of her box for the very first time ever. Ruby had saved her doll in the original box for as long as she could stand. Unopened dolls were “collectible,” Christina had told her. But anyone could see that UtterPrincess was utterly useless in her box. All she collected was dust. But outside the box … UtterPrincess was utterly awesome. Ruby turned her around five whole times to see her from every angle.

  “Ruby!” Ruby’s father shouted. “Move yourself down to the car, before I move you myself!”

  Before Ruby knew it, her father had tucked her under his arm and was heading out the door.

  “But, Dad!” Ruby cried. “I can’t leave her out!”

  Ruby’s father had no idea what Ruby was talking about. He was as patient as a hot iron on a no-iron shirt.

  Ruby was stunned. Her eyes grew big and round. Her mouth formed an O. But nothing came out. Not a sound. She was completely and totally horrified.

  UtterPrincess was still in her hand.

  The pool looked murderous.

  The waves were bigger than usual.

  Oscar and Sam were making tsunami noises in the water babies’ corner.

  Ruby’s aquaphobia was worse than ever. When her father carried her out of the house, there was no time to get her mask, her nose plugs and earplugs, or water wings or life jacket or breathing tube. This was the first time in her life that Ruby was without her PFDs. She was even without her swimsuit—she was wearing a T-shirt and shorts!

  It had been a week since swim school began, and suddenly everything at the pool looked so different. Danny, the swim instructor, was as brown as a cookie freckled with a billion chocolate chips. Wally, Tiger, and Christina swam back and forth like porpoises. And Flying Duck glided peacefully through the water like a frog.

  Only one thing hadn’t changed.

  Emma.

  Emma was clinging to the side of the pool for dear life. She breathed heavily through her tube. And her diving mask was totally fogged.

  “Emma!” Ruby cried, forgetting that they weren’t friends.

  But Emma only shivered.

  Ruby slipped in and grabbed the side of the pool next to Emma. Dragon-boat drums pounded in Ruby’s ears. Doom, doom-da-doom-doom-doom!

  Basic Lifesaving played in her head. “The first sign of a drowning person is flailing arms….”

  “Your turn!” called a cheerful voice.

  Ruby jumped.

  It was Danny, and he was smiling at Ruby.

  “C’mon, little mermaid,” he said, sprinkling a little water on Ruby’s head. Ruby liked Danny, but she didn’t like his habit of sprinkling.

  “Blow big bubbles for me,” he said.

  Ruby put her lips together and blew. She blew and blew and blew. But there were no bubbles. Her lips were nowhere near the water.

  “Who’s this?” Danny asked. “Bring another little friend?”

  Ruby turned her head stiffly and swiveled her eyes to where Danny was pointing.

  “Oh no!” she cried. She had brought UtterPrincess into the pool! And she was holding her underwater!

  “Hey, that’s UtterPrincess!” Danny exclaimed.

  “Oh no!” Ruby cried again. Her doll was totally and completely ruined!

  “That’s no ordinary doll,” Danny said. “That’s the action figure that swims and skates and knows five languages!”

  Ruby’s mouth dropped open. Action figure? How did Danny know?

  “I used to have UtterLord,” he said. “He was the coolest.

  “Want to see her swim, Ruby?” Danny said. Danny held out his hand for UtterPrincess. But Ruby didn’t move. She was as stiff as a chopstick. So Danny had to reach underwater to loosen UtterPrincess from Ruby’s utter grip.

  “See?” he said, gently setting Ruby’s doll on top of the water. UtterPrincess, still in her clothes, began kicking her legs and moving through the water. Ruby could not believe her eyes.

  “Wow,” was all Ruby could say when Danny gave UtterPrincess back to her.

  “She looks like you,” Danny said. “You can swim like that, too.”

  “Can’t,” Ruby said.

  “You mean ’won’t,’” Danny said.

  “Okay, won’t,” Ruby said. “And you can’t make me.”

  Danny laughed. “Look, you’re not even holding on to the wall anymore!”

  Ruby froze. She looked around. Danny was right. She was not even anywhere near the wall. Somehow she had drifted with Danny into the middle of the pool. All of a sudden she didn’t feel so good.

  “C’mon,” Danny said, leading her back to the side of the pool where Emma was clinging and watching.

  Ruby clutched the edge with one hand and UtterPrincess with the other.

  “Hi, Emma!” Ruby said, forgetting again that they hadn’t made up. Emma looked at Ruby out of the corner of her eye.

  Emma was holding her breath. Then she did something completely and utterly unexpected.

  She put her face in. For a split fraction of a split second.

  But Ruby saw it. And so did Danny.

  “Good!” Danny exclaimed as Emma came up gasping like a scary monster.

  “Now it’s your turn!” Danny turned to Ruby.

  “No,” said Ruby firmly.

  Ruby would never put her face in. A wet face led to flailing arms. And flailing arms led to … to … Ruby couldn’t bring herself to say it.

  “Well, maybe your friend here will get you to do it,” Danny said, pointing to Emma. Then he began to help the other swimmers.

  “I am of er en,” Emma managed through her t
ube.

  Ruby swallowed hard and blinked back tears. She could hardly believe that Emma would say that again.

  Then she gently set UtterPrincess on top of the water. The waves were not so big after all. Ruby held on to the wall with one hand as she watched UtterPrincess glide through the water. First on her back, then with her face in the water. But to really play with her action figure, Ruby needed to let go of the wall. If she didn’t let go, she could lose UtterPrincess. The utter action figure was already swimming away. So, reluctantly, Ruby let go, one finger at a time.

  Suddenly she felt like a piece of driftwood in the sea. It was scary. But it was also exciting. Ruby smiled just a little. Then she smiled a little more. Then she grabbed the wall again.

  For the first time, she didn’t mind the water so much. She waved to her father. Her father waved back. Then, without thinking about it, Ruby let go of the wall again. And slowly she drifted on tiptoe away from the wall, just as she had done earlier when Danny was talking to her.

  Now she could play with UtterPrincess.

  Suddenly it happened!

  The flailing arms!

  Ruby gasped.

  Over near the wall where Emma had been standing, there was wild splashing and—flailing arms. Just like the ones in Basic Lifesaving.

  “A drowning person makes no noise … or calls for help,” the voice droned in Ruby’s head.

  Before Ruby could help it, her face was in the water. The water was cool, but Ruby didn’t notice. And Ruby didn’t notice her legs either—they were kicking like crazy.

  Ruby’s heart pounded inside her little chest. She didn’t know what she was doing, but she had to do it fast. She couldn’t hold her breath for forty-two seconds like Flying Duck. She couldn’t even hold it for two.

  “Identify yourself and announce your intention in a loud voice,” the narrator droned in Ruby’s ears.

  “Lifeguard here!” Ruby gurgled. “I’ll take you to safety!”

  She swallowed water. Something burned inside her nose. She reached out and grabbed Emma around the middle. “Use the cross-chest carry,” the narrator’s voice droned on. Ruby pulled her to the wall.

  Everything stopped.

  Emma coughed and coughed. She turned thunderstorm gray. Then purple mountains’ majesty. Then bruised peach. Then she started to cry.

  Ruby coughed too, just a little. And she wanted to cry, too. Drums pounded loudly in her ears.

  “What happened?” All the swimmers surrounded them and wanted to know.

  “Emma just swallowed a little water,” Danny said reassuringly. “She’s okay.” Then he winked at Ruby.

  “I knew it all along,” Danny said to Ruby. “You’re a regular lifeguard!”

  Ruby’s teeth clattered like castanets. She didn’t know what to say. She actually didn’t know how to swim at all. She had never even put her face in the water before. All Ruby did was what Basic Lifesaving told her. Now suddenly she felt very tired.

  Emma’s babysitter wrapped Emma in a towel and took her away.

  Ruby’s father wrapped Ruby, Flying Duck, and Oscar in towels and took them away, too.

  Then everyone else went home. Everyone, that is, except UtterPrincess.

  UtterPrincess was still kicking around the pool.

  But the pool didn’t look so murderous anymore. It didn’t even look like soda.

  All About Summer School

  Ruby was a hero.

  She had been very brave.

  She went back to the pool.

  She held her breath again. She kicked her legs. She blew bubbles. Then she put her face in … and floated.

  Soon she passed her swim test.

  She got her first swim badge. It was not as big as her Smile Buddy pin, but it was just as important. She sewed it on to her orange swimsuit with a little help from her mother, but mostly all by herself.

  Then Ruby crossed off her list:

  Hold breth in swimming skool.

  Put face in water.*

  Blo bubels.*

  Wow. Summer could hardly get any better.

  But it did.

  Emma came over.

  Emma did not pass her swim test, but she had made a special card for Ruby.

  Thank you, it said. There was a drawing of Ruby and Emma in the pool. The water licked their chins. But they were smiling. And nothing about it was scary. Inside the card Emma had written Thank you one hundred times in her best handwriting. She handed it to Ruby and gave her a big hug. And they were friends again, just like that.

  Then—surprise, surprise—Emma wiggled her thumbs at Flying Duck.

  So Flying Duck invited Emma to stay for a milk shake. A special summer sidewalk milk shake. Emma had seen these before. She took off her sandals and stood as still as she could. Then Flying Duck poured a vanilla milk shake on Emma’s bare feet.

  “Good?” Flying Duck asked.

  “Perfect,” Emma purred. “Just perfect.”

  And it was. Everything about summer was just perfect.

  Well, almost everything. Ruby and Flying Duck still had to go to summer school.

  · · ·

  In summer school the windows were always wide open.

  Breezes blew in. Papers swirled about.

  Sometimes birds flew in.

  Sometimes they flew out.

  When a hornet landed on Ruby’s desk, everyone screamed hysterically and ran. Desks overturned. Chairs toppled. Ruby screamed the most hysterically of all and ran the fastest. It was the best pandemonium in summer school history.

  The playground was interesting, too.

  The slide was as hot as a wok on blue flames.

  “Owwwww!” Flying Duck cried, rubbing her roasted legs.

  “It’s a regular barbecue!” Ruby screamed.

  Flying Duck looked at Ruby. And Ruby looked at Flying Duck. Without a word, they both knew … it was just perfect for …

  Frying an egg!

  The next day Ruby snuck in an egg. Flying Duck snuck in a spatula. Ruby cracked her egg on the slide. Flying Duck flipped it once. She flipped it again. Then she tried to scramble it. But the egg did not cook.

  Each day they tried something new. It was a regular cooking show! The Recess Chefs, starring Ruby and Flying Duck. They had a taro cake. Then a pot sticker. Neither sizzled. The hot dog just sat there. And the frozen Tater Tots didn’t do much, either. But when Ruby brought in a hamburger, it began to ooze.

  Cooking on the slide was so interesting that no one saw the playground monitor when he came over. So Ruby got busted. Again. And so did Flying Duck.

  But getting busted in summer school was not as bad as getting busted in regular school. No one called anyone’s parents. There was no emergency meeting in the principal’s office.

  Of course, the chefs had to clean their mess. They also had to make a sign:

  NO COOKING OR FOOD ALLOWED ON THE PLAYGROUND.

  It was posted, appropriately, near the hot, sizzling slide.

  Even without Ruby and Flying Duck’s cooking show, there was still a surprise of some kind every day.

  One day a little snake showed up to play hopscotch.

  Another day a rotten egg mysteriously appeared in the foursquare court.

  Another day a mouse died on the doorstep.

  Best of all, the daily surprise somehow always made it to class with Ruby or Flying Duck for show-and-tell. And most days Miss Yamada, who had taught summer school before and was quite accustomed to surprises, would have something interesting to say about the offering.

  “Sulfur is what makes the egg smell bad.”

  “Rigor mortis has set in,” she said, gently tucking the dead mouse in a little box lined with cotton. “The poor thing has been dead for hours.”

  Miss Yamada was very smart. She made everyone feel important, even a dead mouse. Ruby loved her.

  Ruby also loved Mentor Man. He taught Math with a Vengeance! Ruby loved Math with a Vengeance! She signed up for Addition with Attitude, Subtraction Without
Sweat, and Multiplication Without Mumbling. Ruby could hardly stop doing math.

  Flying Duck also loved summer school. There was a special class just for her: American Sign Language. But she wasn’t the only one in the class. All the hearing children had signed up for it too, including Ruby. Everyone wanted to learn a “secret language.”

  Flying Duck was very pleased.

  “Hello!” Everyone waved their open right hands several times.

  “Friend.” Both pointer fingers interlocked, separated, exchanged positions, and came together again as before.

  “Thank you.” The fingertips of one or both hands touched the lips, then moved forward until the palms were facing up, like they were blowing a kiss.

  Ruby paid attention. She was getting better at sign. She was even bilingual! She remembered how to say “thank you” in Chinese sign, by wiggling her thumbs. Suddenly she discovered that she could wiggle her thumbs and blow kisses at the same time, while standing up, sitting down, or even while walking around!

  “Wow!” she said. She showed the class.

  “I’m fluent!” Ruby cried. “Do like me!”

  And they did. It was the second-best pandemonium in summer school history.

  But the truly best thing about summer school was this: Flying Duck got to meet other immigrant children. Trong was from Vietnam. Mateo was from Columbia. Akiko was from Japan. And Youngja was from everywhere.

  The immigrant students drew pictures of places they missed. And friends they had left behind. They longed for candy they couldn’t find anymore. And taught one another games from other playgrounds. And sang silly songs from far away.

  Together, they felt less homesick.

  Immigration became less scary.

  Even for Ruby.

  A Dream Come True

  Summer was finally coming to an end on 20th Avenue South.