Hit the Road, Manny: A Manny Files Novel (15 page)

We walked down the Strip, still excited from the concert. The Strip is the main road in Las Vegas, where all the casinos are lined up: New York–New York. Paris Las Vegas. Treasure Island.

India wouldn’t stop chattering. She said she was going to try to re-create a couple of Elton John’s outfits for the manny.

“I don’t know,” said the manny. “You have to be pretty confident to wear some of those things.”

“You’re confident!” India said back. “Remember when you wore your bathrobe to Lulu’s spa birthday party?” Lulu had a spa birthday party for her last birthday. Her friends came over to the house, and Lulu hired India to give them all pedicures and manicures. She hired me to give them all shoulder rubs. They even went into the bathroom, turned on the hot water in the shower, and pretended that they were in a steam room. The manny wore his robe and served glasses of water with cucumber slices in them, and strawberries and whipped cream.

“I remember,” said Lulu. “I had to send notes of apology instead of thank-you notes to all my friends.” Lulu is starting to pick up on the manny’s humor.

Uncle Max laughed at Lulu’s joke and squeezed the manny’s shoulder like they do in the movies when they say “No hard feelings.”

Uncle Max kept his hand on the manny’s shoulder until we got back to the Bellagio.

“I thought you had a surprise for us,” I protested as we walked under the Chihuly sculptured ceiling.

“We’re
going
!” Uncle Max said to me like he was my age and we were fighting in the car. He said it really snotty like Lulu does. “Hold your horses! Keep your pants on!” he kept saying.

He led us to the botanical garden, which has a big tree that is 120 years old. The tree was surrounded by rosebushes, daisies, and other colorful flowers, which Belly kept trying to pick. Mom got after her, but she sparkled her eyes. Belly can sparkle her eyes and smile and be really cute when she wants to. Mom calls it her sweet look. I practiced a sweet look in the mirror, but it looked forced. It looked more like I had bad gas or a bladder problem. Belly’s looks natural.

Belly kept her sweet look on the whole time we were in the botanical garden. When we got to the base of the big tree, there was a man standing there with a white suit on and sparkly, big glasses. He looked just like Elton John. I thought it was Elton John at first, but when he spoke, he didn’t have a British accent. He sounded more like the cabdriver from my trip with Grandma to New York City. The cabdriver called Grandma “sweet cheeks,” so she tipped him a dollar extra.

The Elton John look-alike said, “Yo. You Max?” There was a small woman with a portable CD player standing next to him.

Uncle Max smiled and nodded. How did they know each other? Was our surprise going to be that Uncle Max had joined the mob and we all had to move to Italy and join the witness protection program? I’d dye my hair black and change my name to Rico and drink red wine from a bottle in a paper bag. I think you can drink wine when you’re ten in Italy. Nobody would ever know that it was me, because the real me would never have black hair or drink wine. Especially from a paper bag.

“This is Matthew,” Uncle Max introduced the manny to mafia Elton John, who had a small book in his hand and a rope hanging around his neck. He looked like he had just graduated from the School of Crocodile Rock. That’s what India whispered to me.

“Pleasure,” mafia Elton John said in his
Sopranos
voice. I’ve never seen
The Sopranos
, but Craig watches it and is always saying things like “I got issues!” and “Who got whacked?” when we’re out on the playground.

Uncle Max turned to us and said, “This is the surprise.” Mom squealed and hugged Uncle Max and then Matthew. Dad shook both of their hands. I had no idea what was going on.
This
was our surprise? I was kind of hoping for a helicopter ride over the Hoover Dam or show-girl dance lessons. Lulu pulled her
To Kill a Mockingbird
book out of her pocket and flipped through it like she was preparing to read something. India asked Lulu something quietly in her ear. Lulu leaned in to India and quietly said something back. I think they were planning their escape from the witness protection program.

“Ohhhh!” India said like she’d just solved a mystery. In the cartoons there would have been a lightbulb over her head. Belly didn’t have any idea what was going on. She was still concentrating on her sweet look. She was starting to look like a mannequin or like those creepy kids in the horror movies who never blink.

Uncle Max and the manny stood in front of mafia Elton John, who said in an official voice, “We are gathered here today to celebrate the love between Matthew and Maximilian.” Mom squeezed Dad’s hand. I grabbed on to Belly’s and squeezed it. It made her blink. Finally.

This was our surprise! I stared up at Uncle Max’s and the manny’s faces. They looked really happy. Their smiles were so big that you could see their gums. The Elton John look-alike kept talking about how the world needs more love in it, and about how when people love each other, it can be contagious and passed on to other people, making the world happier. He said it better than that. I don’t think he used the word “contagious.” That kind of makes love sound like the flu.

When Uncle Max spoke, he said something about how he never knew exactly how much laughter he was missing in his life until he met the manny. He didn’t call him the manny. He called him Matthew. Uncle Max had a tear stream down his cheek like the little boy at the end of
Finding Neverland
.

The manny didn’t say anything. He just gave Uncle Max a hug and asked Lulu to step forward to read her passage. I guess that’s why Lulu knew about this surprise. She must have reached the age when parents don’t keep secrets from their kids. I can’t wait to reach that age. Mom will probably talk to me about diets, and Dad will talk about Old Spice and towel snapping. Locker-room talk.

Lulu stepped forward and opened up her copy of
To Kill a Mockingbird
. She cleared her throat, “Ahem,” like she wanted everybody in the botanical garden and in the lobby to give her their attention. She spoke clearly and loudly, just like she had been taught in debate class.

“‘I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It’s when you know you’re licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what. You rarely win…’” Then Lulu paused before she looked up from her book and at Uncle Max and the manny and finished, “‘But you sometimes do.’”

Lulu put her book down at her side, and the Elton John look-alike nodded at Uncle Max and the manny.

Uncle Max and the manny kissed. A few ladies who were walking by clapped. Lulu bowed and said, “Thank you very much,” like they were clapping for her and not for Uncle Max and the manny. Then she joined in on Uncle Max and the manny’s hug. She didn’t even squeal because they were kissing.

I joined in too.

The tiny woman with the CD player pushed play. It was the same song that the manny had been singing along to at the concert. The one where butterflies are free to fly.

“‘Someone saved my life tonight sugar bear.’”

Sugar Bear.