Joey then launched into a sermon. This day he spoke about the Ten Commandments. I knew all of them already, so I kind of sat back and let him go through the list, smiling and nodding but not getting much of anything new out of the sermon.
But then he said something that struck me. He said, “Wouldn’t it be a great world if everybody followed the Ten Commandments?” How true. No stealing. No killing. No lying. None of that. The Ten Commandments—now those were some rules you didn’t mess with.
I was so struck by Joey’s statement that I didn’t really listen to the rest of the sermon. After he was done, Joey prayed with his arms raised, then passed the offering plate. I took it and stared at it for a second. He wasn’t quite sure what I was going to do with it, and neither was I. But then I reached into my pocket and took out 12 starbills—everything I owned—and placed it into the offering plate. He looked at the money as if it were the Holy Grail. I patted him on the shoulder and said, “Thanks, Joey.” He was still staring at the money when I started to leave.
“Good sermon, huh?” Mr. Whittaker said.
“Yeah,” I replied. We headed to Whit’s End together in silence. I was considering the perfect world that Joey had described.
I’m not exactly sure why I gave everything I owned to the church. Maybe it was because the church was the last thing in Kidsboro that I felt I could have faith in.
The following week, right out of the blue, the impossible occurred.
I was at Whit’s End with Scott on the first day of summer vacation. We had been spending a lot of time together, mostly away from Kidsboro. Without me, I guess he didn’t have any reason to be there either.
“You wanna take an Imagination Station adventure?” Scott asked. The Imagination Station was Mr. Whittaker’s most popular invention. It was like a time machine, where you could visit places in history and people from the Bible. I wasn’t really in the mood for an adventure, but Scott got in and started pressing buttons.
“How about the Boston Tea Party? You wanna go there?”
Just then, I noticed a boy in a leather jacket glancing over at us. I couldn’t see his face well, but every now and then I would look over and he would quickly turn the other direction. It was as if he was staring at me, but didn’t want me to know it. I looked in at Scott.
“Oh, let’s do the Lewis and Clark adventure! That’s so cool!”
I tried to listen to Scott, but heard footsteps behind me. I turned.
“Jim Bowers,” he said, looking at me. A lump settled in my throat.
“W-W-What?”
“You’re Jim Bowers,” he said.
My leg was shaking uncontrollably. “You … you’re mistaken. My name is Ryan.”
“Gimme a break, Jim. I’d know you anywhere. What, in four years you’ve already forgotten me? Jake Randall.”
I glanced at Scott to see what his reaction to all this was. He was half concentrating on his list of adventure options and half on me. I turned toward the machine. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said.
“Don’t be an idiot, I know who you are.”
Scott shifted in his seat to get a square look at this kid. “Pardon me for being on Earth, but you’ve got the wrong person. His name is Ryan Cummings.”
“Ryan Cummings?” he said with a chuckle. “Get real, Jim. Stop the game. I know it’s you.”
I turned around, showing a little more anger than I probably should have. “Listen, I don’t know what you’re talking about. My name is Ryan, and this Jim is probably somebody that just looks like me, okay? Now would you please leave us alone?” I quickly became very interested in the Imagination Station.
From behind me, I could sense he was deep in thought. “I don’t know what you’re doing. Maybe you think I’m mad at you or something. I’m not. I’m okay. But I’m staying here with my grandmother until the end of the summer. I’ll find out what’s going on.” I watched him in the reflection of the computer screen inside the cockpit. He stood there for a second, then left. I exhaled.
“You know that guy?” Scott asked.
“No. Never seen him before.”
I ran my fingers through my hair and took a deep breath. Jim Bowers. I hadn’t heard that name in four years.
I felt bad about lying at Whit’s End, but I had panicked. It was a matter of personal safety, and I didn’t know what to do. One day I would have to apologize to everyone for my deception. But for now, I tried to forget about it. I had a feeling it wasn’t over, though.
Reports had it that things were going great in Kidsboro. All of Valerie’s friends had become citizens. Somehow she got her pool, and it was the hot spot, even though it hadn’t gotten quite warm enough in Odyssey to really require a pool. The pool was three feet deep and only 15 feet in diameter, but she packed the min there like sardines. Last I heard, She was working on the volleyball court. I couldn’t imagine that she wouldn’t get it.
I read a lot of books in my bedroom that week. Before we had started Kidsboro, my summers had always been spent reading alone in my bedroom. I would read about 20 books a summer. So in a way, it was kind of nice to get back to that.
I would take trips into Kidsboro just to see what was going on, but I’d never spend more than a few minutes there. Nobody said a lot to me as I passed them on the streets. I guess they didn’t want to disturb my grieving process—or maybe they just felt guilty for not voting for me. Whatever the case, I didn’t feel much like I was a part of the community any more. But I still had my books.
I was reading a good one when my mom told me I had a visitor. I went to the front door and looked through the screen. It was Jill. “Hey,” she said softly, smiling.
“Hey,” I replied the same way.
“Whatcha doin’?”
“Reading. What are you doing?”
She shrugged. “Just thought I’d stop by. Haven’t seen you in a while.”
“Yeah …” I looked out at the front porch swing and motioned to it. We sat down. “I haven’t spent a whole lot of time in Kidsboro lately.”
“I know,” she said, pushing her hair away from her eyes. I was wondering if she had a point to this visit, but it didn’t matter to me if she didn’t. It was nice just to see her.
“Marcy and I made up,” she told me. I thought there was a slight tone of forgiveness in her voice, and I eased up a bit.
“Good.”
This was not her point. She had another one. “So, have you decided that you don’t want to be our friend if you can’t be our may or?” This was not the point I expected. I expected one about a thousand times less blunt. She backed off when she saw me practically swallow my own tongue. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that. I know you’re just … depressed or whatever.” She looked at me deeply, like She was trying to sense what I was feeling. “You feel like you’re losing your town?”
By this point, I had pretty much recovered from the first question, so I answered her. “I guess a little bit.”
“Well, you’re not. We miss you. And we need you.”
“You need me? Why?”
“I don’t know. There’s just something not right about everything when you’re not there.”
“You mean it’s a lot more fun when I’m not there,” I said.
“Oh … Valerie’s done some good things, I won’t lie. The pool’s a blast. She’s got about a hundred other ideas, too. The place is gonna be Disneyland by the time she’s through. She’s even gotten a few people new jobs in the rec center she’s building. But … it doesn’t have the same … I don’t know, feeling to it. We used to be such a family, you know? Well, the stuff that happened with me and Marcy kind a stunk, but still … deep down we were all friends, and we liked being around each other.”
“And now?”
“Now … well, for example, Luke Antonelli’s planning on moving next to Nelson. And Nelson’s scared of him. He doesn’t even want to live there anymore. He says he’s gonna build another house somewhere else. And two of V
alerie’s friends had a fistfight the other day. Stuff like that never happened before. Makes me think it’s because you’re not around.”
“I’m surprised you’d say that. I thought you’d be thrilled to have Valerie as your mayor. No lawsuits. She probably lets you print whatever you want in the paper.”
“Sure, but … I’d rather have you.”
“Really?”
She pushed her hair away from her face again and blushed a little. She looked at me. “I was your third vote.” She cocked her head and laughed. I laughed too, because I never would’ve guessed that.
“Why?” I asked.
“Because you were right. I never should have printed that story about Roberto’s dad. And you were right about Roberto being innocent. And even though it didn’t work out the way you wanted it to, that jobs program was something you thought would be a good thing for the town. And if we had given it more time, I think it probably would have worked. You’re always thinking of the town first. You’re always doing whatever’s right. You’re the only person I know who does that. And I want somebody like that as my mayor.”
“But I lost.”
“Come back anyway.”
I thought about it for a second, and the next logical question came to my mind. “What am I gonna do for a living?”
“I don’t know. You can work with me. Be my sports editor. You won’t get paid. I’m still paying off Corey. But we’ve got a volleyball court coming, you know.”
We laughed for a second, and then decided we had other things to talk about. We sat and talked until the sun went down.
12
PLAYING WITH FIRE
I DECIDED JILL WAS RIGHT about coming back and being a productive member of society, so I went back to Kidsboro. But I still wanted to ease back into it, so I figured I would take a job in which I wouldn’t have to do any work. The perfect job immediately came to mind. I would work for the Scott Sanchez Detective Agency!
Scott was excited about having me as an employee, not just because he had his best friend with him, but because he liked the idea of being my boss. Of course, he didn’t have any real orders to give me, but every now and then he would make something up. “Wipe off my magnifying glass,” he would say.
I was pulling up weeds in front of the agency when I saw someone walking toward me. I couldn’t believe my eyes. It was Rodney Rathbone, the biggest bully in school and a mortal enemy of mine. He had on swim trunks and had a towel draped around his neck.
“Cummings!” he said, smiling like he was my best friend. “Thought you quit this place.”
“I just … took a vacation.”
“Well, how about a little swim?” I didn’t like being in the same zip code as Rodney, much less a place that introduced the possibility of drowning.
“No thanks.”
“Oh, come on. What, you can’t swim or somethin’?”
“I can, but I’m gonna stick around here.”
“Be that way then,” he said and started to leave. As if he regretted missing a perfect opportunity to pound me, he flicked his towel at me and stung my legs before he was out of reach.
After he was gone, I went inside to see Scott. “What is Rodney Rathbone doing here?”
“Oh, yeah,” he said. “I’ve been asking myself the same question. He just made it in last week.”
“He’s a citizen?”
“Valerie thought he could help out with getting electricity in the houses, since his Dad owns the Electric Palace store.”
“He’ll never pay attention to the rules here.”
“He probably doesn’t know there are any.”
“He asked me if I wanted to go to the pool.”
“Yeah,” Scott said. “I don’t go to the pool any more. Valerie’s friends always hog it. And they splash water in your face and dunk you and stuff.”
“What about everybody else? Do they go to the pool?”
“No. All the original people kinda stay away from Valerie’s friends. Pardon me for being blunt, but nobody really wants to be around them.”
My heart sank. I had to go to the pool and see this for myself.
Just as Scott said, Valerie’s friends were the only ones there. They seemed to be having fun, doing stunts and tricks they would never be able to do in a regular city pool with paid lifeguards. There wasn’t an original member of the town in sight.
I was about to go back to Scott’s place when I spotted someone out of the corner of my eye. It was Valerie, watching her friends in the pool. She looked worried, as if she knew She was losing her grip on things. She turned and saw me. We stared at each other for a second, and for the first time I found myself feeling sorry for her. I wanted to help her, if not for her sake, then for the sake of the town.
I walked over to her and we watched her friends in the pool for a few seconds. She didn’t look at me, as if it were illegal for us to be talking to each other.
She finally broke the silence. “I appreciate your concern, but don’t worry. I’m gonna fix this.” She left quickly.
Valerie called for a meeting, and the entire town gathered for it. The meeting hall had never been this packed. If everyone crowded under the roof, it would hold about 30 people. Today there were 35.All 28 pre-Valerie members of the town, plus seven of Valerie’s friends. A few people stood out from under the roof.
No one knew why the meeting was called, but everyone (except for maybe Valerie’s friends) was aware that there was a problem in the town. We figured this would be Valerie’s solution for it. Valerie stood up on stage and got everyone’s attention. She was all smiles, as if everything was just peachy.
“Thanks, everybody, for coming. I won’t keep you long, I just have one announcement. I’ve decided we should do something to celebrate the new era of Kidsboro.” Of course, this meant the era that started when she got me out of the way. “We’ve had a lot of new comers recently, and it doesn’t seem like we know each other very well. I think we should have a get-together. So this Thursday, we’re going to have a campfire.” This was met with a few smiles. Other people exchanged looks and shrugged their shoulders as if to say, “I guess there are worse ideas.”
Valerie went on. “It’ll just be a time to hang out. We’ll have some organized games, each of us will bring hot dogs and marshmallows …” Valerie’s friends suddenly paid attention. Food was involved. “And at some point, we’ll all introduce ourselves and get to know one another.” Most of the crowd seemed to approve of the idea, and Valerie grinned. “Any questions?”
There were none, and she dismissed us.
I’m not sure what Valerie expected to happen at the campfire. I imagine she had dreams of people holding hands around the fire while singing “Kumbayah.” Maybe Luke Antonelli and Scott Sanchez locked in an embrace of unity. I thought It was a good idea to try to bridge the gap between the two groups of people in the town, but I doubted it would actually happen. I figured I should show my support for Valerie by actually attending, at least for a little while. But I was not in the mood to bond with Rodney Rathbone.
The night was perfect. The sky was clear and the stars were bright. There was a cool breeze blowing through the woods so that when the fire started going, it would provide just the right amount of heat to make us all comfortable. Rodney had already picked the spot for the fire—a place in the middle of town. Everyone arrived with food, even the bullies, which surprised me. People had marshmallows and hot dogs and buns and potato chips and dip and soda and cookies and lots of other things. Everyone seemed to be taking this seriously. This was a great sign for Valerie, who I knew had to be nervous.
We all ate, and the groups sort of naturally separated themselves. Valerie’s friends were huddled in one group on one side of the fire, away from everyone else. There Was some interaction, but It was limited. At one point, I saw Luke Antonelli squeeze ketchup on Nelson Swanson’s hot dog. Valerie saw it and smiled. This was quite a victory for her, I knew. She must have had a talk with Luke beforehand.
Near the end of dinner, Valerie brought us all closer to the fire and suggested that we introduce ourselves. We were to say our names and what positions we held in town.
“I’m Valerie Swanson,” she began, “and I’m the mayor.” She chuckled artificially, obviously very proud of being able to say that.
We went around the circle. “I’m Ryan Cummings, and …” Everyone waited to see what I would say and how I would say it. “I work for Scott, here, at his detective agency.” I tried to say that with all the dignity that I could muster, but it just didn’t sound right. Rodney and his friends chuckled.
Then we got to them. “I’m Rodney Rathbone, and I’m the town drunk.” This was met with hilarious laughter from his group but no one else. I could tell Valerie was bothered by it, but she put on a straight face.
“Rodney is going to take my place as one of our town lawyers,” she said.
“Oh, yeah,” Rodney said. “That’s right. I’m doing that on the side.” More laughter from his crew.
They went on. “I’m Luke Antonelli. Pool maintenance.” More laughter. This was hardly a real job. Then again, neither was being Scott’s assistant.
Rodney and his gang of laughing hyenas continued, each making up a position and receiving a lot of laughs for doing so.
After the introductions, Valerie suggested we all play a game. As everyone was scurrying around getting ready, Scott and I took the opportunity to leave. I had put in my appearance, showing I supported and approved of our new mayor and her harebrained … I mean, good ideas.
Scott and I sat in his clubhouse and talked for a while. As we did, we heard encouraging sounds from the campfire area. People were laughing and having fun. I couldn’t believe it, but Valerie’s idea seemed to be working. She had brought together two groups of people that I never thought could’ve been brought together.
The Fight for Kidsboro Page 8
