Watch Me

by Norah McClintock

  I just stared at him. I didn’t have that much money. Finally I said the only thing I could think of: “That watch is stolen. I can call the police.”

  The man crossed his arms over his chest.

  “You do that,” he said. “And I’ll tell the police about you and your friend. I’m sure they’ll want to know how your friend got hold of a stolen watch and why you came in here and tried to buy it even though you know it’s stolen. Hey, you know what? Maybe I’ll be a good citizen and I’ll call them.”

  I felt like smashing one of the store’s display cases. No matter what I did, things went wrong.

  “Keep the stupid watch,” I said. “I don’t care.”

  The man didn’t say anything. I sure hoped he wouldn’t call the cops on me.

  chapter ten

  My mom was in the kitchen when I got home. “Kaz?” she called when she heard me come through the front door.

  I hurried up to my room and stashed the purse in my closet.

  “Kaz?” My mom appeared in the door to my room. “You’re soaking wet,” she said, looking from me to the wet spots on the carpet.

  “I—I took a walk, and it started to rain.”

  “I can see that,” she said. “Neil told me you weren’t here when he got home. I was getting worried.”

  “I’m sorry. It’s just that—” I thought about the purse. My mom was looking at me, waiting for me to say something. “I hate school. I’m tired of being the dumbest kid there.”

  “You’re not dumb,” my mom said. “You have a disability. Lots of really smart people have the same disability.”

  “Tell that to Rufus.”

  “Who’s Rufus?”

  “He’s the guy who picks on me all the time. That’s why I got into trouble the other day. He never lets up.”

  She frowned. “Is this boy Rufus bullying you?”

  “He’s always making fun of me. And he’s got lots of friends. They all back him up.”

  “Do you want me to talk to Ms. Everett?”

  I shook my head. That would only make things worse.

  “Maybe we can talk about how you can handle the situation,” my mom said.

  I didn’t see what good that would do.

  “We can role-play,” she said. “There’s a solution to every problem, Kaz. We can deal with this. You’ll see.” She gave me a hug. When she pulled back, her nose was wrinkled up. “why don’t you take a quick shower, put on some clean clothes and come downstairs,” she said. “I have a surprise for you.”

  A surprise?

  I showered and changed. My mom was waiting for me in the living room. There was a package sitting on the coffee table. It was wrapped in paper that had balloons all over it.

  “Go ahead. Open it,” she said.

  I ripped the paper off. It was the games system I had wanted for my birthday. I stared at her.

  “I guess hockey equipment wasn’t such a good idea. We just thought that if you started to play again—” She shook her head. “Neil and I know you’ve been having a hard time, Kaz. We want you to be happy. We really do.”

  I looked at the games system again. “What about the hockey equipment?” I said. “Wasn’t it expensive?”

  “I returned it.” She smiled at me. “Neil is out with some friends tonight, so it’s just you and me. How about if I order a pizza, and you run down to the video store and rent a movie for us to watch?”

  “Really?” My mom and I used to have movie nights at least once a week before Neil moved in. We hadn’t had one in a long time.

  “Really,” my mom said. “In fact, get two movies. We’ll make it a double feature. And don’t forget the popcorn. We’re going to celebrate.”

  “My birthday, you mean?”

  She nodded. “And something else too.” She was still smiling, but she looked a little nervous now. “Neil asked me to marry him.”

  What?

  I stared at the games system.

  “Is that why you and Neil bought me that?” I said. “As a bribe?”

  “A bribe? What do you mean, Kaz?”

  “I hate Neil. I hate that he lives here. You could buy me a million presents and I’d still hate him.”

  “Kaz, please—”

  I swept the box with the games system in it off the table. For a moment my mom did nothing. Then, slowly, she picked it up and put it back on the table.

  “Neil is a good person, Kaz. I don’t know how I would have got through the last couple of years without him.”

  “You said yes, didn’t you?”

  “I know the two of you will get along once you know each other better. You’ll see.”

  “I’ll never get along with him,” I told her. “I want to live with Dad.”

  “Kaz—”

  I went up to my room and slammed the door. I stayed there all night. Nothing was going right.

  Nothing.

  The games system was sitting on my desk when I woke up the next morning. My mom must have put it there after I fell asleep. Well, it could sit there forever as far as I was concerned. I didn’t want it anymore.

  “Hey, good morning, Sport,” Neil said, grinning, the next morning when I went down to get something to eat. Did he think a games system was going to make me like him? Did he think I’d be so grateful that I would accept him as my new dad? I poured myself some cereal and took it up to my room to eat. I stared at the stupid games system while I chewed. I had practically begged for it, and now all I wanted to do was throw it out the window. I even thought about doing it. I thought about the crashing sound it would make when it hit the patio and the look Neil would have on his face when he yelled at me and told me how ungrateful I was. I stared at the stupid box.

  My mom and Neil went grocery shopping after breakfast. While they were out, I called Drew. I needed his help with something— actually, with a couple of things.

  “Can I sleep over at Drew’s place tonight?” I asked my mom when she and Neil got back with the groceries.

  “What about your homework?” Neil said.

  “I’ll do it tomorrow.”

  “Did Drew’s mom say it was okay?” my mom asked.

  “You can call her and double check,” I said.

  My mom frowned at me for a moment, like she was worried about something. Then she hugged me.

  “Okay,” she said. “But don’t forget your toothbrush. And use it, Kaz, okay?”

  I took my toothbrush and some clothes. I also took the purse. I didn’t want my mom to find it while I was gone. I was going to throw it away again. And I took the games system. My mom smiled when she saw the box tucked under my arm.

  “I hope you and Drew have a good time with that,” she said. “But don’t stay up all night, okay?”

  chapter eleven

  Drew and I went up to the mall. After we did what we had come for, we stopped by the food court for some Cokes. We were on our way to the bus stop when I heard someone call my name. It was Jana. She came over to Drew and me.

  “I thought that was you,” she said.

  “Hey, Jana,” I said. I wished she hadn’t spotted me. I wished she would go away.

  “I saw my grandma last night, and guess what?” she said. “She’s going to be okay. They’re letting her go home on Monday.” She sounded relieved about that. She smiled at me like she thought I should be happy for her.

  “That’s great,” I said.

  “Yeah, it really is.”

  She kept smiling at me.

  “Did your dad tell her about the watch?” I asked finally.

  Jana nodded. “My grandma was really upset. She cried. I’ve never seen her cry before. It made me want to cry too. But she talked to the police. She remembered a few things about the boys who stole her purse.”

  My heart slammed to a stop in my chest. Jana’s grandmother had looked right at me. I wondered if she’d seen the scars under my hoodie.

  “She wears glasses, and they fell off,” she said. “But she saw one of the boys before the
attack and she said she was pretty sure she would recognize him again if she saw him. And she said the other one was wearing a baseball cap.” She glanced at Drew. He had on his baseball cap, just like always. “They were playing with a Frisbee. It’s not much, but the police were really nice to her. They said they’d do their best.”

  “That’s great,” I said again.

  Drew nudged me. “we have to get going, Kaz.”

  “Like I said, the police were really nice,” Jana said. “They told my dad that they don’t have a lot of time to go looking for purse snatchers, but they circulated a description of the watch and they put a notice out to all the pawnshops in case someone tries to pawn it. I guess that’s something.”

  “I guess,” I said.

  Drew nudged me again.

  “Anyway, I just wanted to tell you what’s happening,” Jana said. “You’ve been so nice about everything. I thought you’d like to know.”

  “Yeah,” I said. My cheeks felt like they were on fire. “Thanks.”

  I said good-bye to Jana, and Drew and I practically ran to the bus. We found seats, and Drew punched me on the arm.

  “I think The Princess has the hots for you,” he said.

  “She does not,” I said. Then I couldn’t help it: “You think so?”

  “Definitely.” Drew grinned. “Too bad it’s too late, huh?”

  I looked out the bus window. Jana hadn’t turned out to be anything like I’d expected. She was nice to me. She didn’t stare at my scars. She didn’t say anything that made me feel stupid. She treated me like I was a regular guy. She had even offered to help me with my schoolwork.

  Yeah, it was too bad it was too late.

  A little later, Drew and I were standing outside the bus terminal downtown.

  “So, I guess this is it,” Drew said.

  “Yeah.”

  “If your mom calls, I’ll tell her you’re in the bathroom or something.”

  “She won’t call,” I said. I’d slept over at Drew’s house plenty of times. My mom had never called even once. She knew Drew’s mom, so she never worried.

  “She’ll call eventually,” Drew said. “She’ll call when you don’t go home tomorrow.”

  “Then you can tell her the truth,” I said. “It’ll be too late for her to do anything about it.”

  Drew nodded. He looked at me and then down at the pavement. He shuffled his feet. “I guess I’m going to miss you,” he said finally.

  “I know I’m going to miss you,” I said. Drew was the best friend I’d ever had. What if I never made another friend as good?

  “Well, good luck,” he said. “Call me when you get there, okay?”

  I promised I would.

  I watched Drew walk away. Then I pushed open the door to the bus station. There was a counter along one wall where you could buy tickets. I fished out the piece of paper where Drew had written down my dad’s address and phone number, and I got into line. My stomach was doing back flips. I couldn’t believe that I was actually here. My hand closed around the wad of bills that I had got when I returned the game system. I had been worried that it wasn’t enough, so Drew called the bus station for me to check how much a one-way ticket would cost.

  “You’re golden,” he said. “With the money from the watch and the money from the games system, you can buy a bus ticket and get something to eat whenever the bus pulls over for a rest stop, and you’ll still have a little left over for when you get there.”

  The line moved forward.

  I glanced around the bus station. It was full of people walking around, sitting and waiting for buses, reading, eating, drinking coffee. I wondered where they were all going. I wondered if any of them was as nervous as I was. It had been a long time since I’d seen my dad. My plan was to surprise him. I wondered what he would say when I finally got there and called to ask him to pick me up. I wondered what his new wife was like and whether his baby—a little girl, my half-sister—would like me. I wondered what school would be like where my dad lived.

  The line moved forward again.

  I thought about Drew and how he never made fun of me and never stared at my scars, and how he helped me with my homework as much as he could. I thought about Jana too. It was just my luck to meet someone as nice as her in such a stupid way. I wondered what she would think if she ever found out what I had done. I thought about her grandmother and her purse, which was still in my backpack. I felt sick when I thought about the watch. It had taken more than sixty years for that watch to make its way back to Jana’s grandma. And then I had taken it.

  “Next,” a voice called. It was a ticket agent. He was looking right at me.

  chapter twelve

  Drew almost fell over when I surprised him at his locker on Monday morning.

  “I thought you’d be at your dad’s by now,” he said. “What happened? Did your mom...?” He stopped and looked at me for a moment. “She never called our house,” he said. “I was sure she would, but she never did. You...?”

  “I changed my mind,” I said.

  “But you said you couldn’t stand being around Neil anymore. You said—”

  “Well, if you really want me to go—”

  “No way,” he said, grinning at me. He punched me on the arm. “Hey, you want to go up to the mall after school? You could buy that games system back...”

  “No, I can’t,” I said. “I don’t have enough money.”

  I had finally made it to the front of the line at the bus station when the ticket agent called out, “Next!” I started toward the counter. I was almost there when my feet stopped walking. The ticket agent looked impatiently at me. I looked down at the money in my hand. Then I turned and walked out of the bus station.

  The man in the military antiques store scowled when he saw me, but it didn’t take long before he changed his expression. From there I went to a postal outlet where I bought a big padded envelope. I filled it and sealed it and went up to the counter. I was relieved that I was the only person there besides the guy behind the counter. He looked at me, waiting for me to tell him what I wanted. I sucked in a deep breath and tried not to look as embarrassed as I felt. My mom always said that I should never feel embarrassed.

  “I have a learning disability and I need help finding an address,” I told the guy behind the counter. He was young, and I thought he was going to give me attitude. But he didn’t. Instead he said, “Do you know the person’s name?”

  “The last name is King,” I said.

  He did something on his computer. “Do you have a first name or initial?” he said.

  I knew Jana’s name, but I didn’t know her grandma’s name. I shook my head.

  “You know the street they live on?”

  I knew the neighborhood—it was over near where Drew’s mom worked. But I had no idea what street Jana’s grandma lived on. I shook my head again.

  The clerk sighed. “There are a lot of Kings in the city,” he said. “If you want your package to get to the right one, I’m going to need either a first name or a street name.”

  Then I had an idea.

  “Royal Avenue,” I said.

  He stared at me. “You’re kidding, right? King on Royal avenue?”

  “I’m serious,” I said.

  He turned back to his computer screen. After a minute, his face changed. “Here it is,” he said, sounding amazed. “D. King on Royal avenue.” He laughed. “You want me to write down the address for you?”

  “Could you write it on the envelope?” I said. “My handwriting isn’t very good.”

  He hesitated, but he did it, still without giving me any attitude.

  “Do you want to put a return address on it?” he asked.

  I shook my head and paid for the postage.

  For the first time in a long time, I felt good about something I had done.

  After I left the postal outlet, I made a phone call. It didn’t go well. The good feeling I’d had when I arrived at the bus station had disappeared. I headed
home.

  “I thought you were sleeping over at Drew’s tonight,” my mom said when she saw me.

  “Drew’s brother is sick, so we had to cancel.”

  My mom studied my face for a few moments. “You don’t look so well yourself,” she said. She pressed a hand against my forehead. “Are you feeling okay, Kaz?”

  “I’m going to go and lie down for a while,” I said.

  My mom nodded. “I’ll check in on you later.”

  Jana came up to me at my locker two days later.

  “Hey, Kaz,” she said. “I wanted to tell you— my grandma got her watch back.”

  “She did?” I said, like it was a big surprise.

  “She got her purse back too.”

  “Wow, that’s great,” I said. “She must be happy.”

  “She was thrilled. The very first thing she did was get my dad to take the watch to a repair place to see if they could get it running again. Then she’s going to pack it up and send it to my brother in Afghanistan before anything else happens to it.”

  “I’m glad it worked out,” I said. I was supposed to meet Drew in the cafeteria, but now I didn’t want to go. I wanted to stay and talk to Jana. I wanted her to want to stay and talk to me.

  “But it’s weird,” she said.

  “What is?”

  “Whoever had the purse sent it to my house instead of to my grandmother’s place.”

  “Yeah? So?”

  “You know what that means, don’t you, Kaz?”

  “No.” I had no idea what she was getting at.

  “Think about it,” she said. “Whoever had the purse or whoever found it mailed it to my house. My house, Kaz.”

  All of a sudden I wished I was safe in the cafeteria with Drew—or that Drew was here with me so that he could help me figure out what was going on and what to say.

  “Maybe they didn’t know where your grandma lived,” I said.

  “That’s the thing,” Jana said.

  What was the thing? What was she talking about?

  “All the ID was gone out of my grandma’s purse,” Jana said. “So, either it fell out or the person who stole the purse got rid of it.”