The Big Picture (17 page)

“Frances is on top of the drive-in concession stand. I need to get to her before she does something crazy. Can you take me?”

“Katie, I really don’t want to leave Millie this morning. She’s not feeling so great. And you’re not even dressed yet.” He points to my saggy pajama bottoms and
Nerds Are Hot
T-shirt.

“I’ll take you, toots. Just let me get my helmet.”

“There’s no time to ride your bike, Maxine. I want to get there before the demolition crew.” And then an idea hits me. “James . . . can I borrow the car?”

He chokes on his juice. “Excuse me?”

I engulf him in a loose hug and lean my head on his shoulder. “Please? I’ll be extra careful. I am a licensed driver now.”

“Katie, I don’t know. You’re still so new to driving. And you have to drive with an adult for six months. And I’m not leaving Millie right now.”

I sigh. “So I guess I’m out of luck.”

“Hey, what am I?” Maxine chirps.

“It looks that way, hon. Sorry.”

“Yoo-hoo! Adult, right here.” Maxine waves her hand in my face.

“Maybe one of the neighbors could go with me.”

“Hellewww, I ain’t swigging prune juice because I like it. I’m an adult.” Maxine stands up. “Get the keys and let’s go. We have to save Miss Advanced Placement.”

James and I share a look, then he shrugs. “I suppose she’ll do. But you are changing first, right?”

“Nope. No time to lose.” Thank you, Frances. Nothing like parading myself in front of Charlie with morning breath, bed head, and pants that make me look like I have a full diaper. A little warning about her freaking out would’ve been nice.

James follows us outside to the car, spouting a litany of driving reminders and handing me my flip-flops. I grab the keys from my foster dad, give him a smacking kiss on the cheek, and put Millie’s Honda into motion. My first voyage as a licensed driver! I guess there is something good about Frances’s freaky-psycho meltdown.

Maxine cranks up the radio, her grin wide across her face. “You with a license — I like it. I like it a lot.”

I turn onto Main Street. “I am not going to be your personal chauffeur.” I don’t trust that gleam in her eye.

A few minutes later I pull through the entrance to Bubba’s Big Picture. I drive straight to the snack bar area and park next to Charlie.

“Frances!” I yell, jumping out of the car. My best friend perches on the flat roof of the concession building, arms crossed, chin in the air. “Frances Vega, I know you can hear me!”

“She refuses to budge.” Charlie stands next to me, and the scent of his shampoo carries my way on a breeze. “I called Nash. He should be here any minute.”

“Yeah, and so will the police. What are we going to do?” Like Frances, I stand with my arms crossed so he knows I’m still steamed.

Maxine looks up to the roof. “A day in the slammer might do her some good . . . What? Never hurt me.”

I walk closer to the building. “Frances, listen to me.”

Nothing. No response.

“Zhen Mei Frances Vega” — she winces as I use the name only her parents call her — “this is crazy. Your dad is going to kill you! Does he know where you are?”

She might as well be a statue for all the reaction I’m getting.

I hoist myself onto the snack bar, then with every ounce of strength I’ve got, pull myself onto the roof. I lie there, trembling and out of breath.

“You could’ve just used the ladder.” Frances points to the back. “I brought one with me.”

I close my eyes, sigh deeply, and walk toward her. “What are you doing out here? You know this isn’t going to solve anything.”

Frances shakes her head, her black hair shining in the morning sun. “I can’t give up. Progress robs a town of its history. First it’s the drive-in. Next it will be a supermarket in the place of Tucker’s. Then what — they’ll change our Chihuahua mascot?”

Oh, life couldn’t be that kind.

“The wrecking crew is going to be here any minute, you know.”

“So? I’m not moving.”

I try a new tactic. “Harvard doesn’t accept incoming freshmen with rap sheets.”

Frances blinks behind her glasses. “Then I’ll go to Yale.”

“You’re gonna be grounded so long, you won’t even be able to go to the junior college.”

“That’s the price I’m willing to pay.” She tucks a runaway piece of hair behind her ear.

“Grounded so long you can’t even go to the junior college and will have to work in a plant.”

“For this, I would pluck chickens.”

I sigh and shift my legs beneath me. “You can so kiss dating good-bye.”

“I hear prom is overrated.” Frances looks into the distance.

I study my friend, the set of her face, her crossed arms. The Goldfish crackers and juice box beside her. This girl ain’t going nowhere. “There’s nothing I can say?”

Her black eyes meet mine. “Katie, I have to do this. I can’t let the drive-in go without a fight.”

I nod and take a step back, the boards creaking beneath me. “Okay, then. I’ll visit you in prison.” I’ve got a little practice with that. “You know they’re just going to physically remove you from this roof.”

Frances shrugs. “If that’s what they have to do. But I called the paper, and they should be arriving in another ten minutes, so let them get the story of the big bad mayor having a young girl roughed up and dragged off a building.”

Wow. “You should’ve been the one in drama.” I walk toward the ladder, deciding to take the easy way down. Not that heaving my full body weight onto the roof wasn’t fun. And probably really attractive, too. “I’m going to be down there if you need anything.” I give Frances a thumbs-up sign and a bolstering smile, then walk toward the edge.

I frown as the roof wobbles a bit. “Kinda weak over here, Frances. Be careful, okay?”

“What?” she calls.

“I said there are some weak boards and — ”

Crash!

I stumble onto my knee as my right leg plunges through the roof.

“Oh, my gosh!” I yell. My body hits the flat surface, and my brain whirls, as if trying to locate all my body parts.

Frances dashes over to me. “Katie! Are you okay?”

“Yeah . . . I think I’m okay.” Sweat beads on my forehead. “I . . . um . . .” I move my right leg. All toes work. Ankle —
ow
. Not so good. Just gonna pull it back up and get out of here.

“Katie?” Charlie bellows from below. “What’s going on?”

“I know mouth-to-mouth!” Maxine hollers. “Do you need me?”

Ew
. “It’s nothing! I’m fine!” I inject some attitude in my yell for Charlie’s sake.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” Frances asks, her brow knit with concern. Her gaze travels over my head, and I turn to follow her stare.

Oh, no.

The demolition crew is here.

Racing toward the back, steering clear of me and the hole, Frances grabs the ladder and manhandles it until it slides up next to her.

“Put that ladder back down, Frances.”

She ignores me.

I lift my leg, desperate to get both legs in the same place and on level ground.

“I can’t pull my leg up.”

“What?”

I double my volume. “I said I can’t pull my leg up!”

“I heard you! What do you mean?”

I balance my body weight on my arms and give a few good tugs. Nothing. “My pajama bottoms are caught on something. I think it’s a nail.” This could only happen to me. I know God’s up there with his angelic posse saying, “Come here. You gotta check this girl out. She’s at it
again
!”

“Maybe if I . . . um . . .” Frances wraps her arms around my upper body and pulls.

“Ow! I need my leg out, not my torso detached!” My heart beats
wildly in my chest.
Don’t freak out. Do
not
freak out.
What if I fall all the way through? I don’t want to die in my ratty pajamas.

“Hey!” A gruff voice echoes from below. “What are you two doing up there?”

Frances tiptoes to the other side. “Hello, sir. How are you this fine morning?”

“Yeah, great. Whatever. Get down.
Now
.”

“No.”

“Frances,” I hiss. “Tell him I’m stuck. Tell him I’m seconds away from busting through and doing a cannonball into the popcorn machine, and I need some help.”

“No.”

“Help!” I scream. “Help me!”

“What’s going on up there?”

“My leg is stuck! It fell through the roof!” And I should never have gotten out of bed this morning.

“Katie?” Charlie calls. “Are you okay?”

“Yes! My leg is stuck in the roof, I can’t move it, Frances hauled the ladder up, it’s a million degrees up here, and I’m having the time of my life.
Thanks for asking!
” I snarl.

Frances
tsks
. “Kinda crabby this morning.”

“The project manager just went to call the mayor.” Charlie’s voice grates on my every nerve. Even the ones dangling midair below. “He said they have instructions to demolish the place no matter what.”

“Oh, well, great. Let me just gnaw my own leg off, and I’ll be right down.”
Where
are these people’s brains today? Unlike Frances,
I
am not up here to make a statement. My statement right now? Get me
down
!

I tug my right leg to no avail. Buford Hollis and his stupid rotting building. It’s probably eaten up with termites, and they’re going to swarm in on my trapped limb at any second.

“Frances, let the ladder back down so I can come up and help Katie!”

“No, Charlie!”

My head spins toward my best friend. “What? Are you nuts? Give him the ladder. You can stay up here, but I want down. This place is a time bomb. It’s probably going to cave in before the bulldozer gets it anyway. We both need to get down from here.”

“Katie,” Frances rushes to my side, spies the hole again, and backs up a step. “I can’t. I’m sorry. I didn’t ask you to come up here.”

“You’re going to sacrifice me for the sake of this drive-in?” I squawk. “Have you been drinking?”

Charlie pleads with Frances again.

“No, I’m not giving you the ladder. Those men in the big yellow trucks will just storm the roof and make me come down.”

I close my eyes. My body hurts from this awkward position. Legs were just not meant to go in these two different directions.

“Hey, kid!”

Frances runs to the edge. “What do you want?”

Oh, yeah, big talk from the girl not toothpicked through a roof.

“You have five seconds to climb down or else I’m calling the police. The mayor’s on his way. I got clearance to call the fire department, the sheriff, and the drug dogs.”

Frances gasps. “I don’t have drugs up here!”

No, she took them all
before
she came.

Turning back to me, Frances evaluates my situation. “If you could just get free, I think I could distract these guys long enough to get you down.”

“Great. Fabulous. Thanks for caring. But Frances?” I pant, weary of holding up my own body weight. “I am stuck until someone gets into the snack bar and detaches me.”

“Could you just take your pants off?”

“No.” Though the thought did cross my mind. But James would have a cow.

“It’s okay.” Frances sits ten feet away from me. “I think I’m just going to sit here and pray.”

“Pray? Pray for some help for me.”
You freak job
.

I hear a few more vehicles pull up to the snack bar, one of them sounding especially close.
Dear God, please don’t let anyone plow into this building. That would kinda complicate things. And cut me in two
.

“Frances Vega? Katie Parker? Keep driving, Tom. A little closer.”

I frown at this new voice. Now what?

Doors slam, voices mingle.
Thud! Thud! Thud!

Leaving her meditative pose, Frances slinks to the edge again. “Oh . . .”

“What?” I could really use that juice box about now.

“Oh, no . . .”

And then I see a head pop up. And another one.

“It’s two guys on a van,” Frances whispers.

Yes! Some help.
Thank you, God
. “Looks like your prayers were answered, Frances.” At least for me.

“Uh . . . I don’t think so.”

“Frances Vega and Katie Parker — I’m Rick Saldano.”

“Who?” I blanch at the TV camera lifted high.

“Channel Five News.”

Chapter twenty

“LADIES, IF YOU COULD COME closer to the edge, I could get you on the mic.”

Frances leaps toward the TV newsman. Dude, that girl’s
already
on the edge. She’s one step away from crazy town.

“I’m Frances Vega.” She lifts her chin like she’s royalty. “We’re protesting the destruction of Bubba’s Big Picture, an In Between institution.”

“No,
we’re
not. I’m just stuck up here. If you would be so kind, sir, as to — ”

“Miss Vega, is it true you and your friends started a petition to keep Bubba’s open?” Rick’s face looks like mine when Millie gives me an extra ten in my allowance.

“Yes, we did. But we got caught in that huge rainstorm and couldn’t safely get out and obtain all the support we needed — all the support we know we would have received. This town — ”

The roof shudders. Now what?

Metal scrapes the building as a gray ladder appears. “Miss Vega! You get down this instant!”

Mayor Crowley. He huffs with every step up the ladder.

I’ll take help from anyone. Even this weasel. “Mayor, please help me out, I — ”

“Frances Vega, you and Katie Parker have thirty seconds to make your way down this ladder and get off that roof.”

“No!” Frances’s voice overlaps mine.

“Be glad to. What I’ve been
trying
to tell everyone is that my leg is — ”

“Mayor Crowley!” Walking on the top of his van, Rick Saldano inches closer to the mayor. “How do you feel about these two girls protesting the fact you are forcing Buford Hollis out of business?”

“I’m not protesting anything here. I simply want someone to go in the snack bar and just — ”

“I’m not forcing anything, young man.” The mayor’s face reddens. “The drive-in is an eyesore and is crumbling around Buford.”