Me, My Elf & I (15 page)

 

Somehow things actually get better once we start to eat. Ari even drags himself away from worshiping at the feet of my father to join Mercedes, Timber, and me. We all munch on fresh fruit and cut-up veggies, and sandwiches made with hunks of cheese, smoked fish, or venison jerky on my mom’s homemade brown bread. Ari, Mercedes, and Timber talk about which classes at school suck and which ones are good. Then Mercedes gets us all cracking up with her impersonation of some of the teachers and other students. Thankfully, no one ever mentions Bella and her friends.

Finally, when we’re all stuffed, Ari says, “Anybody want to play Frisbee?” He reaches into his bag and pulls out a flat, orange plastic disc.

“Since when do you play Frisbee?” Mercedes snatches the thing from Ari’s hands.

“Since forever.” Ari snatches it back.

“Since never,” she says, and grabs for it but he holds it out of her reach.

“God, you guys fight worse than me and Bella,” Timber says, shaking his head.

Mercedes gives him the look of death. “Only we’re not boyfriend and girlfriend,
pendejo
.”

“You act like you are,” Timber tells her.

I see Mercedes rearing up, gathering a storm of abuse to unleash on Timber’s head, so I grab the orange thing from Ari and quickly ask, “What’s a Frisbee?”

All three of my friends look at one another then at me.

“Are you serious?” Ari asks.

“She’s clueless!” Mercedes shouts happily.

“For real, you don’t know? ” Timber asks. I shake my head. He tosses his arm loosely around my shoulders. “It’s cute the way she’s so out of it.” He takes the Frisbee from me and waves it in front of his body. Ari runs down the hill, then Timber zings the thing through the air. Ari jumps and catches it. “Come on,” Timber says to me. “We’ll show you how to play.”

“I want to play, too!” Poppy jumps up and follows us.

“No, Poppy,” I say. “You can’t come.”

“Yes, I can,” says Poppy.

“They’re
my
friends,” I tell her.

“Mercedes is my friend, too. She said so.”

“She’s not, Poppy. She said you could be her sisters’ friend. You’ll be in the way. Stay here and play with Persimmon.”

“No!” Poppy shouts. “I’m coming with you.”

“Shhh,” I hiss. I don’t want Mom and Dad to hear us fighting like erdler kids. “Fine,” I tell her. “You can come but you’re only watching. Not playing.”

We find a nice flat place in the middle of the meadow and spread out in a circle. Ari tosses the Frisbee to Mercedes and she throws it to me. I catch it, but then I have no idea what to do with it. Timber jogs over. “Here,” he says. “I’ll show you how.”

I hand him the Frisbee. “See, you hold it flat like this,” he says. “Then you flick your wrist and let it go.” He throws it a short distance.

Poppy runs after it like a little dog and brings it back. “Thanks!” Timber says to her, but I shoot her an evil look. “Here, you try.” He hands it to me.

I hold it flat and flick my wrist like he did, but the thing goes all wobbly and lands nearly at my feet. Poppy runs over and picks it up again. “This is fun!” she yells, and puts it on her head like a hat.

I grab it from her. “Stop it! Go sit over there.” I point to the grass behind me.

Poppy folds her arms across her chest and squints. “You’re mean, Zephyr,” she says, but she stomps away and leaves us alone.

“How do you do it again?” I ask Timber.

“Like this,” he says. He stands behind me and puts his arms around my body. I’m warm and my skin prickles as he touches me. I can feel his breath on the back of my head, which makes the little hairs on my neck stand up. He takes my wrist in his hand and lifts my arm, then bends and straightens it like I’m a puppet. My heart is beating so fast that my legs get wobbly and I’m afraid I’ll fall down. “You have to swing your whole arm,” he tells me as he continues moving it back and forth. “And you step out with this leg.” He pushes his knee into the back of mine, making my leg move forward. “Then, at the very end, you flick it.” We put all the motions together, Timber behind me guiding my body. I flick my wrist and let go of the Frisbee. It sails through the air, making a long, wide arc straight for Ari. Ari jumps and catches it and we all cheer and clap.

“That was great!” Timber says.

“Poppy!” I yell. “Did you see that? I did it!” I turn around to make sure she saw it, but I can’t find her. “Poppy?” She’s not in the grass where I told her to sit. “Have you guys seen my sister?”

Timber looks around. “She must be with your mom and dad.”

“Mercedes,” I call, jogging toward her. “Did you see Poppy go back up the hill?”

Mercedes looks over her shoulder to where my family is sitting. “No. I don’t see her up there.”

Ari runs over to us, tossing the Frisbee up in the air and catching it. “You looking for Poppy?” he asks and I nod. “I saw her go that way.” He points in the opposite direction.

“What! Why didn’t you stop her? Why didn’t you tell me?” I yell at him.

Ari drops the Frisbee. “I . . . I . . . I,” he stammers. “I thought it was okay. You sent her over there.”

“Oh no,” I moan and feel sick. “She doesn’t know her way around. She could be anywhere.”

“You want me to get your dad?” Ari asks.

“No!” I say sharply. “We have to find her.”

I can’t let my parents know that Poppy disappeared. Not after what happened with Persimmon yesterday. If another one of my sisters gets lost, they will yank us out of Brooklyn so fast that I won’t even have a chance to wave good-bye.

“She can’t be far,” says Timber. “Where’s she like to go?”

“I bet she wanted to climb a tree,” I say. “That’s what she does at home when she’s upset.”

“Ari and Mercedes, you guys go that way,” Timber says, pointing toward one edge of the meadow. “And Zephyr and I’ll go this way.” He points to the other edge. “Those are the closest trees. She has to be in one place or the other.”

Ari and Mercedes take off, then Timber and I start running. “Poppy! Poppy!” I call up into the trees. “Where are you? Come on! I’m sorry that I was mean to you.”

“Is she good at climbing?” Timber asks. We both look up into the tangle of branches and leaves over our heads.

“She’s great,” I tell him. “She could be to the top of one these things by now.”

Timber laughs a little.

“It’s not funny.”

“No, no.” Timber puts his hand on my shoulder. “I’m not laughing about your sister running off. It’s just that, you guys are all so interesting. I don’t know girls who’ve never seen a Frisbee but can climb to the top of a tree. That’s all.”

“I don’t think this is working,” I say, shrugging off his touch. “You go that way and I’ll go this way.”

We split up. I walk into the middle of the trees and close my eyes. I try to conjure up my mother’s trick of calling her children back. I concentrate on Poppy, trying to see her and feel her lost, but I’ve got nothing. Probably because I’m mad at her so my magic won’t work right. I have to calm myself down, remember to love her so that she’ll want to come back into my heart. “I’m sorry, Poppy,” I whisper. “I love you. You’re my sister. Please come back.” I lift my arms. I hear a hawk screech, a dog bark, people shouting, but nothing from Poppy. Then I hear Timber yelling my name.

“Found her! I found her, Zephyr!”

I run toward his voice and find him standing beneath a big oak tree with his hands on his hips, looking up. I follow his eyes to see Poppy’s feet dangling from a large, low branch.

“Oh, blessed Mother Earth and all her creatures great and small!” I yell and throw my arms around Timber’s neck. “Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!”

Timber wraps his arms around my back. I squeeze him tighter and he lifts me off the ground a few inches. I look into his face to tell him how relieved I am that he found her, but as soon as our eyes meet I can’t speak. He stares hard at me. His eyes are beautiful, like the early evening sky, and I’m a bird soaring. A little grin lurks on his lips. He gently puts me down on the ground then leans toward me with his eyes closed. That’s when I remember what Ari told me. That erdler guys and girls don’t hug and touch unless they want something to go on between them. But as soon as I’m about to pull away, Timber tugs me just a little bit closer so our noses nearly touch, then he tilts his head to one side and presses his mouth against mine. We kiss and my whole body goes liquid, as if someone has turned me into warm water.

He pulls away slowly and blinks his eyes open. “You’re welcome, Zephyr,” he says.

I step back and press my fingers against my tingling mouth. I can’t believe what just happened. I’m not sure I understand it. But when I look up, I see Ari and Mercedes, peeking out from behind a tree with their mouths hanging open. On the branch just above them sits a beautiful red-tailed hawk. I wonder if the hawk is an omen. Good or bad. I don’t know what it could mean.

“Should we get her down?” Timber asks me.

“Huh?” I say, completely forgetting for just a moment about Poppy in the tree. “Oh, right, yeah, my sister.” I shake my head to clear my thoughts, but that kiss, that delicious kiss, will not leave my mind. Timber kissed me. I kissed him. We kissed. Right here, beneath the oaks, I kissed an erdler boy! I want to sing and dance. Pluck flowers from the ground. Skip and shout. Tell it to the world. I wish Briar were here.

“Do you want me to do it?” Timber asks, and for a second I think he means kiss me again.

Oh yes
, I want to say, but then I realize he means do I want him to get Poppy down.

“I’ll do it,” I say, quickly pulling myself together. I plant myself below her feet. “Poppy,” I call up gently. “Pop, it’s Zephyr.”

“Go away,” she says.

“Aw, Pop. Come on. I’m sorry. I’m really really sorry that I was so mean to you. You can play Frisbee with us now.”

“Don’t want to.” She rustles in the leaves.

“Please. My friends want you to.” I look at Timber and Ari and Mercedes, who’ve come to stand below the tree with us.

“Yeah,” says Mercedes. “Come on down. You can be my partner.”

“Please, Poppy,” I plead. “Mom and Dad are waiting for us.” Poppy is silent. Now I’m getting desperate. “I’ll tell Mom that you ran off,” I threaten Poppy. “And remember how mad she got when Persimmon disappeared yesterday.”

“All right,” Poppy says with a defeated sigh. “I’ll come down, but you better not tell.”

“I won’t. I promise.”

Poppy crawls over the large branch and then shimmies down the trunk. Timber reaches up for her and helps her to the ground. Despite being annoyed with her, I drop down and wrap her in a big hug. “Please don’t do that again,” I say. “You really scared the daylights out of me.”

Poppy hugs me back. “Then be nice,” she says.

I pick her up. “I will. I promise. Now let’s go.”

“You want a piggyback ride?” Timber asks her.

“Yeah! ” Poppy yells. Mercedes lifts her onto Timber’s back. Although this is really nice of him, I feel kind of jealous.

 

As we near the hill, I hear my family before I see them. They’re making music. Dad and Grove are strumming hard on their guitars while Mom plays the flute. Even Willow has joined in the beautiful four-part harmony. Bramble has a penny whistle and Persimmon dances around in just her underpants, rattling a shaker full of dried beans. They’re singing an old elf song called “The Craggy Rocks of My Heart.”

I love this song. It reminds me of Grandma Fawna and late nights around full moon bonfires with all my cousins. Part of me wishes that I’d brought my lute so that I could run up the hill and join right in. But what would Ari, Mercedes, and Timber think? I’m certain their families don’t do strange things like this. Of course, Ari is thrilled. He’s the first to reach the blankets and plunk himself down near Dad and Grove. Even Mercedes seems to think it’s okay because she shrugs, then ambles over to listen.

Timber is the only one who stops. He sets Poppy down and she races to the wagon to grab a tambourine. I stand beside Timber, trying to think up excuses for why my family is so odd, certain that he’s regretting our kiss now. But he turns to me and says, “I thought I recognized your dad. He’s that singer, isn’t he? Drake something?”

“Addler,” I say.

“Yeah, now it all makes sense,” he says, nodding at me. “The clothes. This whole thing. I get it.”

“What thing?”

“It’s your dad’s schtick. This whole out-in-the-woods, hippy trippy kind of vibe. It’s brilliant. The folkies love him, the goths think he’s cool, and he can really rock, so he’s got good crossover potential.”

I have no idea what any of that means, but just to keep up the conversation I say, “One of his songs charted, but I don’t know where.”

“Really?” Timber asks, clearly impressed.

“I guess so,” I say. “Something about a billboard and then he’s going to be in a show about foxes.”

“What?” Timber says, laughing.

My cheeks grow warm. “I don’t know,” I mumble. “I guess the song gets played on lots of radio stations and now on TV or something.”

Timber shakes his head, but he’s also smiling. “God, Zeph,” he says. “Your family is so cool!”

Wow, I think, as he joins the others. That’s the second most shocking thing that’s happened today.

chapter 8

THE MINUTE I
walk up the school steps on Monday morning, I get dizzy and woozy. My head feels like a balloon floating above my body held by a thin string. The whole rest of the weekend all I could think about was the moment I would see Timber again. And now that it’s almost here, I’m freaking out!

I’ve been dying to talk to someone about what happened under the trees, but only Ari and Mercedes know. I couldn’t tell my mom and dad because first of all, weird. And second, even if it wasn’t weird to talk to your mom and dad about the first guy you kissed, I don’t know how they’d feel about me kissing an erdler instead of an elf. I definitely can’t tell Poppy, because she’d just blab it all over the place until even the pigeons would be discussing it. Normally, I’d talk to my cousin Briar, but obviously she’s not here. Or Willow, but she’s so miserable without her boyfriend that telling her I kissed a guy would be cruel. I thought about talking to Grove, but then I felt weird because really I want to talk to a girl, plus he’s never had a girlfriend, so what would he know. I begged my mom and dad to let me hang out with Ari and Mercedes on Sunday so we could work on the audition (and talk about Timber, of course), but they said no. They wanted family time. As if hanging out in the park all day Saturday from ten in the morning until dark wasn’t enough?