Part 8 (1/2)

”Hey,” he said. ”I won. I ran the whole table.”

Neely wasn't a bit surprised. An hour or so later when she announced she was getting a pool headache, Curtis tried to talk her into a game of chess, or badminton, but she said ”no, thanks” and started up the stairs to get Grub. Curtis followed her, still arguing about it being too early to go home.

When they got to the nursery Neely noticed the door wasn't quite closed and she was just putting out her hand to open it when Curtis grabbed her arm and whispered, ”Shhh. Listen. Someone's talking.”

Neely listened and, of course, it was Grub. Grub's voice talking steadily but not quite loud enough for her to hear the exact words. She shoved the door open and went in. Grub was sitting on the floor playing with the model barnyard. He had the dog in his hand and he was making him round up a herd of cows, sheep, and pigs. When he saw Neely and Curtis he jumped to his feet and said, ”Hi. Is it time to go?”

Then, as he bent down to put the dog back in the barnyard, Neely saw him smile and whisper something-something that looked like good-bye.

Neely glanced at Curtis. She wasn't sure if he realized that Grub had been telling Monica good-bye, but from the look on his face she thought maybe he did.

Chapter 29.

CURTIS KEPT ON PHONING. SOMETIMES HE JUST WANTED to talk. Usually he talked about the school he went to in Beverly Hills and about the places he used to go with his friends. Places like Universal Studios and Knott's Berry Farm and Disneyland. And how all his friends had lots of money but he had the most money so he usually got to decide what they were going to do. And what great times he'd had and how much more fun it was than living out here on the edge of nowhere. But on Friday when he called, the last Friday before school started, Neely could tell right away by the sound of his voice that something was wrong. It was almost as if he'd been crying.

”What's the matter?” she asked.

”Matter? What makes you think something's the matter?” he said in an argumentative tone of voice, and then before she even could answer he said, ”Yeah. You're right. Something's the matter but I don't want to talk about it.” There was a gulping sound and then he went on, ”Hey, can you come up?”

Neely suppressed a sigh. She really didn't want to say yes, but at the same time she couldn't help feeling sorry for poor old Curtis. Not to mention curious about what had happened to upset him so much. She wondered if it might be something to do with Monica.

”Well, I don't know... she was saying when he added, ”Both of you. Bring Grub, too, if you want to.”

”Well, I'll see,” Neely said. ”I'll see if-”

Just then something tapped her on the shoulder and she turned to see Grub standing behind her, smiling and nodding his head.

”Okay,” she said, shrugging off her misgivings. ”We'll see you in about an hour. Okay?”

Curtis and Grub said okay in unison.

When they got to Halcyon House that day Grub again insisted on going first to visit Lion. But this time, while Grub and Lion were still wrestling, Reuben came out of his little house. He was wearing his familiar old floppy hat and his face was as worn and saggy as his overalls. Standing on his front step he stared at the giggling Grub and the bouncy, tail-wagging Lion. And Neely stared at him.

Watching Reuben made her feel creepy without exactly knowing why, except that he'd been a kind of bogeyman for so long-for all those months when the only real threat to Grub and Neely's secret visits to Halcyon was the danger of being caught by the fierce-looking old man. But now, as Neely watched, Reuben's face broke into a different pattern of cliffs and valleys and his mouth stretched into what was unmistakably a grin. Neely watched in surprise, and then went over and held out her hand.

”Hi,” she said. ”I'm Neely Bradford. And that's Grub.” She smiled and shrugged. ”He likes dogs a lot.”

Reuben nodded. ”I see,” he said. ”They are old friends, are they not? Your brother and Lion?”

Neely gulped. Did that mean that Reuben knew about all their secret visits to Halcyon? She certainly hoped not. ”Old friends?” she asked. ”Well, sort of. Some people make old friends in a hurry.”

Reuben turned his surprising, saggy smile toward Neely. ”Quite true,” he said slowly. Then he went on staring at Grub and Lion until, at the sound of a slamming door, he glanced up, turned on his heel, and disappeared into his cottage.

It was Curtis who had slammed the door as he emerged from the kitchen carrying a net and two badminton racquets. He was wearing baggy khaki shorts, there were blotchy red spots on his face, and his eyes were even jumpier than usual. A few minutes later when Grub had disappeared in the direction of the nursery, and Neely and Curtis were heading for the tennis court, Neely asked again if anything was the matter.

Curtis shrugged and didn't answer, but when they got to the court and Neely was helping him string up the badminton net, he suddenly said, ”It's my stupid father. It's my stupid paranoid father that's the matter.” His eyes were narrowed to angry slits and some muscles around the corners of his mouth were twitching.

”Paranoid?”

”Yeah. You know what that means?”

Neely thought she had a general idea but before she could answer Curtis went on, ”That means you think everyone's out to get you. Unless you get them first.” Curtis's voice was getting higher and tighter. ”What it means is you're nuts. Crazy. Psycho!”

He was practically shrieking before he stopped. Neither one said anything for a minute or two. Then Neely said, ”Oh. Is that why he has all those guns? Because he's worried about someone trying to get him?”

”Yeah. That's part of it. And all that survival stuff too. He just thinks somebody's going to start a revolution any minute and kill everybody unless you kill them first. And what's even stupider, he thinks that if I go into Monterey with him and go to the aquarium or walk around Cannery Row or something while he's at the doctor's I'll get kidnapped or something.”

”Oh,” Neely said. After a moment's thought she asked, ”Couldn't your mom go to the aquarium with you, so you wouldn't have to go alone?”

”No. She didn't want to go anywhere today. She's still in bed.”

Neely looked at her watch. ”In bed? Is she sick or something?”

”No, she's not sick. She just doesn't feel like getting up. Sometimes she doesn't get up all day. She just lies there and drinks chardonnay and plays solitaire.”

That was a pretty amazing thought. For a moment Neely tried to picture her own mother lying in bed all day...and gave up. It was just too completely unimaginable. When she'd finished getting her end of the net tied up she asked, ”Who told you your father was paranoid?”

Curtis's frown made Neely think of an angry cat.

”Okay, okay,” she said. ”Forget it.” She smiled apologetically. ”Sorry I asked. Okay?”

Curtis clutched his elbows and the frown gradually faded. ”Everybody told me,” he said suddenly. ”All my cousins. All my stupid, fat-headed cousins. And Carmen. And my mom too. Everybody says so. That's the reason he has to go to the shrink every Friday. My uncle made him promise to go to the shrink or we couldn't live here-in this house.”

”Your uncle? How come your uncle gets to tell your father what to do?”

”Because he's the trustee. That means he gets to say when my father gets money from the estate. And when he doesn't. That's why we had to come here to live. Because my crummy uncle decided the trust wouldn't pay our rent anymore, so we had to live here or nowhere.” Curtis threw a bird up into the air and smashed it so hard it went clear off the court and into the tall weeds.

While they were hunting for the bird Neely was careful not to ask any more questions. And she certainly didn't mention that Curtis had just as much as admitted that all his big stories about his father and why he and his family had come to Halcyon House had been lies.

When they started playing she let Curtis win sometimes, even though she could have won every game if she'd wanted to. Curtis wasn't much of a badminton player. He puffed and panted and every few minutes he fell over his own feet. When he missed a shot he got angry at the racquet or the net, or sometimes at the bird.

Once when the bird got stuck in a tree he threw a rock at it to get it loose and the rock bounced back and hit him in the head. It wasn't a very big rock and it couldn't have hurt all that much, but when he finally got the bird down he stomped on it until it was completely flat.

”Hey,” Neely said, laughing. ”What are you doing that for? Now we can't play anymore.”

Curtis stopped glaring at the smashed bird and gave Neely a c.o.c.ky grin. ”Sure we can,” he said, and pulled another bird out of his pocket. ”My serve. Are you ready?” Then he threw the squashed bird into the bushes and started serving.

For a while after that he was pretty cheerful, as if squas.h.i.+ng the bird had made him feel better. He was still in a pretty good mood when Neely said she'd better go get Grub and head for home.