Wicked Cruel

by Rich Wallace

  Claudine glanced back. She stared at Danny and Janelle for a moment, then tugged on her mother’s arm. Danny sank lower in his seat as his mother turned in surprise.

  At the end of the poem, Janelle leaned toward Danny and whispered, “I loved that line about ‘soaring in my father’s updraft.’ ”

  Danny winced. “I’d rather be looking at pumpkins,” he said. But that wasn’t entirely true. He liked that he was being seen with Janelle. At the Pumpkin Fest she’d be part of a crowd and the best Danny could do was trail along behind.

  Or maybe not.

  His dad read twenty poems, including the one about the brickyard horses, then brought his palms together and stepped to the center of the stage as everyone stood and clapped. Janelle walked toward the front of the theater and lined up behind four people who had copies of the book.

  “It’s nice that you brought someone with you,” Mom said to Danny. “Who is she?”

  “She’s in my class.” He could see Janelle talking to his dad.

  “Are you on a date?”

  Danny immediately turned red and scowled. “She’s just in my class.”

  Claudine stepped in front of Mom. “Can I go now?”

  “I suppose,” Mom said. “Be home right after the fireworks.”

  Claudine left in a hurry. Janelle came back.

  Mom reached out her hand. “Hello. I’m Mrs. Morgan.”

  Janelle reached out, too. “Janelle.”

  “So,” Mom said. “Have you two been enjoying the festival?”

  Danny hated that she said “you two,” as if they were together. A couple.

  “We need to go,” he said. “Or we’ll miss something.”

  “Have fun,” Mom said.

  Janelle said, “Thanks.” Danny did not.

  “Was I supposed to buy a book?” Janelle asked as they reached the exit.

  “No. Of course not.”

  “I mean, I’d like to have one. But it was twenty dollars.”

  “I’ll get you one. We have boxes of ’em in the cellar.”

  “That’s a lot of money for a little paperback.”

  “Poems are expensive.”

  It was still drizzling and there was a bit more breeze. Danny zipped up his jacket.

  “I want to see the pond,” Janelle said.

  Danny pointed. “It’s right there.”

  “I mean, close up.”

  “Okay.”

  “I can just picture those horses,” she said. “I’ve heard that legend, but nobody ever described it like your father did. With all those details. I felt like they were galloping right past me.”

  “I’d like to see them.”

  “It’s exciting and sad. How they died is sad, I mean. The fact that they’re still around is exciting.”

  They walked along the path that circled the pond. No one else was in sight, and only the arts center cast any light on the water. Janelle’s moist cheeks glistened.

  It was dead quiet. Danny could feel the breeze picking up, but since most of the leaves were down and they all were wet, they didn’t rustle.

  “Your father has a wonderful imagination,” Janelle said. “Such a great way with words. It must be amazing to live with him.”

  “Amazing,” Danny said flatly. “Yeah.”

  “I can imagine what your dinner conversations must be like. So intelligent and clever.”

  “Yeah,” Danny said. If you only knew.

  “At my house we just talk about things like who I shouldn’t hang out with and why I shouldn’t wear ripped jeans or a certain color of lip gloss. My parents are so hung up on appearance. It must be great to have a father who’s so deep and … worldly.”

  Worldly, Danny thought. He’s never left New Hampshire for more than ten minutes.

  He let out his breath and watched the mist float away. Here he was, walking with Janelle. Alone in the dark.

  Why did his mother have to embarrass him like that? A date? He was lucky that Janelle would even talk to him; he knew he was the nerdiest kid in class. And she was way up there in status, even though she didn’t act like it.

  “I can’t even imagine how exciting it must have been to see those ghost horses,” Janelle said. “What did he say, ‘strong and ripped’? How cool.”

  Danny had thought about this more times than he wanted to admit to himself. Walking in the dark with Janelle. Not kissing her or being her boyfriend or anything. Just hanging out. Just knowing that she felt like being with him, too.

  He didn’t know why he said it; it hadn’t even occurred to him that he was about to say it. But suddenly Danny was whispering, “ ‘How often has my spirit turned to thee.’ ”

  Janelle leaned forward slightly and turned her head to him as they kept walking. “What?”

  “Nothing.”

  “No, really. What did you say?”

  “It just popped out of my mouth. Some line my father said.” He wished he hadn’t said it.

  “In one of his poems?”

  “No. In somebody else’s.”

  “Tonight?”

  “No. Some other time.”

  “Oh.” Janelle was quiet for a moment. “So what was that again?”

  Danny sighed and spoke quickly. “ ‘How often has my spirit turned to thee.’ ”

  “To me?”

  “Thee.” Danny kicked gently at a pile of leaves. He could feel his face growing hot. “It just came out.” His voice was a little sharper. “It’s from William Wordsworth, okay? Some dead poet.”

  “Okay,” Janelle said. She giggled. “It sounded kind of nice.”

  “It just came out. My father’s always saying things like that; quoting poems from a million years ago.”

  “Like I said,” Janelle replied, “he must be amazing to live with.”

  They didn’t say anything else until they’d reached a brighter part of the campus by the library and the science building.

  “ ‘How often …’ ” Janelle said. “What was it? ‘How often has my spirit turned to thee’?”

  “Right.” Danny wished they could get off this subject very quickly. “The fireworks will be starting soon.”

  “You know what Luke said to me this afternoon?”

  “No. And I want to get a caramel apple.”

  “He goes, ‘I was thinking about you when I was flossing my teeth this morning.’ ”

  “Why did he say that?”

  “I really don’t know. I think he was trying to be flattering. Or romantic.”

  “That must have made you swoon.”

  Janelle shrugged. “At least he was trying. But it didn’t have much impact.”

  “So, does he like you or something?”

  “He seems to be trying to let me think so. The floss thing is the closest he’s come to actually saying so, but he shows up wherever I am lately. And he stares at me a lot.”

  I guess we all do, Danny thought. “So, how would it make you feel if Luke said that his spirit often turns to you—to thee?”

  “I don’t think he’s capable of saying anything like that.”

  “Neither do I.”

  “But maybe he feels it anyway. Who knows? I think a lot of boys can’t say what they feel.”

  “I’d certainly agree with that.”

  They’d reached the edge of the campus and could see the biggest scaffold in the distance. It was three stories high, and all of the jack-o’-lanterns were wired with lightbulbs. In the square and the surrounding streets, candles flickered in thousands of pumpkins.

  “They’re still playing,” Janelle said, pointing toward the band. “Let’s go!”

  She led the way toward the square, where a small crowd was dancing to “Light My Fire.”

  “Do you dance, Danny?” Janelle asked.

  Danny looked around. He didn’t see anyone he knew. Not dancing might put a quick end to whatever this was with Janelle. So he said, “I guess I can.”

  “It’s easy.” She took a few steps closer to the band, finding a
n open patch of pavement behind the fountain, but then the song ended with a crash.

  “Here’s one for the pumpkins!” called the lead singer as the band went into “Monster Mash.”

  Janelle danced very naturally. Danny danced very awkwardly. But she seemed at least as pleased as she was amused. He started to relax. A little. He was dancing with Janelle; he could even offer to walk her home later.

  At the end of the song, the singer said he had bad news and good news. “The fireworks are canceled because of the rain,” he said. Everybody booed, but not too much.

  “The good news is, we’ll play another half hour, unless our equipment gets wet.” The gazebo had a roof, but the sides were open.

  The music started again. Danny turned to Janelle and found Luke standing between them. He was wearing the same shorts and T-shirt he’d had on at noon, even though the temperature couldn’t have been much over forty. There was a tomato-sauce stain near his chest.

  Carter was there, too, along with three girls Danny knew but hadn’t ever spoken to. The girls were dancing.

  Luke leaned toward Danny. “You have no chance,” he said.

  “With what?”

  “You know what.” Luke glanced at Janelle. “She’s taken.”

  Danny didn’t respond. But who’d been dancing with Janelle? Who’d spent the whole evening with her, looking at jack-o’-lanterns and going to a poetry reading and walking in the dark by the pond? Oh, he had a chance all right. He was way ahead of Luke on this one.

  He’d fight this battle. Not with his fists, of course, but with his cleverness and imagination. With his amazing way with words.

  Danny stepped past Luke, intentionally bumping against him with a bit of strength. Luke bumped back, sending Danny stumbling into one of the other girls. Danny righted himself and began to dance again.

  The girls formed a small circle, and Danny took the spot next to Janelle, shifting his body to face her. He could practically feel Luke fuming. Go floss your teeth, he thought. Brains beat muscle when it counts.

  Danny tried to think of another great line of poetry to match the “spirit turning to thee” thing. But the band was playing “Monster Mash” again and those lines kept getting in the way.

  He was the only guy dancing; Luke and Carter were leaning against the fountain and glaring at him. When the next song ended, Janelle asked, “Did you say something about getting a caramel apple?”

  “Yeah.” Danny pointed to a white awning set up over a table outside the square. “They sell ’em over there.”

  “Let’s go.”

  “Where are you going?” called one of the other girls as Janelle and Danny walked away.

  “I might be back,” Janelle said.

  Be cool, Danny thought. And smart. Show the difference between you and Luke.

  They could hear “Light My Fire” again.

  “I guess the band ran out of songs they knew,” Janelle said.

  “Yeah. They’ve been at it for more than two hours.”

  Janelle looked back toward the square. “I don’t really want a caramel apple.” She kept walking past the booth and headed up Main Street.

  “No?”

  “Nah. I just wanted to get away from Luke.”

  To be alone with me? Danny wondered.

  “He asked me this afternoon if he could walk me home later,” Janelle said. “I said I’d think about it.”

  “And?”

  “I thought about it.” She smiled. “He’s okay. But he gets kind of … grabby, if you know what I mean.”

  Danny blushed. Janelle obviously was confident that he wouldn’t get “grabby.” Did she think he was a little kid?

  He took a quick look back and saw Luke and Carter trailing behind. The crowds had thinned because of the rain and the cancellation of the fireworks, but there were still a lot of people around.

  “So what are we doing?” Danny asked.

  “I’m supposed to be home soon,” Janelle replied. “You?”

  “Pretty soon.”

  “Let’s find another band.”

  They walked toward Cheshire Tire, where a bluegrass group was playing under the same tent her brother’s band had been. A large group of eighth graders was heading toward them, laughing and walking fast. Janelle said hello to a few of them as they passed.

  Claudine was behind the group, trying to keep up.

  “There’s your sister,” Janelle said.

  “I see her.”

  They reached the band. Janelle folded her arms and stood still. The rain got harder.

  “Did he follow us all the way here?” Janelle asked.

  “Luke?” Danny craned his neck and looked around. He spotted Luke and Carter on the other side of Main Street, standing under the awning of the theater.

  “They’re across the street,” Danny said.

  “I’m getting cold,” she said. “You ready to go?”

  “Home?”

  “Yeah. Will you walk with me?” she asked, glancing across at Luke.

  “Sure.” Danny looked uneasily at Luke, too. “Where do you live?”

  “Right by the library.”

  That was easy. From there he could cut behind a church and through the parking lot by the diner, then take a couple of back streets to the campus.

  Claudine came walking toward them, very quickly. She veered away when she saw Danny and headed back downtown.

  “She was crying,” Janelle said.

  “She was?”

  “Yeah. Should we catch up and see if she’s all right?”

  Danny stopped walking. “She wouldn’t want us to.”

  “Why not?”

  “I don’t know. She just wouldn’t.”

  “She’s your sister.”

  “Yeah. That’s why.”

  Janelle squinted and studied Danny. “If my brother saw me crying like that, he’d be there in two seconds.”

  “We’re not like that,” Danny said.

  “Those kids must have been mean to her.”

  “It happens.”

  “It shouldn’t.”

  “Yeah, but it does.”

  Janelle sighed.

  Volunteers were already disassembling the scaffolds, letting the pumpkins roll into the street. Several front loaders were at work, dumping pumpkins into pickup trucks.

  “Let’s see if ours are still intact,” Janelle said.

  But the scaffolding by the Colonial was already down. It was just past nine, but the weather was bringing the festival to an early close. They cut behind a block of stores and within seconds were away from the bustle.

  Danny tried to think of something to say, but he could tell that Janelle was bothered by his reaction to his sister. He knew Claudine had been crying; she didn’t have to tell him that.

  So they walked a few blocks in silence.

  “What did you say to my father?” Danny finally asked.

  “Well, he was busy with the people who wanted their books signed. But I asked him if he’d really seen those horses.”

  “What did he say?”

  “He said he had. More than once.”

  “He’s never mentioned it.”

  “He wrote that poem about it, so don’t act so surprised.” Janelle sounded less patient. She’d stopped looking at him.

  They waited for a car to back out. The rain looked hard and steady in the headlights, but it was a fine rain, not drenching.

  “He first saw them when he was our age,” Janelle said. “One night when he was cutting through the woods. There was no arts center then. He thought it was a wind spout or something, or maybe some deer, but then they raced past him and he saw all four of them.”

  “And they looked like ghosts?”

  “They were definitely ghosts. He said he wasn’t scared exactly. Not when it was happening. But then he avoided the woods at night for years. So he did get spooked by it.”

  Danny could already see the library. He wasn’t in any hurry to get to her house. “What about the
other times?”

  “I can’t believe you never asked him about this.”

  “He never brought it up, so how would I know?”

  “I guess. Anyway, he last saw them about three years ago. He was in your backyard and they ran on the path around the pond.”

  “Same kind of night?”

  “That’s what he said. Rainy and windy.”

  Janelle stopped and looked up at the streetlight. They’d reached School Street, which did not have a school on it. Hadn’t for fifty years.

  “You should talk to your dad more,” she said. “He’s fascinating. Anybody who can write like that …”

  Danny shrugged. “Some of his poems are pretty good.”

  “I wish I could write one like that.”

  “You could.”

  She frowned. “Maybe someday.” Janelle looked away and blinked a few times. “Your family doesn’t talk to each other much, huh?”

  “We talk. We argue.”

  “You should support your sister more. My brother looks out for me, and it’s the best thing in the world to know he’s there.”

  “She’s older than I am. She should be looking out for me.”

  Janelle shook her head gently. “Maybe she would if you did the same.”

  Janelle was full of advice all of a sudden. “We get along okay,” Danny said.

  “Doesn’t look like it.”

  Danny wanted to tell her to mind her own business. He swallowed hard. “It’s not as bad as it looks.”

  “I hope not.”

  Danny shoved his hands into the pockets of his jacket and let out his breath. He looked up School Street. “That way?”

  “See that lamppost?” It was halfway up the block, in front of a small brick house.

  “Yeah.”

  “One beyond that … I can make it fine from here.”

  “I’ll walk with you.”

  “It’s okay. Thanks for coming this far.”

  “No problem.”

  Danny stayed put and watched her walk the fifty yards. She never looked back. He’d have to get home soon, too. But he headed back to Main Street.

  Luke was sitting on the steps of the library. Danny crossed the street and circled behind the church to avoid him. But when he reached the parking lot, he could see the library again. Luke was no longer there.