Chester and Gus

by Cammie McGovern

  She has a beautiful smile even though she doesn’t have as many teeth as most people do.

  “You come on back here now and say hello to me.”

  She always waves and he always walks around the corner to the doorway of a room where she stands and waits for him. Her name is Mama and she wears a white apron over a long, brightly colored dress.

  “You stand right here and keep me company,” she says.

  Her voice has an accent because she’s from Jamaica, she told Gus once. That’s why she doesn’t mind the heat of this job or the steam either. “Reminds me of home!” she says.

  I don’t know if she can hear Gus talk to her the way I can. At first I thought she must, because she answers the questions I know he’d ask. “I can’t put this tray in yet. I need to fill it with more glasses,” she’ll say.

  Or “Almost ready with silverware. Not quite.”

  Gus loves these updates. He loves her machine with its steam and all the buttons and hissing sounds. He’d like her to show him exactly how it all works, but he doesn’t know how to ask her out loud. Still, she understands and shows him parts of it. “This button here, that starts the dryer,” she’ll say.

  Gus loves the machine and the steam and the trays on the rolling mat, but mostly, I think, he loves Mama. She’s the only adult in the school that I’ve heard him talk to on his own. I’ve only heard him say a few words to her, but that’s more than he says to anyone else, unless he has to for a sticker on his reward star chart.

  It’s sometimes hard to hear, but I know he’s said, “Hello, Mama!” at least once. I know he also said, “Dog,” and touched the top of my head.

  Another thing I’ve noticed is that Ms. Cooper never sees any of this. She stands in the hall while Gus comes in here, but she never watches what’s happening. Usually she uses this as a chance to look at her phone. Sometimes I think Ms. Cooper is more interested in her phone than she is in Gus. She’s definitely not as interested in Gus as I am because she’s doesn’t see the way Gus and Mama talk to each other with their eyes and their smiles. She’s never noticed that Gus does have something he loves at school.

  I wish I could tell Sara.

  I wish Sara could see the way Mama and Gus smile at each other. I wish she knew that Gus once said hello and introduced me. He never gets stickers or stars for doing any of that. He gets smiles from Mama, which is all he wants.

  I know it would be a relief to Sara if she knew this because it’s not just something he loves. It’s someone.

  Fright Fest

  ON SATURDAY, SARA GETS GUS UP early. When he’s sitting at the table for breakfast, she says, “Today’s the day, Gussie! We’re going back to Fright Fest!”

  This surprises me. Fright Fest? I think.

  Obviously Gus understands what she’s saying and he’s excited. He rocks back and forth in his chair so much, he almost falls over.

  He doesn’t notice when I say, Fright Fest? What’s that?

  Sara doesn’t help. She keeps smiling and saying, “Remember last year when you walked right up to that zombie holding an ax?”

  More rocking and a squeal from Gus.

  A zombie holding an ax? I say. I want someone to explain this to me.

  “Remember the lady who got her head chopped off?” Sara laughs as if this is all very funny.

  Gus laughs too.

  “I was thinking we should bring Chester with us this time. That way we don’t have to worry about you getting lost in the crowd, right, Gus?”

  Me? I think. Walking around with zombies and headless women?

  Even Marc isn’t sure. “You want to bring Chester to Fright Fest?”

  “Why not? If Gus loves it, why shouldn’t Chester? Plus, Chester’s been trained for this. If Gus holds his leash, he can’t wander too far without Chester sitting down and waiting for us to catch up.”

  I look over at Gus. I can tell he’s excited. If his chair was a rocket he’d push the blast-off button right now.

  Sara leans closer and whispers to Marc, “He loves it so much, Marc, remember?”

  In the car, I can’t help myself, I keep asking Gus questions: What’s a zombie? What happens to the woman without her head? He doesn’t answer, but he laughs and imitates the sounds zombies must make. I don’t know if it’s the right sound because I’ve never met a zombie, I’ve only heard people talk about them on TV.

  Just hearing people talk about them, though, was scary enough for me.

  Marc is driving, so Sara turns around and explains it all to me the way she does sometimes. I think it’s her way of reminding Gus what to expect. “It’s a regular amusement park, Chess, with roller coasters and bad food, but for the month of October every Saturday, they have people dress up like ghosts and ghouls and walk around scaring people.”

  Did she say food? I ask Gus.

  Halo! Gus says, but not out loud.

  I don’t understand. He laughs and rocks, more excited than I’ve ever seen him.

  Sara says, “They also have this thing where you can ask at Guest Services for a light stick halo if you don’t want the people to scare you. Do you remember that, Gus? We got one for you and then you kept taking it off because you wanted those people to get closer to you?”

  He remembers. He’s giggling, but I can hear him. I remember! I remember!

  They must be funny! I say to Gus. It must be okay!

  Yes, they’re so funny, Gus says. You’ll laugh, Chester, I know you will.

  He’s forgotten dogs don’t laugh. We do other things like jump around and lick hands, which is what I do now because it’s the first time he’s ever used my name.

  It’s so great, he says. So, so great.

  How to Say Yes

  IT TURNS OUT THAT ZOMBIES ARE people who look like they’re bleeding but don’t smell that way. They also look very dirty without smelling nice the way a dirt-covered person should. And they growl a lot.

  At first I don’t even realize these are the zombies because they seem like a bunch of people acting like mean dogs. Thank goodness I remember my training well enough not to growl back. Then I watch Gus do something funny every time he sees one of them. He crosses his arms and karate chops the air in front of him. It makes him laugh so instead of feeling nervous he feels powerful, I think. It also means none of the zombies come too close to us, so even if he’s not fighting anyone, he is keeping them away.

  After we get past three of them, I feel a lot braver and I can tell Gus does, too. It’s kind of fun watching him make karate chop X’s, and we spend most of the morning looking for zombies for him to have imaginary fights with. If Gus wants to go on a ride, Marc rides with him and I sit with Sara, who scratches my neck and tells me what a good job I’m doing.

  Those are the only times I eat food off the ground. Otherwise I ignore the food—and believe me, there’s a lot of food I have to ignore. For lunch I lie down under Gus’s feet and watch two pigeons fight over a pizza crust. I try telling them they should share, but they either don’t understand me or else they aren’t listening.

  After lunch, we wait for a long time for Gus to go on a ride with cars that kids can drive around a track. It seems like it’s mostly for little kids. Still, when it’s finally Gus’s turn, he can’t figure out how to make the car go. He starts to cry, so Marc gets into the car and drives for him so other kids won’t have to watch a bigger boy cry. I was pretty sure we’d go home after that, but instead of leaving, Sara says, “Look, you guys. The Spooky Walk starts at five. Do you want to go for a walk through the woods and see some spooky people, Gus?”

  No thank you! I say.

  “Do you remember you were too scared to do it last year, but maybe this year you’re big enough to try? Supposedly it has a fog machine and witches along the way.”

  Really, that doesn’t sound like a good idea to me, I say. Unfortunately, no one is listening to me, including Gus.

  He stops walking. He looks at his mom. Fog machine? he says, but not out loud.

  Sa
ra smiles like it’s great that he’s thinking about this.

  “I don’t think it’ll be super scary. I think it’s more like a walk through the woods where spirits and fairies come out from behind trees. It’s more magical scary than scary scary.”

  I don’t think Gus is thinking about that, he’s thinking about the fog machine. Mama once called her dishwasher at school a fog machine when she opened it up and a big cloud came out. Gus thinks there’s going to be a dishwasher in the woods.

  Even I know there won’t be. Woods don’t have dishwashers.

  No fog machine! I say.

  He doesn’t hear me. Or if he hears, he’s not listening.

  Instead he’s rocking and smiling and clicking his tongue. “You want to go?” Sara says, smiling even more. “I think he wants to go, Marc.”

  Gus bounces a little and squeaks at a boy walking by with a lot of glow sticks around his neck. It’s starting to get dark, which means his head looks like an egg in a glowing nest.

  “Let’s do it, Marc. I think we should do it.”

  “I don’t know, Sare. I feel like we’ve had a great day, maybe we shouldn’t push it.” He’s thinking about Gus crying on the cars a few minutes ago. Sara doesn’t like it when Marc says things like “Let’s be careful.” Or “No.”

  “Or maybe we build on a great day and do something bold because we shouldn’t be afraid all the time.”

  Gus covers one ear with his hand, like he’s not sure if he wants to hear this conversation or not. He rocks back and forth, which is what he usually does when he listens, even though to other people it doesn’t look like he’s listening.

  “Okay,” Marc says. “Let’s give it a try . . .”

  Gus squeaks and turns in the direction of the Spooky Walk like he’s not only been listening the whole time, he’s memorized this whole park and remembers where it is.

  Unfortunately, the Spooky Walk has the longest line in the park. For most of the day, Gus has had a special card that the person at the front of the line stamps with a time, which means Gus has to wait the same amount of time as everyone else but he doesn’t have to stand in line while he’s waiting.

  I don’t think Gus can stand in lines.

  He needs to walk back and forth and bounce up and down. If he had to stand in line, he would crash into people and make them mad.

  “Uh-oh,” Marc says after he asks the man up front to stamp our card. “He says that because this is a special event for Fright Fest, they can’t give us a time to come back for this one, Gussie. We’d have to wait in line, which is about an hour right now. Looks like we can’t do it.”

  The problem is Gus can see the first part. There’s a forest and they’ve hung a curtain between two trees that you have to walk through. Every time the curtain moves, we can see a flash of green light.

  Gus wants to see what that green light is.

  I want to see what that green light is, too. It winks on and off when the curtain moves.

  “I’m sorry about the Spooky Walk, Gus, but we should get going anyway,” Marc says. “It’ll be dark soon.”

  Gus doesn’t want to leave. I can tell by the way his body has stopped moving.

  “Dad’s probably right, sweetheart,” Sara says. “We don’t want to be here in the dark when it gets even scarier.”

  They start to walk away but Gus doesn’t move.

  “Come on, Gus,” Marc calls. “It’s time to go.”

  I want to help him. Can you say nis, Gus? If you say nis they’ll know you don’t want to leave yet.

  He turns away from me like he can hear me but I’m confusing him. He already has too many voices talking to him. Sara bends down to look in his eyes. “What is it, babe? Do you want to stay and go on the Spooky Walk even if it means waiting in line? I think he wants to stay, Marc. Do you want to stay, Gus?”

  Gus doesn’t have a word for yes exactly. Usually his body says yes by squeaking and rocking. Sometimes his hands say it by flapping.

  He doesn’t do any of that now. He’s scared that if he moves, they’ll take him back to the car.

  Say yes, I tell him with my mind. My eyes have an easier time finding his because he’s almost always looking down. Say yes and they’ll stay. They’ll let you see what the green light behind the curtain is.

  We all wait. That’s one important thing about Gus. You have to be patient and wait for him to click through everything his brain is thinking.

  I don’t know what his brain is thinking right now. I can’t hear him think.

  Then I’m surprised.

  “Y-y-y-” he starts to say. This is different from anything I’ve heard from Gus.

  He wants this enough to force his mouth to say it.

  “Yesss . . . ,” he says and hiccups.

  Sara puts her hand over her mouth. Marc hugs her from the side.

  They want to hug Gus, I can tell, but they can’t.

  “Okay, buddy,” Marc says. “Okay—you said yes, you want to stay. That means we’re going to stay. We’re definitely going to stay.”

  Spooky Walk

  IT’S NOT EASY. THEY TAKE TURNS waiting in line, while the other one waits with Gus and me on a bench beside the line. When it’s finally our turn, Sara says she wants us to all go in together. Marc looks at her funny and she says, “Of course it’s okay to bring Chester. It’s the woods.” She’s already asked the guy up front, who looked at my vest and shrugged okay.

  When we walk past the curtain, we hear an eerie howl that hurts my ears. I wish I could have said nis to this idea.

  The green flashing light is bright and coming from inside a pot that a witch is stirring. “Are you sure you want to come in here?” she cackles. “The last people just disappeared. I think they’ve gotten lost in the woods.”

  Sara laughs and whispers to Gus, “She probably says that to everyone.”

  Say nis, I tell him. Say you’ve changed your mind and you’ve decided nis to the Spooky Walk.

  The witch has on a long black dress and running shoes underneath. I don’t think the others can see her shoes, but I can. It worries me that maybe she’s planning to run after us.

  “If you don’t see them, you might try looking for my cat, Brunhilda, or my Flying Monkeys. They escaped a while ago and they’re getting pretty hungry by now.”

  Flying Monkeys?

  “She’s kidding,” Sara says, and moves us along. She and Marc are holding Gus’s hands, which surprises me. I’ve never seen him hold their hands before. It’s nice to see, but then I wonder: Wait, who’s holding my leash?

  We leave the witch and walk up the path toward another light, this one white. We can hear noises in the woods around us but we can’t see anything.

  “Remember, these are all actors, so we don’t have to be scared,” Sara says, sounding scared. “They can say whatever they’d like, but no one’s allowed to touch us.”

  Marc laughs a little. “Is that in a rule book somewhere?”

  Just then a man wrapped in bandages jumps out from behind a tree in front of us. “Gahhhh!” he says, and then behind him, there’s another voice. “Not them!”

  The bandaged man steps back and disappears.

  Sara whispers to Marc, “I think they see Chester and they know they shouldn’t scare us too much. Isn’t that nice of them?”

  Yes, I think, very nice, and then a second later, a tree in the path ahead of us moves. It starts walking toward us, which makes me think maybe it’s not a real tree at all. As soon as it gets closer, I know it’s not a real tree because it smells like cigarettes.

  “Watch out for the tree!” Marc says, pulling us to one side.

  The tree runs by after we get out of its way. I don’t know if Gus is as scared as I am. He’s not making any noises, so it’s hard to tell.

  “Look, we’re okay!” Sara is still trying to laugh, like this is all fun. This isn’t fun. This stopped being fun when the tree started running. “There’s a tunnel up ahead.”

  The tunnel is made out of
sheets and has lights on inside, which seems fine until we walk in and there’s so much fog that I start sneezing. I sneeze and sneeze and sneeze. When I finally stop, I can’t see Gus or Sara or Marc. I walk ahead where they must have gone, but they aren’t there.

  That’s when I remember that no one is holding my leash.

  I’m all alone and I can’t see anyone from my family. Even worse, I can’t smell them. All I can smell is smoke and chemicals that hurt my nose.

  I turn around to walk out the way we came in. If Gus isn’t holding my leash, I’m scared he’s lost. I need to find him. My heart starts racing faster.

  Outside in the fresh air, I can breathe again, but my nose realizes right away they’re not out here. They haven’t come this way. My people are in the fog where my nose can’t find them.

  I go back in.

  I bump into someone, who screams and says, “Something touched me!”

  I don’t want to scare other people. I just want to find my family. I keep my nose close to the ground but I still can’t smell them. I listen carefully. I don’t hear them, either.

  I don’t know why they aren’t calling my name or looking for me.

  I keep going through the tunnel, following a pair of men’s shoes even though they don’t belong to Marc. I need to get to the other end of this fog tunnel. If I get there, I think, I will find them waiting for me.

  I pass another witch talking to a skeleton with red lights where his eyes should be.

  I’m not going to look up again until I’m out of this tunnel.

  I can smell fresh air. I’m getting closer.

  I’m almost there. I listen for my name.

  They’ll be there and they’ll be so happy to see me. They’ll say, “Chester, what happened, are you okay?”

  I keep walking. Gus is okay, I think. Gus is with his parents and he is fine. I can smell the air now. I follow the shoes out of the tunnel and that’s when I realize my terrible mistake.

  The shoes belong to a teenager and the spooky people in the forest don’t mind scaring teenagers.

  Someone jumps in front of us. “Gahh!”