Darnay Road (5 page)

Darnay
Road 11

Pretty soon we get
close to the bridge. I know Easy is fighting my hair but I can’t hold it right
now cause I have to hold on. I see the big bonfire first and the others running
around, their shadows sprawled on the nearest gigantic stone leg of the
trestle. It looks like a pow-wow is taking place there, so strange and
terrifying. Easy stops close enough and I get off his handlebars and my bottom
is sore-ore.

Abigail
May yoo-hoos and waves to me from up high on the bridge. Cap Caghan is standing
near her. She is so small and he is so tall and the full moon is up high behind
them. She knows only a fool would go up there. We’re usually in bed right now,
or at our windows flashing signals. But we’re never near a bonfire in the dead
of night with boys so wild they might turn into wolves any second. And Abigail
May is never walking on the trestle bridge, not even in the sunshine, not
anytime is she up high on the same path as all the trains that run between Darnay
and Scutter deepening that line that separates two roads and two worlds—ours
and the twilight zone’s.

Ricky
is calling for Abigail May to come down and for Cap Caghan to bring her down,
but she is ignoring him and waving like it’s Sunday in the park. She gets like
this, mad and determined to get her way. She can be stubborn. Aunt May says
it’s her Irish. Granma says Abigail May needs a spanking sometimes and she just
don’t get one because Aunt May feels too sorry for her. I think what’s there to
feel sorry for? Abigail May is strong and kind mostly. She is cute as she can
be, cute as Hayley Mills for sure and the best reader in our class. Everybody
loves Abigail May. I don’t know what Aunt May would feel sorry about.

Here’s
the worst thing of all--Disbro Peak is there and Bobby and Mike. I guess this
mystery is solved then. Well I had no idea.

A
shrill whistle sounds out from right beside me. Easy is looking up there
whistling like that, and Cap answers with a whistle real close to his brother’s
for loud and strong. Me and Abigail just have a call. Whoo-oh. Whoo-oh. We
don’t whistle much, and then not like they do.

Then
I think, is he the one whistled at me that day I broke my arm? I always thought
it was Disbro Peak.

I
am staring at Easy for a minute and he looks back and when he does I just feel
something.

So
I swallow a big ball of nothing. “Will he bring her down?” I ask cause Abigail
is more important than all of it and a train could come anytime.

They
are so high up but Abigail May never was afraid of it. I know this cause she
has waved to me from Aunt May’s roof when she climbed out the attic window once
with Ricky. And she loves the Ferris-wheel. She never closes her eyes up top
like I do.

Ricky
is so mad, so mad, threatening to go up there and whip her all the way down.

Easy
pulls my hair a little when he goes on by and heads for the fire. I get a
little closer to that trestle and Disbro is already yapping away asking Easy
why he and Cap brought us along.

Easy goes to the big
part of a tree someone cut down and piled there. He pulls that big branch along
and hefts it up and gets it on the fire and sparks fly and faces glow. Disbro
never stops talking, telling me there’s a nest full of kittens near the other
trestle leg. He says he’s gonna put them in a sack up on the tracks.

I
hold my stomach such a notion is so dreadful. “You better not,” I say so mad.

Easy
makes some kind of sound at him and Disbro don’t like it. “I got me…got me a
sack,” he’s saying, and he goes on about those kittens. “You want to see ‘em?”
he asks me, only he says it three times.

“He’s
lying,” Bobby says to Easy. “He ain’t got nothing.”

“Get
down here Abigail May,” Ricky says. “I come up I’m bringing a switch.”

“You
ain’t the boss,” Abigail calls down, even though she’s following Cap across the
tracks toward the trestle we’re under. They must have walked clear across that
narrow bridge that looks to be not much wider than the tracks would be, and now
they’re on their way back.

Everyone
laughs at Ricky getting ignored, well not me, and not Easy so much, but he does
that half-smile.

But
I’m not smiling. That Disbro Peak is such a meanie to say that about those
kittens.

“Aw
she’s gonna cry,” Disbro says.

I
put my hair behind my ears and fold my arms. I got Irish in me too.

“You
want to see them?” he says.

Easy
is watching, but he picks up some sticks and throws them in the fire. Then
Disbro comes closer and tries to read my pocket but I won’t let him, I put two
hands over it. Easy is breaking a branch into sticks and throwing them in the
flames but he’s watching us.

I
look up for Abigail. In my mind I’m moving Ricky’s way maybe. Well I am. I get
by him and I watch for Abigail to come on down. When they get off the bridge
they can work their ways down the hill.

That’s
when we hear it, the whistle in the distance announcing that a train is on its
way. I back up so I can get the best view. “Abigail May,” I cry.

Next
I know she’s on Cap piggy-back style and Cap is running. They have one third of
the way to go, and Cap just runs and runs, and Ricky goes around to the hill
and starts climbing to meet them.

They
are halfway down the hill when the train goes whizzing past overhead. I have
followed Ricky to the bottom of the hill at least and Abigail May runs right
past him all the way to me and I turn so she doesn’t plow into my arm.

“Did
you see?” she’s saying. “It was so much fun.”

Ricky
is yelling at Cap and Cap tries to go around and Ricky is after him and there
they go, wrestling at the Chase again.

I
mean to pull Abigail May aside and all the way home if she will allow, but
those boys roll down the hill and we barely get out of the way in time.

Easy
runs past me and gets in the middle of those arms and legs and fists flying. He
gets them apart and even then he’s quiet about it. Well it seems so with the
train rushing so close by. When it’s done and moving past us into town a quiet
is there and Easy tells Ricky, “Go on home.”

But I don’t think Ricky
wants to go home. I don’t think he’s listening. He’s saying Cap could have
gotten Abigail May killed.

“You’re
not the boss of me,” Abigail calls out, and then nobody knows what to say.

Then
Disbro Peak is calling from up there, on that bridge, holding his shirt made
into a sack, his skinny white half glowing in the moon while he slings that
sack around and yelps how he’s gonna put those kitties right there for the ten
fifteen.

They
know when the trains are coming, sure they do. They’re here most every night.
Cap Caghan got Abigail up there just so they could run like that. He had her
right there to show her a thrill. This is what they do. No wonder Ricky is
losing his mind. He does it too. Well this mystery just keeps on showing
itself.

And
now Disbro has the kitties and he’s gonna kill them so heartlessly there is no
sunshine in this world if he makes such a thing happen.

“Make
him stop,” I say out. “He’s going to kill those kittens.”

Abigail
May is already going up, but Ricky won’t allow it and he grabs her. But Easy is
ahead of her. Easy is going up the hill, long strides like it’s as easy as his
name.

I
just run after. I need to see Easy when he gets on the bridge. I stay on the
top of the hill and that’s bad enough. I don’t go onto the tracks and walk on
that narrow ribbon of track that seems to float across the sky with nothing
below but death for sure.

Disbro
is standing up there swinging those kittens back and forth, back and forth
looking down the tracks for a train to come so he can leave that sack on the
rail. I’m screaming at him, and soon enough Abigail is beside me telling him
how hateful he is.

Easy
is already walking that track toward Disbro. Abigail is jumping up and down
yelling, “Get him Easy.”

Disbro
says he’ll throw that sack over if Easy keeps coming toward him.

We
get quiet then, so quiet.

“I’ll
throw them over ‘fore you ever touch me fucker,” Disbro says, and me and
Abigail May gasp cause we have never heard that foul word used, not ever.

“I’ll
throw you over,” Easy says. It’s just one sure sentence.

“You
can’t,” Disbro says. “For a bunch of kittens?”

Easy
takes another step toward Disbro. Then another.

“Give
me that sack,” Easy says.

“You
trying to be the big man? See the big man?” Disbro calls to us.

Easy
keeps coming, his hand out now. Disbro Peak straightens his arm and he’s
holding that sack over the side. All he has to do is let go. That’s all.

Below
I see Cap move. I think he’s going to try and catch that sack if Disbro lets
go.

Easy
takes those last few steps quick and he takes Disbro’s arm and wrenches that
sack from his hand. He slaps Disbro in the face and his glasses fall off and go
flying. Disbro screams and he’s mad, and Easy turns his back and walks off
carrying that bundle. Disbro is going crazy cause his glasses flew over the
side and no one worries about it, least of all me and Abigail. I am waiting
with my arms out for Easy to give me Disbro’s nasty shirt with those poor
kittens.

Easy has a big grin as
he walks toward me. Both sides of his mouth this time. Abigail is clapping her
hands and jumping still. And here’s one thing I know, I’ll always know, Cap and
Easy are good inside.

But
Easy, well he’s my hero.

Darnay
Road 12

We
find where the kittens had their nest, but Disbro has driven off the mother or
maybe killed her. I’m too tired to figure it out but Bobby and Mike are helping
him find his glasses and Easy and I are searching for the mother while Abigail
and Cap hold the kittens.

She
is nowhere to be found so Disbro insists on getting his shirt back and Easy has
the kittens and he doesn’t want to hold Disbro’s shirt anyway so Abigail and I
each take two kittens and Easy throws Disbro his shirt. Then Easy pulls his
shirt off over his head before I know it.

He’s
big like Moondoggie, he really is but he is bruised down his side, on his ribs.

“Did
Ricky do that?” I say.

He
laughs at that. “He can’t hurt me.” That’s what he says.

“Did
you fall off your bike?” I say.

He
bends his arm so I can see the long white scar along his forearm. “That time,”
he says. Then he turns so I can see his back and there is a jagged scar there
too, and some bruises.

“Does
all that hurt?” I say cause it scares me. I don’t know what he’s done to be
like this. Did he get hit by a car?

Ricky
is making a fuss for Abigail May to come along.

“I
can’t take any kittens, Georgia, but….” She doesn’t finish but we both know.
The bomb shelter.

“What
did you say about going to Florida?” I ask.

“We’re
going home,” Ricky says.

“I’ll
tell you in the morning,” Abigail calls as Ricky pulls her away. “Good-bye
Cap,” she says, but Cap is just looking after her his hands clasped on top of
his head.

“I
bundle Easy’s shirt in my nightgown and he puts the kittens in there one by
one, a yellow, two grays and a black. They’ve got plenty to say about it. I
gather that whole thing closed at the top but he has to help me get it gathered
in my one good hand.

The
fire is burned low and Cap leaves off looking after Abigail May to kick dust
around the edges. Disbro and Mike and Bobby are still searching for his glasses
but even with the moon they ain’t going to find them.

I
am walking with the kittens then and so tired I stumble. But my hand is weary
already so pretty soon Easy separates his shirt and the little kitty selves
from my nightgown and takes them and I offer to push his bike so I do but it’s
pretty troublesome with one tired arm so he gets the bundle in one arm and
pushes his bike with the other and at first we do it together but he says, “I
got it sleepyhead.” Well he gets that off my pocket, but it’s the cutest thing
in the world the way he says that.

“What
you gonna do with these?” Easy asks, and I like the way he asks questions like
if I answer and get going I won’t give him the headache.

“I
don’t know,” I say. My plan is to go straight to the cellar but I don’t have my
flashlight. “Put them under the porch,” I say, newly inspired.

Then it’s quiet and
just the sound of my thongs slapping a little and the ten fifteen going over
the trestle and if Easy wouldn’t have saved the kittens they’d be jelly about
now. “Disbro Peak,” I say, but he’s just too terrible to talk about.

Cap
catches up and Easy hands him the bundle of kittens. He takes them in one hand.
“Put them under her porch.”

“What?”
Cap says.

“Be
quiet so Granma don’t come,” I say, but I know she don’t rouse unless I go to
her bed and shake her and say her name ten times. “You can push the trellis in
on the north side.”

Well
he takes off then, riding with one hand and all.

 
“Come on ballerina,” Easy says and maybe he’s
tired too, but it’s just lovely that I’ve got nicknames.

“Why
you call me that?” I say like before.

But
he don’t answer. He straddles his bike and reaches to help me on the bars
again. He’s pretty much a wonderful boy.

We
are riding at night and I hold my hair again and at one point Disbro and the
others fly past us, but Disbro rides doubles with Bobby. I think it’s because
he don’t have glasses. They don’t ever yell or make a sound, and we don’t
either, but I feel safe with Easy, so safe.

We
fly down Darnay Road and I look ahead and there is no Calvary in front of my
house or Abigail May’s so I am strongly hopeful that Aunt May sleeps as soundly
as Granma. Easy pulls up to the bushes and Cap is coming out of the yard. “I
put them under there. Want to see?”

“Did
you pull the trellis in place?” I say.

“Yeah,”
Cap says.

“My
shirt?” Easy says and Cap just grins so I guess that shirt is a lost cause.

“Well,”
I say then looking at Easy.

But
he says, “Go on in ‘fore the boogie man comes.” He has that half a grin once
more.

Cap
laughs and I do a little. So I wave a dumb kind of wave, only kind I have, and
I go in then and I get to the door and pull the screen but the big door is
still open a crack like I left it, moving back and forth a little cause there’s
a breeze coming off the river and working its way here somehow. Granma always
says that—the river and the breeze.

I
go in and the house is dark and silent and I look out the crack in the door and
Easy and Cap are straddling their bikes but they’re talking to each other. I
close the door then. It clicks in place and I take off my flips and carry them
up to my room.

“Georgia
Christine are you sick?” Granma asks.

That’s
the first thing I hear except for the man calling out to sharpen scissors. His
cart rolls on the bricks and makes all kinds of noise and he calls out and you
can’t tell what he’s saying.

I
am lying on my back and trying to imagine where I am. My room of course. My fan
is on and pulling in hot air and the knife man’s voice.

Oh
my eyes are stuck shut. I try to get them open, then I rub them with my good
hand and pick at the bucket of sand and remember one name only—Easy cause I’ve
been dreaming about him too. And then everything comes rushing and Granma opens
my door and says, “Lord a mercy it’s ten o’clock! Are you sick?”

I groan all right, but
not because I’m sick, because I’m not ready to come out of my dreams and face
Granma.

She’s
rushing around and raises the shade over my fan, and the other and all the
sunshine comes streaming in on me…and my lies.

“Hey
Granma,” I say all dry and raspy.

She
comes to feel me for fever and she says, “What in this world?” Then she pulls
the covers and looks at me the way a nun might look if you missed every word in
your spelling. I suppose God is looking at me that way too about now.

“Your
face is filthy and look at your nightgown and you didn’t braid your hair before
you went to bed and it’s as wild as a bird’s nest.”

She
continues to peel back the covers and there are my filthy legs and feet.
“Georgia Christine how in the world did this happen?”

I
can hear that scary sound the organ makes when we go to the movies on Sunday
and Stan Kahn rises up out of the floor playing his organ at halftime.

I
start to cry.

But
then I remember the kittens and I gasp pretty loudly and get up really quickly
and say, “Excuse me Granma,” and I get around her and before I go pee-pee even
she’s calling my name, “Georgia Christine,” but I’m running downstairs and I
don’t even stop.