Bart continued to scowl at Cindy, at me, at Emma, even at the wall. “Hate blonde hair and red lips that are wet all the time,” he mumbled under his breath before he stuck out his tongue at Cindy, who laughed and patty-caked. “If Momma didn’t fuss around her so much, curling her hair and buying her new clothes, she’d be ugly.”
“Cindy will never be ugly,” denied Emma, looking at the little girl with admiration. Then she leaned to kiss the child’s pretty small face.
That kiss drew another of Bart’s darkest frowns.
I sat there, uptight, frightened. Each morning I woke up knowing I’d have to face a brother who was growing more and more strange. And I loved him; I loved my parents, and darn if I wasn’t beginning to love Cindy too. Somehow I knew I had to protect everyone—but from what I didn’t know and couldn’t even guess.
Changeling Child
Drat Jory and Emma, I was thinking as I slipped through the hot Arizona desert. Good thing I had Apple to love me as well as my grandmother, or I’d be in a sorry state. There stood my lady in black with her arms wide open to welcome me and I was kissed and hugged much more than Cindy ever was.
She served me a bowl of soup. It was so good, with cheese on top. “Why can’t I tell my parents how much I like you, and how much you love me? That would be so neat.” I didn’t tell her I thought she wasn’t really my own true grandmother, but only said that to please me. In a way that made her love better, for families had to love each other. Strangers didn’t.
Square in the middle of one of her tables she put a large dump truck before she answered my question. Odd she seemed so sad, and in a way scared, when a moment ago she’d seemed happy enough.
“Your parents hate me now, Bart,” she whispered thinly. “Please don’t tell them anything about me. Keep me your secret.”
My eyes widened. “Did you know them once?”
“Yes, a long, long time ago, when they were very young.”
Gee. “What did you do to make them hate you?” Everyone hated me, almost, so I wasn’t surprised someone might hate her.
Her hand reached for mine. “Bart, sometimes even adults make mistakes. I made a terrible mistake that I’m paying for dearly. Every night I pray for God to forgive me; I pray for my children to forgive me. I find no peace when I look in the mirror, so I hide my face from myself, from others, and sit in uncomfortable rockers so I’ll never forget for one second all the harm I did to those I loved most.”
“Where did your children go?”
“Have you forgotten?” she sobbed, tears in her eyes now. “They ran away from me. Bart, that hurts so much. Don’t you ever run away from your parents.”
Gosh, hadn’t intended to run. World out there was too big. Too scary. Safe, had to stay where it was safe. I ran to embrace her, then turned to play with my truck—and that’s when John Amos limped into the room, his watery eyes angry. “Madame! You do not develop strength in young children by indulging their every whim. You should know that by now.”
“John,” she said haughtily, “don’t you ever come in this room again without knocking—stay in your place.”
Tough. My grandmother was tough. I smiled at John Amos, who backed away, mumbling under his breath about how she wasn’t giving him any place, or not the place he deserved. I forgot him the moment he was out of sight as I fell under the spell of my enchanting new dump truck and why it worked like it did. Soon I’d find out—and maybe my curiosity was the same thing as being mean, for everything given to me ended up broken within an hour.
My grandmother sighed and looked unhappy as my truck came apart.
* * *
Long summer days passed slowly, with John Amos teaching me lots of important things about being powerful and fearsome like Malcolm, who knew all about being sneaky and clever. In his own kind of way John Amos was fascinating, with his queer shuffling walk, his skinny legs more knobby than mine, his whistling breath, his hissing words, his stringy mustache and bald head where one white hair grew. One day I was gonna pull it out. Wonder why my grandmother didn’t like him. She was the boss, she could fire him, and yet she didn’t. Something hard and mean was between them.
I was happy living between them, blessed on one side by my grandmother, with all her nice gifts, her hugs and kisses, and on the other side by John Amos, who was teaching me how to be a powerful man who could make women do his bidding. And now that I had someone who loved me for myself, no matter how mean or clumsy I was, I began to feel that special kind of magic that Momma and Jory shared. I thought I, too, could hear the music of sunset colors. I thought the lemon tree made little harp chords sound. I had Apple, my puppy-pony. And, best of all, Disneyland was waiting for me and my birthday was coming up soon.
Now that I was getting brilliant like Malcolm, I tried to figure out a way to keep Apple’s love while I went away for three weeks. It woke me up at night. Worried me all day. Who would feed Apple and steal his love while I was gone? Who?
I went back to the wall and checked on a peach pit that hadn’t sprouted any roots as yet. It was supposed to be growing—and it wasn’t. Next I checked my sweetpea seeds. Dumb things were just lying there, not doing anything.
Cursed. I was cursed. I glared at the part of the garden Jory cared for. All his flowers were in full bloom. Wasn’t fair how even flowers wouldn’t grow for me. I crawled to where Jory’s hollyhocks grew. My knees crushed petunias, squashed portulaca. What would Malcolm do if he was me? He’d rip up all of Jory’s flowers, dig holes with his thumbs in his own garden, and stick in the blossoms.
One by one I filled my thumb holes with Jory’s hollyhocks. They refused to stand up straight, but I arranged them so they could lean against one another and now I had blooming flowers in my garden too. Clever. Devious and sneaky—smart too.
Glanced down at my filthy knees and saw I’d ripped my new pants on the doghouse I’d started building for Clover. It was my way of asking forgiveness for tripping over him so often. Right now he was up on that “veranda” keeping a keen eye on me, afraid to sleep while I was in sight. I didn’t need him now. Once I had, but now I had a better pet.
Bugs were biting my face. I rubbed at my eyes, not caring if my hands were covered with grease from fooling around in my dad’s garage workshop. Emma wouldn’t like seeing my new white tank-top that had grease all over, and even Momma couldn’t repair the rip from neck to shirttail. I chewed on my lip.
Saturdays were for having fun and I wasn’t having any. Nothing special to do like Jory. Wasn’t born to dance, only to get dirty and have scratches. Momma had Cindy. Daddy had patients. Emma had cooking and cleaning. Nobody cared if I was bored. I threw Clover a hateful look. “I gotta dog better than you!” I yelled. Clover backed up closer to the house, then hid under a chair. “You’re just a miniature French poodle!” I screamed. “You don’t know how to save people lost in the snow! You don’t know how to wear a red saddle or eat hay either!” Every day I was giving Apple a little more hay that I mixed up in his dogfood just so he’d get to like hay better than meat.
Clover looked ashamed. He inched himself under the chair more and gave me another of his sad looks that got on my nerves. Apple never did that.
I sighed, got up, brushed off my knees, my hands. Time to visit Apple. On my way over I got distracted by the white wall, which needed more texture. Picking up a stone, I began to pound on the wall in order to chip off more of the white stucco. Gosh, what if this wall went on forever? It might even end up in China, keeping out the Mongol hordes. Wonder what Mongols were? Apes? Yeah, sounded like apes—mean kind of big apes that ate people who were in the throes of something. Would be nice to be as huge as King Kong so I could step on things I hated.
I’d step on teachers first, schools next—and step over churches. Malcolm respected God, and I didn’t want to make God mad with me. I’d pluck the stars from the sky and stick them on my fingers for diamond rings, like my grandmother’s. I’d wear the moon for my cap. I’d leave the sun alone because it
might burn my hand—but if I picked up the Empire State Building I could use it as a bat and swat that sun right out of our universe! Then everything would go black as tar. There’d be no daytime and only forever night. Black was like being blind, or dead.
“Bart,” came a soft voice, making me jump.
“Go ’way!” I ordered. I was having fun all by myself. And what was she doing up on that ladder again? Spying on me? I sat on the ground again and poked at it with a stick.
“Bart,” she called again. “Apple is waiting for you to feed him, and he needs fresh water. You promised to be a good master. Once you make an animal love and trust you, you are obligated to it.”
Today her eyes weren’t covered over; the veil only covered from her nose downward. “I want cowboy boots, a new genuine cowboy saddle of real leather, not fake, and a hat, buckskins, chaps, spurs, and beans to cook over campfires.”
“What is that you just dug up?” She poked her head up higher to see better. She looked funny, like a head on the wall with no body underneath.
Gosh . . . look what was buried in the dirt. Dead bones. Where had the fur gone? And the soft white ears?
I began to tremble, very scared as I tried to explain. “Tiger. There I was the other night, helpless, wearing only my pajamas, when out of the dark came this man-eating tiger with the green eyes. He snarled, then jumped me. He meant to eat me. But I grabbed up my rifle in the nick of time and shot him through his eye!”
Silence. Silence meant she didn’t believe me. Pity was in her voice when she spoke. “Bart, that’s not the skeleton of a tiger. I see a bit of the fur. Is that the kitten I used to have? The stray one I took in and cared for? Bart, why did you kill my kitten?
“NOOO!” I yelled. “Wouldn’t kill a kitty! Wouldn’t ever do that! I like kitties. This is a tiger, a not so big one. Old bones been here a mighty long time, way before I was born.” Yet, they looked like kitty bones, they did. I rubbed at my eyes so she wouldn’t see the tears.
Malcolm wouldn’t cry like this. He’d be tough. Didn’t know what to do. Ole John Amos over there kept telling me to be like Malcolm, and hate all women. I decided it was better to act like Malcolm than like me who was a sorry thing. Wasn’t no good trying to be King Kong, Tarzan, or even superman; being Malcolm was better, for I had his book of instructions of how to do it right.
“Bart, it’s growing very late. Apple is hungry and waiting for you.”
Tired, so tired. “I’m coming,” I said wearily. Gee, pretending to be an old man was tiring. Bad to act so old, better to be a boy again. Old meant no time off from work and trying to make money with no fun at all. Took all my time getting there now that I made my legs walk slow. Foggy all around. Summer wasn’t so hot when you were old. Momma, Momma, where are you? Why don’t you come when I need you? When I call, why don’t you answer? Don’t you love me anymore, Momma? Momma, why aren’t you helping me?
I stumbled on, trying to think. Then I found the answer. Nobody could like me, for I didn’t belong here, and I didn’t belong there. I didn’t belong anywhere.
PART TWO
Tales of Evil
I gobbled down my bacon, scrambled eggs with sour cream and chives, and a third slice of toast as Bart nibbled on and on as if he didn’t have any teeth at all. His toast grew cold—waiting for Bart to sip orange juice as if it were poison. An old man on his deathbed could have had more appetite.
He shot a hostile glance my way before he fixed his eyes on Mom. I was jolted. I knew he loved her—how could he look like that?
Something weird was going on in Bart’s head. Where was the shy, introverted little brother I used to have? Gradually he was changing into an aggressive, suspicious, cruel boy. Now he was staring at Dad as if he’d done something wrong—but it was Mom who drew most of his scathing looks.
Didn’t he know we had the best mother alive? I wanted to shout this out, make him go back to the way he used to be, mumbling to himself as he stumbled around hunting big game, fighting wars, riding herd on cattle. Where had all his love and admiration for Mom gone? Soon as I had the chance I backed Bart up against the garden wall. “What the heck is wrong with you, Bart? Why do you look at Mom so mean?”
“Don’t like her no more.” He crouched over, put out his arms horizontally and turned himself into a human airplane. That was normal—for Bart. “Clear the way!” he ordered. “Make way for the jet taking off for faraway places!—it’s kangaroo shoot in time in Australia!”
“Bart Sheffield, why do you always want to kill something?”
His wings fluttered; his plane stalled; his engine died and he was staring at me in confusion. The sweet child he’d been at the beginning of summer came fleeting to his dark brown eyes. “Not gonna kill real kangaroos. Just gonna capture one of those itty-bitty ones and put it in my pocket and wait for it to grow big.”
Dumb, Dumb! “First of all, you don’t have a pocket with a nipple for the baby to suck.” I sat him down hard on a bench. “Bart, it’s time you and I had a man-to-man talk. What’s troubling you, fella?”
“In a big bright house setting on a high-high hill, while the night was on and the snow came down, the flames of red and yellow shot up higher, higher! Snowflakes turned pink. And in that big old house was an old-old lady who couldn’t walk and couldn’t talk and my real daddy who was an attorney ran to save her. He couldn’t!—and he burned!—burned!—burned!”
Spooky. Crazy. I pitied him, “Bart,” I began carefully, “you know that isn’t the way Daddy Paul died.” Why had I put it like that? Bart had been born only a few years before Daddy Paul died. How many years? Almost I could remember my thoughts back then. I could ask Momma, but somehow I didn’t want to trouble her more, so I led Bart toward our house. “Bart, your real daddy died while he was sitting on his front veranda reading the newspaper. He didn’t die in a fire. He had heart trouble that led to a coronary thrombosis. Dad told us all that, remember?”
I watched his brown eyes grow darker, his pupils dilate, before he raged with a terrible temper. “Don’t mean that daddy! Talking about my real daddy! A big strong lawyer daddy who never had a bad heart!”
“Bart, who told you that lie?”
“Burning!” he screamed, whirling around like a man blinded by smoke as he tried to find his way outside. “John Amos told me how it was. All the world was on fire, one Christmas night when the tree burned up. People screamed, ran, stepped on the ones who fell down!—and the biggest, grandest house of them all snared my true father so he died, died, died!”
Boy, I’d heard enough. I was going straight into the house and tell my parents. “Bart, you hear this. Unless you stop going next door and listening to lies and crazy stories, I’m telling Mom and Dad about you—and them next door.”
He had his eyes squinted shut, as if trying to see some scene scorched on his brain. He seemed to be looking inward as he described it in more detail to me. Then his dark eyes flew wide open. His look was wild and crazy. “Mind your own damn business, Jory Marquet, if you don’t want yours.” He swooped to pick up a discarded baseball bat, then took a wild swing that might have splattered my brains if I hadn’t ducked. “You tell on me and Grandmother and I’ll kill you while you sleep.” He said it loud, cold and flat, his eyes challenging mine.
Swallowing, I felt fear raise the hair on my neck. Was I scared of him? No. I couldn’t be. As I watched, he suddenly lost his bravado and began to gasp and clutch at his heart. I smiled, knowing his secret—his way of backing out of a real fighting encounter. “All right, Bart,” I said coldly. “Now I’m going to let you have it. I’m going next door and I am going to speak to those old people who fill your head with garbage.”
His old-man act was quickly abandoned. His lips gaped apart. He stared at me pleadingly, but I whirled on my heel and strode off, never thinking he’d do anything. Wham! Down flat on my face I fell with a weight on my back. Bart had tackled me. Before I could congratulate him for being fast and accurate for a change, he began to
pummel my face with his fists.
“You won’t look so pretty when I finish.” I warded him off as best I could before I noticed he was delivering his blows with his eyes squeezed shut, punching blindly, childishly, sobbing as he did. And I swear, as much as I wanted to I couldn’t punch out my kid brother.
“Got yah scared, huh?” He pulled back his upper lip and snarled, looking pleased with himself. “Guess yah know now who’s boss, huh? Ain’t got nearly the guts you thought you had, do yah?”
I shoved him hard. He fell backward, but darn if I could fight a baby like him, who was strong only when he was angry. “You need a good spanking, Bart Sheffield, and I might be just the one to give it to you. The next time you pull any stunt on me think twice—or you might be the one left without guts.”
“Yer not my brother,” he sobbed, all the fight gone out of him. “You’re only a half brother, and that’s as good as none.” He choked on his own emotions and ground his fists into his eyes as he wailed louder.
“You see! That old woman is putting nutty ideas in your head, and one thing you don’t need is more nuts in the belfry. She’s turning you against your own family—and I’m going to tell her exactly that.”
“Don’t you dare!” He shrieked, his tears gone, his rage back, “I’ll do something terrible. I will! I swear I will! If you go you’ll be sorry!”
My smile was wry. “You and who else is gonna make me sorry?”
“I know what you want,” he said, all child again. “You want my puppy-pony. But he won’t like you, he won’t! You want my grandmother to love you more, but she won’t! You want to take everything from me—but you can’t!”
I felt sorry for him, but I’d neglected my duty long enough. “Aw, go suck your baby bottle!” and with that I was off. He screamed behind me, yelling out how he’d make me sorry by hurting something that couldn’t fight back. “And you’ll cry, Jory!” he warned. “You’ll cry more than you ever have before!”
The Flowers in the Attic Series: The Dollangangers: Flowers in the Attic, Petals on the Wind, If There Be Thorns, Seeds of Yesterday, and a New Excerpt! Page 93