School dragged on forever that day. I couldn’t concentrate. Everyone left me alone, and for that, I was grateful.
Finally, the last bell rang.
I gathered my mound of books and walked down to the truck, not even caring to read the inspirational words anymore.
No one spoke on the way home, and as soon as the engine stopped, I escaped to my room.
I clicked the lock shut and dumped my books on the bed. There was nothing to do but study. It was just as well. It would keep my mind off Jerry.
I had just opened my notebook when I heard a light tap on my bedroom window.
The form of someone tall stood outlined against the glass.
Startled, I leapt back, barely registering that it was Rafael. I almost screamed anyway.
“Sydney!” I heard his muffled voice. He was looking at me through the glass.
I stared in shock, wondering if Al knew he was there, but then I became distracted as I noticed Rafael was wearing blue eye shadow on his left eye. It wasn’t just a tiny touch of makeup; it was a bold artistic pattern that curved in a swirl around his eyebrow.
I kept staring, recalling the creepiness of the greenbelt incident again, when I saw something round and furry sitting on his shoulder.
It was Jerry, perched like a parakeet.
My heart stopped.
Rafael was saying something. I saw his lips moving, his expressive face frowning a little, and then he turned and walked away.
As he disappeared around the corner of the house, I ran out of my room, tripping over Betty’s boxes in the living room.
Where had he gone?
The front doorbell rang, but Betty was there before me.
“Good evening, Mrs. Mackenzie.” I heard Rafael’s silky voice float through the entrance. “I do believe I’ve found someone that belongs to Sydney.”
I pushed my way past Grace and Al to see Rafael raise his hand to his shoulder and Jerry promptly jump onto his finger like some kind of performing animal. With a graceful flourish, Rafael extended his hand in my direction.
“Pardon?” Betty finally found her voice.
I couldn’t blame her. Being presented with a mouse was strange enough, but having Rafael deliver it was even stranger. With his outrageously styled blond hair and blue makeup on one eye, he looked very much like a magician.
“This is Sydney’s mouse,” he explained easily, as if it were common to find lost mice every day. “I believe she was looking for him yesterday?”
Betty, Al, and Grace turned to me.
I swallowed and nodded, wondering if I were stuck in some bizarre dream.
“Oh!” Betty’s face suddenly flooded with understanding. “So, this is why you were so upset, honey? This is your mouse?”
“Come in,” Grace invited with a smile. “I’m Grace.”
Rafael obliged and introduced himself to Al and Grace while still holding Jerry.
Betty turned to me in obvious relief. “I didn’t know you had a pet, honey, now I see why you were so upset! Oh, I feel terrible! I didn’t mean to throw him away!”
“How did you find it?” Al asked Rafael, sounding very suspicious.
His question shook me out of my stupor. I wanted to know the same thing.
“By lucky chance,” Rafael replied smoothly. “I saw Sydney with Jerry in the woods a couple of days ago and when I came across a tame mouse this afternoon, I knew it wasn’t a coincidence. One does not come across tame mice very often.”
As his enigmatic gray eyes bore into mine, my heart stopped again.
“You saw Sydney in the woods?” Grace was asking with a frown.
I was terrified. There was something very wrong here. So he had seen me, but that didn’t bother me nearly as much as a new question suddenly springing to mind. Just how did he know Jerry’s name?
“Al, why don’t you run down to the store and pick this mouse up a cage,” Betty said. She was obviously very relieved. She turned to Rafael. “I don’t know how to thank you, young man. Sydney was distraught, I tell you, utterly distraught.”
“I know,” Rafael replied, looking straight at me. He stepped close and placed his elegantly shaped fingers on my wrist. Turning my hand over, he set Jerry gently in my palm and leaned down to murmur in my ear, “Jerry loves you dearly. He has no desire to be free. He prefers a cage—your cage.”
His eyes pierced mine and I felt a shiver run up my spine.
“What a sweet mouse,” Betty commented, cooing at Jerry along with Grace. “And how sweet of you, Rafael, to bring our Sydney’s mouse back home. I can’t thank you enough.”
Sweet was the farthest thing from my mind. I was becoming downright terrified. I felt the hair on my neck rising even as I clutched Jerry close to my heart.
“I must be going,” Rafael said and dipped in a slight bow to all of us.
With that, he was gone.
“Did you see how he bowed?” Al asked after Rafael had left and Betty had closed the front door. “That was a Japanese bow. I should know. I was stationed in Okinawa. He might be from Japan. I read that some of those young boys there wear makeup now.”
“He’s so nice,” Grace murmured, a little dreamy-eyed.
“I’m happy for you, Sydney,” Betty said, putting her arm around my shoulder. She frowned at Al. “Go to the store and get a cage, honey! We can’t have Jerry getting loose again.”
“Can I come with you?” I heard my voice asking.
Al nodded.
“We can discuss your battle plan on the way,” I continued.
His face split into a wide smile and he held the door open for me.
Yes, I was now firmly in Al’s camp. There was something very wrong with these neighbors, and I promised to devote all of my energy into helping him discover what it was.
Chapter Four - The Stealth-Twig
We went to a pet store and Al bought Jerry a big cage and even one of those hamster wheels that I’d always wanted to get him.
On the way home, we discussed his battle plan. It involved thorough surveillance and the documentation of evidence. He’d ordered a Camera Rock and a remote-controlled Stealth-Twig. Both transmitted live feeds that he could record on tape and view later. He was excited about the Stealth-Twig. It was a video camera disguised to look just like a branch with leaves, and he could control it with a remote while sitting in the kitchen.
I had to admit that it all sounded pretty interesting. I wondered if I could make the twig climb the wall of Rafael’s house and have it peer through his window.
When we got home, Al had Betty look up the tracking numbers of his camera shipments to see how far away they were from being delivered.
I lugged the cage to my room and began to set up Jerry’s new home.
Grace asked if she could help me.
It was a little awkward, having her in my room. I didn’t know what to say to her, but she was so kind to Jerry that I found myself warming up a little bit.
“He’s so cute!” she giggled, tickling Jerry under the chin. “It’s amazing that Rafael found him.”
I nodded as I filled the water bottle and clipped it onto the cage. It was such a roomy cage. I knew Jerry was going to be happy there.
“And Rafael…” Grace sighed. “He’s so handsome and he looks so good in makeup. I think all guys should wear makeup too. I mean, why is it just for women?”
It was the most I’d heard her say since my arrival, and I wondered if it meant she thought we were friends now.
“What happened in the woods?” she asked, gently setting Jerry in front of his wheel.
I wondered if I should tell her what had happened, but decided against it. It would sound crazy. “Nothing,” I said and scowled a little.
She didn’t believe me. I knew she was going to ask more questions, but then Betty called us for dinner.
I spent the remainder of the evening quite preoccupied. I tried not to think of Rafael, but it was hard not to. I didn’t understand how he could have known Jerr
y’s name, or the fact that I’d worried about the little mouse’s freedom. After all, I’d only said those things to Jerry himself.
I tried to study, but failed miserably.
Eventually, I was so tired that I stumbled to bed, and the last thing I remembered that night was smiling as I heard Jerry’s hamster wheel begin to squeak.
The next morning, I finally remembered to stop in front of the bridge to read the inspirational words:
Man’s greatness lies in his power of thought— Blaise Pascal
Strange quote to put on a bridge, I thought.
The day was a difficult one.
Mrs. Klemensky gave us a test that I know I failed. It put me in a bad mood for the rest of the day, and I spent every free minute hanging out in the library, studying.
After classes were out, Ellison followed me to the circular driveway where we waited for Betty. I knew he was just using me as an excuse to talk to Grace. Once they starting chatting, I moved to toss pebbles over the side of the bridge.
A stunningly gorgeous girl walked by, talking on her cell phone. Her hair was long, black, and silky and her brown eyes were huge, framed by exceptionally thick lashes. She wore a tailored blue jacket and white pants.
“Hey, Reese!” A boy ran up to her.
Reese flipped her shining hair over her shoulder and shot the boy a condescending look. She kept talking on her phone.
“Can I come to your party?”
She looked at him as if he were insane.
“Please?” the boy pleaded.
“I don’t think so.” Reese rolled her eyes a little, as she kept walking.
I felt sorry for him as he stared at his feet, crestfallen.
She talked on her phone the entire way to the parking lot before getting into a red convertible and driving away.
I sighed. She was definitely the kind of girl who belonged in a school like this.
That afternoon, UPS delivered Al’s cameras. I was tempted to peek at them before he got home, but I didn’t know if he would get mad at me. Instead, I took a break from studying and decided to do a little surveillance work on my own. I decided I would need a prop—anything that would look like a good excuse to hang out in front of the house and spy on Rafael.
My eyes fell on Tigger, snoring on the kitchen floor with his nose in his empty food dish.
I poked around a bit for a leash, but couldn’t find one. Betty was busy watching her bid on Ebay and Grace was practicing wall ball on the chimney so I settled for some twine I had found in one of Betty’s boxes. Tying the twine to Tigger’s collar, I put my foot on his belly and jiggled him awake.
He lifted his head with a grunt and patiently watched me attempt to move him for a few minutes before settling back down with a loud sigh. He drifted back to sleep.
I scowled at him.
I was about to abandon the idea of using him when I remembered a package of hot dogs in the refrigerator.
A hot dog in the pocket was enough to get Tigger out the door and down the driveway. At the mailbox, however, even the promise of a hot dog couldn’t entice him to take one more step.
“You’re a stubborn thing,” I snorted, giving in and handing him a sliver of meat.
He swallowed it and promptly sat down, deciding he was done with exercise.
I heard a car and looked up to see another fancy sports car, a red one this time, zoom down the street and slide into Rafael’s driveway.
A man and a woman got out of the car. Their hair was immaculate and their clothes the height of fashion. I didn’t have to be told that I was looking at Zelphie and Marquis.
Rafael came out of his front door and hugged them both in greeting. He looked genuinely pleased to see them, and I could hear the buzz of their excited voices, but couldn’t quite make out the words.
After a few minutes, they entered the house, but not before Rafael turned on the porch and sent a graceful wave my way.
I waved back, awkwardly, feeling my cheeks redden.
So much for my spying session, I had obviously been caught.
Glancing down at Tigger snoring at my feet I rolled my eyes. I must have looked stupid, standing at the edge of the driveway holding a piece of twine tied to the collar of a sleeping dog.
I didn’t have time to wallow in humiliation because just then Al came home. If he wondered what I was doing with Tigger, he didn’t mention it.
“Did we get the merchandise?” he asked conspiratorially as he hopped out of the truck.
I nodded and removed Tigger’s twine. The dog promptly rolled over on his back and began to snore. I left him there to enjoy what was sure to be a long nap and followed Al inside.
Sitting down at the kitchen table, I watched Al unpack the boxes. He unpacked the Stealth-Twig first and handed me the instructions. Grace and Betty announced that they were going to the store for ice cream, but neither Al nor I really noticed much. We were too engrossed in the new equipment.
It took an hour to set it all up and when darkness fell, we deployed our devices. We set the Camera Rock under the mailbox and placed the Stealth-Twig under the branches of the evergreens, training both lenses on Rafael’s house.
Betty returned and gave us each a bowl of ice cream topped with chocolate sauce. We sat at the kitchen table watching the video feeds and eating our treat in companionable silence.
Nothing happened.
None of them came out of the house, not even the Doberman.
It was a little disappointing, but Al told me to be patient, telling me these kinds of operations take time. Finally, after double-checking our equipment to make sure it was actually recording, we went to bed.
The next few weeks passed relatively event free.
Jerry loved his new cage. Since his escape, he’d learned a new trick of hopping on my finger and sitting there like a bird. It was adorable, but every time he did it, it reminded me of Rafael—and his blue eye shadow—as he stood in the doorway talking to Betty.
Al and I hadn’t procured any evidence yet.
We fell into a nightly routine of eating ice cream at the kitchen table as we scanned through the day’s video feed. At times, we’d move the cameras, but it was more to play with the remote controls than anything else. I spent all of my extra time studying at the kitchen table with one eye on the monitor, but after a while, I gradually quit looking because the tapes only revealed hours of Rafael’s empty front porch.
Math and Science became my new priority. I had always struggled with them both, but I was doing even worse in this school than usual. I studied every chance I could, even on the bleachers every day after school while I waited for Grace to finish her soccer practice.
One chilly afternoon, Ellison sat down next to me.
“Another penalty,” he said, shaking his head.
I looked up at him, confused, and drew my sweatshirt up around my neck to shut out the cold wind. It was almost Halloween and the weather was turning wet, cold, and gray.
Ellison pointed to the field to where Grace was kneeling on the sideline. I’d noticed that she spent most of the time during her games doing that, but I didn’t know why.
“She plays these sports like a boy. She’s always getting penalized and has to kneel on the sidelines.” Ellison grinned as he settled next to me. “But she’s a terror in the game, for as long as she’s in it. People just scatter out of her way. We’ve made it to State more than once because of her!”
He had a ridiculous grin on his face. I shook my head and asked bluntly, “Have you told her that you like her?”
Ellison blinked, obviously shocked. I almost told him that his feelings were hardly a secret, but felt a little bad as I watched his ears flame red.
“She’s … uh ... busy … and …” He fumbled for words.
I looked out to where Grace was still kneeling at the sidelines. I felt sorry for Ellison. I was pretty sure Grace had never thought of him as boyfriend material.
As if reading my mind, he asked in a rush, “Does she
ever talk about me? You know, at home?”
I wanted to lie because he was such a nice kid. But Maya had been lying to herself for years and it never did us any good. “No,” I said, shaking my head.
I knew Grace was infatuated with Rafael. She spent every afternoon hanging out with her soccer ball in the front yard waiting for her chance to wave when he zipped by in his car. He would flutter his long fingers in reply and that three-second encounter was enough to give her a dreamy expression as she floated through the house on her tiptoes the rest of the evening.
“Does she like someone else?” Ellison asked.
I winced. I’d hoped he wouldn’t ask that. Forcing myself to be truthful, I replied, “She has a crush on our neighbor.”
“Neighbor?” he asked, sitting up straighter.
“Yeah. A guy named Rafael,” I said. I tapped my pencil on my paper in an uncomfortable gesture. “He wears makeup.” I winced again, not even sure why I had added that.
His brows yanked up into his hairline.
There was a long silence between us, and then he leaned closer to look at my homework.
“Need help with that?” he asked.
I sighed. “I’m pretty sure I’m beyond help.”
“I’d be happy to tutor you, you know,” he offered. “I can drop by your house for a couple of hours and help out. I’ll talk to Betty about it.”
I didn’t say anything. I’d be grateful for the help, but I knew he was more interested in checking out Rafael than tutoring math and science.
Betty was delighted to have Ellison over and he followed us home in his yellow Volkswagen Beetle. Surprisingly, he was a good teacher. He sat at the kitchen table for a half hour or so and gave me a few patient explanations before disappearing out front to talk to Grace. I didn’t mind. Even in that short amount of time, he’d helped me out quite a bit.
I made myself some hot chocolate and watched them through the kitchen window for a few minutes. They made an odd couple. While Ellison was technically bigger than she was, Grace looked like she could easily beat him up. They were talking and laughing a little as they knocked the soccer ball back and forth.
The Glass Wall (Return of the Ancients Book 1) Page 4