An Imperfect Miracle

by Thomas L. Peters

  That sure perked Carlos up, and he started smiling again and said that maybe he wasn’t so beat after all.

  “Where are you two going in such a rush?”

  Father Tom gave out another long sigh.

  “It’s a secret.”

  “Secrets are good,” Carlos said, and then winked at me.

  He tried winking at Chewy too, but he was pointed in the wrong direction. I didn’t say anything about it though, because I didn’t want to embarrass him in front of Father Tom.

  Then Carlos went over to tell the construction guys how they should go about rebuilding the foundation for Mary’s new house. The workers didn’t seem too happy about Carlos horning in on their action, judging by how they were scowling and rolling their eyes. But the shrine seemed to be Carlos’s whole life now, and I guessed he had the right to be a pain if he wanted to.

  Father Tom looked down at me and asked again how long this was going to take. I said it wouldn’t take long if he’d just quit stopping to talk to people. He patted me on the head and said we better get going then. He almost turned back at the railroad tracks, but I told him we were almost there and that he couldn’t give up now. By the time we got to the warehouse, he was asking all sorts of questions. I finally got fed up trying to answer them all and pointed at the big busted out window.

  “It’s just inside there a little ways.”

  Father Tom looked all around like he was worried somebody was about to start shooting at us.

  “I think we’re trespassing on private property. We shouldn’t be out here.”

  I told him that only drunks and stray dogs hung around at the mill anymore. He still didn’t want to go inside the warehouse at first. But when I hopped through the window, he must have decided he couldn’t leave me in there all alone. He had a hard time fitting through the window on account of how big he was, but eventually he squirmed his way inside without tearing up his clothes much. It was a good thing he wasn’t wearing one of his fancy robes though. Then I led him back to the meeting room where the tarp was.

  I hadn’t shown him yet the navigator Runyon had swiped. I thought it would give him a bigger jolt if he saw all the stolen goods at once. I wasn’t worried about Runyon showing his face either, what with Father Tom there to beat him up if he got too snooty. Everything looked just the same too, until we actually got inside the meeting room. I knew something was wrong right away because the tarp wasn’t bulging out nearly as far as before. I ran over and tried to lift it up by myself, but it was slick and my hand kept slipping off. Then Father Tom came over and threw it back with one arm like it was nothing. I stared down at the bare grungy floor and couldn’t believe my eyes.

  “It was all piled up right here. He must have come back and moved the stuff somewhere else. Maybe he saw that the navigator was missing and figured somebody was on to him.”

  “What navigator? What are you talking about, Nate? And who came back here? Were you out here before? Was anybody with you?”

  I pulled the navigator out of my pocket and told him that I’d seen Runyon stealing it. I told him that this was where Runyon stashed all his loot.

  “Or maybe he hauled it away to sell it to this Dave guy he was talking to on his cell phone. There must have been ten laptops in here, and you should have seen all the iPods and Gameboys.”

  Father Tom snatched the navigator out of my hand kind of rough and asked me where I’d gotten it.

  “I told you already. Swiping that navigator should still be enough to land him in jail, don’t you think?”

  Father Tom was busy twirling the gadget around in his big hand.

  “Do you know who this belongs to?”

  I told him again that Runyon had stolen it from some car. I said I didn’t know who owned the car, but I could show him where it was parked easy enough. Then Father Tom bent down to where he was almost looking at me eye level. He laid his big hand on my arm, but real gentle though, and asked me if there was anything else I wanted to tell him. I said I’d told him everything.

  “Are you sure?”

  I stared into his face. It was streaked a little redder in the cheeks than usual, like someone with skinny fingers had just slapped him a good one. Then I felt my knees shaking a bit.

  “Sure, I’m sure. You don’t think I stole it, do you?”

  “That’s what I’m asking.”

  I shook my head as hard as I could and felt my voice getting real breathy and wobbly.

  “I saw Runyon yank it out of that car with my own eyes. You can even give me a lie detector test if you want.”

  “Did anybody else see him take it?”

  I glanced over at Chewy lying on the floor panting at me. I didn’t want to drag poor Chewy into it, because if Mom ever found out she’d just get all riled up again. I doubted if even Father Tom would believe Chewy anyway, being that she was just a dog. He must have known how loyal she was to me too.

  “Not really.”

  “Remember what I told you about making false accusations?”

  “I ain’t lying.”

  Father Tom kept staring at me for a while, I guess to see if he could break me down any. But I wasn’t changing my story for nobody. It was the truth, after all. Then he stood up with a big grunting kind of groan and said that he’d see to it that the navigator was returned to its rightful owner. He said that he’d make up some story so as not to have to point the finger at me. I asked him if, being a priest and all, he was allowed to make up stories. He said he didn’t like to, but sometimes he said it was the charitable thing to do.

  “You won’t tell Mom on me, will you? If she ever thought I stole something, she’d never let me out of the house by myself again.”

  Father Tom finally smiled a little and right away I felt a lot better, like I wasn’t headed for jail after all.

  “I won’t say a word. Just promise me that you won’t get into any more mischief.”

  “But that Runyon guy is the one you ought to be keeping your eye on. Mary’s bringing the town back to life, and he don’t like it one little bit. He likes it better when everything’s dead, like it is out here in the mill. I know what I’m talking about too because my dad was the same way. You can ask my mom if you don’t believe me.”

  His voice was steady and strong, like a priest’s voice ought to sound I guess.

  “Our Blessed and Holy Mother can take care of herself just fine. But I’m sure she appreciates all your efforts on her behalf. You can stop now though.”

  I offered again to show him the car with the busted window, but he said he had things to do in town. On our way out of the warehouse he said he knew of a nice little puppy that was up for adoption and that he could get her for me for free if I wanted. I told him thanks, but that dogs were way too much work, puppies especially.

  “Let me know if you change your mind.”

  “I won’t be changing my mind,” I said, glancing over at Chewy wagging her tail at me real fierce and happy.

  We walked all the way back to town together and hardly said anything, which I was glad about because I didn’t want to slip up and land in any more trouble. When we reached the shrine I told Father Tom I had to get home before Mom found out I was gone and yelled at me. Father Tom said that he needed to stay at the shrine awhile with Carlos and their new little friend John to see how all the work was coming along. He said he’d see me later and that I shouldn’t worry about a thing. Then all of a sudden he gave me the news, and I couldn’t believe that he’d waited so long to tell me.

  “The police arrested your English teacher, Mr. Grimes, last night and a few other rascals for arson in setting fire to the shrine. Apparently they had a little anti-religion cult group going, and decided to branch out into the terrorism business too. Grimes was apparently bragging about it over his e-mail, which was how they nabbed him. So you see, Nate, you can’t always jump to conclusions about people.”

  I didn’t know what to say at first, but then I pu
lled myself together.

  “Mr. Grimes must have gone nuts over Mary being so popular. I guess he just couldn’t handle it.”

  “It’s sad, but it’s over now, and Mary’s safe. So you needn’t worry about her anymore.”

  On the way back up our street, I told Chewy that I couldn’t understand why so many people wanted me to get a dog. Chewy said she didn’t understand it either.

  It was lucky for me that Mom had to work late. I sat on the living room floor watching TV and trying to figure out what I should say to her. I knew Father Tom wouldn’t go back on his word, but I was a little worried that some nosy neighbor might have seen me sneaking out of the house and ratted on me. But if Father Tom was allowed to make up a story once in a while, I decided I could too.

  Finally I heard Mom’s car clanging up the street. I knew it was hers because it had a special sort of sound, like pots banging together in the sink when you’re rinsing them. I opened the front door and waited out on the porch for her to drag herself up the steps like she usually did when she came home late from work. Runyon had left the flowers on the porch, and while I was checking them out I noticed that the little orange bug was all gone and that the spider was busy cleaning off its legs. Of course, by then the spider might have gobbled up some other bug for all I knew.

  As soon as Mom got to the porch she picked up the flowers and looked to see who they were from. She was probably hoping they were from Pastor Mike, but Runyon must not have left a name tag because she asked me who’d brought them. Before I could answer she saw the spider and jumped a little and said how gross it was. Then she grabbed the broom next to the door and swept the spider and its web right off the porch into some evergreen bushes. I didn’t know if the poor spider made it out alive or not, but I expected it did because spiders are generally pretty tough.

  When she got inside she asked me straight out if Pastor Mike had brought her the flowers. I told her Pastor Mike wouldn’t have given her such scraggly looking plants. Then I told her about Runyon banging on the door and snooping around the outside of the house. I made it sound a lot scarier even than it was. I figured if Mom got mad at Runyon, that would leave her less energy to stay mad at me. I told her that after he left I ran out of the house, because I didn’t want to be trapped inside all alone if Runyon decided to come back. I said I went down to Main Street on account of all the people and waited at the shrine until I was sure the coast was clear.

  “I just got back home a few minutes ago.”

  Right away her forehead crinkled up and she got on the phone.

  “Who are you calling?”

  “Mind your own business.”

  I was pretty sure she was calling Pastor Mike so he could go looking for Runyon and beat him up. But while she was waiting for the other person to answer, she said she was calling up Marcie’s dad for legal advice. They talked for nearly a half hour too. I stood right there listening to her but didn’t understand much of it.

  After she closed up the phone she said I shouldn’t worry about Runyon coming around again and bothering us. She said Marcie’s dad was going to get some judge to tell Runyon that he had to stay away from us or else he’d get tossed into jail. She said that he’d done a good job of getting rid of Dad when he turned real mean there at the end, and that he’d do the same with Runyon. I thought about telling her that Runyon might have hooked up with Dad to steal stuff together. But since I didn’t have any proof I decided it wasn’t worth getting her even more riled up.

  “It might take a few days for him to file all the papers. But Runyon will be notified right away that our lawyer is after him.”

  “Are you sure it’ll work? Runyon doesn’t look all that bright to understand legal papers. And what about if he gets drunk?”

  Mom narrowed her eyes at me, like it was me who’d just done something wrong.

  “Sneaky cowards like him know about such things, even when they’re drunk. It’s part of their DNA. He’ll stay away. He doesn’t want to risk going to jail over us.”

  I thought about what she said.

  “Then maybe the town ought to file papers to protect Mary, so that Runyon or somebody else doesn’t come around and try to burn her house down again.”

  Mom said she didn’t think the law worked that way. Then I told her about Mr. Grimes getting arrested. At first she was a little surprised, but after she thought about it awhile she said it was all pretty predictable. “Sad but predictable,” she said. Then she brightened up and asked me if I wanted to go out and get some ice cream.

  “It’s been ages since we’ve gotten ice cream together. I thought you might like a little treat after all this excitement.”

  Chewy scampered up from the basement, where I guess she’d been resting herself after our big long walk with Father Tom. Then we all piled into Mom’s car and headed for the ice cream place. I ordered vanilla because that was Chewy’s favorite and didn’t give her belly aches like chocolate. I didn’t know if Chewy could still taste ice cream or not, but she sure seemed to enjoy licking it whenever I secretly held out my cone to her.

  My plan for shifting the blame to Runyon must have worked, because Mom seemed like she was warming up to me again. On the way home she even called Carlos and asked if I could stay with him down at the shrine for the next few days while she was at work. Carlos must have told her that it was no problem, because when she closed up her phone she said it was all settled. I wondered for a second why she didn’t ask Pastor Mike to look after me instead. But she must not have wanted to risk losing him forever if I acted up or something.

  “Does that mean I’m not grounded anymore?”

  She narrowed her eyes into little slits again, but at least they didn’t look so dark and scary as before.

  “This is just a precaution until the judge hands down his order telling Runyon to stay away. If you behave yourself, maybe I’ll think about calling it square between us. Just don’t let it go to your head.”

  I promised I wouldn’t and kept my mouth shut the rest of the way home. When we were almost there Mom called up Pastor Mike and told him about Runyon sneaking around to bother us and Mr. Grimes getting arrested. I couldn’t hear what Pastor Mike was saying, but he must have gotten a little hot about something because Mom had to calm him down. I figured it had to do with Runyon, because I didn’t see why Pastor Mike would care one way or the other about Mr. Grimes going to jail. Mom didn’t seem too bothered that Pastor Mike had lost his temper, and after she closed up the phone she was still smiling a little.

  Chapter 12

  The town had the construction guys working two shifts, and they even brought in these big lamps so that they could work in the middle of the night sometimes. It only took a few weeks before Mary’s house went up again as nice as the first one. It was even better in a way, because they put up a tall iron fence all around the lot so that you could only go in through one gate and out through another. This time they built the house mainly with stone and brick instead of wood so that it was a lot sturdier and more fireproof than before. They wanted to put in security cameras too, but Carlos talked them out of it. He said he didn’t like the idea of somebody watching him all the time.

  It didn’t take long either for Mom to get a call from her lawyer saying that the judge had ruled in her favor. She said that if I ever saw Runyon within a hundred yards of our house I should tell her about it right away, and that the cops would hunt him down and stick him in jail where he belonged. I wasn’t really sure how far a hundred yards was, but Mom told me to think about football games and just kind of estimate it. She said if I was a little off, it probably wouldn’t matter much. Mom was so happy about Carlos watching me for free while she was at work that she didn’t put up much of a fuss when I kept hanging around at the shrine even after she got the court ruling she wanted. She said that once school started in a month or so, we could all go back to normal.

  It was a nice bright sunny morning, and like usual after Mom left for w
ork I headed straight for the shrine. I made sure I had my free pass on me too, because Mr. Santelli was grumpy sometimes and wouldn’t let me in unless I could show it to him. I hurried up and got in line, and a few seconds later old Mr. Feeney the florist, who had eyebrows as bushy as big fuzzy caterpillars, slid in behind me. Mr. Feeney had been single all his life and according to Mom didn’t understand kids, which was why I guess he talked to me just like he was talking to a grownup. I kind of liked it actually.

  “Our Blessed Mother sure is doing wonders for the community. There’s even talk that the town is going to buy up the property on either side of her, so that people don’t have to line up so far down the street. Mary’s good for my business too. People are all the time ordering flowers to bring to her.”

  I’d always wondered why so many people still brought Mary flowers, because as soon as they laid them down on the lawn some little guy who worked for the town scooped them up and tossed them into this big red dump truck. Carlos said that the guy, I think his name was Mr. Baum, took the flowers to hospitals and nursing homes and places like that, so the sick people living there could enjoy them until they wilted and got thrown out. I doubted if Mary would care about losing her flowers, but I wasn’t sure how Mr. Feeney would take the news so I didn’t say anything about it. All of a sudden his face turned a little gloomy anyway, I guess because he was thinking about money now.

  “Some people down in Pittsburgh are sending in letters to the editor complaining about how much the shrine charges. I heard that next week the town is considering lowering the admission fee for outsiders from ten dollars to seven dollars, and they’ll only charge students and senior citizens one dollar apiece to get in.”

  I said that sounded fair to me so long as students and seniors who lived in town would only have to pay one dollar too, instead of the regular two dollar charge. Mr. Feeney said he hadn’t thought of that “little wrinkle.” Then he said his feet were starting to hurt him and that he should have worn his softer shoes. He said he’d come back again next week and pretended to limp off.