The Green Glass Sea (29 page)

Suze walked quickly back home, smiling to herself, making up a lie of her own, in case Dewey was already there, so Dewey wouldn't know that
she
knew about the Sandovals. She ran up the back stairs, muttering, “. . . to the PX after dinner, then I went by the dump to see if—” She opened the screen door and called out. “Dewey? I'm back. ” But there was no answer. Good. She could pretend she'd been here all along.

Suze hummed to herself, thinking about her birthday, wondering what Dewey was making, and went to the bedroom to pack. She unfolded the paper bag at the foot of her bed with a flick of her wrist and a sharp snap and plopped a pair of green socks into it, and a sleeveless cotton shirt. She'd pack her toothbrush in the morning. Maxwell? He was a kind of baby thing, but he'd make a good pillow in the car. She reached over to the shelf above her bed and stopped, her fingers deep in the bear's chocolate-colored plush.

A dark gray stone with silver lettering lay in the center of her pillow. Dewey's Shazam stone. The hair on the back of Suze's neck prickled. Then she smiled. It had to be a clue. A scavenger hunt?

She let go of Maxwell and looked around the room. Nothing seemed different at first, then she noticed that the little cedar box was missing from Dewey's shelf, and her duck was gone. Suze pulled up Dewey's bedspread and looked under the bed. No stacks of comics, because the boys had come back from Oregon when the air didn't catch fire, and reclaimed them. The big red Erector set box sat on its square of linoleum, but the cigar box of metal junk wasn't on top of it. Dewey always put her things away, always in the same place.

So Dewey hadn't hidden clues. Dewey had already packed. But how? Dewey didn't
know
yet.

Suze looked at the dark stone in her hand. It felt like a message, but now she had the uneasy feeling it might not be good news.

Where was Dewey? Suze walked from room to room and back, looking for—looking for what? She wasn't sure. But Dewey's red toothbrush wasn't in the holder in the bathroom, and when Suze opened the bottom dresser drawer, there were two gaps in the precise line of rolled-up socks.

Dewey had packed up and left. Where would she go? Suze lifted up a corner of the paper that lined the bottom of the drawer. Dewey's pass was still underneath, and no one got through the gate without their pass. So Dewey had to be somewhere inside the fence, and that meant—

The fence.

Lots of people went outside the fence without a pass. Lots of kids, anyway. Jack and Charlie had a tree house somewhere outside and—

Suze looked at the rucked-up spread on Dewey's bed, which had concealed four huge piles of comics all last month. War comics. Boys' comics. If the boys knew Dewey well enough to trust her with their entire comic collection, had they also shown her their secret tree house?

She was halfway down the back stairs, the screen door banging shut behind her, before she thought of the flashlight. The light from windows was enough to walk on the roads, but it would be
dark
in the woods. She dashed back upstairs, grabbed the big silver Eveready from the counter, and took the steps down two at a time.

Jack and Charlie lived in an apartment two Sundts over. Suze crossed her fingers that their parents had gone to the same party as hers. She didn't want to have to explain anything to a grown-up this time of night. The apartments weren't marked or numbered, and she wasn't sure which one the boys lived in, but when she got to the bottom of the stairs, a voice said, “Whadda
you
want?”

Jack sat on the top step, whittling a stick with his pocketknife. In the light from their kitchen door, Suze could see a small pile of bright shavings at his feet.

“I need to ask you something, ” she said, a little out of breath. “Can I come up?”

Jack snorted, but motioned with his stick. Suze climbed the stairs and leaned against the wall, three steps down from their porch.

“I need a favor, ” she said.

“What?”

“I need to go look in your tree house. ”

Jack looked startled, then shook his head, sneering. “No. No way. It's secret, or haven't you heard. No girls allowed. ”

“I've heard. But Dewey's been there, right?”

“Yeah, ” Jack said. “But Dewey's different. There's no way we're letting
you
—”

Charlie appeared in the doorway in a T-shirt and a pair of chinos. “Who're you talking to?” He held the unfinished wing of a model airplane in one hand.

Jack jerked a thumb in Suze's direction. “Her. She wants to see the tree house, but I told her—”

Charlie stepped onto the porch and looked down at Suze. “Tonight?”

She nodded. “It's important. ”

He laid the airplane wing down on the stair post and folded his arms across his chest. “Sell me. ”

“I can't find Dewey, and a bunch of her stuff is gone too. I think she might have run away. ”

“Why'd she leave? You push her in the mud too, Truck?” Jack said.

“No. ” Suze clenched her fists but kept her voice steady. “I don't know why. Last time I saw her she was all excited about a project we were working on. But when I got home from dinner at the Lodge, she was gone. ”

Charlie frowned. “Why do you think she went to the tree house?”

“I don't know. 'Cause I can't think of any other secret hiding place. ” Suze looked at Charlie. “But I'm getting kinda worried. Will you tell me where it is?”

She watched him think about it, and when he shook his head, her heart sank.

“You'd never find it in the dark, even if I told you. ” He paused and looked at her. “But Dewey's a good kid, so I'll take you. Got a flashlight?”

Suze held it up.

“Okay then. ” He patted Jack on the shoulder. “You stay here, little brother. In case the folks come home early. Tell them I went down to the PX for Cokes with Nella and Alice. ”

“But—” Jack protested.

“Somebody's gotta stand watch. If Ma gets wind of this, she'll call out the army, make a federal case of it. I don't know what's going on, but I don't think Dewey wants that kind of fuss. ”

Jack glared at his brother, but nodded. “Okay. But if you're not back by midnight—”

"Then something really is wrong, ” Charlie said. “Sit tight till then. ” He gave Suze a two-finger salute. “Let's go. ”

They walked along the path at the front of the Sundts, the quiet part, away from the road. Suze was a big kid, but she felt small next to Charlie, who had grown over the summer and was close to six feet tall. Twenty yards from the last lighted windows she could barely see anything, and the moon was just a slivered crescent over the mountains to the west.

She clicked the switch on the flashlight, but Charlie put his hand over the lens. “Don't turn it on unless we have to. I know the way by heart, and I don't want to draw the MPs' attention. ” She turned it off.

Five minutes later they were at the fence and began walking single file. Suze was glad Charlie was wearing a white T-shirt. It made him easy to follow in the dark. After another five minutes he whispered, “Give me the light. ” She handed it to him and he turned it on, covering it with his hand, letting thin slats of light through his splayed fingers.

“Slide under, ” he said, shining the light on the hole under the fence. “On your butt's easiest. I'll pass the light when you're through. ”

Suze lay on her back on the cool ground. Pine needles poked through the thin cotton of her shirt, but she wiggled under the fence, feet first. She brushed the leaves and dirt off her legs and reached for the light. Charlie was big, but he wriggled quickly through the opening with the ease of long practice.

“How far is it?” Suze whispered as they stepped through the underbrush.

“Five minutes in daytime. Maybe ten now, 'cause we're moving slower. ”

Suze saw the ladder before anything else, its regular horizontal rungs distinct against the vertical jumble of the forest. “Wow, ” she whispered. “This is swell. ”

“Yeah, ” Charlie said. “You should see it in the daytime.” He was whispering too, but she could hear the pride in his voice. “I'll go up first, see if she's there. ”

Suze shook her head. “No. Let me. ” She paused, then added, “Please?”

“Yeah, okay. ” He didn't sound happy about it, but he handed her the flashlight, which she tucked into the back of her shorts. The metal cylinder was cold on her skin. Suze climbed the ladder. When her head was level with the opening, she said, “Hey. Dewey?”

There was no reply.

Suze pulled herself up onto the smooth linoleum floor of the tree house and sat against one wall, pulling the flashlight out from her back and putting it in her lap. Her eyes had adjusted to the dark and she could see shapes—the angles of shelves and the windowpanes, a pile of blankets in a corner.

The blankets moved.

“Dewey?”

“What do you want?” Dewey said.

Suze was startled. She'd never heard Dewey that angry. “I went to the Sandovals' house, ” she said. “They moved back to Albuquerque last week. ”

Silence.

“I thought maybe you lied because you were doing something secret for my birthday. But then I found your Shazam stone on my pillow. ”

“Keep it. ” Dewey's voice was cold.

“But
why
? ” Suze asked, and to her complete surprise, she felt like she was going to cry.

“I thought we were friends. I was wrong, ” Dewey said. Her tone didn't change.

Suze sat silent for a moment, and then said quietly, “We are. ”

“Yeah, right, ” said Dewey. “That's why you didn't tell me? That's why your mom just left a paper sack on my bed?”

Suze rubbed her eyes with her knuckles. “I was going to tell you after dinner. But you didn't come home. ”

“Home?” There was a long silence, then Dewey sighed, a long, achy-sounding sigh. “Look, I knew it was only for the duration. I did. But when I heard your mom say it, I just couldn't stick around and watch. ”

“Watch what?” Now Suze was confused. She wished she could see Dewey's face, get some kind of clue.

“Watch you all drive away. Watch you leave, like everyone else. ” Dewey sighed again. “I figured I'd stay up here until you were gone, and then, I don't know. Turn myself in. ”

“Jeez Louise, ” Suze said. “It's only a two-day vacation. ”

“What?” It was Dewey's turn to sound startled.

Suze scooted over until she was a foot away from Dewey. “We're going on a vacation, ” she said slowly, as if she were talking to someone who didn't speak much English. “For my birthday. Daddy won't tell me where. ”

“Oh. ” Dewey was silent for a few seconds, then added, “Well, I hope you have a nice time. ”

“Goofus. ” Suze punched Dewey on the part of the blanket where she hoped her arm was. “You're coming too.
That's
what the sack was for. ”

“I am?”

“Sure. I asked, and Daddy said the whole family's going. ”

“Family?” Dewey made a funny sound in her throat but didn't say anything.

They sat in silence for a minute, then two.

“I did make you a birthday present, ” Dewey said finally. She dropped the blanket and reached into the paper sack, producing a small, lumpish package, about the size and shape of a box of Velveeta.

Suze turned on the flashlight. The package was wrapped in newspaper and tied with rough orange twine. She opened it. Inside was a metal contraption about five inches tall. It had four wire legs, each ending in a small cork, and a brass key poking out of its boxy top. Surrounding the key were six small metal discs with white letters:

“Wow. It's . . . It's, well—” Suze turned the piece around in her hands. “It's nifty, ” she concluded. “What is it?”

“Just a gizmo, ” Dewey said. After the morning in July, she had stopped calling them gadgets. “The letters are typewriter keys. And watch. ” She reached over and held the gizmo steady with one hand while she wound the key with the other, three clinking winds around. When she let go, the figure began to move, bobbling and dancing on its cork feet, skittering across the linoleum like a tipsy windmill.

Suze started to giggle, then laugh, a full belly laugh. The gizmo was too funny, dancing across the floor of the tree house. After a few seconds, she heard Dewey chuckle too.

When it had finally wound down, Suze looked over at Dewey. “Thanks. ”

“You like it?”

“Yeah. A lot. ” She reached into her pocket. “I've got something for you too. If you want it back. ” She put the dark stone into Dewey's hand. “Shazam. ”

“Shazam, ” said Dewey, her fingers closing around the stone.

“Hey, ” Charlie yelled. “Are you okay up there? I'm getting bit up by bugs. ”

“Are you okay?” Suze asked.

“I guess so, ” Dewey said. “Kind of hungry. I didn't have any dinner, and the cookies in the tin up here were really stale. ”

“Maybe the PX is still open and you can get a hamburger on the way back. ” Suze moved to the door of the tree house. “We'll be right down, ” she yelled.

Dewey stood up. “What are your parents going to do when the war ends?”

Suze sighed. “I don't know. I figured we'd just go back to our old house. You could have your own room there. ”

“Really?”

“Sure. It's plenty big. Except now Daddy's talking about staying around here. I guess we'll find out when they tell us. ” She tucked the flashlight back into her pants. “It feels weird not to know. ”