Bat Summer by Sarah Withrow Page B

the park. I swear it.”
    â€œNo, you weren’t. Try again.”
    â€œNot Wells Hill Park, Mom. The other one. The ravine. Up by Spadina. I was flying a kite.”
    She seems to deflate a little.
    â€œIn the rain? That’s dangerous.”
    â€œI know, but…”
    â€œGod, I was so worried. The police were here, you know. They were looking for some girl. What’s her name?”
    â€œLucy.”
    â€œThat’s right. Do you know her?”
    â€œKind of…you’re home early today.”
    â€œIt’s past eight, Terence. I’ve been home for two hours already. I don’t want you out this late alone, all right? We don’t know what happened to that girl.”
    She
doesn’t know what happened to that girl.
    â€œI want you home at five o’clock every day. I know it’s a bummer, but I can’t have you tooling about the neighborhood on your own if there’s some freak out there. I’m going to be coming home a lot earlier and I want you to be here.”
    â€œThat’s not fair.” I say it to myself, but Mom hears me.
    â€œWhat’s that?” I can feel my face getting red. Somebody needs me, and now Mom’s pulling this stupid adult trip on me. A five o’clock curfew and I didn’t even do anything.
    â€œThere’s no freak out there, Mom. She ran away… I mean, Rico told me she ran away.” I have to be careful not to spill the beans. I’m rocking the chair really fast now. “Elys would let me stay out.” I think I hurt her feeling with that one. She sits back down again.
    â€œWell, I’m not Elys, am I?” she says finally. “Elys has a new job and she isn’t going to be around so much anymore. That’s why I’m coming home earlier.”
    Everything’s changing so fast. Who am I going to watch television with? Mom? I’m going to eat stupid hot dogs for the rest of my life because that’s all Mom can cook.
    â€œI guess that won’t leave you much time for Farley.” It was a stupid thing to say. I want to piss her off. I want her to feel bad like me.
    She doesn’t even say anything. She just stands up and walks to the kitchen.
    â€œThere’s some lasagna for you in the oven.”
    Elys must have made it for me. My favorite food and I don’t even feel like eating.
    I stop the rocking chair and head for the kitchen. What a rotten day this turned out to be. “And wipe that black gunk off your tongue. What have you been doing, eating charcoal?”

11
    When I wake up the next morning, the house is empty. For once, it doesn’t seem like all that many hours between nine and five. I root around the house for things to take Lucy. I should show my face up at Wells Hill Park today. Try to find out what’s going on at Lucy’s house.
    I get a big knapsack from the basement and start filling it with stuff: a pillow, a blanket, a flashlight, a big jar of cranberry juice, my Swiss army knife, a toothbrush and some toothpaste squeezed into a baggie, a pack of playing cards, a crummy harmonica I got in my Christmas stocking last year and a whole shopping bag full of cheese sandwiches (some with mayonnaise and some without).
    I get halfway down the block with the whole heavy pack and turn back for some fruit and celery. Lucy should try to eat a balanced diet to keep up her strength.
    I take the back way into the ravine so that I won’t have to go through the park. That way I can just cruise into Wells Hill later with no load on my back and make like I just slept in.
    My knapsack jams in the mouth of the cave and I fall flat on my face.
    â€œOof.” I crawl the rest of the way inside. I can’t see anything.
    â€œLucy?”
    No answer. I open the knapsack and fish out the flashlight. I turn it on and beam it on the bed. It’s lumpy. I go over and nudge the lump, but it’s just the sleeping bag. Empty.
    Oh, no. She moved! Where