Minn and Jake
Page 5
when the snow melts
in the mountains
one hundred miles north
of Santa Brunella,
so February, of course,
is the worst time
to climb down into the Gulch.
In August,
the stream in the Gulch
isn’t strong enough
to wash a toothbrush,
but in February—watch out!
∼
Minn’s great-grandmother says
a boy got washed down to the ocean
in that February river once,
when she was ten years old.
He was eleven.
They had just finished giving out valentines
at school.
He gave her a red velvet heart,
pasted on a real piece of lace,
her one and only valentine from a boy.
She didn’t give him one,
because he had only said hello to her twice.
How could she have known that he liked her?
For years she wished
she had made an extra valentine,
just in case.
She felt awful about it.
(There was no Mrs. Moss then,
and no Rule Number One.)
∼
His name was Danroy,
and he was a good climber,
and a good swimmer,
an excellent lizard-catcher,
and he knew the Gulch.
But the boys who climbed down there
that Valentine’s Day seventy-five years ago
got to throwing rocks,
and somehow
a rock hit the side of Danroy’s head,
or maybe
hit him between the eyes,
and he went under.
They think he got caught under another rock,
downstream. Maybe.
They never found the body.
∼
Today is the seventy-fifth anniversary
of Danroy’s drowning.
Minn’s great-grandmother
has been invited to speak at the school
to tell the story,
to honor the memory of Danroy,
and to keep the children of Santa Brunella safe.
Except
they don’t all seem to want
to be safe.
Minn’s great-grandmother
may be eighty-five years old,
but her hearing is as good as any lizard’s—
and she can feel it,
she can feel the whispers in the room,
mischievous whispers
coming from some certain
troublemaking fifth graders
named Henry and Vik.
∼
Because the only thing more exciting
to Henry and Vik
than climbing down into the Gulch
is climbing down into the Gulch
when you’re not supposed to.
You have rocks in your head!
The river’s too high!
Sabina knocks her knuckles against Henry’s head.
You want to get drowned?
We did it last week, Henry says.
It was easy, like taking candy from a baby—
Or the tail off a lizard, Vik says.
Minn knocks her knuckles against Vik’s head.
The weather’s warming up.
That’s what my great-grandmother is saying.
The water’s getting stronger every day.
Now is not like last week, Vik.
But Lola whispers,
Henry, Vik! I dare you!
30 / Truth or Dare
I dare you is Lola’s favorite line.
Lola’s dare made a certain girl whose name
starts with S and ends with A
dance down the street
stark naked
at midnight.
Lola’s dare made a certain girl whose name
starts with M and ends with N
eat a can of dog food
at a slumber party
then kiss Lola’s dog on the mouth.
And Lola’s dare is exactly
the excuse that Henry and Vik were hoping for.
∼
Henry and Vik
do not sneak down to the Gulch.
They march and yahoo to the Gulch,
and Lola tells all their friends to follow,
to watch
because
you can’t prove how brave you are
unless people are there
to ooooooooh
and aaaaaaaaah
and see the veins pop out of your neck
when you slide down
the steep sides of the ravine,
your fingernails ripping
as you try to find something to grab on to,
a rock—tumble!—
a handful—ouch!—of thistle,
whatever you can grab
to keep from sliding fast down—boom!—
to the bottom
where the river is growing fuller
by the hour.
Don’t vomit down there! Lola shouts,
and then Lola and Sabina giggle.
We’re not going to eat any worms!
Vik shouts back.
Lola and Sabina giggle.
Minn scowls.
∼
Who’s going next? Lola asks.
I dare you, Jake.
Jake is too small to climb down there!
Sabina says.
Don’t do it, Jake!
You’ll get swallowed up!
Prove that you’re not in love with Minn,
Lola says. Go down in the Gulch!
Minn is ready to push Lola
down into the Gulch
face first.
Don’t be stupid, Jake!
Jake is not stupid.
There is no way on earth
he is going to go down into that gulch,
not now,
not ever,
never.
It makes Jake dizzy
just to watch
Vik and Henry
throwing rocks down there.
What about you, Minn?
Lola says.
Say it’s true, you’re in love with Jake—
or if you’re not,
I dare you to go down into the Gulch
with Henry and Vik
to prove—
HELP!
H-E-L-P!
Vik is screaming.
Somebody! Henry went down!
Help! In the river! HELP!
31 / Rescue
Minn scrambles
down the steep side of the ravine.
No one can climb down into the Gulch
like she can.
She is holding on to a small tree,
a raggedy tree growing in the rocks.
It is bending low
and lower,
but not low enough for Minn to reach the next
ledge—
darn these silly slip-ons!
Her left shoe has just fallen off.
She should’ve worn her red sneakers.
∼
Minn is fifty feet above the river,
ten feet down from the top of the ravine,
as high as on a roof,
and dangling,
hanging on the bent tree,
holding onto rock
with three fingers
and a good-for-nothing slip-on clog—
hanging off-balance,
ready to fall.
Vik is shouting,
Hang on, Minn!
Lola says,
Look, she painted her toenails!
Henry jumps out of the bushes,
shouting,
I’ll rescue you!
Henry isn’t in the river?
∼
Sabina screams at Henry,
You stupid little joker!
Look what you did!
You stupidface, Henry!
Hang on, Minn!
Lola is laughing.
When did she paint her toenails?
Sabina turns to Lola and scowls.
Where is Jake?
Jake will have a good idea.
Jake is smart.
Where is Jake?
Ja-A-ake!
Is he really the coward everyone
thinks he is?
Jaa-AA-ke! Sabina shouts again.
Jaa-A-ke!
∼
Two minutes later,
two minutes that feel like an hour
of yelling
and crying
and sweating
and the slow-motion bending
of the raggedy tree,
and Henry and Vik trying to climb up,
and rocks breaking off in little chunks
(since it’s even harder to get out of the ravine
than it is to slide down into it),
two minutes later
a siren comes screaming—
a small fire truck
is here at the Gulch.
And Jake is running,
as fast as he has run in his whole life,
running with his backpack bouncing up
behind his head,
and his cell phone in his right hand,
and a plastic bag in his left hand,
a plastic bag
with half a huge almost-melted chocolate heart—
Jake is leading the way
for the rescuers!
32 / Happy Valentine’s Day, Jake!
Sabina is struggling
to give Jake a big hug,
and Jake is struggling
to get out of it.
Lola is trying to grab Jake’s
cell phone,
and Jake is shoving it
in his pocket.
Jake is inching
over to the edge of the Gulch,
close enough so he can see Minn
climb up the rescuers’ rope
(but not close enough to fall).
∼
Minn’s head rises up,
smiling.
When Minn reaches the top,
she rushes over to Jake
and gives him a big kiss
on the top of his head.
She and Sabina are hugging Jake
so tightly
that he is about to suffocate.
And everyone—
except for Lola,
who is starting to walk home—
is crowding around Jake,
patting his head,
or slapping his back,
or rubbing his shoulders,
or squeezing his hands,
and Jake feels his big heart
melting completely
to mush.
Happy Valentine’s Day, Jake!
33 / Crime and Punishment
As you can imagine,
Minn is in big trouble.
But as you can also imagine,
Vik and Henry
are in even bigger trouble.
No one hugged Vik and Henry
when the rescuers brought them up.
No one told them how brave
and how smart they were.
Not even Lola,
who is telling everyone
that Vik and Henry should have known
she was joking,
that’s how stupid they are.
Everyone saw that Vik and Henry
were safe
and then they left,
without saying anything.
And without saying anything,
they all knew
that this is the way it would be
for the rest of the school year,
for as long as Vik and Henry live in this town,
until they are ninety years old, even.
∼
No one talked to them,
no one listened to them,
no one screamed when they threw spaghetti
in the lunchroom.
No one asked them,
Why are you wearing a caterpillar mustache?
or
What is that smell in your backpack?
Not even Mrs. Moss.
Vik and Henry
became invisible,
nobodies,
untouchables—
until
today,
the last day of school.
∼
Jake and Minn
are on their way to Minn’s house,
but first
they are going to catch lizards
in the Screep.
Minn has been grounded
for four whole months,
and this is her first day of freedom,
in celebration
of the end of the school year.
But what are Vik and Henry doing here?
Their parents have grounded them,
haven’t they?
∼
Caught a lizard yet, Jake? Vik shouts,
Or only tails? Henry asks,
and throws a rock at Jake’s feet.
Four months of being untouchables
and Vik and Henry are even meaner than before.
Ignore them, Jake, Minn says.
But Jake doesn’t want to ignore them.
Why are you guys so mean? Jake asks.
Why are you guys so mean? Henry repeats
in a sassy high voice.
Why didn’t you ever say sorry?
Why didn’t you ever say sorry? Henry repeats.
Why? You want to know why?
Because there was no reason to say sorry.
We made a funny joke—and you ruined it!
There wouldn’t have been any trouble
if you hadn’t called 9-1-1.
We would’ve helped Minn back up to the top.
No one got hurt. Nobody would’ve, either.
You turned our little joke into one great big mess.
Why didn’t you ever say sorry to us?
∼
Jake can’t think of a thing to say.
This is the first time he has thought of it that way.
Everyone has been telling him he was a hero,
but maybe Henry is right.
Maybe no one would have been hurt.
If he hadn’t called 9-1-1,
Minn wouldn’t have been embarrassed
and grounded for four months.
You’re a fink, is what you are, Henry says.
He is not! Minn says,
spitting mad.
But now that the evil thought has been said,
Minn can’t help thinking, too:
maybe things would have been better
if Jake hadn’t overreacted.
Why is Jake such a city boy?
City fink! Henry says,
as if he is reading Minn’s mind.
I wish you’d go back where you came from!
Finkfinkfinkfinkfinkfink! Vik says,
crinkling his nose.
Finkfinkfinkfinkfinkfinkfink! Henry says,
and jumps up and down.
The sound of Henry and Vik’s finking
sounds an awful lot like the Breathy Song.
All of a sudden
the clouds begin to rumble
and crack—
Run!
34 / Storm
After the thunderstorm,
Jake tells Minn
the one thing
that will make Henry and Vik happier
than anything.
Jake is leaving Santa Brunella,
moving back to Los Angeles.
Why, Jake?
You don’t want to move back, do you?
My grandmother is sick,
so my mother is taking us,
Soup and me, there to keep her company.
My father
will stay here and work.
It’s just for the summer.
We’ll be back in September.
Minn cannot believe her rotten luck.
That empty odd pigtaily feeling
is starting to come back.
Stay here, with your father, Jake.
You can visit your grandmother half the month,
and come back half the month.
We could have a lot of fun in the summer.
I thought about your money-making idea,
and I’m ready to do it!
Minn’s Terrariums!
We can make a terrarium a day,
and sell it for $20!
My mother says she can sell at least ten
at her office.
Just think, we’ll be rich!
Jake is thinking of his old friends,
and how they used to collect stuff together,
and clean it up,
and sell it
at a table outside his house.
Jake misses his old friends.
He misses riding his bike on flat sidewalks,
and eating churros at the zoo,
and taking the bus to the beach.
But he will miss Minn, too.
Maybe she could visit,
and stay a few weeks.
Maybe she could stay half the month
in Santa Brunella
and half the month in Los Angeles?
Minn, you could visit us,
in Los Angeles.
My grandmother doesn’t have a big apartment.
But there’s room for you on the couch.
We could ride the bus
all the way down Wilshire Boulevard
to the beach,
and build tunnels in the sand.
Two blocks from my grandmother’s house
there is a pet store
where they have bearded dragons
and green iguanas.
We won’t need to catch our own lizards.
No more dull gray lizards—
we’ll walk to the pet store every day
and watch iguanas and chameleons!
Minn is staring at Jake, shaking her head,
with her mouth open.
Minn is thinking,
How can it be
that my new true best friend Jake
doesn’t understand that I like—love—
catching lizards?
Dull gray lizards?
Beautiful gray lizards!
How could he possibly think
that watching lizards in a pet store
could be as much fun?
And they have corn snakes
and parrots
and jellyfish—
Minn, it could be so much fun!
Silence. Breathing.
Minn feels cold.
And empty,
and tall,
and odd,
and pigtailed,
and very lizardy
and alone.
35 / The Long Sleep
Minn is feeling very cold,
wet from the storm.
Call your mom.
You’d better go home, Jake.
You need to pack for Los Angeles.