Their arms were up, sticking out like the Frankenstein monster at his stiffest. The aliens wore silver robes. Their heads were gray with large black eyes and lizard like recessed noses.
They were walking across the gym floor, walking for center court, for us.
It resembled a moment from a movie trailer.
Jack stepped in front of Maddy, and stared straight at the approaching menace.
The robe hems dragged across the floor. There was a lot of slack in those robes.
One alien stepped on the robe excess and stumbled, wind milled its arms, and grabbed for the mask thrown askew by the lack of coordination.
The moment of consensual silence burst into laughter and faked screams.
At the same time the assembled security for the honored guests shed their moment of immobility and snapped into action.
Dina and Trent grabbed the alien that hadn’t stumbled and threw him onto the floor. A deputy and one of the Lucentology security people wrestled down the stumbling alien.
Teachers and deputies and security joined together to do a walk through of the locker rooms to ensure no more surprises.
The aliens were hoisted to their feet and just like in a Scooby-Doo cartoon, the masks came off.
Curtis and George.
The two cartoonists turned performance artists.
The muttering amongst the crowd peaked at revelation of the identities.
Someone yelled, “I love you Curtis!” People laughed.
Dina kept her grip on Curtis’ shoulder. Principal Colan, reddened and angry as just about anyone could get was contributing to Curtis' paleness. Dina’s fingers pushing into his flesh might’ve contributed even more.
Jack walked over to the two in custody and totally in it up to their noses would-be-assembly-crashers.
“Do you know them?” Maddy asked me.
“Yeah.” I pointed. “George. And that one’s Curtis. They’ve been putting drawings up on my locker.”
“Drawings?”
“I told you about them. Just stupid stuff. Just really juvenile.”
“Did you tell anyone about the drawings? You didn’t, did you?”
I shook my head.
“So now this happened. Thanks in part to you.”
“I’m sorry.”
She repeated one of the tenets in the Lucentology literature. “Action is always necessary, Lucy. Always. Inaction leads to trouble. To this.”
Her face twisted up, sour like her teeth and tongue were all tart.
A murmur worked through the crowd.
Jack walked towards us. He had his arms around Curtis and George. Both boys had their masks in hand. Standing around the gym floor, the Principal and Dina and the other security people looked confused.
The sour look on Maddy’s face morphed into confusion, too.
The trio passed Maddy and I. Curtis kept his eyes on the floor. George stared wide-eyed at Maddy. He lucked out. Her husband was the focus of her attention otherwise she might’ve directed her venom at the would-be-aliens.
The gym was almost completely silent.
Jack and the boys stopped at the microphone. He told them to put their masks on. They did. He put his arms around them both and spoke into the microphone.
“Ladies and gentleman,” said Jack, “I’d like to introduce you to my sons.”
Laughter exploded from the crowd. People applauded.
Jack continued. “The rumors are right. Maddy and I have produced two lovable tentacle babies…We love them both very much. We just don’t kiss them because if those suction cups catch hold of your lips…”
He sucked in his lips and popped them, a perfect imitation of a suction cup pop.
“It would be disastrous…So…”
Maddy and Aster seemed the only two people who abstained from joining in the laughter and applause. Maddy looked livid. Like if it were up to her Curtis and George would be marched to the nearest guillotine.
Jack walked the boys toward the sets of bleachers on either side of the gym so people could take all the pictures they wanted to with their phones. Jack even put on the alien mask for a few moments. At Jack’s urging, Maddy joined them. She smiled in the pictures, but the smile went off and on easy as a light under the sway of its switch.
If his sense of humor wasn’t enough to win over every last person in the gym, what happened next cemented his good standing. Jack and Maddy had started an organization donating money to schools to help with creative arts programs. Times were tough. They knew that. So they were more than happy to give the Eaton school district a check to help fund the arts and after school programs.
“You'll receive an annual check. A check,” Maddy announced, “for $750,000.”
It took a moment for the weight of the six-digit donation to resonate. Then it hit. The adults started the standing ovation. Principal Colan wrapped me up in a hug. Jack extended a hand to the Principal, and seemed not put out one bit to instead get a hug.
Out in the bleachers, Mr. Pederson, the big bear, had his face in his hands, trying to keep the tears out of sight. The two students hugging him and patting his shoulders seemed to be telling him it was all right to let the tears flow.
Chapter 23
After Maddy and Jack left, most teachers admitted defeat. A few soldiered on and were met with resistance in the form of starry-eyed teenagers drained from the adrenaline rush of the assembly.
Before last period someone stopped behind my shoulder as I stood at my locker. I’d been getting well-wishers all day.
“How does it feel now?”
The voice not quite as cheery as others I’d received throughout the day. Closing my locker I wasn’t surprised to see Nick glaring.
“How does what feel?”
“When those two kids came out and interrupted the assembly you thought it was me, didn’t you? You thought one of them was me. How does it feel to be wrong?”
“I didn’t think one of them was you.”
He hissed.
“I saw you in the bleachers,” I said.
“Sure you did.”
“And earlier this week Sherman told me Curtis and George were the ones that kept putting cartoons on my locker.”
“Whatever. You gonna sick those Loonytology cops on me? I’ve seen them on the news. Tasering people.”
“Nick.”
He took another step in, his nose getting perilously near the tip of my nose.
“I saw that one bitch. The black one? She gave me the stink eye. Yes she did. I wonder why she did that?”
“Nick.”
I didn’t say ‘step back’. My tone implied ‘step back’.
He jabbed a finger at me.
“No. Shut up. You’re as much of an idiot as your sister was to my brother. You make me sick. I swear-”
“How you doing today, Nick?”
The deep, unmistakable rumble of Mr. Pederson made Nick’s eyes bulge.
We both turned. He smiled down at Nick.
“You just thanking Lucy for having her sister and brother-in-law donate all that money to the school?”
Nick smiled. It looked like it caused him pain.
“You know it. Cougar pride.” He waggled the already pointing finger. “Whoo-whoo.”
He turned and beat a retreat.
Mr. Pederson smiled watching him go.
“I was so happy when that kid’s older brother graduated. And now, I miss Tyler. You know what I mean?”
I smiled.
“I was thinking the whole time the assembly was going that if anyone was going to cause problems it’d be him,” said Mr. Pederson.
“That’s kind of what we were talking about just now.”
“Nose to nose?”
I shrugged.
“If he threatened you, Lucy…”
I shrugged again. “Nothing I’m n
ot used to. Just Nick being Nick.”
Mr. Pederson laughed. For such a big man with such a deep voice his laugh was tinged with a surprising high pitch. It could just be the day. All of us were floating a little still from the star wattage. Seen through the right kind of visors we might glow like people exposed to radiation.
“Here.” Mr. Pederson thrust an envelope at me. “This is for Maddy. Bunch of the kids she met put together a thank you card of sorts. If you could get that to your sister, we’d all appreciate it.”
I took the envelope from him. “Sure. No problem.”
“I mean,” said Mr. Pederson, “I’m totally planning on going to the premiere this evening, got my pass and everything, but I’ll totally blank on getting that to her and then the kids will never forgive me. I’ll go from hero to zero just like that.”
“Consider it done.”
“Awesome. Thank you so much.” Turning away from me I heard him mumble, “Nick being Nick. Lordie lord...”
Sherman gave me a ride home after school. I didn’t think about feeling guilty about it. In terms of getting home quick and getting changed for the premiere in Ashmond it made sense.
Usually Sherman talked a mile a minute. He was strangely subdued as we rode up East Jennings towards the house. I didn’t ask him what was up. I felt drained myself. I could totally picture falling asleep during the movie. I just hoped I didn’t sit next to Maddy. She would have no problem jamming her elbows into me.
Turning onto the straight stretch of Jennings that went past the house Sherman said, “Wow. It’s like the day after Woodstock.”
Camp Maddy had been abandoned. Two folding chairs sat on the grass, surrounded by take out bags and several newspapers and magazines. A soft breeze flipped pages of a thrown open magazine. Apparently Skinny Arbogast hadn’t included people cleaning up after themselves part of the deal.
The two Honey Buckets stood untouched like everything else on a parade ground had been broken down and trucked away, and now they were waiting their turn.
Ruth’s car was gone. Only a single black SUV was parked at the mouth of the driveway and the security guard gave us but a cursory glance as Sherman made the turn.
Up at the house another black SUV was parked behind the house. Another guard stood in front of the house. He pushed a finger into his ear like he was trying to hear whatever info was coming in through his wireless ear bud.
Sherman parked in back, getting his car oriented for a swift departure once I was out of the car.
“Thanks.”
“You bet.” He still seemed nervous. I thought maybe it was all the black SUVs. Another security person watched over the backyard from the perimeter of the field. I was confused. I thought for sure at least a couple vehicles would be traveling with Maddy and Jack while they scouted locations for the farming movie.
I opened the passenger side door.
“Hey Luce.”
I looked back at him.
Sherman dug his hand inside his jacket and pulled out a small white box. He held it towards me, his hand shaking.
“This is for you.”
“What is it?”
“An empty white box. No. Just. You don’t have to open it now. Just.” He exhaled. “Just take it okay?”
“Okay.” The box weighed next to nothing in my hand. He flicked his eyes onto mine and just as quickly looked away.
I swiped my finger into the indentation right above his upper lip.
“Yaaaah.” He recoiled.
“Sorry. The sweat makes your one whisker stick out. I just wanted to see what it felt like. Manliness, I mean.”
“Jesus.” He cupped a hand over his mouth like I’d plucked out the solitary strand and now it stung. “You’re weird.”
“Sorry,” I pushed the door open and slid out. “Impulse. See you tonight.”
“See you tonight,” he said through his hand.
Walking up to the back door I rattled the box in my hand. I didn’t wear jewelry. He knew that. Sherman’s car turned and disappeared down the side of the house.
I was focused on trying to imagine what was inside the box when I opened the back door and walked into the kitchen.
Dad sat at the table.
“Well, look there.”
I froze at the sound of the voice. And then at sight of the small man in the blue suit and blue dress shirt standing up from a chair near Dad’s.
Thinning copper hair lay across Horace Walton’s skull. Liver spots dotted his high tan forehead. A dark-haired woman with dark skin stood in the living room looking towards the kitchen as her boss walked towards me, grinning his skeletal grin.
“You’re taller than your sister. You’re taller than Jack.” He laughed like it was one of the funniest things ever. Lips pulled back it showed off gums.
Just skin and bones he walked up to me and I could imagine him wrapping me up in an embrace that would feel in league to those last few times I’d held Mom and her depleted, cancer ridden body.
He must’ve read my mind. He halted halfway through his step and all impressions that he was going to hug me disappeared.
He stuck his hand out to me. A ring on his left finger caught the natural light, the band copper, the stone a luminous blue shaped into a capital ‘L’.
“Horace Walton.”
“I know.”
I shook his hand. He squeezed and kept smiling like recently risen from the dead he hadn’t quite relearned the social niceties of short handshakes and brief eye contact.
The assistant, Nawzat, followed me to the bathroom. She thanked me and then before disappearing behind the door whispered, “You have no idea how tiring it is to listen to two men talk about nothing but sports for an hour.” She rolled her eyes and sighed.
Common ground had been found between the post office employee and the leader of the Lucentology church in the form of football.
They’d had the same coach apparently, a man named Tom Hogan. He’d been an assistant coach at the small California college Horace Walton had attended, and years later, Hogan had been the head coach at Washington State. Dad was never a starter except for his last year when he played special teams. Hogan appreciated the way a young Senate McCall could throw a block during a punt or a kick off.
Upstairs in my room I could hear Horace’s laugh break out regularly. On its own it wasn’t so bad. Attach a visual, and it made me uneasy.
Inside the box from Sherman was a simple gold bracelet. Around the time of the SharDi Leasey incident, Sherman and I had killed time before a movie at the Ashmond mall window-shopping. I’d mooned over a bracelet. It was an impulse mooning. I’d had a lot of sugar earlier that day and wasn’t quite in my right mind. I’d have to ask him when he’d bought the bracelet. I could imagine he’d bought it months ago and was waiting for a good moment to give it to me, and then the whole drinking and groping thing happened, and he’d been sitting on the bracelet ever since.
I was still trying to decide which of my handful of dresses to wear to the premiere when I heard the rigs outside start up and pull away from the house.
Dad knocked on my door. I opened it up.
“He’s gone.”
“The Emperor?”
He laughed. Then he looked at me. Lucy McCall in a dress was a rare occasion. He made a little choked off noise and his mouth crumpled up a little like a Muppets.
“I look ok?”
“You look great.”
“You ok?”
He pointed at me. Just a flick of his finger like he was pointing at a chore that needed to be done.
“Your mother would be knocked out by how pretty you are in that dress.”
“It’s one she got for me. She guessed my growth spurt would top out before too long. She said it’d be a good one to wear to prom.”
“Yeah. I think I remember her giving it to you. And you said
‘Prom? Ick.’”
We both laughed.
“She knew you didn’t like anything too…elaborate.”
“Well if you think I should wear it…”
“You should.”
I raised my right wrist and waggled it around.
“This is from Sherman.”
“What do you kids call it? ‘Bling’?”
“’Bling’. I call it a bracelet.”
“Well, it looks good, too.” After a moment he asked me, “You all right?”
“Why was he here?”
“’The Emperor’?”
I nodded.
“Man had nothing better to do I guess. He’s a…He’s got a lot of stories he’ll tell you. I’ll give him that. He’s not a one-note man. That’s one of the things that always kept me away from religion. People that can’t let it go even a little and get in your face with it all the time.”
“You talk about Maddy?”
“Strangely, no. I wouldn’t know what to say to him. Especially not on the topic of Maddy. I can guess at the answers to just about any question I’d ask him. It’d all be bullshit.”
“You still think she’s…”
He nodded. He didn’t say brainwashed. Or cult member. He’d said close enough to those things previously. Nothing she’d done since being home had changed his opinion.
“You’ve got her here and now. You could still talk to her about it,” I said.
He stared at me. Then at the floor, modeling the usual pondering, impenetrable gaze.
I sighed. “I guess I’m ready when you are.”
He nodded. He started towards the stairs, pausing one last time to tell me how wonderful I looked.
Chapter 24
Royal Cinemas was the local theater chain. There was a Royal Cinema in the Tri Cities, one in Walla Walla, and one as far west as Sunnyside.
It was located at Ashmond’s major strip mall. There were several freestanding box stores in the lot in addition to the retailers inhabiting the actual mall spaces.
A long interior corridor provided access in and out of most of the mall stores. There were several exceptions. The movie theater could only be accessed from an exterior sidewalk. Same for The Wagon Wheel restaurant and bar located next door. The one time Sherman had taken me out for a proper dinner date it’d been to The Wagon Wheel.
The crowd from Skinny Arbogast’s field and the satellite news vans had all migrated to the mall parking lot.