Learning to Fly

by Sandra Atkins

  The horrible buzzing of the alarm interrupted his sleep again to broadcast the beginning of another day. And, to make his misery complete, today was Saturday. But, Mama would be home soon to sleep after her last twelve- hour shift, therefore, the job of looking after Cassie fell to him again. Recalling the happenings from the day before caused his mouth to stretch in a smile. Last night he had pondered when to tell Cassie the truth and end her worries. But, sometime between now and then, he changed his mind. Stomach growling, in route to the kitchen, other ways to torment his sister swirled in his mind. When Sam’s spoon clanged against the bottom of his almost-empty bowl of cereal, Sam realized that Cassie should be awake by now.

  “Cassie,” he yelled, “I’m eating your cereal. You’d better come quick.”

  Sam listened. He called out again. The house creaked and popped in its language of sounds. His shoes produced a dull thud as he walked to the door of Cassie’s bedroom. He pushed open the door. The covers lay thrown back and the bed was empty. His shoes thumped faster and louder as he ran from room to room, looking, and calling.

  As if the house answered, a knock sounded at the door. Maybe, Cassie had locked herself out. Maybe, she held the cat and couldn’t open . . . the door opened to reveal Luke standing there.

  “Have you seen Cassie?” Sam panted.

  Luke frowned. “No, why would I . . . ”

  Sam interrupted his friend. “We have to find her!”

  They circled the house. No sign of Cassie. They faced the road out front and looked both ways.

  A neighbor across the street, Mrs. Bobo, waved. “Hello, boys,” she sang.

  Sam called back, “Have you seen my sister?” He and Luke moved closer.

  “Should I let the cat out of the bag?” she warbled.

  “What?” Sam asked his neighbor, who, with her sharp nose and glasses, looked very much like a near-sighted bird herself.

  Mrs. Bobo smiled. “Well, yes, if it was indeed Cassie. She had the cat stuffed in a paper bag. It kept trying to escape.”

  “Was it Cassie?” Sam repeated, although he had a feeling that it was.

  “I think so,” the bird lady chirped, “Although she appeared to be in disguise.”

  Sam shifted from one foot to the other. Why did the woman not just get to the point? “She was wearing rain boots, a raincoat, and hat, and . . . ” Mrs. Bobo paused as she enjoyed the telling of the event, “An umbrella. All pink.”

  “Which way was she headin’?” Sam’s words tumbled over each other, moving with him as he took several steps backwards towards his house.

  “Well . . . that way,” the woman pointed towards town. “But, the phone rang and I . . . ”

  Mrs. Bobo’s voice trailed off as Sam and Luke could wait no longer. Sam locked the house and they both scurried in the direction in which Cassie had gone earlier.

  “Where do you think she went?” asked Luke, as he struggled to keep pace with Sam. “And, slow down!”

  Sam glanced back at his friend who he knew didn’t like to step on the lines separating the sidewalk squares. “I don’t know. I figured she’d be afraid to go out.”

  Luke groaned. “Are you still at it? Terrorizing her like that?” Sam didn’t respond and Luke continued. “Do you think she’d go to the hospital to find your mama?”

  Suddenly, Sam stopped cold. He thought of the game. He could remember Mama and Cassie rhyming: Where do you go for info? You look in a book.

  “I know where she’s gone.” Sam pumped a fist in the air.

  Luke waited.

  Sam began moving again, but slower now as he quizzed Luke. “Where would Cassie say that you could find the answer to any question in the entire world?”

  Luke followed in silence for a minute. Then he hollered, “The library.”

  Sam laughed. “Exactly.”

  Sam felt such relief. He vowed right then and there to tell Cassie the truth. He would make her sweat until they returned home, because Cassie should not have left alone like that. The library was not far away. When they approached the intersection in town, Sam stopped. A crowd of people stood around staring at something.

  Luke chuckled. “They’re probably all watching Cassie in that pink getup, trying to keep that cat in the bag.”

  Red and blue lights flashed through the holes in the wall of persons. Sam’s good feeling turned to bad.

  “Oh, no!” he whispered, as he began to run again.

  An awful sight awaited him as he and Luke skidded to a stop outside the circle of people and peeked within. A car sat parked at a strange angle in the middle of the street. Nearby, a crumpled heap of pink plastic lay in the road. And strands of white-blonde hair poked out from under the rain hat! It was Cassie!

  CHAPTER FOUR

  “BUT, THAT’S MY SISTER!” SAM cried when the policeman stopped him from running to Cassie’s side. The second the words jumped from his lips, they landed on his heart and jumped up and down. It hurt. The guilt felt terrible. He had to see if his sister was okay. Cassie lay there injured or worse because of him and his lies.

  The policeman, who introduced himself as Officer Bill, walked him away from the scene when two paramedics approached Cassie’s still form with a stretcher. “I’ll take you to the hospital in the patrol car, son.” He laid a hand on Sam’s shoulder. “Where is your mom and dad today?”

  The ache in his heart returned again as Sam explained that his dad had died in a car accident. Fear grabbed him as he talked of Mama. “My mom works at the hospital. She worked last night. She’s home now, asleep.”

  Sam gave the policeman his name, as well as Cassie’s and Mama’s. “I’ve got a few things to clear up here,” said the policeman. “Another officer will be going by your home to pick up your mother. You may go with him if you like.”

  Being in no hurry to explain to Mama what he had done, he looked at the ground and shook his head. He and Luke followed the man in grey inside what Cassie believed to be the building of all knowledge. Sam doubted that an answer to his problem could be found in even one of the biggest books.

  Sam and Luke moped at a reading table while Officer Bill questioned the librarians. His guilty ears perked up when one of them admitted to talking to Cassie earlier. Sam had decided to hide as much as possible of his evil plot to scare his sister, partly from shame, but mostly to avoid the wrath of Mama. And, he hoped that Cassie had not repeated anything he had said to a stranger. Sam hung on every word.

  “Yes, the little girl with the pink rain slicker, hat, and boots,” the bookish woman shook her head as her palm rested on the side of her face, “Is she okay?”

  Officer Bill was professional. “The hospital will determine the extent of her injuries, ma’am. Now, tell me about the child’s visit. What did she want?”

  The librarian frowned, “Well, she wanted a book with information about owls.”

  “Did you say owls?” Officer Bill asked.

  “That’s right,” the lady adjusted her glasses and repeated, “Owls. But, she had trouble containing that cat in the bag.”

  Officer Bill coughed. “Cat? In a bag?”

  “Why, yes, a cat, in a bag,” she stated. “Name’s Persimmon.”

  “Excuse me?” the officer asked.

  She explained, “Persimmon is the cat’s name.” Sam squirmed in his seat. “I told her that she would need to leave the cat outside,” she continued.

  The policemen shot Sam and Luke a glance. Sam looked down at the table. “Did she take the cat outside?”

  The librarian smiled a big smile. “Forgive me! I sincerely pray that that child will be alright,” she said, and then cupped her hand over her mouth. When she removed it, her face showed a strain to keep more smiles away. “She asked if owls ever lifted animals with their claws.” The lady went silent for several seconds.

  “And,” Officer Bill coaxed, “What did you say to her?”

  The woman cleared her throat. “I told her about the time that an owl swooped down and grabbed our neighbor�
��s little dog, Patches, right out of the yard. That was quite a hubbub.”

  Officer Bill wrote something on a pad. “What happened then?”

  The librarian began waving her hands. “Nothing. They got another dog later.”

  Officer Bill snorted like an angry bull. “I mean, what did Cassie do then?”

  “Oh, well, then the little girl struggled to lift the bag, I think the handle had broken off. Then, she turned to leave in a big hurry. That’s when it happened.” She cupped her mouth again.

  The lady had the full attention of all three, the officer, Sam, and Luke, as well as several people sitting nearby pretending to read. “Yep! That’s when it happened! That cat sprang straight up outta that bag with a big cat yowl. It made several laps around the room with the little girl running and calling after it. Then, the terrified animal climbed the big window over there and slid down several times. Until someone opened the door to outside, and it shot out of here like a bullet.”

  Officer Bill sighed. “And, the little girl followed?”

  Another sigh as the lady agreed, “Yes.”

  “Did you not ask her if she was here with an adult? And . . . did you not think she was dressed a little odd?” he inquired.

  “I certainly did, on both counts. She just said that her mama was looking for a book on the fiction aisle,” she said.

  Officer Bill thanked her and nodded in the direction of Sam and Luke. The two of them followed him to the patrol car and rode in silence through town: past the church, the coffee shop, and the police station. The emergency department seemed gloomy, not a place to make an injured person feel better, that’s for certain. It sure failed to make Sam feel better. As they entered, he felt good about being in the presence of an officer of the law. Mama probably wouldn’t flog him in front of the man, but, Sam couldn’t be sure. Thank goodness Mama was somewhere on the floor seeing to Cassie personally.

  Sam regretted that Cassie had been struck by the car. He should have been the protector of his sister, not the bully in the school yard. But, that was past, he couldn’t go back. He would start afresh from that moment on. It wasn’t like he ever intended for his sister to get hurt. Cassie knew better than to go off on her own like that. Anyhow, no one else but Luke needed to know anything about his little scam, the one past or the one yet to come.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  MAMA GRABBED HIM AND SHOOK him hard. Sam’s heart pounded as he waited for her anger to show itself in bruises somewhere on his behind. The hospital lights dimmed a soft blue as he felt faint. Then she wrapped her arms around his neck and cried.

  As she hugged him, she sobbed, “Cassie’s going to be okay, son. One leg is broken and she’s mighty bruised up. But, everything’s going to be alright. I love you.”

  Sam would have preferred Mama to have flogged him. Her kindness cut through him like the knife had done when Sam and Luke had become blood brothers. Shutting his eyes and dragging the blade over the tip of his finger, a bubble of blood had appeared. Luke had done the same. Their blood mingled as they pressed their fingers one against the others. It had hurt something terrible, just as Mama’s words did now. Sam asked Mama as she backed up a step and looked him in the face, smiling, “When can I see her?”

  Mama beamed. “My sweet boy. I know you’re worried about her.”

  Sam could not look directly into her tear-filled red eyes. He knew that she had not slept much in the past twenty-four hours.

  “You go on home with Aunt Mozie and get some sleep, Sam.”

  “What about you, Mama?”

  Mama sighed. “I’ll rest a little here and there when Cassie is sleeping.”

  Sam asked, nearly whispering, “Has she said anything?”

  Mama frowned and his heart turned a flip. “Cassie’s not talking yet. She won’t even open her eyes. Doctor says she may just be in shock. I’m sure she’ll be eating breakfast and rhyming in the morning.”

  Aunt Mozie drove Luke home before returning to her house beside Sam’s on Reid Street. Sam mumbled his goodnight and walked to the little house next door. Darkness had set in by this time. He cursed the owl under his breath as he neared the tree. He stopped. He gazed up into the gloomy branches. He circled the tree: one, two, three times and more, until he lost count. As he walked inside, he thought of the silly superstition that Mr. Miller had shared with the class. An owl would continue to turn its head around and around to follow a person circling its tree until it wrung its own neck.

  The owl can indeed turn its head very far around, that’s a fact, but not all the way round. Sam knew that to be impossible. It felt good to him, though, to imagine the owl dead. If it hadn’t been for that owl . . . Sam fell asleep thinking of that very thing.

  Sam awoke several times to the shrieks of the wretched bird. The accusing bird would not shut up! As if it were asking him, who is really to blame.

  Aunt Mozie drove Sam and Luke to the hospital late the next morning. The news was not good. Cassie still refused to eat or talk. The nurses caught her several times staring out the window, but she retreated into her shell again when they entered. Sam visited her after lunch.

  He sat by her, as Luke waited nearby, and revealed to her what he had done. Sam figured that that would fix everything, but he was wrong. Now, he had to think of something. The guilt was getting to be almost unbearable. While Sam and Luke stood helpless at the foot of Cassie’s bed, the hospital chaplain entered. “How is our patient doing today?” he boomed as his tall figure loomed over Cassie.

  The silence tortured Sam. Why didn’t Cassie just scream at him, or tell Mama, or the chaplain what he had done?

  Sam blurted out, “Cassie, I’m sorry! Say something!”

  Sam ran from the room. Luke called, “Sam. Sam!”

  Before he could make a clean get-away, the chaplain appeared with Luke on his heels.

  The chaplain spoke. “Why are you sorry, Sam? These things just happen sometimes.”

  Sam looked down. “I want to confess,” he stated.

  The chaplain motioned the boys across the hall where a group of chairs sat in a small alcove. “I’m not that kind of chaplain, but, confession is good for the soul. Tell me about it.”

  “Will it help Cassie?” Sam asked.

  “Have you told her what you’ve done? That’s the first step.”

  “Yes,” Sam cried, throwing his arms all around. “It didn’t help.”

  Sam told the chaplain the entire story, leaving nothing out. Then he asked again, “Why didn’t it help?”

  The chaplain thought for a moment. “I believe that you have damaged Cassie’s ability to trust. She knows that her big brother, whom she looks up to, has lied to her. Now she may wonder if she can believe anyone. Like a bird that has been prevented from flying, you have clipped Cassie’s wings.”

  Sam hung his head. “I’ve got to do something to fix this.”

  The chaplain laid a hand on Sam’s. “Let’s go back in and I will try and talk to her. And, I think that you should also tell your mama what’s happened as soon as possible.”

  The three reentered the hospital room. The chaplain sat again by Cassie’s bed. He talked and talked, but Cassie didn’t seem to hear.

  Sam stomped the floor. “Cassie, there is no evil owl out there trying to get you and Persimmon.” He stomped the floor again. “If there was . . . I’d knock him outta that tree and run him outta town.”

  The chaplain snapped his fingers and cried, “Sam, I think you’re on to something.”

  “What?” Sam mumbled.

  “You’re right, Sam. You need to run this bad owl away from here. Luke and I will help you.”

  All of a sudden, the chaplain slapped the mattress beside Cassie and hollered, “Out, bad owl, out!”

  Then he dropped to the floor with a thud on his hands and knees. Looking under the bed, he cried, “Come out from there, ghost owl. Yeah, I can see you under there.”

  The chaplain raised his head and asked the boys, “Are you two going to help m
e or not?” He stared at Sam. “After all, this was your idea.”

  Sam hit the floor on his knees on the other side of the twin bed. “Get outta here right now and leave my sister alone!”

  Luke grabbed the plastic ice cup sitting near him and began to shake and bang it loudly on the table. “Ain’t no bad owls out today. We gonna run them all away!”

  Sam wondered if all the ranting and raving was having any effect when he heard a gasp from the bed that spurred him on. “Come with me, you devil. Yeah, I’ve got you by the feathers.” Sam stood upright with his arms out in front of him as if carrying something. “Help, Luke. Help, chaplain. It’s putting up a fight.”

  Sam headed for the door with the chaplain and Luke on either side. They all went through the motions of being in a great struggle with the invisible creature.

  As they neared the door, Sam glanced up. There, with his eyes and mouth wide open, stood Cassie’s doctor. Cassie called from the bed, “Throw it out. Hurry! Throw it out!”

  The chaplain opened the door and with a great heave, Sam and his helpers pretended to hurl something out into the hallway. Then Luke slammed the door shut. Sam slapped his palms together, up and down, as if to show that it was finished.

  “He’s gone, Cassie. That’s the end of him!”

  Cassie sat up in the bed clapping and chanting, “He’s gone. He’s gone.”

  Then a cloud seemed to pass in front of her face as she said, “But, how do you know that he won’t come back?”

  The chaplain sat and held her little, pale hand. “Because, Cassie, you have the power to keep him away.”

  Cassie gasped. “I do? How?”

  The chaplain smiled. “Because, Cassie, you have a Father in Heaven who watches over you. He is stronger than any owl, bad or good. You need only to ask Him for help.”

  Cassie fell back onto her pillow. “You mean that’s all I have to do?”

  “That’s right,” the chaplain replied, and he bowed his head and murmured some words. “Father, today Cassie has invited You to walk with her. Now, she has the power to live without being afraid. Unfortunately, fear loves to live in the hearts of little ones. Because, they possess such grand imaginations that they believe all things to be possible. But, now Cassie is free. Cassie has chosen You. She has chosen to fly!”