The Wild Kid

by Harry Mazer

  “Somebody, do you hear me? Somebody, stop this minute.” He pointed his finger up. “Stop!” he commanded. Nobody stopped. Nobody looked over the edge. Nobody came.

  He yelled and yelled until he couldn’t yell anymore.

  27

  “Sammy…” The voice came from far away. “Sam…mee…”

  He was sitting with his eyes closed, rocking in place and singsonging stories about his mother and Carl looking over the cliff and seeing him. “What are you doing there, Sammy?” They’d put down a ladder, and he’d climb to the top, and his mother would hug him and cry. Or maybe K-man would come leaping over the trees. Zooom! He’d land on the cliff, Sammy would climb on his back, and they’d zoom to the top and zoom to his house.

  “Sam…meee…”

  He came alert suddenly. He looked around and saw someone coming out of the woods. Kevin walked that way; so quick, you thought you saw him and then you didn’t.

  “Kevin…” his voice echoed. “Kevin, my friend!”

  Kevin stood at the foot of the cliff, shielding his eyes.

  “Look here where I am,” Sammy yelled.

  “What are you doing up there?” Kevin said. “I’ve been looking for you all day.”

  “I’m going home, Kevin.” They yelled back and forth, and their voices echoed. Sammy pointed to the top of the cliff. “That way.”

  “I thought we were sticking together. I thought you were my buddy.”

  “I am, Kevin, but I have to go home first. I have to follow the plan. Kevin, I have a good plan. First, I go home. Then comes the best part, that’s the secret part. First I go home, then—”

  “Forget it,” Kevin said. “You and your plans. I’m sick of hearing about it. Come on down now.”

  “I can’t,” Sammy said. “I can’t come down.”

  “You got up there. You can come down.”

  “I’m afraid, Kevin. I’ll fall. I’ll break myself.”

  Below him, Kevin walked around and around. He stood under the cliff, then scrambled up the cliff.

  “Come on, Kevin!” Sammy yelled.

  Kevin didn’t come fast. He came slower and slower, and he stopped a lot. Come on,” Sammy urged. “You can help me get to the top.”

  Kevin stopped under him. He was pressed against the rock. His head was turned funny. “I can’t come any higher,” he said. He reached out a hand and so did Sammy, but they couldn’t touch. “You have to come down, Sammy. Can you come down just a little?”

  Sammy let himself down, with his arms hooked over the branch, till his feet touched nothing but air.

  “Okay, get back up,” Kevin said. “Go on! Be careful!”

  He backed down the cliff, talking and talking. “Man, you did it this time! You’re trouble, nothing but trouble. I spend all day looking for you. I find your sneakers up a tree and then I find you on the side of a cliff.” He leaped down the last few feet. “You know what, Sammy, you’re crazy! You’re just a crazy kid!”

  “I’m sorry, Kevin.” Sammy sat very quietly. He made a sad I’m-sorry face.

  Kevin kicked at a stone. “What do I care if you’re sorry? Stupid, crazy kid! We had a good thing. You’ve ruined everything.”

  Sammy watched Kevin being mad. He went round and round in circles. He kicked and threw stones. “Kevin, are you mad at me?”

  “No, I’m not mad at you.”

  “What are we going to do now, Kevin?”

  “You’re not going to do anything. You got something to tie yourself with? You got a belt?”

  Sammy shook his head. “Just your sweater that you gave me.”

  “Okay, put the sweater around yourself and tie the sleeves around the tree. Do it now.”

  Sammy did it. “Are you going away?” he asked. Kevin was walking toward the trees. “Kevin! Where are you going?”

  “You just stay there and don’t move,” Kevin shouted. “Don’t try anything.”

  “K-Man, are you coming back?”

  Kevin kept going, disappearing into the trees.

  Sammy was alone. He was all alone. He pressed against the tree. All his life, people had helped him. He was Sammy E. Ritchie, a special person. But now, no matter how loud he yelled, even if he yelled the loudest he’d yelled in his whole life, it wouldn’t matter. It was all up to Kevin. Maybe he would come back, and maybe he wouldn’t.

  28

  Sammy watched the night creep across the face of the cliff. It was like a big dark hand coming closer and closer. The cars sounded closer, too, louder and faster.

  The sun went away, and the air got cold. He’d tied himself to the tree with Kevin’s sweater. Above him, car lights splashed against the dark sky.

  When he was little, Sammy had said the sun belonged to him. It rose for him, it was his sun, and when it set he wanted to know where it had gone. But in school, Mrs. Hoffman had taught them how the earth went around the sun, and how sometimes it faced the sun and sometimes it turned its back to the sun. He learned it, but in his heart, he still felt the sun was his. Now, it had left him. It was lost in the dark, the way he was lost, afraid the way he was afraid.

  * * *

  He dreamed they were all in the kitchen now. Mom and Bethan and maybe Carl. He put himself in the picture, next to Bethan. Kevin, too. But they only had four chairs. They’d have to get one more from Bethan’s room. Carl and Mom would sit on one side, and Kevin would sit next to Sammy. They’d all hold hands and say grace before they ate. Then Kevin would tell them about the adventures of K-man and Sammy, and make everyone laugh.

  * * *

  A light woke Sammy. It was shining down from above, swinging back and forth along the cliff. “Sammy?” Kevin’s voice was close. “Sammy, are you there?” The light went this way and that.

  Sammy couldn’t see Kevin, only the circle of light, but that was Kevin behind it. He had come back. His friend Kevin had come back.

  “Sammy, somebody’s coming, you just hang on. I’ve got to go now.”

  “Don’t go away, Kevin. You’re going to live in my house.”

  “You take care, buddy.” The light went off.

  “Kevin? Shine the light, Kevin.” Sammy kept staring at the spot where Kevin had been, waiting for the light to shine again.

  * * *

  When the light came, it exploded across the whole cliff. And then a strange voice said, “Sammy, this is Officer Rosenberg. Sammy, can you hear me? Say hello, and I’ll tell your mother you’re okay. I’ve got her on the phone. Say hello, Sammy.”

  “Hello,” Sammy said.

  29

  People in yellow helmets were lined up along the top of the cliff. A crane appeared, popping out suddenly like a long-necked bird, and then a bucket descended slowly toward Sammy. He waved, and two men in yellow helmets in the bucket waved back. “I’m Richard,” the one holding a walkie-talkie said.

  “I’m Chris,” the other one said. “Sammy, just relax, we’re going to get you out of there. You sit still and let us do everything. Okay, Sammy?”

  Richard spoke over the walkie-talkie. A second line came down with straps attached to the end. Richard caught it and swung it over toward Sammy. “Catch it, Sammy, but don’t reach.”

  Sammy nodded. He was so tired.

  He missed the line the first time, and Richard swung it toward him again, and he caught it. Richard told him how to put on the harness and where to snap it across his chest.

  Sammy was lifted free and swung out from the cliff. There was nothing under him, nothing to hold on to but the rope. He flew up over the cliff, over a clump of cars and people.

  Then he was down, and hands reached out and held him. A policewoman hugged him, and he hugged back. “How are you feeling, Sammy? I’m Officer Rosenberg. Do you hurt anywhere?”

  “I feel hungry.”

  “Anybody have something for the kid to eat? Crackers? Candy bar?”

  Lights were flashing, and cars were backed up along the highway. Two men and a woman appeared with a stretcher. “No food till he�
��s checked,” one of the medics said.

  They put Sammy on the stretcher, blanket over him, and loaded him into the ambulance. The policewoman and one of the medics got in back with him. “Where’s Kevin?” Sammy asked.

  “Who’s Kevin?” the medic asked.

  “He must mean the kid who called us,” Officer Rosenberg said. “He’s around someplace.”

  Sammy tried to sit up. “Where’re we going? I have to wait for Kevin.”

  Special to the Post-Standard:

  SAMMY COMES HOME!

  Twelve-year-old Sammy Ritchie was back in his own bed last night, after being lost for thirteen days. Friends and neighbors were jubilant, and an impromptu party was held on Pine Boulevard in the Green Hills section of the city. The smile on Sammy’s face never faltered. “Am I glad to be home?” the boy who characterizes himself as “a special person,” said. “Boy, oh boy, I am glad.”

  His mother and his two sisters, Bethan, a fifth grader at Green Hills Elementary School, and Emily, a student at the University of Vermont, never left his side. “I never, ever gave up hope,” Mrs. Ritchie said. “I knew I’d get my boy back.”

  Sammy was rescued from the side of a cliff at the edge of Middleburg State Forest Preserve at six-thirty A.M. after an anonymous caller reported seeing him there. Sammy was barefoot and hungry, and when asked how he’d gotten as high as he had on the challenging cliffs below Highway 104, he said, “I climbed and climbed. I climbed really good.”

  Pete Nelligan, the Preserve Manager, was doubtful. “Nobody but an experienced rock climber could get that high on the sheer rock face,” he said. He speculated that the boy may have stumbled over the cliff in the dark and miraculously grabbed on to a tree and saved himself. For hours, cars passed above him, unaware that a child was trapped there.

  When asked how long he was on the side of the cliff, Sammy consulted his wristwatch. “A long time,” he said. “My butt was sore, and I was real hungry.”

  The boy was taken first to Chase Memorial Hospital, where he was checked by doctors and declared to be fit, although he’d lost some weight, according to his mother, who was with him when he was released.

  Sammy, who has Down’s syndrome, disappeared without a trace two weeks ago on a rainy Sunday afternoon. He went out to play and rode away on his bike. When he didn’t return home by supper time, his mother called the police, and a search ensued, which quickly became statewide. Four days ago, the governor himself participated in the search. “I have a boy, too,” he said.

  Sammy’s bike was found three days after his disappearance. Jim Terrance, who lives on Ten Mile Road, was found riding it. He says he found it in a ditch. Sammy says he left the bike, unlocked, in front of Marsden’s Market on South Bay Road when he went in to buy a candy bar. “Stupid me. I forgot to use my special chain that Carl got me.”

  He says he chased after the thief and, in a series of escalating incidents, ended up lost in the forest preserve. That area of Middleburg State Forest Preserve is characterized by deep gorges and rocky cliffs and is of great interest to geologists and local rock-climbing enthusiasts.

  Sammy says he found another boy in the forest, a boy living wild, who took care of him. According to Sammy, they lived in a cave and survived on rabbits and berries. When asked who the boy was, he refused to give his name, but rescuers state that he repeatedly asked for “Kevin.” Despite an extensive search by the authorities, no trace of a “wild boy” was found. Dr. Ruth Hurt, a psychologist, explained that children of Sammy’s mental abilities often fantasize and create a safe “world” of the imagination for themselves when they are in difficult situations. “It’s a terrific survival mechanism,” she said.

  Carl Torres, a friend of the family who participated in the search for Sammy for each of the thirteen days, said, “I don’t know about this fantasy stuff, but this is one heck of a brave kid. He went through an ordeal and, look at him, he’s got more heart than ten people.”

  But questions persist. How could a child with no wilderness skills and who has Down’s syndrome have been able to survive two weeks of exposure? Although he lost some weight, the doctors pronounced him fit. Perhaps Sammy’s mother, who knows him better than anyone else, was correct when she said about her son, “He’s more resourceful and smarter than people think.”

  Sammy agreed. “I can do things,” he said.

  30

  “What I can’t forgive him for is not letting you go that first day,” Sammy’s mother said. They were all sitting around the table, his mom and Carl and Bethan, just the way Sammy had imagined, but no Kevin. He kept looking out, thinking maybe Kevin would be coming.

  “They were thirteen totally horrible days.” His mom’s eyes got all teary. “I thought I’d lost you. Do you remember that I hit you?

  “Mom, you don’t have to talk about that,” Bethan said.

  “Yes, I do. I’m so sorry. Do you still feel bad, honey?”

  He shook his head.

  “I don’t know what I would have done if you hadn’t come back.”

  “I’m back.” Sammy went to his mother and hugged her. He wanted to tell her not to cry. He wanted to say it was not so bad, not all the time. Scary things happened, but mostly it was just things happening to him that had never happened before. “We killed a rabbit,” he said.

  “Did you really eat it?” Bethan wrinkled her nose. “How can you eat a bunny rabbit?”

  “You can, if you’re hungry enough.”

  Carl was nodding his head. “That’s right. You get hungry enough.…”

  “He should have brought you right home,” Sammy’s mom said.

  “A friend would have done that,” Carl agreed.

  “He took care of me,” Sammy said. He didn’t like it when his family criticized Kevin. “Kevin is my friend.”

  “It was good that he took care of you,” Carl said. “I’ll give him credit for that. And he went for help. That was a big thing. A little late on the uptake, but…”

  “A little late!” his mother said.

  When Kevin came, Sammy thought, his mother would find out how good he was. He was only bad sometimes. Not all the time. Sometimes bad, sometimes good. Mostly good. Like Sammy, he was two ways, too. Everybody was two ways. Carl wasn’t just one way. Even his mom wasn’t always good.

  “Just because you’re not always good doesn’t make you bad,” he said.

  Carl and his mom looked at each other. “The kid’s got a point,” Carl said. “I couldn’t have said it better myself.”

  * * *

  When Sammy brought the folding cot from the garage into his room, his mother helped him move it in. “Your room is too small for another bed,” she said, but the cot remained because Sammy wanted it there. When he woke in the morning, the first thing he did was look over to see if Kevin had come yet.

  He had put a string of Christmas lights in his window so Kevin would know which room was his. And he kept the window ajar at night so if he was sleeping when Kevin came, he could climb right in. He knew Kevin would come at night. He didn’t like going out during the day.

  * * *

  “All you talk about is Kevin,” Bethan said. “Is he a real person?” She sat down on the cot. “You can tell me.”

  “He’s real, Bethan. Kevin is my best friend. He’s going to live with us in our family.”

  “Some of my friends say you made him up. The wild kid! They say it was something you saw on TV.”

  Sammy gave a big laugh like Kevin, like K-Man. He made his hands into fists. “Ha-ha-ha!” He pointed to his shoes, the laces tied. “He taught me that. He taught me, Bethan. He held my hands and did it with me a million times. He said, ‘They baby you!’ He said, ‘You can do this, Sammy!’ And I did it, and—”

  Bethan made the time-out signal in front of his mouth. “Okay, okay, I believe you.”

  “Wait till Kevin comes. You’ll see. He’ll tell you himself.”

  “Does he know where you live?”

  Sammy hadn’t considere
d that. It worried him till he thought of the telephone book with their name in it. “Kevin will call me up,” he shouted at Bethan.

  She put her fingers in her ears. “I hear you, Sammy. Does he have a telephone?”

  Sammy thought that was very funny. “No! No telephone. No toilet. No TV.” He looked around his room. “No lights. No beds. No bureau. No desk. No chair. No toothbrush. No…no—”

  “Time-out,” Bethan yelled. “Okay, he’ll call you from a pay phone. What will he say?”

  “He’ll say, ‘Hello! Can I talk to my friend, Sammy?’ He’ll say, ‘I’m coming to visit you.’ No, not visit. Live! He’s coming to live in our house, in my room.”

  “But you said he lives in the woods.”

  “He does, but it’s a secret place.”

  “Is he there now?”

  “I don’t know,” Sammy admitted. It was one of his worries. Where was Kevin now? Why didn’t he come? What was taking him so long?

  31

  Sammy wrote Kevin a letter.

  Dear Kevin,

  I want you to come. I fixed the room. You have a bed and I have a bed. No sleeping on the floor. I have everything ready. Come soon. Thank you.

  Love, Sammy

  His mother saw him writing. She looked over his shoulder. Sammy covered the paper with his hands.

  Since he’d come home, his mother wanted to know where he was and what he was doing every second. She watched him from the window. But, why? He wasn’t going to get lost again. He wasn’t going to leave his bike without his special chain. He wasn’t a baby anymore. He did things. He didn’t have to be watched every minute and be asked about everything.

  “Who are you writing to?” his mother asked.

  “Private.”

  “Private?” She laughed. “I didn’t know we had private secrets. Can I see?”

  “No.”

  She looked at him. “You’ve changed. You’ve become very stubborn.”