by Karen Hesse
Mrs. Fribush must have been worried enough to send somebody after me. Patty Jo pushed open the bathroom door. She was carrying the unicorn.
“I thought you might like to have this,” she said. “In case you wanted to make a wish or two about Brody or something.”
I turned away from Patty Jo and the unicorn. I didn’t want her to see me crying.
“It doesn’t matter what Brody says.” Patty Jo put an arm around my shoulder. She was trying her best to be nice.
“The police can’t do what he said. You know that. They can’t put a little boy in jail for the rest of his life for eating Twinkies. Honestly, Brody is so awful. He can’t prove your brother’s the thief. Maybe Brody’s eating all them Twinkies himself.”
I knew better. I’d found those wrappers in Moochie’s pants pocket—not a whole box worth of wrappers, but enough to prove Moochie’d been into something he shouldn’t have been into.
“You know what I think?” Patty Jo said, rubbing her hand up and down the unicorn’s horn. “I think it’s just that you look specially pretty today, Maggie, pretty as a peach, and that’s what’s got Brody all hot and bothered. My sister Loma says boys only tease you if they like you. That’s why Brody’s picking on you, Maggie.”
I looked at Patty Jo in disbelief. And people thought Hannie was slow.
“Listen here,” Patty Jo said. “You don’t pay any attention to him. He’s nothing but a stupid old bag of cooties. Come on back to class now. We just finished with our essays—”
“I ripped mine up,” I said.
Patty Jo looked into the trash can, then back at me. “If you explain to Mrs. Fribush, she’ll let you hand yours in tomorrow. I’m sure she will. Anyway, we need you to come back now. We’re getting ready for group reading, and you read better than anyone else in class.”
“You think so?” I asked.
“Sure. Everyone says you do.”
Patty Jo handed me the unicorn.
I stopped outside Hannie’s classroom door. Hannie’s teacher, Mrs. Zobris, walked over when she saw me standing there.
“Could I give this unicorn to Hannie?” I asked. “It’s really hers. She just let me borrow it for the morning.”
Mrs. Zobris nodded.
Hannie grinned wide enough when she saw that unicorn coming. She latched on to it like a dog on a meaty leg. And there was that look in her eyes, that pink-icing look that always made me feel so good. Could what Brody said be true? Could they really take her away so I’d never see her again?
Back in my classroom I slid into my chair. Brody slouched down behind me with his long legs stuck out under his desk. I could feel him, kicking, kicking at my chair leg, but he didn’t say another word.
11
At lunch recess I was glad to get out of the building and away from Brody. I leaned against the side of the school, listening to Alice go on about how her father said that if she didn’t get rid of all her cats, he was going to drown them along with their kittens.
Patty Jo cried out, “Oh, Alice, how awful!” The sun caught in her short hair, making it look a little like a bundle of straw.
“Well, I don’t know,” said Alice. “They were real cute at first, but now we have cats all over the place and everything stinks like cat, inside and out, and the last litter, only one kitten came out normal. The other two were retards. Half the time they sucked on the mama’s ears or tail instead of where they were supposed to suck.”
I looked down at my feet. Patty Jo cleared her throat.
“Uh, um, Maggie,” Alice said, squinting up at me. “I didn’t mean anything about your sister. It’s different with people, isn’t it?”
I didn’t want to get angry at Alice.
“I mean, it’s not like I’m saying you should drown your sister or anything.”
“It’s all right,” I said.
But what Alice had said made my stomach knot. Is that what people thought about Hannie? That she ought to be drowned? What was wrong with everyone that they would think Moochie should be chained in a hole just because he was hungry, or that Hannie should be drowned because she didn’t understand some things as fast as other kids?
The sun burned through that penguin sweater, and my collar itched something awful. Sweat dripped down the back and the front of me, but I couldn’t take the sweater off because the shirt underneath wasn’t long enough to cover that stain in my pants. I shoved my sleeves up past my elbows.
“Hey, look.” Patty Jo pointed to a bunch of kids pushing each other down by the roundy-round.
Patty Jo and Alice and I walked on over to see what the ruckus was about. Sounded like a cat fight, there was that much screeching.
“That’s Hannie’s voice!” I cried as we got closer.
Now I was pushing kids right and left, trying to get through the crowd. I expected to find Hannie all bashed up on the ground under the roundy-round, just like Mama said would happen. Instead I found her with her legs and arms wrapped tight around the rail. Wrapped right up with her was the unicorn. And Brody was standing over her, trying to pull it away.
“Give that here!” he was yelling. “You give that here, you retard.”
Hannie lifted her face to the sky and howled.
“What’d you say!” I was madder than spit, pushing my way over to Brody.
“I said your sister’s a retard,” Brody said, staring me in the face. “A stupid should-have-been-dead retard.”
I pushed Brody hard.
He stumbled backward and kids stepped away from us. I landed on top of him and slugged him good before he flipped me over and yanked my arm up behind me.
“Hey, leave her alone, Lawson,” one of the boys said.
“Yeah,” someone else called. “You’re breaking her arm.”
Someone pulled Brody off me. It hurt, I guess, what Brody had done to my arm, but I hardly felt it, I was that angry. Anyway, Brody backed off.
But the kids still stood all around with their mouths open far enough to catch flies. And then I noticed a trickle sound like water dripping, and people whispering and pointing, and Patty Jo and Alice were whispering and pointing too. They were pointing at Hannie.
Hannie sat on the roundy-round, and something was dripping underneath her. I swear I wanted to die. I wanted to shrink down into the dust and die.
Hannie’d wet her pants in front of the whole school.
Slowly she unwrapped herself from the roundy-round and limped over to me, clutching the unicorn under her arm.
“Hannie wet.”
Kids were laughing at her now. It seemed like everyone was laughing at her. I stood up and brushed myself off. I didn’t want to touch her.
“Hannie wet.” She was crying now.
Part of me wanted to put my arms around her and comfort her. Part of me wanted to walk away like I never knew her, and keep walking. She smelled like pee.
I took Hannie by the hand and dragged her up to the girls’ bathroom, where I cleaned her up good as I could. I rinsed out her panties and tried patting them dry with paper towels, but she still had to put them back on damp. She didn’t like that any.
“Hannie go home?” she asked.
I shook my head no. The first time Hannie wet herself in class I took her home, but Mama sent us right back. She said Hannie only wet when she wanted attention, and if we let her come home each time, Hannie’d think wetting was a good way of getting what she wanted.
I brushed the unicorn off, but by now it didn’t look much better than it did yesterday when we first found it. I’d have to scrub it down good again before we could show it to Mama.
“I’m not coming home from school with you today, Hannie,” I said, steering her back to her room. “I’m invited with Patty Jo and Alice, and I’m going back to their house. You’re going to have to get home all by yourself. You tell Mama and Moochie I’ll be back in time to start dinner.”
“Hannie go with Mags?”
“No!” I said. “You’re not coming with me. You go straig
ht home, you hear? I’ll be back before dinner.”
“Hannie wait here.”
“No, Hannie,” I said. “You can’t wait. I don’t want you waiting for me. You just walk home, straight past Newell’s field, Hannie, and right on into the trailer. You know how to go. Moochie’ll come after you before you’re halfway there. Here.” I pulled my lunch bag out. “You give him this. You do that, you hear, Hannie?”
“Hannie alone?” Her voice was small and scared, and she wasn’t looking at me like she had earlier, when I brought the unicorn into her class. She was looking more like she had a bad pain somewhere.
“Look, Hannie. I’m giving you the unicorn,” I said. “You’re the one who figured out it was magic. You hold on to it and nothing can hurt you. All you have to do is make a wish, and nothing bad can happen.”
Hannie held the unicorn around the neck. “Okay, Mags,” she said.
She was pulling at her damp undies when I left her off in front of her classroom, and I didn’t see her again until school was letting out.
She’d forgot about going home alone. She came shuffling over to my class like she always did. I should have known she’d forget.
I was just coming out of the room with Alice and Patty Jo when I practically tripped over her.
“You’re not thinking she can come, are you?” Alice asked, wrinkling up her bit of a nose.
“No,” I said. “She’s just going home now.”
“If we hurry,” Patty Jo said, “we can catch a ride with my sister over to the high school.”
Hannie looked worried.
“Go on home, Hannie,” I said, fed up with having to explain it all to her again just so I could go and spend a couple hours with my own friends. “Remember? You’ve got the unicorn. As long as you’ve got the unicorn, you’ll be safe. All you need is to make your wish and nothing will hurt you. Go on, Hannie. Mama and Moochie’ll be waiting for you. I’ll watch till the crossing guard gets you over the highway. You got what I gave you for Moochie?”
Hannie nodded slowly.
Alice and Patty Jo were moving away, and I moved after them, turning to watch Hannie over my shoulder.
Hannie stared after me. “Mags!” she cried. “Mags, don’t go!”
“You coming or not?” Alice called.
“I’m going, Hannie,” I said.
Hannie latched on to the unicorn and started twisting it in her hands.
“Go on, Hannie!” I called.
I watched Hannie till she was safely across the road, and then I ran to catch up with Patty Jo and Alice.
12
I tried settling down in the backseat of Loma’s car between Alice and Patty Jo, but I wasn’t feeling all that good. I started thinking about how this maybe wasn’t such a great idea after all. I wasn’t even sure where Patty Jo lived or how I’d get back home from there. What if I had to cross the highway?
I’d never gone off like this. I didn’t know what Mama’d say when I got home. I had the feeling she wasn’t going to be too happy about me sending Hannie back by herself.
Patty Jo’s sister hadn’t been all that happy about giving us a ride. She wasn’t even heading straight home. She had a friend with her and they were going to the friend’s house so Loma could try out some clothes for a big party she had going on.
Loma drove along the highway with one hand on the steering wheel and the other playing with the radio. She hardly watched the road.
Loma’s friend said something, and the two of them broke into snorts. Loma laughed so hard she headed into the other lane, and people honked at us till she straightened out.
Alice and Patty Jo leaned forward, listening to Loma’s every word. It was hard to hear what they were saying up front, with the car being so noisy. It kept backfiring and sounding like the motor was somewhere under our feet.
Patty Jo’s sister wore perfume so strong it made my head ache. It wasn’t like the smell in Aunt Lainie’s clothes. That was nice. This smelled like Loma’d taken a bath in room freshener. I asked maybe if she would open her window and let in some air. She looked over her shoulder at me like I was lamer than a three-toed frog, never watching the road the whole time. She said the wind would mess her hair up. Said, who was I anyway, and her friend stared at me a good minute before she turned around and started singing with a song on the radio.
Patty Jo and Alice and me stayed squeezed in back like pickles in a jar while Loma stopped the car and went inside her friend’s house.
“Don’t forget we’re out here,” Patty Jo called after her.
“You telling me what to do?” Loma called back. “If you don’t like Loma’s taxi service you can get out and walk.”
“Don’t you all have chores to do after school?” I asked after Loma and her friend disappeared into the house.
Alice snorted. “My mama won’t let me do anything around the house. She says I can’t do it right, so I might just as well not even bother.”
“I got to clean my room sometimes,” Patty Jo said. “But if I make up enough excuses and put it off long enough, my mama pays me for doing it, she’s that glad to get it clean.”
I liked being in that backseat with Alice and Patty Jo, listening to them talk. Even if we were crammed in. I felt like I really had myself a couple of friends. But I still kept worrying about Hannie, and how mad Mama was gonna be when I got home.
“Sometimes Loma pays me for cleaning her room,” Patty Jo said.
“Do you do it?” Alice asked.
“Sure I do,” Patty Jo said. “We’re getting this ride aren’t we? You don’t think Loma’d give me a ride for nothing.”
I did things for Moochie and Hannie all the time for nothing. I liked doing things for them.
Patty Jo pushed and pulled herself out of the backseat and slipped into the spot where Loma’s friend had been sitting. She started nosing through Loma’s glove box.
“Let’s see what old Loma’s got stashed in here,” she said. She found some Band-Aids, a napkin for when you have your period, a wad of tissue, two Roy Orbison tapes, and something red and lacy.
“Ewww!” she squealed. “Look what I found! This is my mama’s. I bet she’s been looking all over for this. Wait till she finds out Loma took it.”
Patty Jo held up a skimpy red bra she’d dug out from under all the junk in Loma’s glove box.
Alice lunged forward and snatched the bra away from Patty Jo. They both squealed and carried on like they’d found a stash of money or something.
Clutching the bra in her hand, Alice pushed her way out of the car, protecting herself against Patty Jo’s fists.
“Give that back!” Patty Jo demanded. “You give that back right now.”
Alice stretched the bra across her chest and stuck herself out in front, strutting up and down the walk outside Loma’s friend’s house.
“Come on,” Patty Jo said. “Let me have it. I saw it first!”
Alice blocked Patty Jo with her body every time Patty Jo made a grab for the bra.
“Alice!” Patty Jo said. “It’s not fair. Give me a turn!”
“Wanna try it on, Maggie?” Alice asked as she strutted past the car.
I turned near as red as that stupid bra.
Alice spun the bra over her head. I swear Patty Jo went for it just like a dog doing tricks, and each time Patty Jo tried grabbing it, Alice’d pull it away.
“It’s my mama’s,” Patty Jo cried. “Give it here.”
“It must be your mama’s, cause it certainly ain’t yours,” taunted Alice. “You don’t have anything to put in it.”
“Do so!” Patty Jo cried.
“Where?” Alice asked, squinting at the front of Patty Jo’s shirt.
They were arguing good when Loma came out. She saw Alice twirling the bra around on her finger and snatched it away and started yelling at Patty Jo and slapping her around for letting anybody touch it.
Patty Jo grabbed a handful of Loma’s hair and yanked, and Loma scratched Patty Jo with her nails.
I got myself out of the backseat of that car and tried to stop them, but they kept coming at each other and I couldn’t hold them back. Reminded me of two cats, the way they were carrying on.
I felt as tangled as a fly in a spiderweb, just watching them. Even when Hannie wet her pants and embarrassed me in front of the whole school, I didn’t treat her like Loma was treating Patty Jo. At least, I hoped I hadn’t treated her that bad.
“Just for that, you can walk home, Miss Patty Jo Widebottom,” Loma said. “You and your stupid little friends can just walk home.”
“You can’t make us,” Patty Jo said. “You’ve got to take us home.”
“Like hell I do,” said Loma. She slammed the car door shut and peeled away from the curb.
Alice shoved Patty Jo down in the grass. “Just great, stupid,” she said. “Do you know how far we have to walk?”
“It’s not my fault,” Patty Jo said, crying. “You started it. You wouldn’t give me that bra.”
“I would have given it to you,” Alice said, “if you hadn’t acted like such a baby. You always act like such a stupid baby.”
Patty Jo glared at Alice. “If you think I’m such a baby, why do you hang around with me, huh?”
“I don’t know,” Alice said. “I’m asking myself the same thing.”
They’d forgotten all about me. I just stood a little away from the road, watching. I’d always thought Alice and Patty Jo were better than me. I’d wanted to be just like them. But now I was looking at them, I could see maybe neither of them was anything like I thought.
“I’d better be heading back home,” I said. “I have to write that essay for Mrs. Fribush by tomorrow.”
They didn’t try to stop me. They acted like they didn’t even know me in the first place, like, what was I even doing there?
It seemed to take forever getting back home. At least Loma’s friend lived on the same side of the highway as me, so I didn’t have to cross, but she lived far enough. There wasn’t any easy way getting back.
I never was so glad as when I finally caught sight of Newell’s woods. I started running through the trees, getting brambles stuck on my sweater. A loop of yarn snagged on a branch and got pulled, so it looked like one of the penguins was grinning. I was glad he was happy, ’cause I sure wasn’t feeling any too pleased with myself.