Bat Summer (12 page)

“That wasn't why she left,” I say.

Daphne whips her head up. Rico stands up and creeps closer to me.

“What?” he says. It's like he's suddenly Daphne's boyfriend or something. But she's seventeen so there's no way. Still, he's so big. I have to think fast.

“I mean, she didn't say anything to me about calling you,” I tell Daphne. “I think she would have said something to me.”

“Are you her boyfriend?” Daphne asks. I want to say yes and I want to say no. Rico's looking at me like my answer could change his life.

“I'm a bat. Like Lucy. We're bats together. That's all.” Rico rolls his eyes and sits back down. Daphne's face lights up through her tears. She grabs my hand and squeezes it. I said something right for once. And I
do
feel like a bat. I'm flying through these gaps like I know exactly where to go. I feel myself relax a little inside. On the inside it feels kind of like I'm being unfolded.

“Did she run away before?” I ask. Daphne shakes her head.

“Not exactly. It's a really long story.” It must be the one Rico was telling me — about Lucy's friend who fell off the cliff.

“What happened? I mean, I might be able to remember something if you told me what happened.”

Daphne falls back against the bench.

“When we lived in Hamilton, there was this girl who lived near us who was a really good friend of Lucy's. Her name was Timber. Actually, her name
was Tammy, but she liked to be called Timber. And one day, we were out on the Escarpment and we were just playing, right? Then Timber went off the edge and there was nothing we could do and she died.” Daphne stops to take a couple of deep breaths. “It happened so fast. I don't know. I think Timber thought she
was
a tree. Her father was this conservationist. You know, a save-the-trees guy.”

Daphne is talking almost like she is in some trance. She's staring at Loblaws the whole time.

“We were looking for robins' eggs. She was there when I looked down, and when I looked up she was gone. I just knew right away that she had gone over the edge. She fell like timber.” Daphne chokes a bit. “I don't think it was deliberate. Not exactly. At least, I don't think it was planned… it was a long drop. She hit her head on a rock. I sent Lucy to call 911, but I knew she was dead.

“That's when Lucy started being a bat. She was never a bat before Timber died. And Mom and Dad were working hard then. Working all the time, just like now.”

She stops to take a breath. Rico hands her a napkin. Looks like he picked it up at the 7-11.

“We couldn't find Lucy for dinner one time. It was really weird. We were hardly ever all together for dinner and Mom had made this whole big deal about how we were all going to be together for dinner
and everything. And it wasn't even until we were sitting around the table that we realize she's not there. We just thought she'd show up because it was this whole big deal. So, of course, Mom freaks out and then Dad yells at Mom for freaking out and I go out looking for her. I go up the Escarpment looking for her…” Daphne starts sobbing again.

What would I do if Tom died? I don't know how to be that sad.

“Mom calls Timber's father to see if she's over there. And we're all thinking she's gone off the edge, just like Timber.”

Daphne looks down at her hands and wipes her eyes with the 7-11 napkin. “And then, Mom is in Lucy's room looking around, and she hears something up in the attic.” This is the part I know already. “There's this hole in Lucy's closet up to the attic. Mom goes up there and it's dark and all she can see is something swinging. She nearly has a heart attack. Dad gets home and hears Mom screaming upstairs. He races up and she points up into the attic, so he has a look and when I come in he's running down the stairs with this look on his face…I'll never forget it as long as I live. And I start screaming just from looking at him. He gets the flashlight and goes back up to the attic and there she is. Lucy's hanging from the rafters, but she's hanging from her feet. And you know what she says to my dad?”

“What?” me and Rico say at once.

“She says, ‘Turn off the light.'”

Neither me or Rico can speak. Daphne's looking far off into outer space. It seems more quiet than it can be with the traffic rushing by the park like this.

Then I want to tell her everything. I want to tell her that Lucy is fine and that she'll be home soon. Only I don't know that for sure.

When I get home, Elys is there.

“What are you doing here?” I ask her. “I thought you had a job.”

“I don't know. What are you doing here?” She's on the couch with her feet up on the coffee table reading some flyers. She likes to keep up on the good deals even though she never buys anything.

“I live here, remember?”

“Oh, yeah. Aunt Paulie said I might see some short stringy kid with hair in his face and an attitude problem wandering around. You must be him.” I flop down beside her on the couch.

“I thought you got a job. Mom's making me come home by five. It's like in her head I'm still eight years old.” I grab a Zellers flyer and try to find the toy section.

“Oooh. Bummer, man. I am, like, soooo sorry that I got a great job that pays decent money
and
is just up the street
and
the boss lets me go home for lunch or between making deliveries
and
there's a tape deck in the delivery van
and
it's all thanks to your friend Russell.”

“Did your new boss tell you about Lucy?”

“What about her?” she says.

“She ran away.”

She quits poking me.

“What?”

“Yeah. She ran away after we saw her at Loblaws and they can't find her. The cops were here and they were talking to Russell, too.”

“What were they talking to him for?”

“I don't know. She plays chess with him sometimes.”

“Do they think he took her or something?”

“I don't know. That's why I was wondering if your boss said anything to you. Because Russell wasn't at the park today.”

Elys looks at her watch. I haven't seen her look at her watch in months. I forgot she even had a watch.

“I gotta get back. Lunch is almost over. David's pretty cool, but he's still a boss and it is my first day on the job.” She gets up and checks her hair in the mirror. She's wearing it back today. It makes her look more like a grown-up. “What did you say your friend's name was?”

“Lucy.” She looks at her watch again, and then makes for the door.

“I'll ask my boss about your friend. I hope Russell isn't in any kind of trouble.”

I have myself a hot dog and cheese sandwich and make out a list of the things Lucy wants me to get her: a tape measure, plastic…

I did see some plastic somewhere. It was in that lady's garage, the one where Rico hid the magazines. It was stuck in the rafters there.

It's not like she's using it. It's only plastic. I could take the magazines back there and get the plastic at the same time.

I look up at the clock. It's gone 2:30 already. I'd better get a move on. I get the magazines and stuff them, bag and all, down the back of my pants, just like I saw Lucy do with the spaghetti. I wouldn't want to fall down and have them all spill out of the bag. Man, oh, man. What a nightmare.

I run up Bathurst and cut through to the alley behind Rico's street. At first I'm not sure if I'm in the right alley. They all look the same, with the garages backing off bushy backyards with laundry lines, and totally deserted except for cats.

I like alleys. They're like secret streets, like visible gaps. No one ever talks about them, but there they are just the same — places between places.

Now that I'm here, it doesn't seem like such a good idea to go into the lady's garage. It was one thing when I was following Rico. I felt like if we got caught it would be Rico's fault, or maybe I felt like we wouldn't get caught because Rico was with me.

I look up and down the alley. Then I pull on the bottom of the door. It's locked, all right. I get on my knees and peek under the crack under the door.

It's empty, so at least I know she's not home. But it's not as dark as it should be. I see a crack of light coming from the far end. It's hard to see, but I think the door to the backyard is open. I can get in through the lady's backyard.

Just as I'm walking down the lane between the two houses, I hear, “What the hell do you think you're doing, batboy?” I grab the back of my pants and turn around to face Rico.

“Hey, Rico.” I try to act casual.

“What are you doing here? Are you looking for me?”

“Any news about Lucy?” I say. He shakes his head and looks at my arm resting behind my back. I whip it back at my side.

“What have you got there?”

“Nothing.”

“That's bull, bathead. Pass it over. Come on…I know you're hiding something and I'm gonna get it out of you one way or another.”

I pull out the bag and hand it over. I feel so much lighter once he has the magazines in his hands.

“What am I supposed to do with these?” he says.

“That's your problem.” It is his problem and it feels good to say it. He looks at me and looks down at the bag and looks up at his house.

“Why'd you bring these back here?”

“I didn't want them around. You saw my cousin.
She knows I have them, I don't want her thinking I'm looking at them all the time. Every time she looks at me now, it's like all she sees is me reading titty magazines.”

I spit this all out really fast. I didn't even know that's what I was thinking until I spit it out like that.

He puts his hand to his mouth to show me to be quiet.

“Well…what were you going to do with them?”

“I was going to put them back in that lady's garage. The front door is open.”

Rico raises his eyebrows. It's like he hadn't even thought of the front door before. I mean, duh.

“All right, then, batbrain. Go ahead.” He tries to hand me the bag. I put my hands behind my back and clench my fists.

“No way, Rico. You got me into this mess. You put them back.”

Rico lets out a deep breath, walks to the end of his house and looks into his neighbor's yard. He walks back.

“I'll only come on one condition,” I say.

“What?”

“You help me get some plastic from up in the rafters.”

“What?” He looks at me like I'm speaking Martian.

“Listen, you get me in trouble and then you piss
off and leave me holding the bag. I went down for you, man. You owe me.” They talk this way on television. On television, it's the good guy who is owed the favor and he always gets it. It's the television rule, but I don't know if it's the life rule.

My heart's bubbling like hot spaghetti sauce. I need the plastic for Lucy. I guess I don't technically owe her anything, but I feel like I do.

“Fine,” he says. The rule works.

I follow him down to the end of the houses and watch him make sure the coast is clear. Now I really feel like I'm on television.

We go through his neighbor's gate and race to the garage door and inside. We stop and hold our breaths to see if there's any fallout. Nothing. Rico hides the magazines back in the pipe. I feel way better now. I point up to the rafters at the plastic and Rico jumps for it, but can't quite reach it. He motions for me to come over. It's like we've agreed not to say anything. He lifts me up and I grab onto the rafter and pull myself up. The plastic is jammed under a piece of wood.

I'm shimmying over when I hear Rico say, “Shit,” in a loud whisper.

A car. We hear a car door slam. I'm looking straight at Rico. He mouths the word, “Sorry,” and takes off out of the garage.

I take a huge breath as light floods the garage. I
can see the lady walk back to the car and get inside. She drives in and turns off the motor. I can hear the radio. It's playing some country and western tune and the lady is singing the guitar part, going “darng nar nar nar da darng nar nar nar.”

When the song finishes, the car turns off and the air around me goes all quiet. Too quiet. She gets out and shuts the door. Then she goes around to the back of the car and opens the hatch. She's been shopping. I can see right down her bags. She's got fruits and vegetables which are, like, only allowed in my house when Mom is on one of her healthy kicks. She's got a chicken and tomato sauce.

I'm drooling. I'm hiding like a fugitive up in the rafters and I've got to put my hand over my mouth to keep myself from dripping all over the lady.

She might see me when she closes the hatch. I close my eyes and wait for the sound of the car door shutting. After a while it does. She's gone. She forgot one bag of groceries on the floor.

I wait a couple of minutes for her to come back, but then I think I better make a run for it. I grab the plastic and lower myself down to the hood of the car. I slide down the back. I check out the grocery bag. It's got chips and ham in it. I have this huge urge to take it. She'll just think she forgot it at Loblaws. Elys did that once.

I grab it and go to the door. I pull on it and up it
comes. She forgot to lock it again.

“What the —” I look back and there she is. She didn't forget the groceries. I drop the grocery bag. She starts moving toward me.

“Sorry,” I scream and take off like a bat out of hell. I run my legs off, with that plastic still stuffed under my arm. My lungs are burning and, as fast as I'm going, it doesn't feel like my feet are moving fast enough. I feel like I'm going to swallow my tongue, but I don't dare stop.

When I get to Bathurst Street, I close my eyes and run blind for a block. I hear my breath echoing through my whole body.