The Gypsy Game (17 page)

At the pipe Bear stopped, sniffed some more, and began to whine. They stared at each other. “In the pipe,” April whispered. “He’s hiding in the pipe just like we did. Remember?” Ken pushed Bear out of the way, got down on his hands and knees, and stuck his head into the pipe. After a minute he pulled his head out and stood up. “He’s not in there,” he said, “but something is. I can’t reach it but it looks like …”

But April was already wiggling her way into the pipe. It was a tight fit. Ken would never have made it, but Toby might have. A minute later she wiggled back out with a paper bag in her hand, a bag that Melanie immediately recognized.

“That’s mine.” She grabbed it out of April’s hand. “That’s from the French bakery where my mom buys our bread. I used it for my food for Toby.” Opening the bag, she pulled out a cheese rind and an apple core. There was no doubt about it. It was Melanie’s bag. So there wasn’t much doubt that Toby had been in the pipe, at least for a while.

The big kids were still examining the paper bag when a hollow-sounding voice echoed and re-echoed. “Toby! To-by! To-by!” It was Marshall on his hands and knees, halfway into the pipe. All you could see of him was his little rear end and his big yellow rain boots. “Toby,” Marshall called, and the pipe echoed, “To-by, To-by, To-by.”

“Come out of there,” Melanie said. “Toby’s gone somewhere else.”

Ken looked frustrated. “Yeah, but I bet he was in there when I walked right by last night. But he didn’t say anything,” Ken said.

“Were you calling him or talking or anything?” April asked. When Ken shook his head, she went on, “Because if you weren’t, he might not have known it was you. He couldn’t have seen you. Not if he went in there headfirst anyway. So he might have just kept quiet till the footsteps went away. And then he probably came out and went somewhere else.”

“Yeah, obviously,” Ken said. “But the question is, where? Where would he go to hide?” He looked up and down the alley before he asked, “Anybody got any ideas?”

Marshall’s head was still in the pipe. “Not me,” he said, and the pipe echoed, “Not me. Not me. Not me.”

Unfortunately Marshall wasn’t the only one who didn’t have any ideas. As Ken looked from face to face, they tried to think of a good hiding place in the neighborhood, but no one came up with anything. April did suggest the park, but Ken didn’t agree at all. “No. The park is pretty dangerous these days, particularly after dark. Toby knows that. He wouldn’t go there.”

“Well, I guess nobody has any ideas,” Melanie said. “Unless … unless Bear does.” She suddenly began to look around frantically. “Where is Bear?”

No Bear running around everyone in circles. No Bear with Marshall, who was just backing out of the pipe. No Bear …

“There he is!” Marshall shouted. “Up there. By the corner.”

They all saw him then, trotting along the alley and turning the corner in the direction of Norwich Avenue. In a flash they were all running after him.

Bear could run a lot faster than they could. Even a lot faster than Ken, at least when Ken was carrying a big bag of food. And a lot faster than April and Melanie, who were dragging Marshall between them. They might never have caught up if he hadn’t stopped now and then to sniff the ground. He would start sniffing, and they’d almost catch up, but then, when they’d almost reached him, he would be off again, running at top speed. It wasn’t until he came
out of the alley onto busy Norwich Avenue that Ken managed to catch up with him and grab his collar.

“Got him,” he yelled, then as the rest of them straggled up, “Whew! It’s a good thing I nabbed him. He might have run right out into the traffic.”

“Not—unless—Toby—did,” Melanie panted. “If he’s following Toby’s scent, he’ll go wherever Toby did.”

“Yeah.” April was pretty breathless, too. “Come on, Bear. Let’s go. Go find Toby.”

But Bear, it seemed, wasn’t going anywhere with anybody hanging on to his collar. Instead, he just sat down and looked up at Ken questioningly. The answer was obviously a rope, but that was back in the Gypsy Camp. “Well, I guess someone could go all the way back for the leash,” Melanie said. “It would take a lot of time, but I don’t know what else we can do unless”—suddenly she stared at Ken—“unless we could use somebody’s belt.”

“Oh no. Not my Gucci belt,” Ken said. “My dad bought it for me. Besides, I need it.”

April saw what he meant. Ken’s pants, which were fashionably baggy, looked as if they might be a problem without a belt.

A brief argument followed, in which Melanie said that it was certainly a dilemma, but that losing your pants wouldn’t be nearly as wrong as letting Bear get lost or even letting him run out into the traffic. And April tactfully pointed out that if a person wore pants that were anywhere near his actual size, a person could get along without a belt, at least in an emergency. At about that point Ken unexpectedly gave up, and a few minutes later they were off again, following Bear down the sidewalk toward the corner
of Norwich and Arbor Street. But this time Elizabeth had charge of the Domenico’s Deli bag so that Ken could have his left hand free, in case of an emergency.

Norwich was still pretty busy that afternoon, and a lot of people stopped to stare. April didn’t see why, even though you might have to admit the five of them and Bear weren’t exactly your usual neighborhood gang. Not because they were a lot of different races, either. People in the university area were used to that. Or even that they were different ages and sexes, which was a little more peculiar. There was more to it than that. There was, for instance, Bear himself, an unusually weird-looking black dog who was whining loudly and straining at the end of a wide leather leash, which a large sixth-grade kid was holding with one hand while he held up his pants with the other. A kid who kept stopping to yell back over his shoulder at a bunch of girls, two of whom were dragging a small boy in a yellow slicker and enormous yellow boots.

But there was no reason for people to stop and stare. And certainly no reason to laugh, because it wasn’t funny. And April would have told them so right to their faces if she’d been able to stop long enough to do it. But she couldn’t because they had to keep up with Bear and Ken. So she just tried to ignore the gawkers, and the good news was that as soon as they turned onto Arbor they were out of the Wilson School District, at least. That meant the people who stopped to stare were much less likely to know who they were.

About two blocks up Arbor Street they reached an area that had once been residential but was now mostly secondhand stores and warehouses. The few old houses that remained
standing had been changed into businesses like repair shops and liquor stores. The sidewalk was cracked in places, and there were tall dry weeds beside the curb and in the vacant lots. Ken pulled Bear to a stop and looked around.

“Pretty crummy area, huh?” he said. “Toby wouldn’t have come here. I’ll bet Bear isn’t following Toby’s scent anyway. He doesn’t even stop to sniff very often. He’s probably just trying to go back where he came from. And, if you ask me, that’s what we better do. And the sooner the better.”

Melanie knew what he meant. It was a neighborhood she was supposed to stay out of. But, on the other hand, she could think of one reason why Toby might have headed this way. “Wait a minute,” she said. “He might have come here if he was looking for a place where he wasn’t going to see anyone he knows.” She paused, and then went on, “And besides—just look at Bear.”

Sure enough, Bear was straining at the leash, and his tail was wagging like crazy.

“Well, okay. Just a little farther then,” Ken said reluctantly.

A few minutes later Bear raised his head and began to sniff, not the sidewalk, but the air. Whining happily, he took off, dragging Ken behind him down the sidewalk toward an old boarded-up church.

But Bear wasn’t interested in the front of the church. Pulling so hard against his collar that he almost choked himself, he dragged Ken past the entryway and down a weed-bordered path that led to the back of the building, with the girls and Marshall following close behind.

The path passed some more windows and a boarded-up back entrance and ended at some steps that led down to a basement door. A door that was not only unboarded but was not even entirely closed. Whimpering excitedly, Bear dashed down the steps, pawed open the door, and rushed in, pulling Ken behind him into almost complete darkness.

The air was dank and smelled like mildewed clothing and rotting vegetables. The only light came from a small flickering flame, as if a candle was burning somewhere in the distance. And in the dim candlelight something vague and shadowy was moving. Ken’s eyes were still adjusting to the lack of light when a familiar voice said, “Holy cow, Kamata. What are you doing here?”

THE NEXT FEW minutes were complete confusion. Bear was jumping all over Toby and whimpering with joy, the girls and Marshall were stumbling down the steps into the semidarkness, and Toby was saying, “Hey, Melanie! And April! Down, Bear. Watch it! Don’t step on the candle. And Elizabeth too. Hey, and more food. Wow, I sure can use that. Down, boy! Cool it. Watch out for the candle.” It wasn’t until he picked up the bottle that held the candle, shoved it into Ken’s hands; and gave Bear his full attention that things began to settle down.

“Wow,” Toby said after he finally got Bear to stop celebrating and lie down, “the gang’s all here.” Kneeling down, he fussed around, smoothing out some blankets. “Here, sit down, everybody. Pull up a blanket. Hey, Marshall. Great boots, man! Ken, put the candle down here, on this box.” Chattering on and on as if he were someplace normal, instead of hiding out like a criminal in the cold, dark, smelly basement of an old abandoned church, in a very dangerous part of town. Chattering away and grinning in an almost convincing way as if everything were okay. Watching Toby’s performance, April and Melanie looked at each other and made their eyes say, “I can’t believe it.” But
out loud they were almost speechless, and so were Ken and Elizabeth.

After Toby finally managed to get everyone to sit down, they continued to stare at him in silent amazement. A long awkward moment passed before Toby waved his arms around and said, “Well, what do you think of my new space?” Nobody answered. Toby sighed dramatically. “I know. It’s not exactly the Ritz. But it’s not always this—this lonely.”

Ken finally found his tongue. “What do you mean, ‘Not always this lonely’?” He looked around uneasily. “You mean someone else is holed up here?”

“Well, sort of,” Toby said, “but not exactly. More like they just live here. But hey, it’s all right. They’re okay. There’s this nice old lady and a couple of other people. Real nice guys, believe it or not.”

April didn’t believe it. Not in this place. Not in this terrible dark hole. She was anxiously checking out shadowy corners while Toby went on. “Oh, don’t worry. Nobody’s here now. They’re all out—er, working.” The almost-real grin was back. “But what I want to know is, how’d you ever find me?”

“Bear found you,” a muffled voice said. It was Marshall, whose face was buried in Bear’s fuzzy neck.

“Is that right?” Toby sounded amazed.

“Yeah, Bear found you.” Ken’s voice was angry and so was his face. “Look here, Alvillar. You’re the one who has to start answering questions. What do you think you’re doing anyway? We’ve all been going out of our skulls worrying about you. Everybody. The whole school and the neighborhood, and everybody’s been freaking out.”

“Oh yeah?” Toby looked very interested, almost pleased with himself, as if he were actually enjoying hearing that he was the latest hot-gossip topic. “For real? The whole neighborhood?”

But now April had found her voice, too. “Yeah, and your poor dad is really worried. He’s just about to …”

Toby’s expression changed quickly. “My dad. How do you know? Where did you see my dad? How—how is he?”

“He came to the Gypsy Camp,” Melanie said. “Yesterday. He’s really worried. He made us promise that if we saw you again, we’d tell you to let him know that you’re all right.”

“You didn’t tell him where I am?”

“How could we? We didn’t have a clue where you were. Not after you left without telling anybody like that.” Ken was still angry.

“What did he—what did my dad say?”

“Just that he was worried. And he was glad you hadn’t been kidnapped,” Melanie said.

Toby’s eyebrows tilted into a frown. “How did he know that? Oh, I get it. You guys must have told him you’d seen me.”

“No, we didn’t tell him,” April said. “He just kind of guessed.”

“Oh yes,” Melanie said. “And he told us that you really do have some grandparents who’ve been trying to adopt you.” She smiled ruefully. “We were all really surprised because we thought you were making that up, but he said it was true. But he also said that he wouldn’t let them have you. Not ever!”

“Yeah,” April put in, “so why’d you have to run away?
Because they couldn’t have adopted you if your dad wouldn’t let them. I’ve read about stuff like that, and people who have even one real parent just can’t get adopted without that parent’s permission. Not even by grandparents.”

Toby didn’t answer. Instead, he just stared at Melanie and then at April. When he finally spoke, his voice was different, tense and anxious, and even the phony grin was gone. “What else did he say about what they were going to do? About what they were going to do to him if he didn’t let me get adopted?”

“What else?” April thought for a moment and then shook her head. “Nothing else about that.” She looked at the others. “Do you remember him saying anything about that?”

Nobody did.

“Hey, what could they do?” Ken said.

“I told you, Kamata. Don’t you remember? I told you they threatened my dad. And those hit men they brought with them when they came to our apartment? Did you forget about that?”

“No, I didn’t forget.” Ken’s voice was getting tighter all the time. “I just didn’t believe you. I mean, what kind of threats did they make? And how did you know about it? Were you there at the time, or did your dad tell you about it afterward?”

Toby’s lips twitched. “No, neither one. My dad didn’t tell me, and I wasn’t there at the time. At least, not officially. See, when my grandparents showed up—the two of them plus these two hired goons—they sent me away. Only
I snuck back and hid in this place I’d fixed up in the brontosaurus, right near where they were sitting.”