The Chicken Dance

  Right when I finished, Nurse Nancy got back to the table and said, “Sorry it took so long. There was a line at the bathroom. I guess chicken-judging makes people have to go.”

  I said, “I don’t know,” and Nurse Nancy said, “I was joking.”

  So then I told her, “Oh. I’m going to wait by the bus.”

  I sat in the front of the bus while some of the kids played tag, and others talked, and others tried to hit a sign with rocks. While I was waiting, I asked Stanley, “What did I do? I lost the contest.”

  He threw a rock and hit a sign and told me, “You don’t know that. You could still win.”

  “No, I can’t,” I told him. “I saw Leon’s answers and a lot of them were wrong.”

  “Maybe you were wrong,” Stanley told me, and I said, “That’s even worse. That would mean I don’t know anything about chickens, and that would also mean that I would win and Leon would lose, and I don’t want that.”

  Stanley threw another rock and hit the sign again and told me, “That would have happened if you hadn’t changed the names.”

  After Stanley told me that, I was kind of glad that I’d changed the names, and then I was kind of sad, and then I was glad again. I was glad that Leon’s dad would stop making fun of him and then I was sad that I wouldn’t have any friends. I kept changing my mind all afternoon until that night when I found out that I’d have to dance again.

  Twenty-Seven

  After the chicken-judging contest, the Horse Island Elementary 4-H Club went to lunch, toured the LSU farm, ate dinner at one of the school’s cafeterias, and then got on the bus and went to the hotel. Before we were allowed to get off the bus and go back to our rooms, Mrs. Broussard told us that she had to talk to us. She said, “Now listen carefully, students. I didn’t say anything this morning, because I didn’t want to distract you from the contest. The thing is, Mrs. Forest, Nurse Nancy, and I are not at all happy about your behavior last night. Those of you, and you know who you are, who ran around the hall all night laughing and talking loudly obviously have no consideration for the rest of us. So to ensure that it doesn’t happen again tonight, all of you must stay in your assigned rooms and not leave them until tomorrow morning.”

  All the kids started talking and saying things like, “Ahhh,” and, “That isn’t fair,” and then Mrs. Broussard said, “Settle down, children. I’m not finished.”

  Everyone got quiet and then she said, “There’s something that I didn’t tell you before because I wanted to surprise you. Now I’m not so sure because I don’t know if you deserve it. However, I don’t want those of you who behaved yourselves to have to suffer for those of you who acted like animals, so I’m going to give you your surprise. What I want you to do now is go back to your rooms and get washed up and change and then meet me in the hall in forty-five minutes. Then we’re all going to the 4-H dance!”

  All of the kids except for me started talking at once. Some of them clapped and some of them yelled, “All right!” They gave each other high fives and then some of them jumped in the aisle of the bus and did a little dance. Mrs. Broussard smiled real big and then said, “Okay, let’s get moving.”

  I couldn’t believe that I’d come to Baton Rouge to find Dawn and to win the chicken-judging contest so I could become popular again and so kids would forget about when I’d danced, and I wasn’t going to win and I couldn’t leave my room that night to look for Dawn and I had to go to a dance.

  I got really sad and thought I was going to start crying in front of Leon while we were getting dressed. I really didn’t want him to make fun of me, so I thought about good stuff like my chickens and the day I won my blue ribbon and the first time we chased the stray dog and pig. And while we were on the bus going to the dance, I thought about my father and I looking out the hotel window in New Orleans and how he’d put his hand on my shoulder. And when we got to the dance and then walked off the bus into this big building, I felt a little sad again. So I thought about all the nights in the kitchen that I’d danced on my mother’s feet and she’d hugged me and told me how proud she was of me.

  That made me smile a little, and so when we walked into this big room with loud music and a bunch of people dancing, I wasn’t that sad anymore.

  Nurse Nancy walked up behind me and said, “Wow, this is a big room, isn’t it?”

  “Yes, ma’am,” I said. “What do you think it is?”

  “I think it’s just a room they have for events like this,” she said.

  She walked away and after, like, two seconds I couldn’t see her anymore because there were so many people. I don’t know how many people there were, but I bet if I had counted them, I would have counted, like, seven hundred people or maybe even more. I didn’t count them, but I did walk around a few times and look at them because I didn’t know what else to do. That got kind of boring after a while, so I went and sat down in a chair along the edge of the wall.

  I guess I was sitting there for about an hour when this girl walked over to the chairs and sat down not too far from me. She had red hair, and wore glasses, and was wearing a light blue dress, and she kept looking over at me and smiling. I looked around, but there was no one else by me, so I knew that she was smiling at me. I asked Stanley, “Why do you think she’s smiling at me?” and he said, “Maybe she likes you. Go and talk to her.”

  I looked at her and thought she looked nice and might be a good person to talk to. I was so scared, though, and I didn’t know what I’d say to her if I did go talk to her. She stood up, and I thought she was going to walk away, and I was a little sad that I hadn’t talked to her, but then she walked over to me and said, “Hi. I’m Rhonda.”

  I stood up and said, “Hi. I’m Don.”

  I was real nervous and started thinking about which KC and the Sunshine Band song I should sing. Then Rhonda smiled and said, “Nice to meet you, Don.”

  “Nice to meet you, Rhonda,” I said back, and then she told me, “I like your shirt.”

  I decided that “Get Down Tonight” might be a good song to sing to myself. Rhonda put her hands behind her back and twisted her body back and forth without moving her feet. Then she asked, “Do you want to dance?”

  I didn’t answer and instead started to sing to myself, but even though I’d chosen “Get Down Tonight,” I heard “Boogie Man.”

  Then something really weird happened and Rhonda said, “I love KC and the Sunshine Band.”

  I couldn’t understand how she knew I was singing a KC and the Sunshine Band song in my head. I thought maybe she was psychic and so I took a step away from her. Then I realized that I wasn’t singing the song in my head. It was really playing.

  So I said, “Yes.”

  Rhonda asked, “Yes, what?” and I said, “Yes. I would like to dance.”

  We walked to the area where people were dancing and I took a deep breath, sneezed, and then danced. It was so cool to see Rhonda a few feet away looking at me, smiling, and I didn’t care if anyone was watching. I guess it was because everyone else was dancing, so I didn’t have to worry about anyone making fun of me.

  I closed my eyes and thought about KC and the Sunshine Band singing and dancing. Then I imagined that I was dancing in front of them. I danced some of the steps I’d learned for my recital and I did some that I’d seen on Soul Train and American Bandstand. I was having a great time and I couldn’t believe that something like dancing could be as much fun as learning about chickens. But it was and I think I could have danced the whole night but the song ended. When it did, I decided I was going to ask Rhonda if she wanted to dance again. But when I opened my eyes, she wasn’t the only person a few feet away looking at me.

  There was a bunch of other kids looking at me. None of them were dancing. They were just standing there and staring at me like I was a television set or a rooster crowing. There was Leon holding some blond girl’s hand, and some other kids from my class, and a whole lot of others I didn’t know at all. I turned around and ran out of the room and to the bathro
om. Then I sat on a toilet in one of the stalls for about an hour, until the dance was over.

  Twenty-Eight

  We got back to the hotel about eleven thirty that night and before we got off the bus, Mrs. Forest reminded us that we couldn’t leave our rooms until the next morning and that the chaperones would be watching the hall. When Leon and I got back to the room, he didn’t talk to me. We both put on our pajamas and jumped into our beds, and then Leon turned on the TV.

  He changed the channel on the TV and I turned my back to him and lay on my side. I felt so stupid for dancing and I thought Leon would never be friends with me again. I thought about Dawn and wished that she were there with me so she could tell Leon to be nice to me. For some reason I thought she might be outside, so I got up out of my bed and looked out of the window. I didn’t see her, but I did see a soda machine. I pretended to be Samantha from Bewitched and wiggled my nose a little and waited for a soda to slip out of the soda machine and fly across the parking lot into my hands. And then I thought how great it would be if I could fly down to the parking lot and go find Dawn.

  I was only staring out of the window for, like, a minute when Leon asked, “How did you do today?”

  I turned around from the window real fast and looked at him because I couldn’t believe that he was talking to me. He turned his head toward me, and I figured that he had talked to me.

  “I don’t know,” I said. “My mind went kind of blank and I forgot a lot of stuff.”

  “Oh, yeah,” Leon said. “That’s too bad. I thought it was harder than an armadillo’s shell. I don’t think I’m going to place.”

  I sat down on my bed and said, “I’m sure you did okay. You know a lot about chickens.”

  Leon turned his head and looked at the television again and then said, “That dance you did tonight was pretty cool.”

  I wasn’t sure I’d heard him right, but just in case I had, I said, “Thanks.”

  Leon turned his head toward me again and asked, “Do you think you can teach me how to dance like that?”

  I really couldn’t believe that Leon was asking me to teach him how to dance. It made no sense to me because he’d picked on me for so long about dancing, and now he wanted me to teach him. I didn’t know why he wanted me to teach him, but I didn’t care. I was just happy that he was talking to me again and being nice to me, so I told him, “Yeah, sure, I can teach you.”

  Leon got out of his bed and then pulled a piece of paper out of his pants and said, “Here. That girl you danced with wanted me to give you her address so you can write to her.”

  I couldn’t believe that Rhonda wanted me to write to her. I thought that she thought I was stupid because of the way I danced. But I opened the piece of folded-up paper and saw her address, so I knew it was true.

  Anyway, Leon walked in front of the bed and said, “I like the way you spun around,” and then he tried it and fell on the floor. I wanted to laugh, but I didn’t because we’d just become friends again. But Leon laughed, and so after I saw that he was laughing, I did too.

  Leon got up from the floor and laughed and said, “I guess we can’t all be a dancing machine like you.”

  He sat down on his bed and stopped laughing and then looked at the floor and said, “I’m sorry, dude. I’ve kind of been a jerk to you. I don’t care that you danced. I just got mad because you’re so smart and my dad is always talking about how smart you are and asking me why I can’t be more like you.”

  I had thought that that night was going to be the worst night of my life, but then, all of a sudden, it changed, and it kept getting better and better and weirder. I couldn’t believe that Leon was mad at me because of his dad. I felt bad and wanted Leon to know that I wasn’t mad at him, so I said, “That’s okay.”

  Then I walked over to him, smiled real big, and pushed him on the shoulder and said, “But don’t let it happen again or I’m going to have to whip your butt.”

  Leon looked up at me, and when he saw I was smiling, he smiled too and then he stood up and said, “Oh yeah?”

  Then he grabbed me and threw me on the ground and hit me with his pillow. I tried to grab the other pillow, but Leon was holding me down, so all I could do was laugh. We wrestled for only a few minutes before Leon jumped off of me and raised his arms in the air and danced around and said, “I am the champion, and the champion wants a soda for his prize.”

  I got up from his bed and walked over to the window and said, “It’s too bad we can’t leave the room, because there’s a soda machine outside.”

  Leon walked over to the window and looked outside and said, “We’re going to get a soda.”

  “But we can’t leave the room,” I told him. “Mrs. Forest is in the hall.”

  Leon reached out and opened the window and said, “Ta da,” like a magician who had just pulled a rabbit out of a hat. I looked at the open window and asked, “You’re going to climb out of the window?”

  “No,” he said. “We’re going to climb out.”

  I backed away from Leon and said, “What? No. What?”

  Then Leon said, “Listen, how often are we in a big city by ourselves? I want to tear this town apart and have a good time.”

  I was scared but didn’t want Leon to know, so instead of telling him that I was about to pee in my pants, I asked, “How are we going to get down there?”

  Leon looked around the room for a few seconds and then said, “Well, the first thing we need to do is strip the sheets from the bed. Then we need to turn off the television so the chaperones think we’re asleep. Then we’ll take the pillows and tuck them under the covers so it looks like we’re sleeping. Then we’ll tie the sheets together and use them to lower ourselves out of the window. We’re only on the second floor, so the sheets will be plenty long enough.”

  I was kind of amazed. Leon couldn’t name the first president of the United States but he knew exactly what to do to get us outside.

  “I’ll go down first,” he said. “That way if you fall, I can catch you.”

  I wanted to tell Leon that since we were about the same size, I would probably kill him if he tried to catch me. I couldn’t tell him, though, because I couldn’t speak. I watched Leon turn off the television and pull all the sheets off of our beds. Then he told me, “Change into your regular clothes and then put the pillows underneath the covers so it looks like someone’s sleeping under them.”

  I did what he said, and by the time I was finished, he’d tied all the sheets together so that they made one long sheet. Then he tied that to the frame of my bed and lowered the sheet out of the window. He got dressed and put on his backpack and then went to the window and grabbed part of the sheet. He looked at me and said, “Here goes. Watch how I do it so you can do it the same way.”

  Leon sat on the windowsill and then pushed himself up on his feet. He held on to the sheet with both hands and then let himself fall back slowly. I went to the window and watched him walk down the side of the hotel like it was no big deal, and like that was the way he left his house in the morning to go to school. He got all the way to the ground without slipping or anything. I was happy that he had gotten on the ground safely, but then I was freaked because it was my turn. I couldn’t move, but then Leon made a birdcall and I was able to move my eyes and see him whisper the words Come on.

  I backed away from the window and sat on my bed. I didn’t know if I could climb out of the window or not, and I didn’t want Leon to know that I was scared. I stood up and looked out the window again and I could see Leon at the soda machine. Then I heard a knock at the door and Mrs. Forest say, “It’s me, Mrs. Forest. Open the door.”

  I jumped up from my bed, grabbed the sheet rope and pulled it up, threw it under the bed, and then closed the window. Mrs. Forest knocked again and said, “Don and Leon. I know you’re not asleep because you just turned off the TV ten minutes ago.”

  I took off my shirt and pants and pulled one of the pillows out from underneath the covers of my bed, messed up my hair a
little, and then opened the door. Mrs. Forest looked me up and down and said, “My God, Don. Why are you in your underwear?”

  I jumped back a little behind the door so only my head stuck out and then I said, “Sorry.”

  “Where’s Leon?” Mrs. Forest asked.

  “He’s asleep,” I said.

  “Already?” Mrs. Forest asked. “You guys just turned off the television.”

  I had to think fast so I just opened my mouth and the words fell out. “He went to sleep a while ago. I was the one watching television. He’s really tired because he stayed up late last night studying.”

  Twenty-Nine

  After Mrs. Forest told me that she had a hard time believing that Leon studied anything besides ways to make her crazy, I closed the door. I had goose bumps all over my body, but I wasn’t cold so I guess it was because I was excited. I felt like James Bond or something and even though I was still a little scared, I knew that James Bond wouldn’t be and that he’d climb out of that window and look for Dawn. So I decided if I was going to be like him, that I had to climb out that window and look for her.

  So I got dressed again and grabbed the map of Baton Rouge and the address to Bill’s Broadway. Then I opened the window, threw the sheet rope out, and looked at the parking lot. I didn’t see Leon, but I knew he couldn’t be too far away and that he was waiting for me. I took a few deep breaths and sat on the windowsill the way Leon had and then got up on my feet.

  I was so nervous that I held the sheet rope tighter than I’d held the side of the chair when I was getting a polio shot. I knew I had to do it, though, so I closed my eyes, counted to ten, and then leaned back. Before I could straighten my legs out, though, my feet slipped off the windowsill and my body fell. I slid down the rope until my hands hit the knot where two of the sheets were tied together. I was about halfway down, which was about ten feet from the ground, but it felt like a thousand feet. I yelled, “Stanley! Help me!”