Cages (6 page)

“Oh,” Wayne said, “a math problem.”

“Yes,” Dorothy said. “A math problem. Did you ever get it right, Kit?”

“Yes.”

“Good. Then we won’t have to bother Wayne with it.” She looked at Kit.

Kit knew that her mother was telling her that Wayne didn’t know about the shoplifting. He didn’t know and Dorothy wasn’t going to tell him.

“Maybe I have room for garlic bread, after all,” Kit said. She took a piece and then took more lasagna, too. Five minutes ago, she had no appetite; now she felt starved.

Later, as she helped Dorothy with the dishes, she whispered, “I was really scared of what Wayne would say.”

“I know you’ve learned a hard lesson from this,” Dorothy said, “and I can’t see any point in getting your dad all charged up over it.”

“What if I have to pay a big fine?”

“I have some money set aside from my household funds. We’ll manage, and he won’t ever know.”

For years, whenever Dorothy covered up Wayne’s drinking, Kit had thought it was wrong. It bothered her to hear Dorothy call Wayne’s boss and say Wayne was sick and couldn’t come to work when in reality Wayne was too drunk to get up off the sofa. It seemed so dishonest to pretend he was sick rather than admit he had a drinking problem.

Now Dorothy was doing the same thing for Kit. She was pretending the shoplifting hadn’t happened, telling Wayne that Kit’s problem was merely her math homework.

Kit dried the glass salad bowl and put it in the cupboard. Although she was glad Wayne didn’t know the truth, she didn’t like having Dorothy lie for her. In a way, this was worse than facing Wayne’s anger and dealing with it. It made Kit feel scummy. She had done something so low that her own mother couldn’t admit it.

Kit wanted to put the whole thing behind her and never think about it again. Dorothy was right about one thing; she had learned a lesson the hard way.

The letter arrived two weeks later. It instructed her to appear before a court committee on April 22, at 7:30
P.M.
Her parents were asked to come, too, if possible.

“I’ll go with you,” Dorothy said.

Kit had mixed feelings about that. On the one hand, she wanted her mother there for moral support. The thought of
going alone was too terrifying. On the other hand, she was ashamed to be going at all and it made her shame worse to have her mother witness it.

At least nobody else knew. Not Wayne, not Tracy, not Grandma and Grandpa. And they weren’t going to find out, either.

T
HE phone rang during breakfast. “Meet me as early as you can,” Tracy said. “I have a surprise.” She sounded breathless.

When Kit got to school, she found Tracy pacing the floor in front of their lockers.

Tracy waved and ran to meet Kit. She thrust an envelope into Kit’s hand. “I mailed the others yesterday,” she said. “I couldn’t wait for you to get yours in the mail. Besides, I wanted to be sure you were the first to know.”

Kit had never seen Tracy so excited. She tore open the envelope and withdrew a shiny photograph of a hot air balloon.

“Turn it over,” Tracy said. “Read what’s on the back.”

Kit saw that it was an invitation. She began to read out loud. “You are invited to a Hot Air Balloon Birthday Party.
Where: Meet in the school parking lot; you’ll be driven to the launch site. When . . .”

Before she could finish, Tracy broke in. “Isn’t it super? My parents have reserved three hot air balloons. We take off from that old airport south of town, the one that isn’t used for planes anymore. There are ‘chase vans’ that follow the balloons, on the ground. When we land, the vans will be there to take us home. But first we’ll have sparkling cider and a picnic dinner. All the food will be in the vans, even a birthday cake.”

Tracy paused to catch her breath.

“That,” Kit said, “is the most fantastic party I ever heard of.” Tracy’s parents always had original ideas. Usually Tracy’s birthday parties weren’t this lavish but they were always different and always fun. How wonderful it would be to have parents like that.

“I’ve thought of some great headlines. Listen to this: ‘
PARTY GIRLS GET HIGH IN BALLOONS
’.”

Kit giggled.

“Or how about, ‘
BASKET CASE DISAPPEARS IN CLOUDS
.’ Get it? We ride in the balloon’s basket.”

Kit groaned but she couldn’t resist slipping into Sharon Shocker’s voice and saying, “
BALLOON PARTY INVITATIONS HOT ITEM ON BLACK MARKET. SCALPERS GET THOUSANDS
.” She looked again at her invitation. “Who else did you invite?” she asked.

“All the girls who are in the play.” Tracy started naming her guests but Kit didn’t hear the names.

Kit stopped walking. She had just read the rest of the invitation. “
When: April 22 at 5
P.M.
”

On April 22 at 7:30 she had to appear before the Juvenile
Court Committee. “What time will the party end?” she asked.

“The balloons will land around seven. It’ll take an hour for the picnic and then my parents will drive everybody home. It won’t be late; probably nine o’clock.”

Nine o’clock. She licked her lips and swallowed. She felt as if she’d just been punched in the stomach. She had to miss Tracy’s party.

“What’s the matter?” Tracy said. “Don’t you think I should have invited Marcia? I didn’t really want to but I didn’t see how I could leave her out when I’m asking the rest of the girls in the cast. Besides, she’s doing a good job in the play. You should come to a rehearsal; you’d be amazed how hard she works. And she hardly brags at all.”

“I can’t go.”

“Why not? Miss Fenton doesn’t care, as long as you’re quiet.”

Kit shook her head, pointing to the invitation. “I can’t go,” she repeated.

“You can’t go on the balloon ride?” Tracy’s voice rose on the last word, ending in a little squeak.

Kit nodded her head. “That’s right. I can’t go to your party.”

“Why not?”

“I—I just can’t.”

“But you have to come! This is the kind of birthday I’ve always dreamed of and you’re my best friend. It won’t be any fun if you aren’t there.”

“I’m sorry,” Kit said. “I want to come, believe me.” She looked again at the invitation. “Your birthday is April twenty-third,” she said. “Why is the party on the twenty-second?”

“Dad couldn’t get all three balloons on the twenty-third.” The excitement was gone from Tracy’s voice. She looked at Kit with narrowed eyes, as if by squinting she would be able to see inside Kit’s head and discover what she was thinking. “Kit, you
have
to come. Can’t you change whatever plans you have for that day?”

Kit shook her head. No, she thought. I cannot tell the court committee, sorry, I can’t make it, I’m going to a birthday party. “I wish I could.”

“Then at least tell me what you’re doing that day. If it’s so important, I think . . .”

“I can’t tell you.” Kit didn’t mean to sound cross but that’s the way it came out.

“Well, excuse me,” Tracy said.

Kit knew Tracy was hurt and she didn’t blame her. It was bad enough not to go to the party; it was even worse not to explain why.

“I’d tell you if I could,” Kit said. “But I can’t. You’re just going to have to trust me.”

Tracy spoke softly. “If anybody else I invited can’t come, it won’t make that much difference. You’re the only one who really matters. Maybe I should have checked the date with you before we sent out the invitations but I thought it would be fun to surprise you and I never thought you’d have to be somewhere else. You never mentioned anything and . . .” She stopped suddenly and gave Kit the squint-eyed look again. “You aren’t in some kind of trouble, are you?” she asked.

“No,” Kit said quickly. “What makes you think that?”

“If you are,” Tracy said, “you can tell me.”

“I’m not in any trouble.”

“Good.” From the way Tracy said, “Good,” Kit could tell she was not totally convinced.

Kit looked again at the picture of the balloon. It was a round multicolored checkerboard, with squares of yellow, orange, red, green, and lavender, against a blue sky. A square wicker basket hung below it, carrying people high above the trees. She couldn’t see their faces but she was sure they were smiling.

“You’ll have a great time, whether I’m there or not,” she said. “It’s a wonderful party idea.”

“It won’t be the same without you.”

By the next day, other people had received their invitations. Linda, who was in Kit’s and Tracy’s speech class, swooped in, waving her invitation like a signal flag.

“I’ll be there,” she told Tracy. “Wild horses couldn’t keep me away. Ever since I saw the movie
Around the World in Eighty Days
, I’ve ached to go up in a hot air balloon.” She turned to Kit. “What are you going to wear that night?” she asked.

Kit licked her lips, wondering what to say. “I—don’t know,” she said. If she told Linda that she wasn’t going on the balloon ride, Linda would want to know why. Kit could see that her secret would quickly become an even bigger problem than it already was if people knew she wasn’t going to Tracy’s balloon party. Linda assumed that Kit would be there. Everyone else would assume the same thing. And why not? She and Tracy were best friends. She had never missed one of Tracy’s birthday parties before.

“Wear something cool,” Tracy said. “We were told it gets warm in the balloon from the gas jets. Bring a jacket, though,
because by the time the picnic is over, it will probably be dark, and chilly.”

“What if it rains?” Linda asked. “Will we still go?”

“If it rains, or if it’s too windy, we have to postpone the balloon ride. We’ll still have the picnic, but it would be indoors, at my house.”

Linda pressed the palms of her hands together, looked up, and closed her eyes. “Let us pray for sunshine,” she said.

“I already am,” Tracy said.

As Linda babbled about the balloon ride, Kit gave Tracy a grateful look. Tracy could have told Linda that Kit wasn’t going to the party. When she didn’t, Kit knew she wouldn’t tell anyone else, either. They wouldn’t know that Kit wasn’t coming until they were ready to launch the balloons. By then, everyone would be so excited, they might not even miss her. If they did, if anyone asked her the next day why she wasn’t there, she would say she got sick.

Another lie, Kit thought. I’ll create a new secret to cover up the old one. She didn’t like to pretend she was going when she knew that she wasn’t, but she couldn’t think what else to do.

As Linda and Tracy discussed how it might feel to go up in a balloon, Kit wondered if she should tell Tracy the truth. Maybe she owed Tracy that much. Tracy was loyal. That’s why Tracy hadn’t told Linda. Tracy realized how awkward it would be for Kit if everyone knew she wasn’t going to the party but wouldn’t say why. Gossip would fly faster than a spaceship.

She could just imagine the speculation: Tracy and Kit had a terrible fight and Tracy didn’t invite Kit to her party. Or, Kit’s been grounded for a month and her parents aren’t letting
her go to Tracy’s party. Then everyone would try to guess WHY Kit was grounded. Failing grades? Stayed out all night? Smoking? It would go on and on. She knew it and Tracy knew it, too. That’s why Tracy didn’t tell Linda.

Tracy deserves to know why I can’t go, Kit thought. But if I tell her the truth—tell her that I stole a bracelet and have to appear before a court committee—will she still feel the same toward me? Will she still be loyal or will she be so shocked that she backs off from me?

Once, when they were eight years old, Kit and Tracy had formed a secret club. They called it the TRIK CLUB, using the first two initials of their names, and their motto was: Be brave, be honest, be good. I messed up on all three counts, Kit thought.

Tracy was the only person in the world who had always believed in Kit. Tracy always took Kit’s side. She still thought Kit was brave, honest, and good. How could Kit risk losing that?

She said nothing.

Secretly, she hoped it would rain on April 22. The balloon ride would get rescheduled and she would go and no one would be the wiser. Then she felt guilty for wanting rain to spoil Tracy’s party.

The scene with Linda repeated itself with variations during the next two weeks because everyone who was going on the balloon ride thought Kit was going, too. It soon required no effort to pretend that she was.

The more I lie, Kit thought, the easier it gets.

Tracy had play rehearsal after school every day so they had less time together than usual. Kit thought it was just as well. She would be glad when April 22nd was over, for more reasons than one.

The day finally arrived: sunny, clear, and still. A perfect day for a hot air balloon trip.

After school, Tracy made a point of getting Kit alone for a moment. “If your plans change, even at the last minute,” she said, “you can still come. I didn’t invite anyone else to take your place, so there’s an extra space in one balloon.”

“I won’t be there,” Kit said.

Tracy said nothing.

“I hope you have a great time tonight,” Kit said.

“Thanks. You, too.”

Not much chance of that, Kit thought. She was far more nervous about going before the court committee than she had ever been about anything in her life. The night before, she had dreamed about it—a weird, scary dream where a whole group of people pointed at her, shouting, “Guilty! Guilty! Guilty!”