Flip the Bird

by Kym Brunner

  She shivered, or maybe it was a shudder. “I’ve got news for you, Mercer. I didn’t like you because you were an activist. I liked you because I thought you were a nice guy—​different from anyone I’d ever met before. But now I don’t know if that was the real you or if you’re like every other guy I’ve ever met—​only interested in video games and making out, so I’m out of here. Goodbye, Mercer. Don’t try to call me, because we’re done.”

  I stood there in the cold, wishing there was something I could do to make things right, but all I did was watch while Lucy walked out of my life and into Starbucks.

  TWENTY-TWO

  AFTER I FELT CONFIDENT I COULD SPEAK WITHOUT having my voice break, I called Lincoln. He came and retrieved me as if I were a lost puppy. The second I got in the car, he asked what was wrong, and I unloaded all that had happened. How I’d found the nerve to kiss Lucy and how everything was going great until Reed opened his big mouth and ruined it all. Lincoln said I should have punched his face in when I had the chance and then afterward told Lucy to either accept that I was a falconer or I’d dump her. That route would have been easy for him: he had both the muscles required to cream someone and a ton of replacement girlfriends if one left him.

  “If Lucy doesn’t like you because you hunt, forget her. Plenty of fish in the sea and all that.”

  “Thanks. I’ll keep that in mind.” But I didn’t want a different fish—​I wanted only Lucy. I had stupidly hoped Lincoln would tell me that come morning, she’d forgive me and all would be forgotten.

  After grabbing a Coke from the fridge, I walked briskly past Lauren and Maddie without stopping, merely calling out, “Later. Going to my room.” I definitely didn’t want to answer questions about how my night had gone, or I might lose it. I trudged upstairs and sat on my bed, guzzling soda, wondering how everything could sour so quickly.

  I didn’t drop off to sleep until sometime after two a.m., and only from pure exhaustion. Dispelling a popular myth, the light of the next day did not bring with it a sense that everything would turn out great. As I got dressed, wishing I owned a SHUT UP AND LEAVE ME ALONE T-shirt, I kept replaying the events of the night before. The thing that made me the angriest was that deep down Lucy had me all wrong. I was a nice guy, one who was interested in more than video games and making out. Well, you know, for the most part.

  I felt like calling Lucy and telling her that I’d gone through a lot of trouble to be with her. Maybe she’d be surprised, saying she hadn’t known how much I’d risked or realized that I’d put her wishes above my own. Maybe she’d say that she had made a huge mistake. I’d tell her it was okay, and then after we hung up, I’d call Reed and tell him what I thought of him. That he had no integrity, that he had some nerve throwing me under the bus to make himself look good. But as always, I chickened out.

  While I was in the rehab center doing my chores, Weasel popped over as promised. I was actually glad to see him. Maybe he’d have some advice for me. I called out that I had to weigh Liberty, our biggest mews guest.

  “So how’s the girl situation?” Weasel asked, following me to Liberty’s mews.

  While I coaxed our bald eagle out of the mews with a hunk of dried fish, I poured out the whole sloppy tale. Weasel trailed behind Liberty, listening intently as I led her onto the scale. After I finished, I needed to catch my breath. “So . . . what do you think I should do?”

  “You’re asking me? I’m not an expert on anything besides taking naps.” He chomped on his toothpick, not saying another word. After a few seconds, he removed the toothpick and held it in his hand. “I’ve always been a believer of if it’s meant to be, it’ll be. So maybe I’d just wait and see what pans out.”

  I typed Liberty’s weight into Dad’s laptop: 13.2 pounds. “Oh, trust me. It’s meant to be.”

  Weasel lifted his eyebrows. “Really? I always preferred dating women who liked me.” He stuck the toothpick back into his mouth, a smirk on his lips. “But that’s just me.”

  “Very funny. The thing is, all this time I was hiding who I really was, and it turns out, I didn’t need to. She said she wasn’t mad I was a falconer—​she was mad that I lied.”

  “There’s a saying that goes, ‘Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.’ Describes my first wife perfectly.” He chuckled, pulling a dried fish chunk from his flannel shirt pocket. “C’mon, Lib. Let’s get you back home.” He enticed Liberty off the scale and back to her mews. She had talons as sharp as steak knives, so we avoided carrying her around whenever possible. “I’ll tell you one thing, Skinny. Sometimes you just need to move on. You can’t fix what doesn’t want fixing.”

  Not from Weasel too. Why didn’t anyone say, “Everyone hides things to get the girl; don’t worry, she’ll forgive you”?

  We finished up and I thanked Weasel for his help, but truthfully, I felt as bad as I had before he came. I spent the rest of the afternoon playing video games while alternately thinking about anything I could say or do to get Lucy back. Sadly, my ideas were as lame as my attempts to eradicate the entire horde in Zombie Apocalypse.

  Around six o’clock, Maddie’s voice disengaged me from my Intravenous Video drip, calling, “Mercer! Pizza’s here!”

  Food. I hadn’t eaten since breakfast. I hurried downstairs into the brightly lit kitchen, my stomach rumbling in response to the smell of cheese and garlic. Maddie sat at the island with a plate of steaming pizza in front of her, the TV blasting.

  I pulled off a slice of pizza and took three huge bites. “Why is it so loud?” I picked up the remote, looking for the volume control.

  “Wait! Keep it loud like that!” she said in alarm. “Otherwise you can hear her laughing.”

  “Hear who laughing?” I asked, confused.

  “Boobzilla.” She pointed above us and frowned.

  It took me a second, but I got the picture. “Lincoln’s up in his room with Zola?”

  Maddie bit her lip and glanced behind her, then motioned to me to lean in close. “He told me to stay down here for the next hour. Then he said he’d have some”—​she lifted her fingers to produce air quotes—​“‘Peanut’ butter on his toast tomorrow if I said anything to Mom or Dad when they got home.”

  “He did what?” I couldn’t believe my brother was such a scumbag that he’d threaten to harm Maddie’s smelly little hamster so he could bring Zola over. Even worse, what kind of guy would sneak a girl to his room with his little sister around?

  “And I saw a hickey on his neck. Sick!”

  I shook my head, not quite believing what I’d heard. Not because Lincoln was two-timing Lauren again, but because Maddie knew what a hickey was. When had my little sister started growing up? “Let’s get out of here.” I grabbed two slices of pizza and folded them in half, not sure where we’d go. I figured Lincoln’s hot date wouldn’t take long, but what did I know? Just last night I’d had my first major make-out session with a girl who had the decency to close her eyes. First and last, at least with Lucy.

  “Maddie and I are leaving,” I shouted up the stairs. “We’ll be back in an hour.”

  I heard his bedroom door open a crack. “That’s great,” Lincoln replied. “Thanks!”

  Rolling my eyes, I headed outside. I helped Maddie with the chin strap of her helmet before having her hop on the back of my ATV. I cut across the outskirts of the Bakers’ soybean field toward Dairy Kitchen, at the far side of town. Ten minutes later, we strolled into the nearly deserted ice cream shop. I had only three bucks and some change in my pocket, which bought us one medium chocolate marshmallow sundae to split. Maddie and I kept trying to match each other bite for bite, and together, we ate the whole thing in under four minutes. So much for taking our time.

  I offered to take Maddie for a quick trip to Mount Trashmore before it got dark, and she was all for it. I drove down my favorite two-track path through the woods, pointing out a startled gopher and stopping to check out the fattest tree around—​which was actually four trees that had grown together into one
. Minutes later, I spotted a few does hidden in the dense brush about twenty yards from us. We lifted our visors and watched for a bit, trying not to make any noise. Being a nature guy at heart, I was beginning to feel a little more like myself.

  After the deer trotted away, Maddie said, “Before you drive home, I wanted to say I’m sorry for telling Mom and Dad about Lincoln the other day. That was a bad mistake and it slipped.” I almost told her that words don’t “slip” out of your mouth, that she had known what she was doing at the time, but before I could, she added, “But I want you to know I really can keep a secret. I did it because I was mad, but now I know that if you make a promise, you can’t go back on it just because you get angry. So . . . if you ever need to tell someone something, you can trust me. Seriously.”

  She looked so sweet and had said it so earnestly that I couldn’t help smiling. In all honesty, Maddie would be the last person I’d tell anything important to, but I tried to be a nice big brother. “Okay, Maddie, thanks. I’ll keep that in mind.”

  She paused a moment. “Are you going to tell Mom and Dad about Zola being over, because, like, I’m not going to tell. No way. My lips are sealed.” She pinched her lips tightly together, locked them with an imaginary key, and threw it over her shoulder.

  I had to laugh. “No, I’m not saying a word either, but Lincoln’s a jerk for dating Zola behind Lauren’s back. He shouldn’t lie to either of them like that.” As soon as the words were out of my mouth, I realized what a hypocrite I was.

  “Erm himm,” Maddie mumbled, pretending her lips were still stuck together. I tweaked her cheek the way my grandma always did to me when I was little.

  I dug into my pocket and handed her an imaginary key. “Here you go. I happen to be a lip smith.”

  Maddie took it and unlocked her mouth. “Whew, thanks! And I totally agree that Lincoln’s a loser for two-timing Lauren. Did you see how much eye makeup Zola wears? And how she giggles at everything Lincoln says, like he’s some kind of god?”

  “That’s unbelievably stupid, and I totally wish girls would do that whenever I spoke.”

  Maddie chuckled. “They will. As soon as you get some bigger muscles, that is.” She squeezed my bicep.

  “Hey, wait. Check this out.” I had her feel my biceps again, this time as I flexed it.

  “Ooh,” she purred. “Almost as big as mine.”

  “Real funny.” I flopped her visor down over her face and took off for home.

  When we got there, Zola and Lincoln were in the kitchen chowing down pizza. Lincoln was bragging to Zola about how he swore at some wimpy guy at the gas station, and Zola giggled throughout his story. Shocking, really. It must have been the one talent she possessed—​laughing and standing upright without falling.

  Lincoln wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. “Hey, Mercer. How’s it going, bro?”

  “It’s fine. Now.” I shot him a dirty look, hoping to convey how much of a loser he was.

  Lincoln ignored me and looked at Maddie. “Hannah called. Wants you to call her back.”

  “Hannah called? Cool.” Maddie ran out of the kitchen.

  I didn’t want to stand around making small talk, so I went upstairs. I thought of inviting Charlie over but didn’t want to rehash the whole stupid backstabbing thing with him. Thinking of it just made my gut twist, so I grabbed the controller and played Resident Evil 5 to get my mind off things.

  Maddie popped her head in my room a few minutes later, the phone pressed against her chest. “Mercer, can Hannah stay overnight?”

  “Why are you asking me? Go ask Lincoln.” I was too busy annihilating bad guys in the parking garage I had wandered into to make decisions like that.

  “After he said he’d hurt Peanut? No way. I am not speaking to him ever again.”

  I rolled my eyes. Girls. What did I care who she had over? “Fine. Just don’t tell Mom and Dad.”

  “That’s one thing you can count on.” She put the phone to her ear. “He said yes!”

  I lay around on my bed for the rest of the night with no one to answer to but the enemy. I dropped off to sleep mildly numb and relatively calm and stayed that way all night—​until Maddie’s ear-piercing, spine-splitting screams woke me early Sunday morning.

  TWENTY-THREE

  WHEN YOU’RE WOKEN UP OUT OF A DEEP SLEEP by your little sister’s screams, you know it’s not going to be good. The second I heard Maddie and Hannah, I could tell it wasn’t the usual “Oh-my-God-he’s-so-cute” shrieks. My gut did a flip as I threw back the covers and yanked on my jeans before bounding down the stairs, two at a time.

  “What’s wrong?” I yelled to Maddie, who stood by the back patio door. “Are you hurt?”

  “Look!” she cried, pointing outside.

  I followed the direction of her finger and saw something brown hanging upside down from the hose reel handle. I ran outside, my eyes still bleary from sleep. The grass was wet with dew as I sprinted across it. When I got closer and saw what it was, I lost the ability to breathe.

  The brown lump was Monocle.

  “Oh my God,” I whispered. “Please be alive.” I gingerly lifted her body and righted it. I called her name, hoping she’d open her eye. Even if she was badly injured, Dad could work his miracle on her. I rubbed her cheek. “Come on, Monocle. Wake up, girl.”

  Nothing. She felt heavy, lifeless. Desperate, I blew air into her mouth. “C’mon, breathe, Monocle.”

  No response. I tried a few more times, tears streaming down my face, but still nothing.

  I thrust my fingertips under her wing and found it was cold—​the hotbed of her body gone. “Nooooooo!” I cried, a searing pain in my chest. Monocle couldn’t be dead! Not my sweet, lovable Monocle. That’s when I saw the leather jess attached to her right leg hopelessly wrapped around the handle—​her poor toes were twisted and bloody.

  “How did you get out here?” I dried my tears on her chest feathers as I freed her from her death trap. I sat back on my heels, trying to remember last night’s schedule. After Weasel had left, I’d turned on the night-lighting system and gone inside.

  Had I been so lost in my thoughts that somehow I had left both Monocle’s door and the rehab door open? How else could she have escaped? I smoothed Monocle’s feathers, wondering how I could have been so careless when another of Maddie’s piercing screams filled the air, jolting my whole body into action.

  Maddie wailed, “Liberty’s stuck in the bushes!”

  What? There was no way she could have escaped too, unless Weasel had left her door open. But he was as skilled a falconer as my dad, so that was completely illogical. My heart pounded in fear and guilt as I gently set Monocle on the ground.

  “I’m sorry, Mon. Love you, girl.” I sprinted toward the back of the mews, hoping I could fix whatever was wrong. When I arrived, Liberty was wedged solidly in the center of our overgrown burning bush—​now an erratic tangle of red-leafed branches due to the onset of fall. Her wing lay outstretched over the top of the dense shrub, clearly stuck in the midst of it. While I watched helplessly, Liberty attempted one limp wing flap, her soft demeanor extremely troubling.

  “Go get Lincoln!” I yelled, with no clue what to do.

  Maddie wailed, “He went to work already!”

  “Damn it!” Liberty opened her mouth in alarm, stressing me out even more.

  Maddie began crying. “You’ve got to do something, Mercer! Don’t let Liberty die!”

  Hannah burst into tears. “I’m calling my dad.”

  “Don’t!” I warned, not wanting anyone else to be brought into this mess. “I won’t let her die. Please don’t cry, girls. And don’t call your dad yet—​I need your help first.” My voice cracked as I held back my own panic attack. I needed to be in control. I took a deep breath, trying to imagine what Dad would do. “Go get me two elbow-length gloves and Liberty’s hood out of her equipment chest.”

  “Okay.” Maddie ran off, with Hannah close behind.

  I spoke quietly to Liberty, tr
ying to assess how badly she was hurt. That’s when I noticed that her feet didn’t touch the ground. And then to my horror, I followed a path of blood that started under her wing and trickled in a line down her chest, forming a small puddle on the dusty earth. Liberty chittered softly, her cries barely audible. I knew that if I didn’t stop the bleeding soon, she too would die.

  From inside the rehab center, I heard Maddie scream, “Oh nooooo!”

  I couldn’t take any more bad news. Dread enveloped my body when I realized that maybe more birds were hurt or dead because of me.

  Maybe even Flip, I thought with terror. Oh God, please, not Flip.

  Why did this have to happen this weekend, the one weekend Dad and Mom were away? Any other time, Dad would have checked the rehab center before going to bed, caught my irresponsible butt, and chewed me out. How could I ever face him again? I didn’t even deserve to be a falconer after this, but I couldn’t think about that now. I had to help Liberty before it was too late.

  Maddie and Hannah ran back to me. “The rehab center’s totally trashed, Mercer,” Maddie said, her voice quivering. “The lock on the door was broken, and there was a bunch of these on the floor.”

  She handed me a trifold pamphlet similar to the one Lucy had given me at the protest. I read the headline: BIRDS IN A CAGE ARE FILLED WITH RAGE. On the bottom and was an ad to donate money to HALT. My entire core felt as if someone had ripped my heart out of my chest and crammed it down my throat. An explosion of unrivaled anger ripped through me.

  “That witch!” I whipped the pamphlet to the ground and kicked it. Haley must have told everyone that my parents were out of town. She was the only one mean enough to do this.

  “Don’t yell, Mercer. You’re scaring me!” Maddie wailed. “Call the police!”

  “The police?” Hannah’s voice rose in fear. “I want to go home now.”

  “Sorry, Maddie. And please wait, Hannah. I need your help.” I couldn’t even think about calling the police yet—​I had to rescue Liberty. Now.