by Paul Griffin
40
TRAVELER BRIAN AND THE TUNNEL OF LIGHT
“Ben, my Ben, what happened to you two?” Mrs. Lorentz said. “Those bags under your eyes. You look like you haven’t slept in a month. What’s that mark on your cheek?”
“How’s Halley?”
“She was up crying all night. You didn’t answer my question. That Rayburn character Halley told me about—did he hit you again?”
“It was a stop sign.”
She folded her arms and frowned. “A stop sign?”
“I’m so embarrassed. I was looking at my phone while I was walking, and I walked right into the stop sign pole.” I saw somebody do that once. “Aren’t they waiting for us upstairs?”
They were too, the whole Read to Rufus gang, everybody except Halley. Flip gave out knuckle bumps and jumped up into Brian’s lap. I had to keep this going, Flip and Read to Rufus. It was the only thing that felt good now. The only thing that felt right. “What story are you going to read to Flip today, Bri?” I said.
“I forgot to pick one.”
I reached into my backpack. It was my last book, the one Halley had left on the table at Housing Works.
“Fee, Feathers?” Brian said.
“You’re awesome. This is another one where the ending is sad but happy.”
“I better read it to Flip, then,” Brian said. “He’s waiting for me.” And Brian read about the moments that last forever and ever. Hearing the words I almost felt like Halley was reading them to me the way she did the day before at Housing Works, when she was holding my hand.
And then suddenly she was. She was there, and not in a dream. She was a real-life angel this time. She sat next to me and rested her head on my shoulder and listened. She was wearing a soft gray beret, and it felt nice on my cheek. Everything felt perfect in that moment, being there with her and the kids and Mrs. Lorentz and Flip. I was so happy, I didn’t worry about the future. It wasn’t even on my mind.
• • •
We said good-bye to everybody, and then Mrs. Lorentz scooped up Flip and went downstairs to leave Halley and me alone. We hunkered in the safety of the nook behind the Dragonbreath bookcase. “I’m sorry,” we both said at the same time. “Let’s go walk Flip on the boardwalk and work on The Magic Box,” I said.
“Can’t, stupid doctor’s appointment again. Text me tonight, after homework. We can work on it then.”
“Thanks,” I said.
“For what?”
“Not firing me.”
• • •
I helped Mrs. Lorentz close up the library, sort of. I disabled the alarm to the alley door and left it unlocked. “You really do look pale, Ben. Here, take this for the ride home.” She gave me an orange and a trail mix bar. “How are things back home anyway?”
“You know, settling in.”
“Good,” her mouth said, but her eyes said, I’m not even close to believing you.
“I better get back to the house for dinner,” I said, before she could ask me any more questions.
“Watch those stop signs,” she said.
“Yeah,” I said, stumbling into the door frame on the way out, pretending to smack my face on it.
“My poor baby,” Mrs. Lorentz said. “Let me see.”
“I’m fine, I’m fine,” I said. “Thanks.” I headed for the train, faking like I was a little dazed. If I survived being a teenager, I was thinking I might have a shot at an acting career.
I waited behind the candy stand on the corner until she left, and then I went into the alley and snuck back into the library. We were alone, me and Flip. We were safe. I read bits of lots of books. I think if there’s a heaven it’ll be my own private library. I walked along row after row of books and dragged my fingertips over their spines. In the twilight I felt the magic in them. They whispered to me, Pick me. Do you want to know an awesome secret?
When the sun was gone for good I read by my phone light. No way was I turning on the lights. The streetlights lit up part of the first floor, and I went there and stared into the silkscreened picture of the old Luna Park parachute tower that rose up from the young adult section. I swear I heard the screams and laughter of the people on the ride.
I had two tins of dog food in the backpack, and it actually didn’t taste that bad. I found unopened ketchup packets in the garbage and added hot water from the sink. It warmed me up. I checked my phone and ignored the stream of texts from Aunt Jeanie until I couldn’t anymore. She was worried sick. She called the school. Mrs. Pinto called the police. They were so mad at themselves, Leo and Jeanie, she said. Why didn’t she think to get the number of the nice woman who took me to the hospital after I had that asthma attack? Please, please, please call the house. I texted her, I’m ok. I need time to think. I feel so bad I’m worrying you. I’ll call you when I figure things out. I thought about what else to say, but I couldn’t think of anything except I love you, and I knew that would just make her uncomfortable. I blocked her after that, because I really didn’t think I could stand to read all the sadness she was about to text my way. I was okay there in the library that night. I was with Flip, and I felt like we were really safe there, and I didn’t want to be bummed out. I texted Halley.
BC: How was it at the doctor’s?
HL: Just a blood test. Next chapter of The Magic Box?
BC: OK. Rayburn has secretly boarded our spaceship, The Golden Tower of Light.
HL: I knew it! The dreaded Rayburn! And?
BC: Flip sniffed him out. He caught Rayburn in the storage bay, where he was trying to steal the magic box.
HL: Yay Flip! Rayburn runs to the airlock where he docked his sneaky invisible ship. If Bruce and Helen don’t let him take the box, he’s going to whip out his laser sword and cut a hole in the window, and the release of air pressure will blow apart our ship of golden light and everything in it. Do they let him go?
BC: They can’t. They need to get that magic box to Tess. Helen tells Rayburn, “Wait! You need the key!” Rayburn checks the lock, and he’s laughing, cackling. The box was never locked at all!
HL: Uh, NO, you sneak. Mercurious locked it with the key made of sparks!
BC: He only pretended to! He wanted Helen and Bruce to be able to get to the magic and save themselves in case things got really bad, LIKE NOW. It’s like he said, a truly great magician can never keep his magic secret. It’s meant to be shared. So once and for all, what’s inside the freaking box?
HL: Ask Rayburn. He’s opening it!
I waited for her to keep going, and waited. Finally I texted, And?!
HL: Rayburn’s crying. “This is the Greatest Treasure? OMG it’s completely worthless.” He totally passes out.
BC: What the freak? What’s inside???
HL: Flip snatches the box from Rayburn’s hands and sits on it and won’t let Bruce and Helen look. Flip’s not a biter, but don’t push him. Now, how do Bruce and Helen take their revenge on Rayburn? I’ll let you handle the gory part.
BC: I say they help him into a spare sleeping pod, pipe some awesome low-key rap into it and tell him to chill until they get to Mundum Nostrum. Once they deliver the magic, Tess will turn him into a half-decent humanoid.
HL: This is why I love you. You know there are no bad guys. OK, awesome story jam session, but—ahem—I didn’t get any sleep last night. Must. Go. To. Bed. Gnight. ;0)
“I wish you could read, Flip. I’d ask you if you see what I see. The wink. She sent me the wink. Good joke, right, boy? Yup, ha.” I had to look over that last text a few times to be sure it really did say what I though it did. “She actually loves me, Flip—as a friend, I mean, but still.” He nipped my nose and did a wiggle worm into my hoodie.
We settled in on a couch in the back office, and I couldn’t fall asleep, because I couldn’t imagine what was inside that box. I cracked the window to let in some air, and it felt good.
I breathed and breathed and breathed a little easier, and then I fell asleep.
I was only asleep a few minutes when Flip’s growling woke me. The library was pure dark. The only thing darker was the silhouette of the very tall man standing over me. He drew something from his hip and aimed it at me, and then a thousandth of a second after I heard the click I was hit in the face by a golden tunnel of light.
41
THE MAN WHO COMES TO TAKE YOU AWAY
“Son, just let me into your phone,” the police lady said. The precinct was noisy and crowded, and they had me in a room way at the end of the hall. Hot as it was back there, Flip wouldn’t come out from my hoodie pocket. “Tell you what,” the cop said. “Just give me your name at least.”
“I can’t,” I said. “We can’t go back there.”
“Where?”
“Please, just let us go. I’m begging you. We’ll be okay, I swear.”
“Sweetheart, I’m begging you. I only want to help you and your dog, okay? The emergency caseworker is on his way. In about five minutes, he’s going to be here. If I don’t know your name by then, he takes you away into protective custody. Now, they don’t let dogs into the emergency housing facilities.”
“I know.”
“Your friend there goes to the pound.”
“I know. I know. I don’t know what to do.” Flip kept cocking his head and licking my face.
“Please,” she said, “just give me your name.”
Somebody leaned into the room and said to her, “There’s a guy outside who says he’s here to pick him up.”
The cop turned to me. “This is your last chance.”
“Okay,” I said. “Okay. Just promise you’ll call Halley and give her my dog.”
“Halley?”
“My friend. My best friend.”
“Okay. Good. That’s a deal. I’ll call her. I’ll get our little friend here to her myself. And if she doesn’t want him, I’ll take him home. I promise.”
“You sure? You have dogs?”
“Two.” She showed me a video on her phone. Her dogs were fat and wagging their tails like crazy because she was feeding them cheese puffs. She was my kind of cop.
“Okay, my name is—”
“Ben,” somebody said. I looked up and there was Mercurious. He hugged me and told me it was okay, that everything was going to be okay.
42
THE MIDNIGHT MEETING
The clock ticked past midnight and into the month of October. We were sitting around the dining room table. Flip snored belly up in Halley’s lap. Mrs. Lorentz ordered pizza but nobody ate. I told them everything—except the part about Leo slapping me. The part about him kicking Flip was enough, though, because when I finished talking, Mrs. Lorentz said, “Okay, you’re staying here with us.”
“I don’t think it’s that easy, ma’am,” I said.
“Ben, please, I’m a librarian.”
“Media specialist,” Halley said.
“Either way, stop calling me ma’am.”
“It’s better than him wanting to send you the wink,” Halley said.
I gave Halley SHUT UP eyes, and Halley said, “She doesn’t even know what it means.”
“The emoticon?” Mrs. Lorentz said. “Oh that’s so sweet of you, Ben. You send me the wink any old time you want and I’ll wink right back. We’ll be total wink buddies, how fun!”
Halley gave me a look like, Wow, she’s even dopier than you on this one. “You so totally have to stay here with us,” she said. “You and Mommers—you two are gonna get along great. Yes, it’s going to be truly fun to torture you.”
“Ben,” Mrs. Lorentz said, “I’m thinking you want to call your aunt.”
She was going to be a weepy mess. She was going to make me talk to Leo too. I couldn’t handle that. My brain was fried. I just needed to pass out. “Can you call her for me?”
“You poor baby. Okay, give me her number. You’ll call her tomorrow.”
Mercurious said, “Ben, let’s get you and Flip set up for bed.”
The couch in Mercurious’s little home office folded out into a bed. Pictures of stars and galaxies covered the walls. Model planets and airplanes hung from the ceiling, and books were jammed every which way into their cases. He pulled a sparkly blanket off a model of a city, Luna Park 1905. Dreamland at Night. It was half built, but the golden tower was almost done. He’d strung miniature lights from the steeple to the smaller towers that surrounded it. The buildings were made of shiny paper. “Turn off the lights,” he said. Flip’s eyes glowed gold with the reflection. “For her birthday,” Mercurious said. “For when she turns fourteen.”
43
JEANIE
By the time I was awake the next morning, Mrs. Lorentz had a bunch of papers spread over the dining room table. She and Mercurious were reading through them. Halley was wrapped up in a blanket on the couch. She wore a bright pink wool cap with pink antlers. Flip hopped up into Halley’s lap, raised his paw for a knuckle bump, yawned and rolled over for her to scratch his fat little stomach. “I just wish he felt more at home here,” Halley said.
“How’d you sleep?” Mercurious said.
“Great,” I said. I really did too. I slept so hard I didn’t even dream.
“We had a very long talk, your aunt Jeanie and I,” Mrs. Lorentz said. “Ben, we need to talk about that stop sign you ran into. Look at me. Come here.” She held my face to the light to look at where Leo slapped me. There was hardly a mark anymore. I checked myself in the bathroom mirror first thing when I woke up. Mrs. Lorentz frowned. “Does your neck hurt? I need you to be absolutely honest with me.”
“I’m okay. Really I am.”
“I need to take a picture of your face.”
“No, I don’t want to make a big thing out of this,” I said.
“It is a big thing. It’s a very big thing. Hiding it will make it worse.”
“It’s not like they’re ever going to bring another kid into that house. They were okay before I got there. Aunt Jeanie. I don’t want to ruin her life.”
“You’re not. You didn’t do anything wrong. The fact that Leo came forward and told Jeanie what happened—that’s going to help him a lot. He’ll get counseling anyway, and he should. He needs it. You’re helping him get the help he needs.”
“Doesn’t feel that way.”
“Ben, you can’t go back to that house. Children’s Services won’t allow it. Now, there’s a lot to sort through. I have the social worker coming here in a bit to inspect the apartment. They’re running background checks on Michael and me, and we’ll know in a few hours if we’re going to get the preliminary okay to be foster caregivers. I expect we will. It helps that you and I have known each other for two years. Jeanie is coming over to meet us this afternoon. She only wants you to be happy. And more than anything she wants you to be safe. You’re safe here, all right? You’re safe with us. All that said, I want you to know that this is not something that can’t be undone. You’re not trapped here either, if you decide you don’t want to stay. After Leo gets whatever counseling he needs, and if he’s cleared to be your guardian, you can go back to live with Jeanie if you want to.”
“I won’t. We won’t, me and Flip.”
“Mom, seriously?” Halley said. “Why would he want to go back there?”
“I just want you to know your options. We’re going to take this one day at a time, Ben, and we’re going to follow your lead. Are you okay with that?”
I had to think for a second before I nodded. I wasn’t used to calling the shots. I wasn’t used to having options. I was almost excited, the way you feel after you see a movie you thought was going to be just okay, but it ended up being great.
Mercurious was looking at me and nodding. Halley cuddled Flip and said, “Everything’s gonna be all right, Flip. Everything’s gonna be okay.”
<
br /> • • •
“So we all agree that Ben is better off living here for the time being?” the social worker said. She turned to Aunt Jeanie. “You’re sure you’re okay with this?”
Aunt Jeanie was wearing a lot more makeup today. She stared into the center of the table, not at me when she said, “Am I sure, Ben?”
I couldn’t get myself to look into her eyes when I nodded. I looked to Halley instead. She smiled a little sadly and cuddled Flip.
The social worker showed Jeanie where she had to sign, and she did. She put down the pen. She still wasn’t looking at me when she said, “Ben, can you walk me to my car? I have a little something for you.”
• • •
It was a beautiful afternoon, and now I was glad to get a chance to talk with her. “I just wanted to thank you for everything.”
“Stop, Ben,” she said. She dabbed her eyes with a cotton ball to keep her mascara from running. “I wasn’t in the Lorentzes’ apartment for even a minute when I knew just how badly I had let you down. Had let Tess down.”
“You didn’t though.”
“I can see why you would rather live with them. They’re wonderful. They know how to do it.”
“Do what?”
“Halley’s spectacular. They did such a beautiful job with her. I just want you to be happy. I’m so sorry. I feel awful about everything. Here, sit in the car with me for a minute.” We did and she took a small package out of the glove compartment and gave it to me. It was wrapped so perfectly I didn’t want to tear the paper. “Save the ribbon,” she said. “It’s expensive, and you can use it again.”
The paper folded away, and it was a framed picture. “I want you to have this,” she said. “It’s my favorite of Tess, of the three of us all together.”
Mom was in the middle. She had one arm over Jeanie’s shoulders and the other over Laura’s. They were all laughing, for real too. They wore Santa hats and they might even have been a little tipsy.