We sat opposite each other, our knees almost touching, and he rowed us out into the lake. I listened to the oars sliding into the smooth water, lifting, sliding in again. A splash hit Girl in the face, and she shook, her wet ears slapping. Droplets splattered my face, and I cried out. Good-naturedly, though. Or so I hoped.
“Does it hurt your hands, Carl?” The words were sticking in my throat. “Do you want me to row?”
He began to hum. The same low growling hum he’d been making behind the couch. I looked over my shoulder. The dock was getting further and further away.
“Should we turn around, Carl?” The humming just grew louder. “I want to go back. Please. Can we go back?”
But Carl did not stop his mechanical rowing. On and on he went until finally he lifted one of the oars and put it across his lap, his bandaged fingers wrapped around the shaft.
“Carl?”
His left hand slid up to his beard, tugged. Most of the hair along a section of his chin had been yanked out.
“I need to ask you some questions, Magic Boy.”
“Sure,” I said. The night was warm, but shivers moved up through my back. “You could’ve asked me back inside. At your cottage.”
“No. It’s contaminated. Urh. Workers implanted beams on the roof. No one can hear us out here, you know. No one can hear anything.”
“O-okay.” I swallowed, but my mouth was dry.
Carl turned and watched me through a single inky eye. “You better tell me what you’re doing.”
“Doing?”
“Stealing from me. Hooked into my currents. Drawing out my intelligence.”
“I’m not, Carl. I swear.” My teeth started to chatter.
“Yes, you are. It all makes sense now. Stan explained it to me. I should have listened to him when I found you.” He shuddered. “Hiding in the woods that night. Showing up after the rain. Thinking you were just a little boy.”
“I’m thirteen.”
“You could be two hundred. Couldn’t you? You could be a thousand.”
“But I’m not. No one can be a thousand.”
“Liar!” he yelled. “You know what they do in those rooms. The Workers drag you there. Two of them arrived on my doorstep. So friendly. They had a, a, a, urh, book.”
“Maybe they were door-to-door people, Carl. Trying to sell you something.”
“No. No. They wanted to manage my circuits. Everything is electric. Lightning in the sky.” Girl pressed her wet nose into my hand, and Carl yanked her back by the rope collar around her neck. The boat shuddered. “But you know that, know that already, don’t you. You know all about the rooms.”
“I don’t. I promise. I really don’t. I don’t know anything about any rooms.”
“You were sent. I know now, urh, what you’re trying to do.”
My heart was pumping fast. I watched his fingers pinch at the metal pieces in his beard.
“Please listen to me, Carl.” In the distance I could see a light further around the lake. That might be Mr. Russell’s place. Jim and Jackie. If Carl didn’t stop, I could jump in and swim toward that light. I leaned over and looked into the black water. I pictured it, a forceful dive from the side of the rowboat, swift strokes, strong legs kicking. But then I remembered I couldn’t swim.
Carl leaned forward. The boat rocked and water lapped against the sides. Girl whined, pawed at Carl. I felt coldness around my feet. “Are you trying to probe me? Scan me? I saw you outside talking to that man.”
“What man?”
“In the water vehicle. Urh. Flying through.”
“The canoe? I told you about him. He just wanted to know if I’d caught a fish, Carl. It was nothing. Honest.”
“Stan said that man could be your two, but I didn’t think. I didn’t think correctly.”
“He lives in another cottage. Him and his wife. He’s Jim. She’s named after a dog. I can’t remember what it’s called. They’re just two down.” I put my hand on Girl’s back. She was warm. Her tail was twitching back and forth through the water at the bottom of the boat. “Two down, Carl. He was nice.”
“I know what you were doing. Putting out a message. I managed two years without getting caught. But they fooled me with you. They did. Hide a boy inside the darkness.”
“I’m sorry. I’m really, really sorry. I’ll just leave, okay?” We were floating inside the line of moonlight. The lake looked enormous, its edges appearing miles away. I looked down into the water again. “Can we go back to shore? Please, Carl? I’ll just go. You won’t ever see me again. I’ll go.”
“It’s too late,” he said. “I’m going to give you one chance. Urh. Tell me who sent you here.”
“Please, Carl.” I was sobbing. I slid forward, closer to Girl. “Please. I don’t know what you’re talking about. My name is Rowan Theodore Janes. I live at 17 Pinchkiss Circle. I have a little sister Maisy and a dog named Chicken. My mom’s name is Gloria. She stuck me under that stupid sign. Remember? Then I ran away. I made a mistake, Carl. I made a mistake.” Tears poured out of my eyes. My whole body was shaking. “I shouldn’t have run away. It was really dumb. I didn’t think. Then it just went on and on, and I wanted to go back last night, but I was afraid, and maybe I should have just tried. But I want to go back. I want to go home.”
“Stop!” he yelled. “Where’s your pair? Workers come in twos. Always. Where’s your two? Where. Is. Your. Two?”
“I don’t have a two.” An image of Maisy’s face burst into my head then. I could see her leaning over that robin with its broken neck, asking me if we should say a prayer. I told her no one was listening. That it wouldn’t make any difference. And the memory of that was like a knife to my stomach. I clasped my hands together. “Please,” I whispered through sobs. “Please somebody be listening.”
“I’m not going to ask you again Rowan Theodore Janes 17 Pinchkiss Circle.”
I saw the light click out at the Russells’. Darkness two down. I stood up. The boat was rocking back and forth. “I’m your friend, Carl. We’re friends. I don’t want to hurt you. You can go back to the bridge, okay? I’ll walk with you. Tonight. That’s your home. That’s Girl’s home. I’ll leave. I promise, I promise, I promise. Let me leave.”
Carl stood up, too. The boat tilted, and I grabbed for the sides. Water sloshed over the lip. Girl barked, and her claws stabbed my bare foot.
“I can’t! I can’t! I have to. I won’t let him! I won’t! Won’t take me. Won’t take me. Won’t take me. Won’t take me. Won’t take me.”
“Carl?”
He screamed, “I don’t know who Carl is!”
He lifted the oar. More water sloshed in. I raised my arms. Grabbed around my head. The oar whirred through the air.
A shock of white went through me. Girl barked and barked. My body bent, shoulder smashing the edge of the boat. I struck the surface. Black water wrapped around me. Exploring every crevice. Bubbles exploded from my mouth. I couldn’t see. Gulping, gasping, metal on my tongue. I fought. Kicked. Thrashed.
Moonlight above, the shape of Carl peering down at me. His mouth wide open, his head getting smaller and smaller. Girl beside him. Her muzzle snapping the air.
Shhh.
I drifted downward, heavier than I’d ever been before.
Are you there?
Turtle?
I was alone.
Are you listening?
Silence.
I was invisible.
Help me!
MAISY
I ran back to bed and hid under the sheet. Gloria came up the stairs and opened my door, and I knew she was going to hear my woodpecker heart tak-takking like crazy.
“What? You’re still awake?” she said, but she didn’t sound mad.
“Not tired.”
She came over and took a blanket off the bottom of my bed and pushed it tight around me.
“There,” she said. “You’re like a hot dog in a bun.”
“But not a corn dog,” I said.
�
��Never. Corn dogs can’t breathe.”
I laughed.
“Try to think boring things, Bids. Tell yourself a story to knock you out.”
“Can you tell me one?”
“Not now. I want to take a bath. Telly promised he’d be back before I know it.”
Then Gloria left, and I heard the splish of water going and the bubbly smell of flowers sneaking through the air. The water stopped. She was singing that song again. The same one she sang when Rowan ran away.
I didn’t know what story I should tell. Gloria’s favorite was about the wolves in the woods, but that was too scary. I looked down at my hot dog blanket. Not a corn dog. I only had a corn dog one time at Stafford’s. That was a good story. A true story, though Gloria said the wolves were true, too.
Telly was supposed to get me and Rowan from school, but he never came, and we stayed on the swings for a long time. All the lights in the school turned off. I think the teachers went home. The other kids and moms went home too. There were leaves on the ground and I was kicking them in the air and they stuck on the fuzzy orange scarf around my neck. It was cold, and it started to get dark, and Rowan took my hand and we walked and walked. We could’ve walked home, but Rowan said, “I got an idea.” So we went the wrong way. We went up by the road that turned into the highway. I hid behind Rowan and he stuck out his thumb like they did on television. A lady in a big brown car stopped and Rowan tugged open the door so I could climb in front. She had hair like gray string, and her enormous belly pressed into the wheel.
The car smelled like a pet store and hairspray, but it wasn’t bad. When we got in, she said, “Watch where you plunk your wee asses. Chimp’s tucked away in there.” That made me laugh. Chimp was her ferret. He was sleeping inside a ripped part of the seat. The pink tip of his nose was poking out, and that was all I got to see of him. This lady sang along to music from her radio. She never said nothing about why we weren’t home. Or why Rowan was sticking his thumb out. She just asked us where we were going, and she drove us all the way to the front doors of Stafford’s.
Me and Rowan looked in the windows and we could see Gloria pulling shirts out of a cardboard box and slipping hangers down the necks. Then we sneaked inside and hid right in the middle of a circle of sweaters. Some of them were falling off, but that wasn’t Gloria’s fault. They just had big necks. Gloria kicked the box of clothes near our hiding spot, and we burst out and rushed at her.
“You two wonders!” She yelled that out loud, and her mouth was a huge smile. “Oh, oh, my loves, my loves!” She got on one knee and squeezed us both up in a hug. Other ladies asked who we were, and she told them our names. They patted our heads and cheeks and told Gloria we were adorable. She was lucky. “Blessed,” she said. “So, so blessed.” I saw Rowan pull his hands inside the sleeves of his sweater. I think he was hiding his spots.
She wasn’t finished her work, so she let us sit at the back counter. She even bought us deep-fried corn dogs. Rowan squirted drops of mustard from a yellow bottle but I ate mine with nothing on it. They tasted so good. Rowan grabbed the stick because I was chewing on it. He thought I was going to eat it but I was only pretending.
When she was done her work, Telly came and picked us all up. Gloria never said nothing on the ride home. Telly played his music. He hit all the potholes and me and Rowan popped off our seats. We laughed when our heads bumped the roof. Wind came in the open windows and I could smell smoke and my eyes itched. Even though it was dark I could see the empty trees waving their branches.
The truck turned down our circle, and Gloria pointed her finger at us. “Straight to your rooms, you two. I’ve had more than enough rigmarole for one night.” Maybe she was angry at Telly for leaving us at school. Or maybe she was so happy with our surprise she just got tired. It didn’t matter. I never remembered how it ended. I only thought about her smile and what she said when all the other workers at Stafford’s were looking at me and Rowan. “I’m blessed,” she said. “I’m so, so blessed.” We were her wonders. We were her loves.
ROWAN
I didn’t fight anymore. I slid down through the water. Dropping and dropping. Stringy weeds brushed my arms and legs. Then a hard fist punched my side. Clawing against my spine. My T-shirt hitched. Caught on something. Tugging. I twisted in the water.
It was Girl. Oh, Girl. I reached through the water, felt her hind legs, tail, and I held on. Her body moving, thrusting force pulling me up and up and I kicked and kicked until I pierced the surface. Broke through.
Hands grabbed my arms. Carl. I was soggy paper. He pulled me over the edge of the rowboat. My T-shirt slipped off, splatted when he threw it. I collapsed onto the bottom of the boat. A hammer banged inside my head. I felt pounding on my back. Then I was rolling over. Weights clamping down on my ribs. I hacked. And gasped. And retched. Hot watery vomit gushing from my mouth, my nose, until my ribs and skull were close to exploding. What was he going to do to me? What? Then there was blackness.
“Stan. It was Stanley!”
Carl was yelling. I opened my eyes. Wet wood against my mouth, against my chest. I was shaking. I closed my eyes again.
“Dot is so angry. We had a verbal, and I broke it. I broke the law we made. Urh. Just stop arguing. Just stop!”
A gentle bump against something solid. My body lurched.
“We’re back,” he said.
I clawed out. Crumpled on the darkened dock. I couldn’t think. I couldn’t run away. I wheezed, and stabs of pain came with each cough. I touched the side of my head. Found a massive lump, the middle split open. Warm oozed behind my ear, pooled underneath my cheek. I dragged my fingers through it, brought them to my nose. Smelled metal from the sticky blackness.
Shuffling on the dock. Carl was coming. Stan was coming. They were coming to kill me. Fear stopped my breath. I tried to stand but dizziness knocked me to my knees. More vomit shot into my mouth. I spat it out.
“Stop,” I said. I lifted a hand toward him, but I fell backward. “Please. Don’t.” I was moving, but staying still. I worked my fingers between two boards of wood and held on. Darkness slid over me.
When I opened my eyes, he was standing nearby. A blanket and clothes in his arms. He dropped the clothes, then opened the blanket. I sat up and pain shot through my skull. He covered my shoulders. He dug inside his coat. I felt his bandaged fingers poking at my mouth. I gagged. “It will help,” he said. Then two small stones sat on my tongue. He had a bottle in his hand. Twisted the cap, held it out to me. The smell of apples.
“Drink this.”
I lifted my face, took a sip, swallowed the pills. Whatever they were. I didn’t care. My throat burned.
“Drink more.”
“Can’t more. Hurts.”
“I know, I know, I know. Urh. You need to go. I know. Dot says it. I don’t trust myself. I don’t.” He was crying. I looked at him. Blinked. He kept licking his lips. “Stan,” he said. “It was Stanley. He just pushes me and pushes me. Until I can’t stop. He’s gone, but I don’t know when he’s coming back.”
Carl wasn’t going to kill me. Not right now.
“Bad. Bad. Bad things. When I looked at your cards. I wouldn’t say. The cards told me bad things were going to happen to you. To stay away. I’m the bad things, Magic Boy. Urh. I’m the bad things.”
“You’re not bad.” Words like scratches.
A shadow pacing by Carl. Girl. Each time she passed him she nudged her head against his knee.
“Henry’s mumbling and mumbling. But I can barely hear him over Dot,” he said. “Just wailing. She’s really upset with Stan.” His hands were jumping around. “And with me.”
“Tell Dot I’m fine. Doesn’t hurt. Was an accident.”
“It doesn’t hurt. Was an accident. Urh.”
I closed my eyes again. Lay down on the dock, shivering. Water lapped somewhere. I listened and listened. The sharp banging in my head faded, still there but a distance away. I think I fell asleep. I don’t know how much time passed. When
I woke up my stomach retched. But nothing came out.
Carl was beside me. His hulking figure blocked the moonlight. I sat up. Leaned on my arms. I winced. Waited for the blast in my head, but the pain was hollow. The blanket fell away from my bare back and my skin prickled with goose bumps. I picked up a long-sleeved shirt from the pile, eased it over the gash in my head. Poked my shaking arms out through the soft cotton. Put a dark sweater on over that. Then I changed into a pair of dry shorts. Everything was about my size. Maybe the cottage owners had a son.
“I couldn’t find anything for your feet,” Carl said. He was holding something in his hands, rubbing the edges with his thumb. “So I made these. Better than what you had before.” Near my bent knee, he placed what looked like two silvery shoes. Holes punctured near the opening laced with two long thin strips. All made from gray tape. “Urh. Measured when you were resting.”
“You didn’t have to, Carl,” I said. His injured fingers must have stung badly. I eased them on my bare feet and knotted the strips. “They fit.”
“Now they won’t hurt. When you go home.”
When you go home. I was going home. I swallowed. My whole body was full of sadness, but also full of relief. “I really like them.” I was telling the truth.
“And this,” he said. He handed me a small flashlight. “Found it in there.” Head tic toward the cottage. “Don’t know, urh, about the battery life.”
“Thank you.” I stood up on jelly legs. Stared down at my shoes, turned the flashlight over in my hand. My heart was jelly, too.
“Wait.” From inside his coat he took out a long yellow box. Peeled a strip of aluminum foil, folded it into a neat triangle, pinched. Tapped his thumb along the edges and twisted corners. “Keep this on your head,” he said. “Dot insists. Keep good thoughts in and bad thoughts out.”
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