A Million Miles From Boston (13 page)

I walked through the crowd until I was only a few feet away from them. When Kiki turned toward me and smiled, I raised my hand. “Hi!” Maybe I could sit with them.

But then Jake jumped onto the table next to Danielle. They all started talking.

Lauren ran up and pulled my arm. “Lucy, sit with me.”

“I will, just a minute,” I said. Lauren ran off.

“You like them.” Allison stood next to me.

My cheeks got red, but Allison wasn’t laughing at me. “Yeah, of course.”

“You could hang with us sometime.”

“Okay, thanks.”

Allison sat next to Tonya.

“Let’s get started,” Mr. Ramsey said into the microphone. When I sat next to Lauren, Stevie crawled into my lap.

Ian and Charlie leaned against the wall, whispering, laughing. Would they do that through the show? When Mei had been here, we laughed the whole weekend.

Lauren was first. She sang “Over the Rainbow,” smiling at her mom and dad. She was great and Stevie and I high-fived her when she finished. Becca played her violin and Jake Ramsey juggled tennis balls. Mrs. Graham showed her paintings, Mr. Dennis told a really bad joke and the Averys sang the Cornell fight song.

I glanced back at the older girls. What would Allison say to them about me?

“Okay, anyone else?” Mr. Ramsey said. This was a perfect place for Ian to show off. But he just kept whispering to Charlie.

“Lucy!” Becca and Peter pulled on my arm. She said, “We’re playing chase, right?”

“My cousins are here, so they’re playing,” Peter said. “And Ian and his friend.”

Everyone shushed them.

“I guess I’m last.” Mr. Ramsey put a straw in a glass of water, then stuck the other end up his nose. He breathed in and the water disappeared up the straw into his nose. Everyone screamed with laughter.

“And that’s the end of our show,” Mr. Ramsey said. “We don’t usually do business here, but we need to talk about something. Kids, you don’t have to stay.”

Was this about the Big House? Ian and Charlie walked out behind the older girls. I wanted to listen but I didn’t want them playing without me.

Outside, the younger kids stood by the swing with Charlie and Ian. It was dusk but the lawn was lit from the Big House lights and the hundreds of stars in the sky. Lauren cupped a firefly in her hands and peeked inside them.

“Hey,” Charlie and I said to each other. He was tall and skinny, like Ian, with black hair. I’d known him forever.

I explained the rules.

“I don’t get it,” Charlie said. “Why do you have to team up to free someone?”

“Makes it harder for the person who’s it,” I said.

“Ian, can I be it?” Peter asked. “Okay?”

“Hey!” Why didn’t he ask me?

“Sure.” Ian grinned at me. Peter started to count and we scattered.

Peter captured Lauren and me, and we waited in jail until Ian and Charlie freed us. Peter’s cousins never got caught.
That night was super fun. No one wanted to stop, not even when the lights were turned off in the Big House.

The air was warm and muggy, the crickets and bullfrogs loud. Sweat dripped down my back as I ran along the road to the far side of the bushes. Charlie grabbed my arm, pulling me behind a bush, where he hid with Ian. I crouched behind them. Through an opening in the leaves, we saw Becca guarding the jail in front of the Big House stairs.

“She’s got everyone else,” Ian whispered.

“We gotta come up with a plan.” Charlie slapped at a mosquito on his neck.

“Let’s sneak around the back,” Ian whispered. “Then run out, a full blitz.”

“If we do that, Becca can just call our names and we’re caught,” I whispered. “I’ll go around the long way, come out on the path and make a noise. She’ll come toward me; then you guys run around the back and free everyone.”

“You’ll be a decoy,” Charlie said. “Brilliant.”

“It’s not
that
brilliant,” Ian grumbled.

We were quiet and then a voice behind us said, “What are you
doing
?”

We jumped. It was so dark that I could barely make out Allison’s face.

“Shush!” Ian said.

“Please,”
she said. “You act like you’re five. Lucy, I’m surprised at you.”

“We’re just playing a game,” I said.

“Then again, I barely ever see you without your posse.”
She chuckled. “Ian, did you know Lucy and I are friends? She’s an artist and I’m gonna teach her some tricks. Let’s go, Lucy.”

Go? I wanted to stay.

“Just do a blitz,” Ian said.

“What is this, capture the flag?” Allison asked.

“Kind of,” I said. “We have to free everyone without Becca seeing us.”

“If you do a blitz, you’ll all get caught,” Allison said. “Split up and distract her while one of you frees everyone.”

“That’s what Lucy said,” Charlie replied.

“Shut up,” Ian said.

“This isn’t fun anymore!” Becca yelled.

“
I’ll
be the decoy.” Ian ran behind us, along the road and into the woods.

The moon was a giant white circle in the sky. Mosquitoes buzzed in my ears. Fireflies flashed, then disappeared.

“This is boring. I’m out of here.” Allison sighed and walked into the dark.

Charlie and I were quiet, watching, waiting. He slapped at a mosquito again. “You’re friends with Allison?”

I stared into the dark, to make sure she was gone. “Kind of.”

“Oh. Don’t you think she’s a jerk to Ian?”

“Maybe he deserves it.”

“Really?”

I didn’t want to argue. Of course he’d stick up for Ian. Allison was nice to me.

“I see you!” Becca yelled, and took off across the field.

Charlie and I ran around the bush, yelling, “Everybody’s free!” It worked!

After Mrs. Dennis picked up Lauren, we played one last game. I ran around the Big House and climbed my tree. Ian and Charlie rounded the corner and stopped under a spotlight.

“Let’s hide in there.” Charlie pointed to the shed. Ian opened the door and looked in. I dropped to a lower branch. If I told them the shed was off limits, they’d know my hiding space. “What’s in there?”

Ian reached into the shed, then straightened, hiding his arm behind his back. He whipped his arm out and pointed something at Charlie. “Give me your money!”

“Don’t shoot!” Charlie raised his arms, then fell to the ground, clutching his chest, groaning, laughing. Ian stood over him, pointing a drill at his chest.

“Here I come!” Peter yelled from the other side of the Big House.

Charlie scrambled up and Ian tossed the drill back into the shed and slammed the door. They dove behind my tree. We heard footsteps. Bucky.

“Lucy?” His voice was shaking. I started down but Ian pulled Bucky behind the tree, before Peter ran by. Then I jumped.

“I fell.” Bucky showed me his bloody elbow. “I wanna go home.”

“Okay, I’ll fix it.” We walked back to the cottage. Dad, the
PT and the Ramseys were on the porch. Superior waited for me by the door.

“What happened?” Dad frowned, looking at Bucky’s elbow.

“I fell,” Bucky whimpered.

“I’ll take care of it.” I led Bucky through the porch to the kitchen. He sat on the counter and I washed his elbow. The cut wasn’t very deep.

“I got caught a lot tonight,” Bucky said. “Peter’s cousins were too fast.”

“Yeah, and you almost lost your elbow.”

He giggled. “Ian hid me behind the tree.”

“I know.” I put on two bandages.

“Yesterday when he was at the Steeles’, he got my gun out of the hedges.”

I lifted my eyes. “Why was he at the Steeles’?”

Bucky jumped down. “I dunno. He was talking to Mrs. Steele.”

What could he possibly have to say to her?

“I like him now,” Bucky said.

“Just because he did a nice thing?”

“Two nice things,” Bucky said.

Superior whined to go outside, so we both went to the yard.

Millions of stars covered the sky and the moonlight bounced off the water like tiny white Christmas tree lights.

Sometimes what seems to be one thing turns out to be another
, the PT had said. Charlie’s being here was better than I had
imagined. And Ian was nice to Bucky. Maybe it was just me who Ian didn’t like.

“Lucy!” Bucky called from the porch. Superior and I went inside. Three large drawings were spread across the table. Each showed a building. One had a pool on one side, tennis courts on the other. The second had two stories, balconies on each side. The third looked a lot like the Big House.

“John Richards came up with these options for the Big House,” Dad said.

“I want the pool,” Bucky said. “Then I can jump off the roof into the pool!”

“No one’s going to do that.” Mr. Ramsey laughed. “You picked the most expensive one. Tearing down the Big House, starting over. Yikes.”

“We’re going to tear down the Big House?” I asked.

“We’re just talking about ideas,” Dad said.

“These designs must’ve taken him forever,” Mrs. Ramsey said.

“The guy has lots of energy,” Dad said.

“Why can’t we just fix it?” I asked. The PT stared at me but I didn’t look at her.

“We’ll try,” Dad said. “No one wants to see the Big House go.”

The PT was still looking at me, so I ran up the stairs. Big mouths. Big docks. A new Big House?

I pulled the box from under my bed and counted my money. If I didn’t spend any of it, I’d have enough for the
kayak. I put the box back and lay in the dark, listening. After the Ramseys left, Dad and the PT were quiet.

In the moonlight I saw something on my desk. The PT’s rubbing alcohol.

Finally I heard her drive away. Now I could sleep.

fter camp on Monday I walked by Ian’s house. The windows and doors were closed. Why live on the ocean if you couldn’t smell or hear it?

I didn’t know why I was here. Maybe Mrs. Richards would invite me in. Maybe I’d tell Mr. Richards that we had to do everything we could to keep the Big House. “Okay, Superior, let’s go knock on the door.” But I didn’t move.

“Lucy!” Mrs. Richards walked around the corner. We stood looking at the house. “I imagine everyone thinks it’s huge.”

“Oh …” I didn’t want to tell her.

“It’s okay,” she said. “Would you like to come in and have some iced tea? Allison went to work and Ian started sailing camp today.”

I nodded and followed her through the front door. The kitchen was spread out across the back of the house. One
wall was covered with framed photographs. Ian. Allison. Ian and Allison. The four of them.

“It’s a bit much,” Mrs. Richards said. “The double ovens. The microwaves.”

“Nice pictures.”

“This one is my mom. She’s about twenty-five, I think. She died when I was young.”

I stared at her. I didn’t know anyone else who had lost her mom.

“Ian told me your mom died, too,” she said. “Do you have many photos of her?”

“Some.”

She poured iced tea as I got on a stool. Superior stretched out at my feet. “Do you like sugar cookies? Gingerbread?”

I didn’t care about cookies. Please ask me another question about my mom, I thought. I blurted, “I was six when my mom died.”

“I was twelve.”

My age. We faced each other across the counter.

Mrs. Richards was serious. “Did you go to your mom’s funeral?” I leaned toward her, nodding. “Oh, that’s so good. So, so good.”

“But I don’t remember it, except the party afterward. People came over with food. I kept wandering around, watching everyone. These women were laughing.”

“And you wondered, ‘How can they enjoy themselves when my mom is gone?’ ”

Exactly
. The women had stood against the fireplace, holding paper plates filled with tiny sandwiches. Triangles. They were smiling, until they saw me.

Mrs. Richards sighed. “At least you got to go. My father thought it was no place for children. My younger sister and I had to stay home. I was twelve! Can you imagine that? One day not long after my mom died, I came home from school and my father had packed all of my mom’s things and shipped them off to her sister in Virginia.” Mrs. Richards shook her head. “I never saw any of them again.”

If Dad had done this, I wouldn’t have the quilt Jenny had made from Mom’s things. “Weren’t you mad?”