John shrugged as he settled himself behind the wheel. “Taught myself when I’s eleven. I used to take my mother’s car late at night when she was asleep and hang out with the guys. It’s not hard.”
He examined the strange, unfamiliar drive mechanisms before him, frowning with disgust. “Man, this thing must be twenty years old.” It appeared to be automatic transmission, but he had to check to make sure there was no clutch buried in the floor somewhere.
Bradley Wallace watched with interest and a certain grudging admiration. He wished he knew how to drive, and almost envied John his advantage. John cranked the ignition. The engine sputtered and died. He tried again, simultaneously pumping the accelerator.
“My parents wouldda killed me if I’d ever taken the car,” Bradley Wallace admitted as John continued to struggle with the stalling vehicle.
“I didn’t have to worry about that,” John grunted as he cranked the ignition again. Damn this thing! Probably has a dead battery, he thought to himself angrily.
Bradley Wallace stared intently at John, and realized that the other boy knew so much more about many things than he did. John was a little older, and probably a lot wiser. There was much he could tell Bradley Wallace that Whilly, not being human, wouldn’t know about. Things like the sticky dreams that were too embarrassing to tell his parents, but which he needed to know about. Suddenly without warning, a question he’d carried around for months popped into his head, and he blurted it out without thinking that this was hardly the time or place.
“John, is a fag really a cigarette?”
John let go the key and jerked his head around to stare at Bradley Wallace in surprise. Then he blushed with embarrassment. “We can talk about that some other time,” he said as he took hold of the keys again and silently cursed them. “If we ever get outta this freakin’ zoo!”
He turned the key hard and quick, and the engine sputtered into erratic life like a rusty old machine gun.
Both boys resisted the impulse to cheer loudly, not wanting to telegraph their location for everyone to hear. John pumped the gas pedal a few times, racing the loud, grinding engine to get it warmed up more quickly. He yanked the gearshift into “D” and gripped the huge steering wheel with both hands.
“Here we go,” John announced like one of the zoo tour guides. The last thing Bradley Wallace noticed before John floored the accelerator was the other boy’s chewed down fingernails. Then the tram lurched forward violently and he turned his mind toward their escape. Whilly’s tremendous bulk and weight slowed them down considerably, and Bradley Wallace knew he’d have to use his power to lighten the load a bit. Man, did his head hurt!
As John struggled to control the cumbersome zebra train, four zoo maintenance vehicles resembling golf carts, and bearing armed soldiers, sprang at them without warning from the pathways on either side.
“They’re after us!” John yelled, spotting them in the tram’s rear-view mirror. He pressed harder on the accelerator, but it was already down to the floor.
Damn! Bradley Wallace swore to himself. He should’ve made
certain they couldn’t follow. He should’ve taken Dearborn as a hostage like they always do on TV. He glanced back at the pursuing golf carts fearfully as John swung the tram wide around the circular fountain and chugged up the path toward Monkey Island just ahead.
“Let’s try for one of those paths around the monkey island!” Bradley Wallace shouted to John, whose face was set in an expression combining equal measures of fear and excitement and determination.
“Why don’t you just blow ‘em away, or something?” John suggested as the massive conglomeration of rocks and small trees that comprised Monkey Island loomed closer.
Bradley Wallace knew he could blow them away as he had the lab wall. But his head was already thudding viciously, and he didn’t want to use his power indiscriminately. Besides, someone might get killed if he lost control. Like fire and ice. “I need to save it,” he answered John, glancing back again at the pursuing soldiers with their rifles poised in firing position.
Then the path split into four different directions around the island, and John shouted, “I don’t know how to get out!” flicking Bradley Wallace an anxious, questioning look. But before he could answer, more carts appeared on the side paths and headed straight for them.
John spotted the new arrivals, and the spider monkeys dancing around the rocks clapped their hands with glee as the tram careened crazily around their circular home, now pursued by seven golf carts, and sped back the way they’d originally come.
John steered frantically past the big round fountain again and cursed the antiquity of the vehicle as it chugged past the side of the lion house and headed up the path toward two stands shaped like the heads of twin parrots. One stand was marked “Popcorn” and the other “Zoovenirs.” Bradley Wallace pointed up the path between them.
“Go that way!” he shouted urgently, hoping there would be some kind of exit in that direction. John gripped the steering wheel hard to prevent it from slipping and passed easily between the two closed-up stands. Directly ahead was a grassy island around which the path circled in both directions. And there was a faded, but distinct zoo directory at the
point the path bifurcated. “There’s a zoo map!” Bradley Wallace shouted excitedly.
“Yeah, I got lots of time to stop and read it!” John snorted back, his initial excitement turning now to an icy fear as the carts plowed around the island after them. They passed a narrow exit to Zoo Road on the right, but it was closed and armed guards stood waiting for them. John steered the tram so dangerously close that the men had to leap out of his way.
Then they were around that island and winding down another path with lion and tiger enclosures on their right and rhinos and more elephants to the left. This place is a damned maze! Bradley Wallace thought desperately, turning back to the befuddled Whilly anxiously. C’mon, Whilly, snap out of it! The carts stayed on their tail, slowly but definitively closing the gap. Any moment now, Bradley Wallace expected to hear the harsh crack of rifle fire. There had to be an exit around here somewhere!
John whipped the steering wheel so sharply to catch a turn that the tram listed dangerously to one side for a brief, heart-stopping second before all its wheels settled back to the ground and it plowed forward - to a dead end. “Oh, no,” Bradley Wallace groaned, and John cursed loudly. A quick look back told them they were trapped in this narrow section by the incoming soldiers.
And then John spotted a narrow footpath that looked barely able to accommodate a fat person, let alone the zebra train. But having no other choice, he steered toward it, holding his breath as he took aim at the slender opening ahead. Bradley Wallace snapped his eyes shut in fear, certain they would crash. An instant later he heard John shout excitedly, and opened his eyes. They were through the bottleneck unscathed, and the path opened out into a wider area of more concession stands, eating areas, and directional signs. Feeling as though he’d just passed through an hourglass, Bradley Wallace released a sigh of relief.
The carts were still behind them, but the footpath had slowed their speed a bit. Determined not to loose the small margin they’d gained, Bradley Wallace trained his sharp eyes on the directional signs ahead. One arrow pointed toward Monkey Island. They didn’t want to go back there, he knew. The other arrow pointed toward Gorilla World, and Bradley Wallace ordered John to turn that way.
The tram whipped past hedges and under thick trees past another sign pointing toward the gorilla enclosure. Unfortunately, the more mobile maintenance carts began to make up some of the distance they’d lost by sheer maneuverability, and were closing in again. John steered the heavy zebra tram up onto a wooden bridge past the ox pen and on toward Gorilla World, which, like everything else in this freaking zoo, was another frustrating circle! Bradley Wallace could almost feel the three enormous gorillas laughing as the tram completely circumnavigated their enclosure and ended up back on the same path they’d come in on.
Fortunately, the soldiers driving the pursuing carts seemed to know as little of the zoo topography as John and Bradley Wallace, making the odds a bit more even.
But they had to find an exit!
John’s arms were getting tired from gripping the massive steering wheel, and his frustration was mounting. As he turned back along the path on which they had entered Gorilla World, he glanced frantically at Bradley Wallace. “Where do I go now?” His frightened voice sounded like the screeching of rusty brakes.
Bradley Wallace scanned the thick overgrowth to either side of the path, and something caught his eye through the trees on the left. The carousel. A faint memory tugged at his mind, something to do with a carousel, something he thought he’d seen in a movie. But he was too scared to get hold of the idea and it slipped back into his subconscious like a sinking ship.
And then, so suddenly that he nearly missed it, flashed an exit arrow. “Turn left!” he screamed in John’s ear, and the older boy spun the wheel sharply to his left. Too sharply. The tram teetered again, and this time would go over.
Bradley Wallace summoned the power, and the tram’s left side settled harmlessly back to the concrete path. John’s heart nearly stopped, and he broke out in a cold sweat. Bradley Wallace clutched his forehead with both hands, as though trying to squeeze the pain away. Ahead could be seen the Children’s Zoo and more zebra trains. The exit, he suddenly knew, or perhaps remembered from some previous childhood visit, was just beyond.
He turned back as John pressed forward, and the line of maintenance carts, which by now had increased to at least ten, was just turning the corner. He spotted the carousel again, off to his left. It was nearly buried under thick, encroaching trees, sitting sadly in the shadows as though waiting for children’s laughter to give it life. On impulse, the boy pushed out with his mind, and the carousel burst into colorful, musical motion.
Not certain what was happening, the soldiers decreased their speed. The Colonel had warned them the boy might be capable of anything, and they didn’t want the carousel suddenly flying from its moorings to crush them like bugs underfoot. Once they realized the merry-go-round was just turning harmlessly and posed no threat, the escaping zebra tram had passed out of sight behind more trees. The soldier in the first cart shouted an order, and the chase resumed.
John cried out jubilantly when the soldiers ground to a halt, congratulating Bradley Wallace on his cleverness. But Bradley Wallace didn’t feel very clever, just head-poundingly sick. He sent himself deep inside Whilly to gauge the status of his friend’s withdrawal fight, but was unable to reach the dragon’s consciousness. Every bit of Whilly’s mind was concentrated on his purpose, and Bradley Wallace prayed the dragon was near success. He needed Whilly’s strength, but coming from Whilly, not from within himself. And he needed it soon.
The wide main courtyard spread out before them, and John momentarily thought they could get away. But his hope was short-lived. The main exit was directly ahead, yes, but it was completely barricaded by a huge contingent of armed soldiers. Their trucks had been placed across the exit as a blockade, and the men stood in a line in front, rifles aimed threateningly at the approaching zebra tram. And that wasn’t even the worst part. Even if there hadn’t been any barricade, this exit was for foot traffic only. The tram would never have gotten through anyway!
John swore. “What are we gonna do?” he shouted to the silently staring Bradley Wallace. He was scared now, and not afraid to admit it. When Bradley Wallace didn’t move or react, John became frantic. He took one hand off the wheel and shook the other boy violently. “B.W.!” Still no response. “What’s the matter with you?”
But Bradley Wallace was too deep inside Whilly to hear, and it wouldn’t have mattered if he had. Their only hope lay in the dragon’s recovery, and Bradley Wallace had gone in to help if he could.
As the armed soldiers and their barricade loomed ever closer, John could make out clearly the distinctive form of Colonel Dearborn, standing to one side of his men armed only with a walkie-talkie. Frantic and alone, John did the only thing possible - he spun the steering wheel hard to the right and the tram veered sharply off the path onto a large expanse of grass and thick trees. But this time the turn was too sharp, and without Bradley Wallace’s power to stop it, the zebra tram toppled over onto its side. Whilly instantly flapped his wings and rose upward a few feet as the tram fell, and then lithely landed like a gymnast onto the bright, green grass. But John and Bradley Wallace went sprawling from the toppling tram like sacks of flour from an overturned bakery truck.
The shock broke Bradley Wallace free of Whilly, and he blinked his eyes uncertainly. The soldiers at the barricade were already on the move toward them, led by Dearborn. And the carts screeched to a halt near the trucks, discharging more men and more guns. This is it, John thought in terror as he scrambled to his feet. We’re gonna die!
And then Bradley Wallace spoke, quietly and simply, and John’s heart missed a beat. “I think Whilly’s all right, now.”
As if to confirm the boy’s statement, Whilly rose to his full height carefully, but firmly, and belched a projectile of flame at the running soldiers. Dearborn shouted, and the men fell back out of the dragon’s range.
“Yahoo!” John shouted, sounding like a little boy riding a roller coaster for the first time.
But Bradley Wallace knew they weren’t out of danger yet. Whilly was still not strong enough to carry both boys at once. And Bradley Wallace no longer possessed the dragon’s power of flight.
But then the tinkling, calliope-like music from the revolving carousel reached his ears, and he smiled. Mary Poppins. That’s what he couldn’t remember before. And that’s what would save them. He rose to his feet.
Turning his mind toward the unseen merry-go-round, Bradley Wallace focused on the ceramic animals within. He concentrated, calling up every ounce of power he could muster. He could feel himself absorbing the living energy from the grass beneath him and the trees around him. For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. So simple. His head didn’t even hurt.
John watched in amazement as the grass turned slowly from vibrant green to lifeless brown, death spreading outward in concentric circles from the rigid Bradley Wallace. The trees surrounding them withered and died before John’s startled eyes, shedding their lovely blankets of spring leaves in showering clumps of death. Even Dearborn and his soldiers stood transfixed and silent, not knowing what was happening, but unable to take their eyes from the eerie and impossible sight.
Whilly watched, too, knowing what Bradley Wallace was attempting, and feeling genuine fear for the first time. Not the boy’s fear, for Bradley Wallace felt none. This was his own, from deep within himself. Whilly was feeling a human emotion. No! he shouted into Bradley Wallace’s nearly closed-off mind. It’s too dangerous, Bradley Wallace!
But it was too late for the boy to stop now, even if he wanted to. He felt the life force of the plants and trees and the earth around him seep into his body and mind. He felt stronger and more alive than when he’d possessed the dragon-strength. He fixed the inanimate carousel animals firmly in his mind. And then he whispered a single word, “Live.”
The life he’d taken from nature left his body in a massive wave, projected outward past the now dead and desiccated trees and into the colorful enclosure housing the merry-go-round. There was a moment of absolute silence, wherein no one moved a muscle, not even Whilly, the only one who actually knew what Bradley Wallace was doing. John held his breath, watching Bradley Wallace expectantly. Even Dearborn had not moved, but stared with fascination at the concentrating boy.
And then all heads turned almost as one in the direction of the merry-go-round, whose music suddenly went silent. A second later the
sound of horse’s hooves pounding on asphalt reached their ears, and from around the dead trees, galloping like the wind, came the brightly colored carousel animals.
They were alive!
John gasped aloud in astonishm
ent, and Bradley Wallace smiled weakly.
Dearborn stared in disbelief as the living, breathing ceramic horses, pigs, lions, tigers, giraffes, and ostriches began galloping in a protective circle around the two boys, effectively shielding them from gunfire. But Dearborn could never order his men to fire now. Not after what he’d just witnessed. That boy was too special to kill, orders or no orders. He commanded his men to lower their weapons, his voice quiet and slightly unsteady. He turned his eyes back to the living merry-go-round before him and stared in childlike wonder. He sure wished his son could see this.
Bradley Wallace stood unmoving, still smiling delightedly. Bradley Wallace, Whilly entered his mind probingly, That was a dangerous thing to attempt. You have much to learn.
Bradley Wallace merely shrugged, unable to take his eyes from the playful antics of the protective circle of animals.
They looked so happy to be free of their restraining poles at last, free to play in the grass and breathe the air and smell the trees, as though knowing their time was short. Whilly confirmed this. Their lifespan is not long, Bradley Wallace. You must use them to escape, now.
The boy nodded, glancing over at John, whose own innocent expression of wonder was genuine. John immediately moved to his friend’s side, and Bradley Wallace whistled for the two winged horses. The beautiful, splendidly white replicas of Pegasus stepped lithely from the circle and trotted dutifully toward the boys. Realizing what they were going to do, John broke into a wide grin. This was incredible!
He assisted Bradley Wallace onto the white horse with the red saddle, and awkwardly clambered up onto the other.
It’d been a long time since he’d ridden a carousel horse, and he felt wonderful, how a kid should feel.
The horse beneath Bradley Wallace nickered affectionately, and he patted its ceramic neck gently and lovingly. He looked over at John, still too weak to talk, and the other boy smiled ingenuously. They flicked their reins simultaneously, and the winged horses launched themselves into the air, Whilly flapping easily alongside them. Bradley Wallace turned back once to look down at the receding forms of Colonel Dearborn and the joyfully frolicking carousel animals. The Colonel raised a hand and waved a hesitant farewell. Bradley Wallace smiled, and then faced forward again as the three winged creatures of ancient myth passed high above the zoo wall and soared majestically out over the city.
A Boy and His Dragon Page 61
