Any Which Wall (18 page)

“What is it?” asked Tish.

Susan planted her feet on the subway platform and gritted her teeth. She closed her eyes and said, “It’s awful, and if you’re mad, I understand, but see—at first I was mad at you—”

“You were mad at me?” Tish clearly found this idea preposterous.

Susan opened her eyes. “I guess so, yeah, for leaving me. I was so lonely—”

“You were lonely!” said Tish. “You think
you
were lonely? You have no idea. At least you were still at home with your brother and the O’Dells. I was here … with people like that.” She motioned to Rebecca. “All by myself!”

“I didn’t think about it like that. I thought that you were having an adventure. I felt … left behind.”

“Oh,” said Tish morosely. “I guess that makes sense, kinda, but you were wrong. I mean, New York is cool, but my parents don’t let me go anywhere, and school
didn’t start for a long time, so I didn’t meet anyone for months. I was all alone. It was like being grounded. I didn’t tell you that, so I guess you didn’t know, but still, you should have written back.”

“I know,” said Susan. “I was awful, but that’s not even the worst part. The worst part is that after that, I made new friends. And I was sort of … distracted. I just kind of forgot about you. About me too, I guess.”

“What do you mean?” asked Tish. “How could you forget yourself?”

Susan gulped. “The new friends, they’re different, and I started to feel different too.” She scuffed her grubby sandals against the filthy floor and made a big, new dirty spot on her big toe. “I started to feel older and cooler. And the things we used to do together seemed … young and babyish. I felt like I’d outgrown them—and you—and maybe even me.”

Tish looked sad.

“It’s so dumb!” said Susan. “I can’t believe I was so dumb. I don’t even like my new friends very much. They’re mean. Do you think—do you think you can ever forgive me?”

“What friends?” asked Tish suspiciously.

“Alexandria Lenzi.” Susan winced as she said it.

“Alexandria?” Tish stared in disbelief. “She doesn’t
like books! She brings diet soda in her school lunch!”

“I know,” said Susan glumly.

“Ugh,” said Tish, thinking things over. “She’s pretty terrible.”

“I know.” And Susan did know it, now that she had a real friend in front of her. “I’m so sorry! But she was nice to me—sort of. She let me sit with her in the cafeteria, and it was better than being alone.”

Tish wrinkled her nose.

But Susan went on. “And then, when I began to really miss you, when I wasn’t angry anymore or distracted, it was too late. I’d already not written so many times. When the postcard came, and I knew you were angry at me, I didn’t know what to say. I just kind of made myself forget you. I threw away the postcard and deleted the e-mails.”

Tish looked very hurt.

“But, Tish, I’m sorry. I can’t forget you. Nothing is the same since you left. Everyone at school only wants to talk about boys and hair and nail polish.”

“That sounds really boring,” said Tish.

“It is,” agreed Susan. “And you know what else? I put all the things—all my real things—away. My unicorns and books and everything. But it kind of felt like—like I’d put me away, put myself away too. And
I know—I know I need to grow up, but there has to be a fun way to do it, right? I don’t want to outgrow the stuff that’s the most fun. I don’t want to forget me anymore. Or you.”

Tish took all of this in but said nothing. She seemed at a loss for words. Susan waited. Out of the corner of her eye she could see the other kids standing back. Henry was tapping an imaginary watch and she feared he’d come over if they didn’t finish soon.

“Tish?” Susan asked nervously.

“Yeah,” said Tish. “That’s pretty awful, because I really needed you.
I
was the one who’d gotten stuck in this big new place, and everyone else was so cool and everyone seemed taller than me and I had to have a sitter. A babysitter!”

“I know,” said Susan. “I’m so sorry. I wrote you a letter last night and tried to explain all of it, but now I’ve said everything.” She took the letter from her pocket.

“I’ll take it anyway,” said Tish, grabbing at the envelope. “
I
save letters.”

“So now I guess I’m bleckish too, huh?” asked Susan. “Like Alexandria?”

“Yes,” said Tish, knitting her brows. “You most certainly are.” But she smiled. “Fortunately, you’re more
swizzkilydoo than you are bleckish, so it’s okay. You’re lucky I’m a very forgiving kind of person.”

Susan looked relieved. “You are,” she said. “You’re the best kind of person in the world!”

Tish moved to hug her friend, but Susan put up a hand to stop her. “Wait!” she said. “There’s just one more thing I have to confess.”

“There’s more?” Tish looked incredulous.

“Yes, but it’s a little thing,” said Susan. “I just need you to know that while I think diet soda is dumb and books are the best, I don’t exactly hate fashion magazines and I do kind of like nail polish, especially the sparkly kind.”

“Well, yeah!” said Tish, laughing. “It looks like magic, like fairy dust! Just wait until you get your first New York manicure. They can paint flowers on for you!”

And then the girls hugged.

After that, Tish said, “Okay, so this is great, and it’s awesome to see you, but I’m confused. I still don’t understand. Where are your folks? Why are you here?”

Susan stammered. “I—um—I can’t tell you.”

“What?” Tish said. “Why not?”

Susan looked uncomfortable. “Wait, can you hang on a second?” Before Tish could answer, Susan ran over to the others, who were loitering not far away.

Maybe the others would have been more obstinate about holding to their sworn oath if they were not standing on a hot subway platform, waiting to begin their next adventure. But under the circumstances (and given that Tish had been a friend to all of them for years), they caved. In a matter of seconds, Susan was back with the others in tow and a huge smile on her face.

“Okay,” she said eagerly. “Are you ready for a secret?” she asked. “A big, big, BIG secret? The biggest, most magical secret EVER?”

Tish nodded vigorously, her face alight and expectant.

But suddenly there was a thunderous noise. All in a moment, there was a blast of heat and a rush of metal, and the subway slid into the station. The doors opened and people spilled out. Rebecca called for Tish to follow her and disappeared with her friend through the next set of doors.

This all happened very fast.

“Come with me?” Tish begged as she ran over to the train and stood at the door, waiting to see what Susan would say. She beckoned wildly and called, “Please come! I want to know the secret! I want to see you!” She flailed her arms so wildly that she almost knocked
over a jaunty blond teenage boy in a blue T-shirt who happened to be standing beside her.

And Susan, who couldn’t help noticing the jaunty blond boy, did just as Tish asked. She ran over, jumped aboard, turned, and called out, “Come on, guys!”

Henry followed immediately, and leapt in with a loud thunk, just as the blond boy regained his balance and straightened his sunglasses.

“Get on,” Susan yelled to Roy and Emma nervously. They were moving more slowly than Susan and Henry. “Get ON! Hurry!”

They didn’t hurry fast enough, and the doors slid shut, almost catching Emma’s nose. Roy and Emma were stuck on the outside of the subway car! Tish, Henry, and Susan stared at them through a pane of scratched glass.

“Wait!” yelled Roy, banging on the window. “Let us in!” But it was too late.

The train took off down the tunnel.

Just. Like. That.

I
NSIDE THE SUBWAY CAR
, Henry turned to Susan, furious. “Now what do we do?” he asked. “Bad enough we didn’t get to meet any mobsters or King Kong or anything, but now we’ve left Roy and Emma behind!”

“Mobsters?” Tish looked interested. “What mobsters?”

Susan was aghast. “Henry’s right. We have to go back!”

“Wait!” Tish exclaimed. “King Kong? What
is
the big secret?”

“Hold on, Tish!” said Susan. “We just lost Roy and Emma! We have to go back—”

Tish shook her head. “There’s no way to do that, really. We can get off at the next stop and wait for a train heading back the other way, but this is an express line, so we won’t stop for a while, and there’s no telling
how long it would take to catch the return train at this time of day. It’ll be at least twenty minutes before we can possibly get back to them, and by that time, they might be gone. Won’t they just get on the next train?”

Susan considered this. “I doubt it,” she said. “They won’t know where to get off. Can we call them? Can we call the station?”

“No,” said Tish. “There’s nobody to call. New York is really different from Quiet Falls.”

Susan looked miserable.

“But you know,” continued Tish, “I bet they’ll figure out how to board the next train and ride it to the end of the line.”

“How would they know that?” asked Henry.

“Just considering where this train is going,” said Tish.

“Where’s that?” asked Susan.

Tish grinned and pointed at the sign above her that read CONEY ISLAND.

And while Susan and Henry still felt sick to their stomachs, there wasn’t much they could do until they got to where they were going. Hoping desperately that Tish was right, they found themselves seats and told Tish all about their wall. About Merlin, and Sam, and Wichita Grim, and Bernice the dog, and even the blond
boy from Susan’s glimpse, who had turned his back on them and was talking to a friend.

“Why did you see him when you said the word ‘love’?” asked Tish excitedly. “You think you’re going to fall in love with him?” She stared at his back in wonder.

“No, goofball.” Susan elbowed her friend. “I thought I was seeing him, but I wasn’t. Obviously, I was seeing you, only I was so distracted by him that I didn’t even notice you were in the vision!”

“Oh,” said Tish. This was complimentary but not nearly as romantic or interesting. “Okay!”

Another subway platform flashed by.

“And where’s the dog now?” asked Tish.

“She’s with this librarian friend of Emma’s,” said Susan. “You might know her. Her name’s Lily, and she wears superbright colors.”

“Sure, I remember her,” said Tish. “She’s cheerful, right?”

“Emma calls it chirky,” Henry laughed.

“Yeah,” said Susan. “I used to think she was weird, but she’s not. Or she is, but in a good way.”

“Do you think your parents will let Emma keep her—the dog, I mean?” asked Tish.

“Nah,” said Henry. “Mom really hates dogs, but I bet Lily will adopt her. She really seems to like Bernice,
and Bernice likes her. Don’t you think, Susan?”

“Maybe,” said Susan. “That’s usually what happens in books, isn’t it? The magic creates a problem but it solves the problem too, right?”

They all agreed that this was usually the case, and Susan made a mental note to herself that they all should go check in with Bernice and Lily after dinner, just to see how things were going.

Tish changed the subject. “Hey, maybe Roy and Emma don’t even need to figure out the train. If they have the magic wall with them, can’t they find us? Can’t they just wish themselves to where we are?”

“Ooh! Let’s hope they think of that,” said Susan.

“It’ll be fine,” said Tish, settling happily into her seat. “They’ll figure it out. They’ve both done it before.”

Susan still felt worried, but just then the train rose up out of the ground and ran onto an elevated rail over Brooklyn. Down below them were houses and people and streets full of cars and walls painted with colorful graffiti. To Henry and Susan, who had spent their lives in Quiet Falls, this was almost as interesting as the quiet tropical cove, the blazing frontier prairie, and even the dark stones of Camelot, because as different as Brooklyn was from Quiet Falls, it was still part of their world, the world of today. This city, New York, was huge and
bustling and colorful and exciting and different from anything they’d ever seen, but unlike Camelot, if they wanted to, they could live here someday. They could visit without magic, and that was pretty neat.

“Wow!” said Henry, staring at the buildings that went on for miles. “It’s really big.”

“Yeah!” said Susan, putting a hand to the window and pointing at all the cars going past. “Just one of those buildings has, like, an entire town in it.”

Then she looked down the length of the subway and couldn’t help noticing a man several feet away who looked like he’d come from some magical past himself. He was wearing a black dress, an ornate silver necklace, and a black headdress. He sat peering over his long gray beard, reading a book of what looked like magical runes. He looked up and smiled, gave a little wave, and went back to his book.

On the man’s right, a large woman in a flowered dress and a straw hat fanned herself with a magazine, and on his left, a boy with a green Mohawk listened intently to a set of headphones.

“Wow,” said Susan. “Wow.”

“Yeah, it’s pretty interesting,” said Tish. “But just wait for Coney Island.”