Savvy (17 page)

“Don’t worry, Mibs,” he said aloud.

A
fter Wymore we continued south, leaving Nebraska and finding ourselves on the far side of Kansas, still miles from Salina. Despite the Beaumont pleas to go straight to Salina Hope Hospital, Lester was fixed tight to his plans for one last detour. So we ate Pop-Tarts and chips and candy bars from the Mega Mega Mart and watched the landscape roll by outside the bus, trying not to think about Poppa lying broken in the hospital, trying not to imagine The Worst.

We were just north of Manhattan when a siren wailed and lights flashed behind us. All of us kids tensed like watch springs, coiling down into our seats, keeping low as Lester pulled the bus to the side of the highway with the rest of the Sunday traffic. It was with more than a touch of relief that we watched a white and blue police car fly past us on its way to someplace else and realized it wasn’t ALERT! MISSING! ALERT! after us. But Lill and Lester hardly noticed a thing, so absorbed were they with each other.

Not long after, as Lester followed a long curve in the highway, Fish got to his feet and moved toward the front of the bus, stopping just shy of the yellow line painted on the floor. He was peering ahead of him up the highway and his knuckles were white where he clutched the back of Lester’s seat. I got up from my place next to Will, squeezing past him to move toward Fish. Something was up, sure as sure.

“What’s going on, Fish?” I asked him over the noise of the bus. The others were looking our way now, curious.

“I smell water,” said Fish. “And lots of it.” I cast a quick glance next to us at Lill, who was looking our way inquiringly. Lester turned his head as well.

“You’ve got a g-good nose,” he said to Fish. “We’re not too far from Tuttle Creek Lake. That’s a fair-sized b-body of water, that is.”

I put my hand on Fish’s shoulder. “You’re doing fine now, Fish,” I reminded him quietly. “There’s no need to worry … right? You’ve got things under control. You’ve got it scumbled.”

Fish gave one quick, hard nod with each thing I said, as though he was punctuating my sentences with his chin.

“You’re good,” I said to him. “You told me so yourself back by the pool at the motel, remember? It’s just a bunch of water.”

Another nod.

“I’m good,” he finally agreed, and his hand relaxed its grip on Lester’s seat. I knew that, despite Fish’s newfound confidence, the memories of his full-blown thirteenth-birthday hurricane would haunt him for a long, long time. It was the sort of thing no one could ever really forget.

“We’re almost there,” said Lester. “Carlene lives just up ahead. As soon as I p-pay her what I owe her we can head on over to Salina. It won’t be too long until you’re all b-back with your families.”

“Carlene? Not
Carlene!
” I yammered before I could stop myself. Startled, Lester swerved the bus into oncoming traffic, barely missing a honking pickup truck as he turned to look at me funny.

“What d’you know about Carlene, young miss?” asked Lester, surprised. “I don’t b-believe I’ve ever mentioned her name. It’s Carlene’s cousin Larry that owns the Heartland Bible Supply Company. She helped me get my job.”

“It’s just … I … Isn’t Carlene tattooed on your arm?” I said quickly, trying to cover up my blunder. I jabbed Fish in the ribs with my elbow. My brother’s eyes went wide as he realized that I’d been hearing things about Lester that no one else had, and he tried to help.

“That’s right, you’ve got tattoos on both arms, don’t you?”

“Well, I did that a long time ago,” Lester mumbled, trying to unroll and button his shirtsleeves over his tattoos as he drove. His right shoulder began to jerk up and down like he was trying to keep a persistent bird or bee from landing on his shoulder. Lill looked away from him, studying her shoes.

“What’s Lester still doing with all these rotten kids?”
Rhonda’s voice came spilling back into my head like vinegar.

“He’s got no brains, that’s the problem,”
Carlene’s voice stirred in. I was disappointed to hear those ladies. For a while, Lester’s mind had been too full of Lill to let those voices in; I hated to see him bid them back.

“Lester the dunderhead.”

“Lester the dimwit.”

“Lester the dumbbell”

“Lester the—”

“Stop it!” I cried out, and everybody looked at me. I realized I had my hands over my ears, and except for the noise of the bus, everything else was quiet.

“Why do you listen to them, Lester? Carlene abandoned your dog on the side of the road because it chewed up her best red shoes!” I couldn’t stand it anymore. Lester hit the brakes hard, steering the bus once again to the side of the road and coming to a sudden, lurching stop. He didn’t look at me and he didn’t move. Instead he just sat there, staring out the front window, letting the bus engine idle.

“She’s a bad one, that Carlene,” I said, then pressed my lips together tight, knowing I’d already said too much.

“Mibs, honey,” said Lill softly. “Maybe you and Fish should just go sit back down.”

“Naw, Lill,” said Lester, his jaw quivering with anger or sorrow or both. “The girl’s right. I don’t know how or why she knows it, but she’s right.” He sniffed once and wiped his nose on his sleeve. “I always knew that C-Carlene got rid of my dog and lied about it. I just—she just—well, she g-got me this here job, after all.” He traced the steering wheel in front of him with one finger. “She g-got me this bus.”

“Lester the crybaby.”

“Lester the softie.”

“Lester the—”

“Go sit back down, Mibs,” Lill repeated gently. Fish took me by the arm and steered me into a seat. Bobbi popped a gum bubble and raised her eyebrows my way, saying nothing but looking keen to my distress. Will sat on the edge of his seat, holding on to the bench in front of him as though ready to jump to my aid.

Lester let the bus idle at the side of the road for several minutes. I did everything I could to ignore Rhonda’s and Carlene’s raging abuse of Lester. I felt sick over his willingness to allow that kind of talk in his own head, and I vowed that I would never let Ashley Bing or Emma Flint or anybody else like them have that kind of power over me. I wouldn’t let the voices of bullies or meanies or people who barely-hardly knew me work their way in to my brain and stick.

Eventually, Lester turned to Lill like a beaten-down man asking for mercy. “I just need to settle up with her, Lill. I just need to p-pay Carlene what I owe her from the B-Bibles and then I’m done, then I’m yours—if you’ll have me, that is.”

Lill’s smile was so big that her whole large self seemed small in comparison. “Of course, Lester,” she replied, and Lester’s face transformed. He looked like a man who had finally found his own personal guardian angel.

“Then I am a happy man.”
The voice filled my head. And the voice was Lester’s very own.

C
arlene turned out to be a big woman in a little woman’s body. She had big hair, big teeth, big long fingernails, and big fuzzy slippers, but the rest of her was hollow and shrunken and bony. She looked like a witch dressed up for Halloween as a movie star. When Lester pulled the big pink Bible bus into the Tuttle Terrace Trailer Park, Carlene was sitting outside in a lawn chair. She was reading the Sunday paper and wearing nothing much more than a shiny satin robe and bright pink lipstick that bled into the wrinkles radiating from her lips, making them look ragged-jagged. Her feet were out of her slippers and I could see that her long, thick toenails were painted to match her lipstick.

When she saw the bus coming up her street, Carlene folded her paper and crossed her arms, not bothering to get up. I could see her squinting through the glare on the cracked windows at the rest of us, obviously surprised to find Lester carrying passengers.

“It’s p-probably best if you all stay here,” said Lester as he stood to descend from the bus. But before he could, Samson appeared at my side, squirming and wiggling and whispering into my ear. I grimaced at Fish as he looked our way, then called out to Lester as he opened the door of the bus.

“My brother’s got to go to the bathroom, Mr. Swan, sir,” I said. Fish smacked the palm of his hand to his forehead. Bobbi snorted and Will chuckled. Lester looked bewildered and anxious as he watched Samson silently dance in place in the aisle of the bus.

“You’ve got to take him, Lester,” said Lill like they were already an old married couple. Lester looked even more afflicted.

“I’ll take him,” said Bobbi, surprising everyone and standing up to take Samson’s hand. “Someone’s got to put the kid out of his misery.” Samson took Bobbi’s hand without hesitation and the two of them brushed past Lester to exit the bus. Not sure what was going to happen next, Fish and Will and I moved over to carefully slide open the windows facing Carlene’s trailer so that we could have a better view of the action outside. Bobbi led Samson down the steps and stopped in front of Carlene’s lawn chair.

“May we please use your bathroom, ma’am?” Bobbi asked plainly.

“Lester!” Carlene shouted, ignoring Bobbi as she stood up out of the lawn chair, dropping her newspaper and shoving her feet into her fuzzy slippers. “Lester, you stupid, senseless man! Get your scrawny butt down here right now and tell me what’s going on! Who are all these kids?”

Samson clogged in place, tugging on Bobbi’s arm. “Ma’am, please?” Bobbi repeated.

Carlene waved Bobbi off like a fly, rounding on Lester as he stepped down off the bus. Bobbi took the woman’s wave as permission, whether it was meant that way or not, and hurried Samson up into the trailer to find the bathroom. It gave me the heebie-jeebies to watch Samson and Bobbi disappear into the house as though they were Hansel and Gretel stepping unknowingly into an enormous oven. Fish and Will must have felt the same way too; we all looked at each other and then barreled out of the bus, right past Carlene and Lester, following Bobbi and Samson up into the trailer and leaving Lill alone to wait things out.

The inside of Carlene’s trailer was smoky and dim as the early-afternoon sunlight tried to force its way through the thick gauzy curtains that covered all the windows. The pungent odor of mothballs and scented candles flooded my nose and throat, making me cough. Carlene’s furniture was garish and awful and every shelf or corner held tchotchkes and gewgaws and other tacky trinkets. Once Samson had finished taking care of his business, Bobbi and I took turns doing the same.

I stepped out of the bathroom just in time to catch Samson slipping beneath a long tablecloth that draped nearly to the floor, cascading over a small table just in front of the paneled bar that separated the living room from the kitchen. As he shimmied under the table, trying to disappear into this new hiding spot in his usual, stealthy way, I grabbed my brother by one ankle and pulled him out from under the table backward.

“Not now, Samson,” I said. “Not here. Stay where we can see you, okay?” Samson looked back at me, his face as stony and expressionless as always, though I couldn’t help but notice how his thin shoulders seemed to droop ever so slightly.

I was about to assure him that we’d be leaving soon, that it wouldn’t be long until we were with Momma and Rocket down in Salina and that we’d soon be seeing Poppa, but at that moment, Carlene burst into the trailer with Lester following at her heels.

Carlene was shouting and covering her ears. Lester was trying to hand her a wad of money clipped with a paper clip, but Carlene wouldn’t even look at him. Ranting about Lester’s lack of intelligence and general witlessness, she ushered Fish away from a shelf filled with animal figurines all made from jumbles of dry macaroni, and pulled a leaking, half-empty,
Sunny Miami
snow globe from out of Will Junior’s hands.

“I’m not taking that money, Lester,” Carlene hollered, glaring suspiciously at Bobbi, who was simply standing by the sofa. “I’m not taking it because it’s not nearly enough. You come back here when you have twice that much.” Carlene stopped talking just long enough to look around the room at each of us, her face twisted and contorted like she was trying to remember something, something that maybe
we
reminded her of.

“Fine, C-Carlene,” said Lester. “Don’t take the money. B-but just know that I won’t
be
coming b-back, whether you take the money or not. I’m moving on.”

“How dare you speak to me that way!” Carlene shouted, looking away from us kids and grabbing the money out of his hand greedily. The woman’s temper flared hotter and she pitched the leaking snow globe straight at Lester’s head. Lester ducked, then danced as Carlene began throwing other things at him as well; figurines and collector’s plates sailed across the room, crashing against a wall or a lamp or a table as Lester jumped out of the way.

Both the flesh-and-blood Carlene and the Carlene inside Lester’s head were screeching and bellowing so loudly that the voice of Rhonda could barely get a word in edgewise.

“I thought I raised you better than this, you idiot boy,”
Rhonda scolded him.
“Brawling with a woman!”

“You are such a washout, Lester! Such a complete dud!” Carlene bellowed as macaroni poodles flew through the air.

“Lester’s a moron …”

“Lester’s a—”

“Shut—up!” At long last, it was Lester’s turn to cover his ears and shout, his turn to tell all of the voices to be quiet. “That’s enough!” Lester roared, standing tall in his overalls inside Carlene’s trailer. “I’ve had enough of you, Carlene. I don’t care if you get me fired—I’ll find some way to keep my bus. I d-don’t care about your cousin Larry, and I don’t care about
you!
”

A shocked silence stopped up the room. For a moment, no one moved. No one breathed. No one spoke or even thought.

“Well I’ll never …”
Rhonda started, then quickly faded out.

“Nitwit …”
Carlene’s voice inside Lester’s head got in one final jab before it too sizzled out like a dying flame.