by TJ Klune
Talia sighed. “Probably for the best. I really like Chuck Berry. I can’t wait to listen to that one.”
“Right? It’s so righteous!” He looked up at Linus. “Can we pay for these now? We can’t steal them because J-Bone isn’t a square. Right?” He sounded as if he would still be okay with stealing them regardless.
“That’s right, he’s not a square,” Linus said, vowing silently to never repeat those words again. “We can pay—”
“Nah,” J-Bone said. “Your money’s not good here. You get those for free, little dude. Sorry about the whole Marty-trying-to-exorcise-you thing. Give me some skin.”
Lucy did and gladly. “Linus! I get them for free! That’s even better than stealing!”
Linus sighed. “That’s not … I don’t know why I even bother.”
“Such a square, big man,” Lucy muttered, but he knocked his shoulder against Linus’s hip, as if to show he didn’t mean it.
* * *
At half past two, they met the others in front of the ice cream parlor. People were giving them a wide berth and staring openly, but none of the children seemed to notice. They were listening to Chauncey, who appeared to be wearing a different hat than he’d been before. He was flailing excitedly while Zoe and Arthur watched him, looking amused.
“There they are!” Chauncey exclaimed. “Lucy! Talia! You’ll never believe what happened! Look what I got.” He lifted the hat off his head, stalks stretching excitedly as his eyes rose. In his tentacles, he held a familiar cap that looked like—
“He gave it to me,” Chauncey cried. “I didn’t have to ask! All I did was tell the bellhop I thought he was the greatest man who ever lived and that when I grew up, I wanted to be just like him, and he gave it to me. Can you believe that?” He set it back on his head. “How does it look?”
“Quite dashing,” Linus said. “I almost wish I had a suitcase so I could hand it off to you to carry for me.”
Chauncey squealed. “You mean it? You really think so?”
“It looks good,” Lucy said, patting the top of the hat. “Maybe we can figure out how to make a matching coat for it. I think I like it better than your other hat, though that one is good too.”
“Thanks, Lucy! Always at your service!”
“And just what do you have?” Arthur asked, squatting down as Talia and Lucy showed him their treasures. “Ah! What a lovely spade. And those records! We’ll have to listen to them as soon as we get back to the island.”
“Everything all right?” Zoe asked quietly, while the children were distracted.
“If you’re asking if any felonies were committed … sort of. But nothing I couldn’t handle.”
“Anything we need to worry about?”
Linus shook his head. “We’ll talk about it more once there aren’t so many little ears around. I don’t think they need to know what Lucy—”
“I threw a square named Marty against a wall after he tried to exorcise me in a small locked room! And then I got the records for free from J-Bone! Isn’t that righteous?”
“Oooh,” the rest of the children said.
Linus sighed.
“I think it’s time for ice cream,” Arthur said.
* * *
The ice cream parlor was cheerfully old-fashioned. There were red plastic swivel seats lining the front of the counter, and Little Richard was wailing overhead about a girl named Sue, tutti frutti, oh Rudy. It was brightly lit, the walls painted candy red and pink. A bell tinkled as they walked through the door.
A man was facing away from them, bent over a counter behind rows of tubs of ice cream in various colors and consistencies. He turned, a smile already growing on his face and said, “Welcome! What can I—” The smile faded. His eyes widened.
The children pressed their hands against the glass, looking down at the ice cream. “Whoa,” Phee said. “I’m going to get every kind at once. I’m going to get absolutely sick of ice cream.”
“You can pick out two flavors,” Arthur told her. “Nothing more. You don’t want to spoil your appetite for dinner.”
“Yes, I do,” she assured him. “I want to spoil it so bad.”
“You’re—you—” the man behind the counter sputtered.
“Yes,” Linus said. “I am me. Thank you for noticing. Children, please form a line. One at a time, so the gentleman isn’t overwhelmed—”
“No,” the man said, shaking his head furiously. “Absolutely not. You need to leave.”
The children fell quiet.
Before Linus could speak, dread beginning to flood through him, Arthur beat him to it. “Come again?”
The man was turning red. A vein throbbed in his forehead. “I don’t serve your kind here.”
Zoe blinked. “Excuse me?”
The man pointed at a wall. There, ever present, was a familiar poster. SEE SOMETHING, SAY SOMETHING!
“I reserve the right to refuse service,” the man said. “To anyone I choose. I see something, I say something. And I’m saying there is no way you’re getting anything from me.” He glared at Theodore, sitting on Sal’s shoulder. “You aren’t welcome in my shop. You aren’t welcome in this village. I don’t care how much we’re paid to keep quiet. Go back to your damn island.”
“You shut your flapping mouth!” Linus snapped. “You don’t get to—”
“I do,” the man retorted, slamming his hands on top of the counter. It echoed loudly around them and—
Theodore squawked angrily as his perch suddenly vanished. The clothes Sal had been in suddenly collapsed as he shifted into a Pomeranian. Linus remembered the first time he’d done that, when Linus had first arrived on the island. It had been done out of fear.
This man had scared Sal so much, he’d turned into a dog.
There were pitiful yips coming from the pile of clothes as Sal struggled to get free. Phee and Talia bent over to help him as Theodore flew over to Zoe. Chauncey moved to hide behind Linus, peeking out from around his legs, his new cap almost falling to the ground.
Lucy looked down at Sal, whose front paws were caught in his shirt. Phee and Talia were whispering quietly to him, telling him it was all right, to stop moving so they could get him free. Lucy turned back toward the man behind the counter. “You shouldn’t have scared my brother,” he said in a flat voice. “I can make you do things. Bad things.”
The man opened his mouth to snarl, but was interrupted when Arthur Parnassus said, “Lucy.”
Linus had never heard Arthur sound the way he did right then. It was cold and harsh, and though it was just a single word, it felt like it was grating against Linus’s skin. He looked over to see Arthur staring at the man behind the counter, eyes narrowed, hands flexing at his sides.
The man behind the counter didn’t seem to be afraid of the children.
But he was afraid of Arthur.
“How dare you?” Arthur said quietly, and Linus thought of a tiger hunting. “How dare you speak to them that way? They’re children.”
“I don’t care,” the man said, taking a step back. “They’re abominations. I know what their kind is capable of—”
Arthur took a step forward. “You should be more worried about what I’m capable of.”
The room felt warmer than it’d been just moments before.
Much warmer.
“Arthur, no,” Zoe said. “Not here. Not in front of the children. You need to think this through.”
Arthur ignored her. “All they wanted was ice cream. That’s it. We would’ve paid and they would have been happy, and then we would have left. How dare you, sir!”
Linus stepped forward in front of Arthur. He turned away from the man behind the counter to look up. He took Arthur’s face in his hands. He felt like he was burning from the inside out. “This isn’t the right way to go about this.”
Arthur tried to jerk his face away, but Linus held on. “He can’t—”
“He can,” Linus said quietly. “And it’s not fair. At all. But you need to remember yo
ur position. You need to remember who looks up to you. Who you care for. And what they’ll think. Because what you do here, now, will stay with them forever.”
Arthur’s eyes flashed again before he slumped. He tried for a smile, and mostly made it. “You’re right, of course. It’s not—”
The bell above the door tinkled again. “What’s going on here?”
Linus dropped his hands and stepped back.
“Helen!” the man behind the counter cried. “These—these things won’t leave!”
“Well. They don’t appear to have gotten their ice cream yet, Norman, so I should expect not.”
It was the squat woman from the hardware store. She still had the smudge of dirt on her forehead, though she’d divested herself of her gardening gloves. She didn’t look pleased. Linus hoped they weren’t going to have more trouble.
“I’m not serving them,” Norman growled. “I won’t.”
The woman—Helen—sniffed daintily. “That’s not up to you to decide. I would hate to bring up at the next council meeting how you’re turning away potential customers. Your lease is coming up for review after the new year, isn’t it? It’d be a shame if it wasn’t renewed.”
Linus thought the vein in Norman’s forehead was about to burst. “You wouldn’t do that.”
Helen arched an eyebrow. “Do you really want to find out?”
“I won’t do it!”
“Then go into the back and I’ll handle it.”
“But—”
“Norman.”
Linus thought Norman was going to argue further. Instead, he glared at the children and Arthur again before he spun on his heels and stomped through a swinging door. It slammed against the wall.
Helen sighed. “What a daft little bitch.”
“I want to be just like you when I grow up,” Talia breathed in awe. Phee stood next to her, nodding in agreement. She held Sal in her arms, his face pressed against her neck.
Helen winced. “Oh. Ignore me. I shouldn’t have said that. Never curse, children. Understood?”
They nodded, but Linus could already see Lucy mouthing daft little bitch in glee.
“Who are you?” Zoe asked suspiciously.
She smiled at her. “I own the hardware store. I had the most delightful discussion with Talia here about gardens earlier today. She was most knowledgeable.”
“Helen is also the mayor of Marsyas,” Arthur said. Whatever had been burning within him appeared to have subsided. He had his composure back and once again looked calm.
“There is that,” Helen agreed. “Arthur, it’s nice to see you again.”
“The mayor?” Talia asked. “Do you do everything?”
Linus had to agree. He hadn’t expected that.
“You would think so,” Helen said. She glanced at the door, still swinging on its hinges. “And apparently that includes cleaning up after men throwing their snits. Honestly. For all their bluster, I’ve noticed that men melt so very easily. Little snowflakes, they are.”
“I don’t,” Lucy told her seriously. “I was going to make him think his skin was boiling off before you got here. But I’m still a man.”
Helen looked astonished, but recovered quickly. “Well, I’m glad I showed up when I did. And I think you have a ways still yet to go before you’re a man. But I have hopes you will be a better man. You’re certainly in good company.”
Lucy grinned up at her.
She clapped her hands. “Ice cream! Isn’t that why you’re here?”
“You can serve ice cream too?” Talia asked.
Helen nodded as she walked around the counter where Norman had been standing. “It was my first job. I was seventeen. It was a different parlor back then, but I expect I still know how to work a scoop. It’s how I know Arthur here. He would come in here when he was a child.”
That got Linus’s attention.
“Arthur was a child?” Phee asked, astonished.
“Why would you think otherwise?” Arthur asked, taking Sal from her.
“I don’t know. I … guess, I always thought you looked like you do now.”
“Oh, that’s almost certainly true,” Helen said. “He dressed the same, at least. Like the world’s smallest adult. Always polite. He liked cherry flavor the most, if memory serves.”
Everyone turned slowly to stare at Arthur. Even Linus.
Arthur shrugged. “I liked how pink it was. Children, in a line. Linus, would you help Sal, please? I think he’d like that.”
Linus could do nothing but nod dumbly. His mind was racing, and he had so many questions he could barely think straight. Chauncey handed him Sal’s clothes. He carried them under his arm as Arthur handed Sal over.
Sal was shaking, but he curled against Linus.
“There’s a restroom behind you,” Helen said as Lucy began to ask her if the pistachio flavor had any bugs in it. “For some privacy.”
“Thank you,” Arthur whispered as he stroked a finger down Sal’s back.
“For what?” Linus asked.
Arthur met his gaze. “You know what. I shouldn’t have let that man get to me the way he did.”
Linus shook his head. “It wasn’t—I didn’t do anything.”
“You did,” Arthur said. “Even if you don’t believe it, I’ll believe it enough for the both of us. You’re a good man, Linus Baker. I’m so very pleased to know you.”
Linus swallowed thickly before he turned toward the restroom.
It was unisex and efficient, with a sink and a toilet. He set Sal’s clothes down and leaned his back against the wall.
“It’s okay,” he said to the trembling dog in his arms. “I know it can be scary, sometimes. But I also know that Arthur and Zoe would never let any harm come to you. Neither would Talia or Phee. Or Theodore or Chauncey or Lucy. In fact, I think they would do just about anything to keep you safe. Did you hear when Lucy called you his brother? I think all the other children feel the same.”
Sal whined softly, his nose cold against Linus’s neck.
“It’s not fair,” Linus said, staring off into nothing. “The way some people can be. But as long as you remember to be just and kind like I know you are, what those people think won’t matter in the long run. Hate is loud, but I think you’ll learn it’s because it’s only a few people shouting, desperate to be heard. You might not ever be able to change their minds, but so long as you remember you’re not alone, you will overcome.”
Sal barked.
“Yes, he was a daft little bitch, wasn’t he? Now, I’ll stand outside the door and wait for you to change back and get dressed. And then we’ll go out and get some ice cream. Though I probably shouldn’t—not good for the waistline, after all—I’ve got my eye on the mint chocolate chip. I’ve earned a little treat; I think you have too. How about it?”
Sal wiggled in his arms.
“Good. That’s better. And if you ever feel scared like this again, there is no shame in changing as you have, so long as you remember to find your way back.” He set Sal down. Sal wagged his little tail at him. “I’ll be right outside.”
He walked out the door, shutting it behind him. He heard what appeared to be the snap and pop of bone, followed by a heavy sigh. Out in the shop, Lucy, Talia, and Phee were sitting in a booth. Lucy somehow already had ice cream in his hair. Chauncey was carrying his paper bowl toward them, bellhop cap sitting jauntily on his head. Zoe was standing next to the table, holding up a spoon to Theodore, his tongue flicking out, eyes rolling back in ecstasy.
Arthur was standing at the counter, speaking quietly to Helen. Linus watched as she reached over and put her hand on his.
“Okay,” a voice said through the door. “I’m ready.”
“Good,” Linus said. “Let’s see, then.”
The door opened. Sal looked a little sheepish, hand rubbing against the back of his neck.
“There we go,” Linus said. “Right as rain.”
Sal nodded, averting his gaze. “Linus?”
�
�Yes?”
Sal’s hands tightened into fists. “What did he mean?”
“About?”
Sal glanced up at him before looking away. “He said … he said he doesn’t care how much he gets paid to keep quiet. What did that mean?”
Of course Sal had picked up on that. Linus hesitated, trying to find the right words. “He … It’s foolish, really. But you’re special, the lot of you. And if the world knew how special, they might not understand. It’s for your safety.”
Sal nodded, though he looked troubled. “Hush money.”
Linus sighed. “It would appear so. But it’s not important. You let me deal with it, won’t you? Let’s get you fed.”
Helen was startled at the sight of him. She squinted at him, then back at the bathroom, then at Sal again. “That was you?”
Sal’s shoulder tightened.
“That’s so wonderful,” Helen said. “Just when I thought I’d seen everything. You get three scoops, I think. A growing boy of your size deserves it. What flavors would you like?”
Sal looked surprised. He glanced at Linus. “Go ahead,” Linus said. “Three scoops for you.”
He picked out his flavors carefully, voice barely above a mumble. Helen cooed over him, causing him to smile at his shoes. When she handed over the bowl, he thanked her quietly before heading toward the table. The others cheered at the sight of him, scooting over to make room. He sat next to Lucy, putting an arm over his shoulders and pulling him close. Lucy laughed and looked up at him, eyes bright. Sal’s arm stayed right where it was as they ate.
“I was just asking Arthur here about coming to see Talia’s garden,” Helen told him. “I hear it’s quite the sight.”
“It’s very beautiful,” Linus agreed. “She worked hard at it. I’m sure she would like to show it off. She already thinks you walk on water.”
Helen laughed. “I suppose.”
“But I do have to ask. Why now?”
She looked taken aback. “Pardon?”
“Linus,” Arthur warned.
Linus shook his head. “No. It’s a fair question. It’s not as if the orphanage is anything new. Some of the children have been there for some time. You’ve apparently been here for some time.” He looked at Helen. “Why now? Why haven’t you gone there before? Why did it take seeing the children here before you came to that decision?”
