The Trespassers (17 page)

Grub and Neely walked home. Carmen offered to drive them but Curtis didn’t want her to. “Don’t go away, Carmen,” he said, his face twisted into a tragic mask. “I need you to be here. I’m sick. I’m sick because of that dog.” The pitiful face changed into a reproachful one. “Besides, you just want to talk to them. You can talk to them some other time, when I’m feeling better.” He turned to his mother. “Tell Carmen she can’t go,” he begged. And Mrs. Hutchinson did tell Carmen she couldn’t go.

“He needs someone with him, Carmen,” she said. “And I’m just going to have to go up and lie down this minute. I’m not feeling at all well myself. I’m sure Curtis’s little friends won’t mind walking home.”

So Neely and Grub walked home just as they had so many times before, but this time was very different. It was different because Neely knew now, without the slightest doubt, that it was the last time. The last time they would ever walk home from Halcyon House. And it was different, too, because of the way Grub was acting. Usually, coming home from a visit to Halcyon, Grub was happy—bouncing, skipping, humming, happy. But now he was silent and pale, his eyes dark and clouded. When Neely tried to talk to him he only shook his head.

But she kept trying. “Grub, I know you don’t feel like talking, but you can just answer yes or no. Can’t you do that?”

Grub shook his head.

“Just yes or no,” Neely insisted. “Did you really ask Curtis if you could see the gun? Just yes or no. Please, Grub.”

But Grub would only shake his head.

Mom was in the kitchen when they got home. “Well,” she said. “You’re home early. I wasn’t expecting you for a while.” Then she stopped talking and her eyes followed Grub as he walked across the room and disappeared down the hall. “Something wrong with Grubbie?” she asked Neely.

Neely took a deep breath, biting her lip, and thought. The decision came quickly. She would burn the bridges—all the bridges to Halcyon House. She would make certain that she could never change her mind and go back, and most of all, that Grub could never go back. She would tell about the gun. Knowing how her mother felt about guns she knew that would be enough.

She pulled back a chair and sat down at the kitchen table. “Mom,” she said. “Something scary happened at Halcyon House today, so we’re not going to go there anymore.”

“Scary?”

“Yes. Remember we told you about the gun cabinet that Mr. Hutchinson has? Well, when we were there today, while I was in the kitchen talking to Carmen, Curtis opened the cabinet. I guess he’d found the key somewhere. And he and Grub went out to the stable and he was showing the gun to Grub and it went off. It didn’t hit anybody, but it might have. So we’re not going there anymore. Not ever again.”

Mom sat down at the table. She looked shocked, horrified. “That’s awful,” she said. “And it just proves what I’ve always said about having guns around....” She paused and then asked, “Is that what upset Grub? He is in one of his moods, isn’t he? A bad one. I saw it the minute he came in. Is it because of what happened with the gun?”

Neely nodded. “Partly, I guess. The gun, and because we can’t go back there anymore. Grub loved going to Halcyon.”

“I know,” Mom said. “Did you talk to him about it? About not being able to go there anymore?”

“Not exactly,” Neely said. “But he knows. I think he just knows.”

Of course that was the reason for Grub’s mood—knowing that they couldn’t return to Halcyon ever again. Neely was certain of that. So a little later she went to his room and tried to cheer him up, but nothing she said seemed to help. In fact Grub still refused to discuss it at all. Lying on his stomach on his bed, he covered his head with a pillow and told Neely he couldn’t talk about it.

Neely was worried. Not that there was anything so unusual about Grub having a gloom-and-doom attack. It was just that this one seemed different, deeper and more despairing.

T
HE NEXT MORNING THERE WAS NO CHANGE. GRUB WAS
still sad and silent. But then, around ten o’clock, when Mom and Neely were both in the kitchen, the phone rang and Mom answered it. Neely was peeling apples at the kitchen sink and even though she could only hear Mom’s part of the conversation she quickly became aware that the caller was Carmen—and that whatever she was saying was scaring Mom to death.

At first Mom said, “Why, yes. Hello, Carmen,” in a normal phone-conversation tone of voice, but then she began to sound more anxious as she said, “Yes, Neely told us about the episode with the gun, and we were very concerned, of course.”

After that there were many minutes in which Mom only listened and said almost nothing, except “oh no,” and “how awful.”

Neely stopped peeling apples and just watched while Mom’s eyes grew wide and fixed and her tanned face faded to a strange grayish color. Finally, in a shaky voice, she said, “How terrible for you and his parents. And thank you, Carmen. Thank you so much for letting us know. And about Grub...I just don’t know. I’ll talk to my husband and call you back as soon as we decide what to do.”

Mom sat down at the kitchen table and stayed there for a long time with her head in her hands, and when Neely asked her what Carmen had said she would only say that she would have to talk to Dad first. Neely went on asking until Mom got angry and yelled at her. Mom called the motel then, but it turned out that Dad had gone on some errands in Monterey and couldn’t be reached right away. So Neely had to wait and wait some more. And even after Dad finally got home there was more waiting because he and Mom went immediately into the study together. They stayed there for a long time and when they came out they both went into Grub’s room. Even by standing very close to Grub’s door Neely couldn’t hear exactly what they were saying, but after a while she could hear Grub sobbing.

It wasn’t until they came out of Grub’s room and had gone back to Dad’s study that Dad asked Neely to come in. Taking hold of her arm, he led her over to sit between him and Mom on the sofa. And then came the most maddening wait of all, sitting there with her heart thudding against her ribs, looking back and forth at their pale, tense faces. It was Mom who finally began to speak.

“It was Carmen,” Mom said. “The call this morning was from Carmen.”

Neely nodded. “I know,” she said calmly, squeezing down the urge to yell, I know that! “But what did she say?”

“It was about Curtis. It seems—” Mom took a deep breath—“it seems it’s happened before. Curtis shot someone before.”

Neely had to try twice before the word came out, “Someone?”

“One of his cousins,” Mom said. “A boy about his own age. About a year ago. They were playing with the gun and it went off accidentally. At least that was what Curtis said happened, and no one could prove differently because there were no witnesses—and the other boy was dead.”

Dad broke in then. “Carmen said everyone believed Curtis’s story. And Carmen believed it, too, at least until yesterday. Or at least she tried very hard to believe it. Carmen loves Curtis very much. She’s cared for him since he was born and he’s almost like her own child. So of course she didn’t want to believe that he would deliberately shoot someone. But now she’s afraid that he did, and—” Dad paused, looking at Mom.

Mom took a long, quavery breath. “And she believes that he probably meant to shoot Grub too.”

There was a strange noise, a gasp that was almost a moan. For a moment Neely didn’t realize that it had come from her own throat. Dad reached out and took her hand.

Mom went on then, telling more about what Carmen had said about Curtis and his cousin, and the reasons she now thought the shooting had been deliberate. And then Dad said that Carmen’s call was really to ask for Grub’s help.

“Carmen says that unless Grub will testify about what really happened she’ll never be able to convince people that Curtis must have professional help. Carmen thinks that Curtis ought to be taken away from his parents and put in a stable environment where he could get the kind of counseling he needs if he is to have any chance of a normal life. But she needs some proof of Curtis’s intentions in order to convince his uncle and the authorities.”

“His uncle?” Neely asked.

“Yes,” Mom said. “It seems the uncle is the legal guardian. Of Curtis and of his father as well. The uncle will have to be convinced if Curtis is to get any help.” Mom sighed. “And I guess that will depend on Grub. For instance, she wants to know if Grub really did ask Curtis to show him the gun, and if he didn’t, why he went out to the stable with Curtis.”

Remembering Grub’s reaction to her questions, Neely asked, “Did Grub tell you what happened? What did he say?”

Mom shook her head. “Nothing,” she said. “Nothing at all. When we tried to talk to him he hid his head, and when we insisted he became almost hysterical.”

Then Dad said, “We were wondering if you’d try, Neely. If Grub would tell anyone it would probably be you.”

“I already tried,” Neely said, “and he wouldn’t say anything. Should I try again?” Mom and Dad said yes.

When she opened the door to Grub’s room he was staring out the window, but when he saw her he immediately ran back to the bed and covered his head with the pillow. Neely sat down on the side of the bed and began to talk.

“I guess Mom and Dad told you about Curtis shooting someone before,” she said. “About him shooting his cousin? Carmen thinks Curtis did it on purpose because the cousin always got the best of him.”

Grub lay perfectly still, except that his knuckles got whiter as his grip on the pillow tightened.

“Carmen thinks Curtis is very sick and he needs lots of help, but no one else believes her. And she won’t be able to get help for him unless you are willing to tell people exactly what happened yesterday.”

Grub didn’t move or speak.

“She really thinks you’re the only one who can help,” Neely said. “The only one in the world who can help Curtis.”

Grub’s right hand loosened then and when Neely tugged gently at the pillow he let her take it away. Still lying facedown, Grub said, “But I didn’t ever get the best of Curtis.”

Neely thought a minute before she said, “Yes, you did, Grubbie. You didn’t mean to, but you did.”

After another long silence Grub sat up, rubbed his wet eyes and said, “He did want to. He wanted to kill me. I knew he wanted to...before.”

“Before what?” Neely asked.

“Before yesterday. I knew that day when we went up to the ballroom. Remember, when he told you we went up there to talk about having a band?”

Neely had to swallow twice before she was able to say, “How did you know? Did he try to push you?”

Grub shook his head. “No, but he thought about it. I knew. It was like...somebody told me.”

“Somebody?” Neely asked quickly.

Grub’s gaze drifted away and then came back. “
Something
,” he said. “I said,
something
told me.”

Neely was getting exasperated. “But if you knew that, Grubbie, why on earth did you want to go back there? I didn’t know it. Carmen told me to watch out for you, but I thought she meant because of Monica. I thought she was afraid of a ghost. I didn’t know she meant Curtis. If I had known that I wouldn’t ever have gone back. If you knew he wanted to kill you why did you go back?”

“Well,” Grub said. “I didn’t really think he would do it.” He paused and then went on. “I thought something wouldn’t let him do it.” He smiled faintly. “And I was right, wasn’t I? Something didn’t let him.” The smile faded and he shook his head sadly. “I just had to go back, Neely.”

Neely stared at Grub, shaking her head in disbelief. “Another thing, Grubbie,” she said finally. “Why on earth did you go to the stable with him yesterday? Why did you do that?”

“He said I had to,” Grub said. “He said I had to or he would go out and shoot Lion. And then when we got to the stable he was just starting to put bullets in the gun when Lion came in.”

Neely sat for a long time in stunned silence. When she could finally speak again she asked Grub if he would tell the truth about what happened, to help Curtis. If he would tell so that Curtis could be taken someplace where he could be helped to become a normal person. And Grub said yes. He stared up at the ceiling for a long time, but then he said yes, he would tell. Then he lay back down and pulled the pillow over his face.

Grub stayed in his room all the rest of the day. It was obvious that he was still feeling very bad. But when Mom and Dad came back in he told them just what he’d told Neely, and when they asked him if he would tell strangers like Curtis’s uncle and the police, he said he would. Even when Mom and Dad told him he didn’t have to, and it was all up to him, he went on saying he would tell. But then he went back to staring out the window with sad, empty eyes.

It was late that same night when Grub came into Neely’s room and shook her awake. “Listen,” he was saying. “Listen, Neely.”

She heard it then, too, the wailing rise and fall of a siren. She jumped out of bed and together they hurried back to the window in Grub’s room in time to see two fire trucks turning up Hutchinson Road.

When the trucks disappeared they ran out into the backyard where they could see the flashing red lights moving on up the hill, past the Jensens’ and on into the Halcyon Grove. Mom and Dad came out then in their bathrobes and the four of them stood huddled together near Robinson’s grave and watched a fierce red glow that grew higher and brighter against the night sky. Halcyon House was on fire.

T
HE BRADFORDS STAYED IN THEIR BACKYARD FOR ALMOST
two hours that night, shivering in the cold foggy air and watching until the red flames died away. When the fire trucks and police cars finally stopped going up and down Hutchinson Road the family went in the house and listened to the radio for a long time before they heard the news. Although Halcyon House had indeed burned, there had been no injuries. All the occupants of the old mansion, the news report said, had safely escaped the flames.

It was almost morning by then, but when Neely finally went back to bed she still couldn’t sleep. Instead, she lay awake for a long time thinking and grieving. Grieving for the beautiful old house and for all the star-crossed Hutchinsons who had looked for peace and beauty on Halcyon Hill, high above the edge of the world. She couldn’t stop thinking about how tragic it was that they had come to that beautiful place looking for peace and happiness and had so often found pain and sorrow instead.