The Creek (14 page)

Penny hopped onto the bike, pedaled out of the garage, and whirled around the driveway. The aluminum foil glinted in the bright sun.

Teddy grinned happily.

It was going to be a great day.

Maybe it was the presence of so many adults, the implied safety of the crowd, but whatever it was, Penny didn’t give Caleb a second thought. It was as if she were having a day of amnesia. She had better things to think about, like sparklers and birch beer and water-balloon fights. It was, after all, a holiday.

There was tons of food: steamer clams, foot-long hot dogs, Polish kielbasa, hamburgers, macaroni salad, potato salad, deviled eggs, potato chips, and a whole cooler devoted to Popsicles for the kids. There was a keg of beer for the hardworking fathers and mothers and a keg of birch beer for the thirsty kids. Ice was scarce, and the parents collectively agreed that they needed a cold one more than the kids did, so the kids had to make do with warm birch beer.

The day moved along at a fast clip. To his delight, Teddy’s astronaut bike won the contest. The potato-sack race proved amusing when Mrs. Bukvic fell flat on her ample rear. The water-balloon toss ended with half the block’s mothers being soaked by their husbands. After that a no-holds-barred volleyball game all but ripped every blade of grass from the Schuylers’
newly sodded side yard.

To no one’s surprise, Zachary was stung by a bee and promptly dragged home by his mother. Oren did his best to avoid his father, who had showed up after all and brought his new girlfriend, a receptionist from the clinic who looked about eighteen. And Mr. Albright drank too much beer and fell asleep in a lawn chair on his own driveway.

Amy Bukvic made a brief appearance, and as Penny’s mother had predicted, she was wearing a dress—a strapless hot-pink number that made more than one of the fathers in attendance stop and stare.

Penny, who was getting birch beer when Amy showed up, watched from the sidelines as Amy sauntered through the crowd with a distracted look on her face, as if she couldn’t wait to get out of there. She caught sight of Penny at the kegs, walked over, and casually pumped herself a cup of real beer.

“So, isn’t this party great?” Penny said awkwardly, looking around to see if Amy was going to get in trouble.

“New dress?” Amy said, shooting a critical look at Penny’s sundress.

“Um,” Penny stammered self-consciously.

“You have to stop letting your mom pick out your
clothes,” Amy sniffed, obviously unimpressed.

“Uh, okay,” Penny managed to reply, her cheeks burning.

“This party’s pathetic. I am so out of here,” Amy said.

“Where are you going?”

“To a real party, that’s where. Somewhere where there aren’t any parents.”

“What kind of party? I mean, whose?”

“No one
you
know,” Amy said, with a withering look.

Penny said in a tentative voice, “Could I—”

“No, you are
not
invited,” Amy said, with a nasty grin. “No little girls allowed.”

Penny blanched.

Amy tipped her head back, draining her cup. Then she dropped it on the ground and walked away. “Have a great time playing with all the
kiddies,”
she called over her shoulder sarcastically.

Amy Bukvic aside, it was still the best block party ever. They all ate too much, and got sunburned, and played so hard they panted like dogs. Mrs. Bukvic, the organizer, was queen for the day, and even Officer Cox stopped by for a laugh and a hot dog. “Just keep the peace,” he joked.

But the Devlins’ front door, just off the cul-de-sac, stayed shut, the blinds drawn, no hint of life in the house.

Then several things happened very quickly.

The steamer clams Benji’s dad had bought from a buddy in South Philly turned out to be bad. In short order Mrs. McHale, Dr. Loew, Oren, Becky, and Dr. Loew’s new girlfriend were struck down with food poisoning and had to be rushed to the emergency room. Oren, Penny noticed, wore a secretly pleased expression when he observed his father’s new girlfriend puking her guts up on the lawn, even though he was doing the very same thing a moment later.

Then Penny’s dad’s beeper went off. Two kids who lived in the trailer park out on the Farm Road had been playing with fireworks and almost succeeded in melting the skin off their arms.

Soon after her dad left, Mac, lit from the beer he’d been sneaking from the keg all day, stood in the middle of the cul-de-sac and whistled, waving at the swooping bats with a big butterfly net. He managed to catch one as it flew low, confused by his whistle; but when he reached to take it out of the net, the bat bit him hard on the cheek and then flew off into the trees.

Penny’s mom was prevailed upon to render first aid—everyone assumed that she knew what to do because she was a pediatrician’s wife. She knew enough to know that Mac would have go to the hospital, so she parked the baby with Mrs. Loew and drove Mac to the emergency room, where his mom was still throwing up her guts.

Benji, Teddy, and Penny watched with dismay as Mac was bundled into the Carsons’ minivan.

“I told him not to mess with that bat,” Teddy said, leaning on his crutches.

First Oren and now Mac. Things came in threes, Penny knew. Who would be hurt next? she wondered, and then reconsidered. Zachary had gotten stung by the bee. He sort of counted. That would make three, wouldn’t it?

“Wait,” Benji said, suddenly remembering something. “The fireworks are still at the creek.”

It was supposed to be Mac’s job to retrieve the fireworks before they went to the park, but that wasn’t going to happen now.

“The sun’s gonna go down soon,” Penny said. “We better get them now while we can still see back there.”

“Yeah,” Benji agreed.

They were walking away when Mr. Schuyler called out. “Hey, you kids, come here,” he hollered across the cul-de-sac.They turned around, startled. Did he mean them?

He jabbed a finger at them. “Yes, you.” He was holding a box of heavy black trash bags. “Come on and help clean up this mess.”

“But, Mr. Schuyler,” Benji whined.

Mr. Schuyler shook his head decisively. “Don’t ‘Mr. Schuyler’ me. This here’s a block party, and you live on the block, so you gotta help clean up.”

“I gotta—” Benji was tongue-tied. “It’s really important,” Benji finally blurted.

Mr. Schuyler snorted. “I’m sure it is,” he said, thrusting the box of trash bags at him. “Make yourself useful.”

Penny waited until Mr. Schuyler was out of earshot and then said, “Look, you guys start cleaning up, and I’ll run down to the woods, get the fireworks, and meet you back here and help.”

“You don’t have enough time,” Teddy said, visibly panicking. “We’re supposed to go soon.”

“And I’m not getting stuck doing this all by myself,” Benji said irritably, giving Teddy and his crutches a disparaging toss of his head.

“Hey, I can hold the bags!” Teddy said.

“I’ll be really fast,” Penny promised. “Mac will kill us if we forget the fireworks. We’ve been planning this all summer! Just tell Mr. Schuyler I went to the bathroom.”

“C’mon, kids. Get a move on it,” Mr. Schuyler yelled from across the cul-de-sac. “We’re leaving in half an hour.”

Benji sighed. “Hurry.”

“Don’t let them leave without me,” Penny yelled, already off at a run.

Penny trotted quickly through the woods, the sounds of the block party fading in the distance, her dress swaying gently against her legs.

The woods were full of dark pockets, where the lacy canopy of leaves and branches grew thickest. Here and there among the trees the evening’s first fireflies were starting to wink on and off. By the time she returned it would be dark, and that meant it would be time to go to the municipal park. One thing was certain: she was changing out of this stupid dress.

She followed the creek along its winding path until she reached the old hollow tree by the steep cliff. She reached inside for the metal box and sighed
with relief. The fireworks were right where Mac had left them, neatly packed in the plastic bag, nestled next to the BB guns. She grabbed up the bag, then closed the metal box and stowed it back in the tree.

“Whatcha got there?”

Penny went still at the sound of the voice, closing her eyes.

“Huh, kid?”

She turned around slowly, her hands shaking so hard that she dropped the bag on the ground, fireworks spilling out like candy.

Caleb Devlin stood on the edge of the cliff, the last rays of sunshine fighting their way through the thinning trees to wash over him like a golden brush. He was wearing worn jeans and an old T-shirt, a black one that hung on him, a little too big, like he’d gotten it from someone else, and it had been washed so many times it looked thin in places. The only new-looking thing he had on were black motorcycle boots, and they looked shiny, as if he took special care of them. Penny imagined him polishing those boots every night, to keep them gleaming, like new.

He nudged the fireworks with the shiny tip of a boot. “Fireworks, huh? Planning to celebrate something?”

Penny jerked her head up, taking a step back. “The Fourth,” she choked out.

“Of course, the Fourth,” he said, as if suddenly understanding. He pulled out the silver cigarette case and shook a cigarette out, then flicked on the lighter and drew on the cigarette. The light from the flame illuminated his face, the stubble on his cheek, the thin white scar by his eye.

He squinted at her and casually held out the pack.

“I don’t smoke,” Penny said, her voice sounding strained to her own ears.

“I’m not surprised.” Caleb said, inhaling deeply, leaning against a tree as if he had all the time in the world. “What’s your name, kid?”

“Penny Carson,” she whispered.

He nodded like he knew.

“You’re that girl that’s always playing with the boys, aren’t you?”

She nodded her head uneasily.

“So how come you’re wearing a dress?” His eyes ran up and down her slender form in frank appraisal. Here was a boy used to real girls—girls with actual breasts and hips, girls like Amy.

She sucked in her breath. “Because my mom made me.”

“Trying to turn you into a little lady?” he asked with a not-very-nice sort of laugh.

“I guess.” Penny’s mind was whirling. She was all alone in the woods, too far back for anyone to hear her scream, even.

“You guess, huh?”

Penny took a step forward, trying to sidestep around him.

He grinned at her, shaking his head as if she had somehow disappointed him. “Where do you think you’re going?”

“I have to get back. Everyone’s waiting for me,” she said in a shaky voice.

He grabbed her by the elbow and dragged her roughly back to where he stood.

“Is that so?” he said, his voice like gravel. He pulled deeply on the cigarette and stared at her hard, his eyelashes so lush they should have been on a girl.

She nodded, fear bright on her face.

“Well, they’re just gonna have to wait.” Caleb flicked the cigarette onto the dirt, grinding it with his boot. “See, I have a few questions I want to ask you, Penny Carson.”

Penny paled.

“Like what do you do with those boys all the
time?” he asked in a deceptively casual voice.

“Play,” she whispered.

“Play? Games? Like spin the bottle?” he laughed.

“No.”

“You like boys, Penny?”

He came and stood next to her, so close she felt the heat coming off his body. He ran his hand lightly up her arm so that the fine hairs stood up, a rush of sensation tingling up her spine. She couldn’t move.

“Huh?” he said, right into her ear, his breath hot and moist, like steam. He nipped lightly at her earlobe. “You like boys?” he asked in a husky voice.

“I don’t know,” she gasped, overwhelmed by the feel of him, so close. He smelled of tobacco and something musky, like sweat.

Caleb laughed throatily. “Don’t know, huh?”

Penny stared into his eyes. They were a soft gray-green color with gold flecks.
So beautiful,
she almost said aloud. He smiled at her, revealing a chipped tooth, but even that tooth seemed right, somehow, on him.

Caleb’s hand smoothed the soft skin of her neck, rubbing it as if he was a sculptor and she was a statue just waiting for him to breathe life into her. He nuzzled the edge of her collarbone, teeth scraping.

“I like this dress,” he whispered.

His hand was heavy on her shoulder, and she could feel him playing with the zipper at the back of her dress, tugging it up and down an inch, and that tinny little sound shook her like nothing else could. She started to struggle, wanting to pull away, but his other arm snaked around her waist, forcing her tight against his hard body.

“Let me go,” she begged.

“Oh, no, I can’t let you go. I’m just getting started,” he said in a horrible voice. He kneaded her stomach with his other hand.

Penny froze.

“See, I know it was you and your little friends who called the cops,” he breathed, his mouth tickling her neck.

She squeezed her eyes shut.

“And messed up my car.”

Penny blinked her eyes open and twisted her head around. Behind her was the cliff, and she felt the edge with the heel of her sandal, felt how it gave way, suddenly, to
emptiness.

There was nowhere to go. He was going to kill her. Or worse. This was real, she thought.This was not one of her nightmares. They were going to find her dead,
just like Mr. Cat. Or like that Jeffy kid. With all her fingers cut off.

Then she remembered the BB guns in the hollow tree just steps away. If she could just get to it and climb up into the branches, she could keep him away almost indefinitely with a steady stream of stinging pellets. But she had to get to the tree first.

Caleb whispered into her ear, “And I’ve been wondering why you’ve been trying to mess with me, Penny Carson.”

And in that moment Penny did the only thing she could think of—she shoved her elbow hard into his stomach. He cursed, and when Penny felt his hands fall away from her waist, she leaped with all her might at a low-hanging branch of the tree. She grabbed on and tried to pull herself up, kicking out wildly when she felt Caleb reach for her legs, his hands tangling in her sandals and breaking one of the straps, and then there was nothing.