Lucky Cap (2 page)

The Sisterhood (minus Nadine), of course, cracked up.

The cap revealed its magic later that night, when me and Kai were up in my room.

“Lucky!” “Lucky!” “Lucky!” Kai must have said it a hundred times. That and, “Do you think your dad could get me one?”

He was jealous of the cap. Who wouldn't be? I felt bad for him. Not bad enough to give up the cap, but bad.

“You heard him,” I said. “It's a prototype. One of a kind.”

“You sure there aren't
two
of a kind?”

“I can't believe Dad got that job,” I said, shaking my head.

“That's what I mean. You are so
lucky.
He's probably going to bring home prototypes every day!”

I liked thinking about that.

“It's not so lucky my dad's leaving for a month and a half, though,” I said. “He's leaving me alone with
five
girls.”

Kai nodded like he understood, but he only had one sister. And a brother. And both of them were younger. Talk about lucky.

“But just think about all the cool stuff he'll bring back,” he said, his eyes widening like a pile of treasure had suddenly materialized in front of him.

“Yeah,” I said. “I am. But the girls will try to take over while he's gone. I'll be outnumbered.”

“You'll just have to pump up the testosterone level. You know. Burp a lot. Be a slob. Say gross things. You'll be all right.”

“Don't you remember when my dad was gone for a weekend once and my sisters tried to curl my hair? And
dye
it? I barely escaped.”

“I remember. That was a close call.” He patted my shoulder. “Tell you what, I'll come over as much as I can. We can race around the house with muddy shoes. Stuff like that. We can beat this thing!”

I wasn't so sure, but said, “Thanks.”

Kai was a pretty good guy, despite how puny he was. He was eleven like me, but he sure didn't look it. He looked more like nine. Maybe even eight. It was like he'd stopped growing. I swear he still had baby teeth in front. And his eyes looked way too big for his head. And he wasn't filling out. He was real bony and stumbled around like a newborn horse, his legs going all different directions. He tripped a lot.

It wasn't such a big deal back when we were the same size. We were just two goofy guys running around, acting like crazed monkeys. But I grew taller in fifth grade and filled in some. And I matured. I got more serious. Less goofy. Now I was more like his older brother.

“It sure is an amazing cap,” he said, all dazzled again.

“Yeah. I swear there's something… I don't know…
magical
about—”

Someone knocked on my door right then.

“What?” I barked. I didn't like being interrupted in what I considered to be my private personal space. Plus it was probably just one of my sisters all prepared to annoy me. As usual.

“Can I come in, buddy?”

It was Dad.

“Yeah, sorry,” I said in a nicer voice. “Come in.”

He stepped inside, kind of awkwardly. He could be a little shy sometimes. Not all dads are bold and brave, I guess. Mine was shy and cautious.

I assumed he was coming in to say he was sorry for abandoning me.

“I just got off the phone,” he said, sitting beside me on the bed. “It was Evan Stevens, from work. He's my new supervisor at Kap. He'll be training me and traveling with me.”

“Evan Stevens?” Kai asked.

Dad chuckled. “Yep. Like ‘even Steven.'”

Kai chuckled, too. I didn't get the joke and didn't care. I wanted to hear what Dad and this Evan guy had talked about. Dad was giving off some seriously strange vibes. He had news and was itching to spill it, but he was taking his time.

“So I was talking to Evan,” Dad went on, “telling him about how excited the family was that I got the job and everything, and he was real glad to hear it…. You'll meet him, Enzo. He's a real nice kid. Well, not a
kid.
He's in his twenties. To me he's a kid…”

“Yeah,” I said, humoring him, wanting him to get to the point. “And…?”

“I told Evan how much you loved the cap, and he said that gave him an idea.”

Dad paused a second, then smiled. It was a big, warm, I-have-good-news-for-you smile. Why was he torturing me?

“Tell me his idea, Dad!” I said.

“Well, Evan said maybe having an eleven-year-old boy along on the trip would be a real asset. Maybe an eleven-year-old boy could test out the new products and tell us which ones are amazing and which aren't.”

You could have heard a pin drop, even on the carpet.

Then Kai said, “Hey!
Enzo
is an eleven-year-old boy!”

I elbowed him. “So are you, stupid.”

“Oh, yeah…”

It was totally understandable that he forgot sometimes.

“So?” Dad asked.

“So what?” I asked.

“So do you want to come on the trip with us?”

How do you think I answered?

“Yeah!” Then I gave Dad a shove. He shoved me back, and then we cracked up.

This all happened because of the cap. Dad told Evan Stevens how much I loved it. Evan invited me on the trip. It was the cap. It definitely had some sort of power. Some kind of magic. Luck, maybe. I understood right then I would be lucky as long as I held on to it.

“Lucky,” Kai said. He wasn't laughing. He wasn't happy.

I patted him on the shoulder and said, “I'll be back before you know it.”

Boy, was I right about that.

The trip started two days later. Me and Dad got up early, way before Mom and the Sisterhood. We had said our good-byes the night before.

After we ate some cereal and did our own dishes (we wouldn't be doing that for a while!) I went out back to say good-bye to our dog, Inkspill, who I call Ink. He's black, of course, although I guess he could also be blue. Come to think of it, he could be purple. Doesn't ink come in just about any color? Well, our Ink was a miniature pinscher—a min pin—and black.

He heard me coming and started yapping and racing around the backyard like a lunatic. I loved Ink and hated leaving him behind. Especially with the Sisterhood. Who knew what they would do to him. A month and a half of baby talk alone would probably damage his brain permanently.

I unlocked the gate, but before I could open it, Ink started hurling himself against it. As usual. He barked and snarled like he was rabid. I couldn't get in.

Then again,
I thought to myself,
maybe some time away from him might be a good thing.

I crouched down and let him lick my face through the chain link.

“Bye, Ink, you big spaz,” I said, but in a loving way.

When I returned to the front yard, a car was pulling into the driveway and Dad was walking over to it. It was Evan Stevens come to pick us up. What kind of car did Kap give Evan to drive? Something boxy and boring with good gas mileage? Nope. He drove a silver convertible. With the top down, of course. There was a huge, tilted, black
K
painted on the door.
This
was the car we'd be driving all over the western states! I don't know what one feels like, but it felt like I was having a heart attack. I was that excited.

(Turns out it wasn't a heart attack. Phew. I would've hated to miss the trip.)

Evan shut off the engine, rocked back in his seat, then, with a really big grin, asked, “So what do you think of our ride, boys? Not bad, right?”

Dad laughed and nodded, and I said, “It's awesome!” I admit this was a pretty lame answer, but in this case, it was accurate. I was definitely feeling some awe. Lots of it, actually.

Evan was too cool to live. He was tall, dark, and ripped. His black Kap polo shirt could barely hold his arms, chest, and shoulders. He wore dark Ray-Bans and chewed gum. He smiled real big, but it wasn't fake. He looked wide awake for so early in the morning, like he had more energy than he knew what to do with. He wasn't a spaz like Ink or anything. He just looked… you know… psyched. Unlike most grown-ups.

I liked him right off the bat.

“How's it going this a.m., Mr. Assistant General Manager?” Evan asked as he shook Dad's hand.

Standing next to Evan, my big, strong father suddenly seemed not so big or strong. But, to be fair, Evan was a lot younger. Dad was ancient. Thirty-eight.

“This has got to be Lorenzo,” Evan said, releasing Dad's hand and grabbing mine with a firm grip. “Heard a lot about you, dude. All good.”

“H-Hi, Mr. Stevens,” I squeaked. I guess I was kind of star-struck.

“Evan is the name,” he said. “Mr. Stevens is my granddad's name!”

“I like Enzo,” I said, and it struck me that both our names started with
E
. Which was cool.

“So then, Enzo,” Evan said, getting real serious all of a sudden, “what do you think about this little excursion we're embarking on?”

I was tongue-tied. What did I
think?
Was I supposed to be thinking? Wasn't this summer vacation? I searched my brain for a thought.

“I think it's going to be the amazingest trip in the history of time,” I said.

Evan laughed so hard I bit my tongue. It wasn't that funny. In fact, it wasn't funny at all.
Amazingest
was just a word that had been going around the neighborhood that summer.

“You got that right!” he said. “That's exactly what it's going to be. The amazingest trip in the history of time! You nailed it, Enzo!”

We stowed our gear and piled in, then Evan fired up the convertible and we pulled away from the curb. I leaned back into the seat, which was really cushy and comfortable. I looked up at the blue sky. It was like I was in some PG-13 movie!

We turned the corner onto Kearny Boulevard, a fast street with four lanes of traffic. As the car picked up speed, the wind got under the visor of my cap and started to lift it. My hands went up like lightning and grabbed it tight. Nothing was ever going to separate me from my magic.

Or so I believed…

I thought about keeping a journal so I wouldn't forget any of the amazing things that we were going to do, but that felt too schoolish, so instead I texted the info to Kai. Kai saved all my messages and showed them to me when I got back. Here's some of the amazingest ones, in the order I sent them:

frisco! cable car! alcatraz!!!

HOTEL!! room service! day n nite!!!

boogie boarded in pac ocean! B-)… saw WHALE!!! i think…

hiked big sur in cool nu kap boots!!!

snorkeld in montarey!!!

cable video games in room… wieght room… pool.

crash on hwy! fire! scary!!! :-o

saw U2!!! old guys but amazing!! almost met bono!!!

parasurfing!!!!!!!!!!

met lebron james!!!! he signed my kap cap!!

130 in deth vally! all hail a/c!!!

ginormus water park!!! :-D

hollywood!! studio tour got u suvineer

guess who got jack blacks autograf?!! hes really fat

hollywood kap store… indoor rappids!!!

1 word… disneyland!!!

water sking on lake tahoe!!!

snow sking in teh summer!!!

camped on beach… elk! ur not sposed to look em in the eye… i didn't… evan did… brave dude!!… nuthin happend :-(

hiked in rain forest! it didnt rain :-\

seattle… space needle! mariners game!

DEFINITLY saw a whale this time!!!! dad sawit to

did u know the eifel tower was in vegas? it is!!! :-o

hoover DAM!! really big DAM!! DAM!! ;-)

touch football w/ dad evan n kap guys!!!

hanglided!!! wo!!! wish u were here!!!

I didn't really mean that last bit, but I didn't want him to know I was glad he wasn't with us. It was nice to have someone at home to tell about all the cool things I was doing, someone who would be totally jealous. Kai was perfect for that.

Dad and I got to hang out together a lot, which we never got to do at home, because he was always working or helping the Sisterhood with their many, many issues. As it turns out, he's a good guy to hang with. He wasn't so fussy about stuff, like Mom is. He didn't bother me about baths or changing my clothes or picking up my things. He never said I should avoid junk food or fried food or fast food or carbs. He never checked fat or sugar content on labels. He never nagged me about watching too much TV or playing video games too much. He was kind of cool.