The Hole in the Wall (12 page)

Read The Hole in the Wall Online

Authors: Lisa Rowe Fraustino

Tags: #Technology & Engineering, #Mining, #Family, #Action & Adventure, #Environmental Science, #Mines and mineral resources, #Juvenile Fiction, #Family life, #Mysteries & Detective Stories, #General, #Supernatural, #Science, #Twins, #Fiction, #Soil pollution, #Brothers and sisters

BOOK: The Hole in the Wall
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“I wouldn’t worry yet,” Ma said. “The cashier said they were just sold out. The water is on backorder. She hadn’t heard any rumors about the Dogstars.”
Barbie punched me back and said, “And anyway, if the Zenwater really is contaminated, doesn’t that explain why they left so fast? I sure wouldn’t want to live there anymore. Take the money and run.”
“Good point, Barbie,” Ma said. “I hope the Dogstars took Boots to the cleaners.”
Good point, Barbie, nyah nyah nyah.
After that I gave quite a bit of thought to her advice about getting a story ready. For about sixty seconds. Before I fell asleep. I awoke when the car came to a jolting stop and Ma said, “What the heck is
he
doing here?”
11
It was none other than Boots Odum, sitting in his shiny truck with a phone to his ear. When we got out of the SUV with our plastic grocery bags, he hurried over to help Ma. He carried six bags on two fingers of his right hand—the same fingers he had fluttered at me the day he came for eggs. What was it with those fingers?!
Pa yanked the door open for us. He had on his dress pants, a clean collared shirt, and a bodacious grin. The house smelled like apple pie, and it wasn’t even Thanksgiving. Something was going on.
“Well, if it ain’t Mr. Stanley Odum,” Pa said. As if it was a big surprise to him. “Come on in and have a seat.”
The room filled with Boots Odum’s heel clacks. The smell of leather joined the crowd of bleach and mustiness and apple pie. Pa had already dragged the comfortable living room chair over to the head of the table. Barbie started putting away groceries. I ran upstairs and pulled on two loose sweatshirts to hide Celery, then slipped onto the bench at the far side of the kitchen table behind the empty egg basket. Normally Barbie would have manipulated the situation so I’d have to help her put the groceries away, but she took pity on my secret predicament.
“Thanks for calling last night to warn me about the eggs, Claire,” Boots Odum said, pulling two empty egg cartons from his rucksack and holding them out like a sacred offering. “Don’t worry yourself about a refund. We’ll find a use for the eggs. They’ll make good anchors for a space ship.” He smiled proudly at his joke.
Pa guffawed and rubbed his hands together. “Claire, pour this gentleman a cup of coffee and cut him a piece of that delicious apple pie my mother made. Fresh out of the oven.”
Ah, so. Grum was in on it, too. Whatever
it
was. But she was nowhere to be seen.
Boots Odum rubbed his hands together eagerly and said, “Don’t mind if I do!” After an awkward pause, he added, “Enough rain for you folks?”
“Have a look in the basement, Stanley, and see for yourself,” said Ma. There was no missing the edge in her voice, blaming him. She slammed a huge steaming mug in front of Boots Odum. Coffee spilled.
He looked around helplessly. Barbie tossed him the roll of paper towels off the counter.
“Thanks, cutie. Now, Claire, isn’t the sump pump I sent over doing the job for you?”
Ma took a deep breath and said, “How much sludge could a sump pump pump if a sump pump could pump—”
Pa cleared his throat and laughed. His voice sounded higher than normal. “All Claire means is, we do get a lot of water when it rains. An old house. You know.”
Odum nodded. “No offense, Craig, but I think Claire means it’s my fault that water runs off the gore into your basement.” He reached out to stop the dish of pie Ma slid down the table at him. “No eggs in this, I hope?” he said, winking at her.
She winced a sickly smile. I held my stomach. Well, technically I held Celery. Then I picked my pie apart and studied the apples for penicillin. Grum wasn’t big on cutting out the spoiled parts.
Boots Odum took a long time chewing and rolling his eyes around ecstatically before he swallowed his first bite. “Yummee! Your mother-in-law’s quite the cook, Claire. She always was. I’ll never forget the brownie bribes she used to give Craig and me to stay out of her hair when we were little ruffians.” He showed us all a smile with a big scoop of friendly on top of the rich and powerful. Ma fake smiled back.
“Too bad the ol’ lady’s not here to hear you say that herself,” Pa said. “But I just delivered her over to the church for the weekly gossip.” He grinned.
“Nobody’s busier than a retired widow.” Boots Odum winked.
“Cut to the chase, Stanley,” Ma said, lighting a cigarette. “You didn’t drop by to make small talk. Why
are
you here?”
“A woman who doesn’t waste time. You’re a lucky man, Craig,” Boots Odum said and, grinning Pa straight in the eye, reached into his rucksack to pull out a loose pile of green and white. Cash.
Me and Barbie gaped at each other across the kitchen as she put a fresh gallon of milk away. Then I stared back at Boots Odum’s hands because I’d noticed something strange as he neatened the stack of hundred dollar bills. His left hand looked a lot like Pa’s, hairy and sinewy with veins popping out. But his right hand was as smooth as a mannequin’s!
He caught me staring and gave me his little two-finger hummingbird wave. “It’s bionic,” he said, then placed the stack on the table between Pa and Ma.
“The money’s all yours, Craig. And Claire. Right now, if you want it. All you have to do is sign your deed over to ORC. I’d like to see you in a more comfortable place as soon as possible. And to help you move, you can have use of an ORC company van and a couple of men with strong backs, gratis. No charge.”
“Is that what you said to the Dogstars?” Ma asked. “I went up there last night to warn them about the eggs and saw your sign on the door.”
“You did?” said Pa.
Odum nodded. “I’m aware of that, Claire, and I’m prepared to let the trespassing go, since you didn’t realize the property had changed hands. No hard feelings. We’re all friends in this town. So, what do you folks say? My people will help you move any time you’re ready.”
Pa stared down at the Ben Franklins, licking his lips. No apple on them, either. Ma glared at him, her lips tight over her teeth. I could see the fight behind her eyes. But would she say what she was thinking? Would she dare? In front of us, in front of Boots Odum? Ma’s careful with what she says. You can almost see her weighing her words in her hands, the way her fingers knead at each other while she thinks.
Ma leaned forward. She took a deep pull on her cigarette, blew a sharp stream of smoke out the side of her mouth, and said, “Tell me something, Stanley. Can you sleep at night?”
“Like a log,” he said. “I’d say like a baby except they wake up every two hours.”
Pa cracked up at that. He says it himself all the time.
Odum put his hands behind his head, leaned back a bit, and said, “That’s a strange question, Claire. Why would insomnia want to take hold of me?”
“Oh, I thought maybe you might have a pang of conscience over turning a beautiful chunk of nature into a cesspool, ruining the lives of your friends and neighbors, a few little things like that.”
“Well, now.” Boots Odum cleared his throat and looked at Pa as if to say, “Will you shut her up?” Pa was just staring at the money, hardly even listening.
Our visitor went on, “Claire, you
are
my friend and neighbor, and that’s exactly why I’m here, offering you more money than you could ever get from this place on the conventional real estate market. Kokadjo is one heckuva fine community and I want to keep it that way by helping you folks out.”
Ma shook her head, laughing. “Help us
out
is right, Stan. Do you really think anyone’s buying your baloney? You’re throwing money around hoping you won’t get sued!”
Way to go Ma, I thought. Jed would be so proud! I was grinning inside, until I caught the look on Pa’s face. It was red, ripe, and ready to pop.
“Claire!”
“Craig?”—and then she said with her eyes,
Don’t you dare raise your voice to me in front of a visitor.
When he blew his stack at her, she always made him take the argument behind closed doors or else made us kids go outside.
I’d rather be out at the Hole in the Wall, anyway. I started to stand up, but Ma stuck out her arm and held me down in my seat.
“There’s nothing wrong with raising your voice when you’re good and mad!” Pa yelled. “This man is laying cash money on the table, and you’re treating him like a criminal!” Then he took a quick look at the man. Boots Odum was frowning—just a little—but definitely frowning.
When Pa continued he wasn’t loud, but with his face so stiff and his words so pointed, you knew it had to be paining him to keep the anger down. “Listen here, Claire. Be reasonable. We can trust Stan. Him and I go way back. You know that.”
Ma tipped her head toward the stripped gore. “Back there?” she scoffed. “Nothing there to go way back to. It’s as bad to rape the land as it is to do it to a person. And you know what else? The son-of-a-gun killed our chickens!”
Barbie dropped a roll of toilet paper as she was putting away bathroom stuff. We
uh-oh
looked at each other.
I swallowed hard. “Gee, Ma, what makes you think that?”
“Well, if he didn’t kill the chickens, he might as well have. After I dropped you kids off skating I came back here to get one. Thought I’d take it to the vet. Couldn’t find a single chicken—which I’m sure you two know very well and were afraid to tell me this morning.” Ma pointed the finger of shame at us. “Dead or alive, it’s pretty obvious what happened.
Someone
who doesn’t want us to know what’s wrong with them absconded with those hens!” She gave Boots Odum a full-on glare.
Boots Odum was literally taken aback—his chair almost fell over. The guy was shocked at the accusation, and I knew why, but I didn’t dare tell Ma what had become of her birds. Not in front of Odum. Or Pa. I was still figuring on breaking the news to her gently. Eventually. After I followed through on an idea I had involving the glasses I’d borrowed.
Barbie opened her mouth but no words came out.
Boots Odum rebalanced himself and took a couple of deep breaths before he spoke. “Claire, those are very strong words.” He used one of his bionic fingers to scratch his head in confusion. “I honestly have no idea whatsoever where your poultry have flown off to. And I assure you that I do not break laws; therefore, it would be useless for anyone to sue me. But I hear you, and I want you to know that ORC will be restoring the gore to a pristine public park when our mining interests are through. I mean it. Trust me, it’ll be nicer than it ever was. There’ll even be a lake.”
“Hear that?” snapped Pa. “There’ll even be a lake! You always wanted to live on the water, sweetheart.”
“We already do,” I muttered, rolling my eyes toward the cellar.
“A fat lot of good that lake’ll do us if we sell out, Craig,” Ma snapped back at him. Then she turned to Boots Odum. “Look, Stan, I believe you have grand plans and good intentions the way you see it. But the way I see it, there’s no way you can succeed. Once you tear the world apart, you can’t put it right. What you patch back together will be a different world entirely, with ugly spots and weak seams.” She glanced at Pa then, with a look that made me wonder which one of them she was really talking to.
“Claire, you’re not making any sense,” Pa said. “Stan’s talking straight business, not namby-pamby. You’re just being stupid. We won’t need your diddly buck fifty for eggs if we take Stan’s offer.”
“Stupid,” Ma echoed in a hurt version of his sneering voice. “Diddly.”
“Stupididdly,” Pa repeated, his face arrogant. Ma looked crushed. I was stunned at the line he had crossed, insulting Ma like she was the same to him as Jed’s Stupid Cat. And in front of us. How could he?
Ma looked out the window and blinked a few times, then said softly, “Stan, I know this place is just a hole in the wall. Some would say it ain’t worth nothing. But to me it’s everything. My kids were born here. I was raised here like generations before me. You want us to leave our family memories behind, for what? For money?”
Boots Odum leaned toward Ma, his face all sympathetic, and touched her arm gently. “You’re right to love your home, Claire. But there’s nothing wrong with change, either.”
Ma got up from the table and turned her back as he went on.
“The land changes all the time, everywhere, in floods and fires and big winds, sometimes for the worse, sometimes for the better. And yes, sometimes you have to tear down the old to build a better new. Why, I can do more with my new hand than I could with the one I lost!”
I wondered how he’d lost his hand, but I didn’t let myself ask.
Pa nodded. “Didn’t Frank Edwards build himself a mini-mart with the money he got for his little shack in the gore?”
“Indeed,” replied Boots Odum. “Also, the Pauleys opened a McDonald’s, Elsa Beck opened a Montessori school, and some of the others are pitching in to build a mall. They’ll start construction this summer.”
“Did you say
mall
?” Barbie blurted. She’d finally finished putting the groceries away and was shoving me aside to get a seat on the bench.

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