Home Alone (7 page)

Kevin raced to the next place on the tape.

"What money?" the gangster asked.

"Well, you have to pay for the pizza," the boy said timidly. A second later Kevin hit "play" again.

"Is that a fact?" the gangster snarled. "How much do I owe you?"

"With the Pepsi it comes to fourteen dollars and eighty cents," the boy said.

Kevin carefully pulled the money out of his pocket and pushed it through Ralphy's doggie door. Then he fast forwarded and hit the "play" button again.

"Keep the change, you filthy animal," the gangster snarled.

Outside the delivery boy picked up the bills.

The change came to twenty cents. Cheapskate, he thought.

Kevin let the tape run. He turned on a desk lamp he'd brought down from Buzz's room and then stood in front of it with the BB gun. The shadow he cast against the kitchen curtins made him look bigger than Captain America.

Outside, the delivery boy saw the shadow. The gun barrel poked out ominously. On the VCR the gangster said, "I'm gonna give you to the count of ten to get your ugly, yellow, no-good face off my property."

The delivery boy started backing away. Sometimes this job just wasn't worth the hassles.

"One, two! . . . ten!" the gangster shouted.

The delivery boy turned and ran.

Kevin stood in the foyer and listened to the sound of the delivery car's tires peeling out of the driveway.

"It worked!" he whispered. "I actually scared someone bigger than me away!"

He went back to the kitchen door and got the pizza and Pepsi. Now for the reward!

Kevin had just finished his second slice of pizza When he heard the van pull into the driveway. He jumped up and raced into the living room.

Outside Harry and Marv quietly got out of the van. The lights were on in the McCallister house and the drapes were closed.

"Okay, Marv," Harry said. "Get the crowbar and let's go to work."

Marv had just come back from the van when they both heard something that made them stop.

"What's that?" Marv gasped.

"I don't know," Harry said. "Sounds like piano music."

"Like a kid playing or something," Marv said. The two crooks scowled at each other.

"We gotta check this out," Harry said.

They crept through the shadows around to the side of the house. Suddenly Harry froze.

"Look at that!" he whispered. In the window they could see the shadows of two people sitting in chairs, nodding their heads to a very poor rendition of "Joy to the World" on the piano. Every time the piano player hit a wrong key, the two people laughed.

"I don't get it," Marv whispered. "Did they come home?"

"From Paris?" Harry wondered.

Inside Kevin nervously picked through "Joy to the World" for the third time. Near him two of his mother's mannequins sat in chairs. One was dressed in Peter's clothes, the other in Kate's. A string attached to their heads ran down to the floor and across to Kevin's ankle. By moving his foot slightly, Kevin made the mannequins' heads nod. Every time Kevin made a mistake on the piano, he reached down to the bench and pressed the button on Jeff's laugh box.

Outside, the two crooks couldn't figure it out.

"That was the fastest trip to Paris I ever heard of," Marv said.

"I dunno," Harry said. "It still don't make sense."

"Well, somebody's in there now," Marv said.

"We gotta split before they see us."

"Yeah," Harry said, slowly backing away.

"We'll come back tomorrow. Maybe they'll be gone by then."

Kevin was incredibly relieved when he heard the van pull out of the driveway. Once again he'd successfully fooled them. He was getting good at this.

Kevin lay on his mother's bed. His mind was racing. He'd had more excitement in one day than he'd probably had in his whole life. But now he was tired and lonely. On the nightstand was a family portrait in a silver frame. Kevin picked it up. There was his mom and dad, Buzz, Megan, Linnie, and Jeff. Kevin felt his eyes start to grow watery.

"Listen, you guys," he whispered. "I didn't mean to make you disappear. Honest. If you come back I'll never be a pain again. I promise."

He kissed the picture and put it back on the nightstand. Then he went to sleep. With the lights on.

In the gray of dawn at Orly Airport Kate slept across three seats in the passenger lounge, using her purse for a pillow. Overhead a loudspeaker crackled to life:

"This is the final boarding call for American Airlines flight five-six-one to Boston, connecting to Detroit. Will standby passenger McCallister please come to the ticket counter."

Kate rose, almost in a trance, and propelled herself toward the counter. Finally. . . she was going home . . . to her baby.

A few miles away, in her uncle Rob's apartment, Linnie McCatlister lay awake in bed, watching the sky grow slowly brighter as a new day began. A new day without Kevin. Somewhere in the house a phone rang. Next to Linnie, Megan stirred and rolled over. The two sisters stared st each other.

"How come you're up?" Megan asked.

"The same reason you are," Linnie said. "I'm worried about Kevin."

"Yeah," Megan admitted. "Hard to believe."

"He may be a pain," Linnie said, "but look at it from his point of view. We do dump on him a lot."

"I guess," Megan said. "All I know is I'd feel a lot better if he was here or we were there."

Linnie nodded and got out of bed.

"Where're you going?" Megan asked.

"To get some orange juice," Linnie said.

She stepped out into the hall. On the way to the kitchen she passed the room Jeff and Buzz were sharing.. Linnie peeked in. Jeff was lying in bed, staring at the ceiling. Buzz was snoring like a bear. Linnie went into the kitchen. She was surprised to find her father, in his robe, staring out the window.

"Dad?"

Peter turned around. "What're you doing up, sweetheart?"

"Couldn't sleep," Linnie said with a shrug. "Heard anything from Mom?"

"She just called from the airport," Peter said. "She caught a flight to Detroit. She'll be with Kevin by tonight."

"Which means she won't be here for Christmas," Linnie said. "And neither will Kevin. It won't even be like Christmas."

"We'll just delay it a little bit," Peter said to reassure her.

"I think it's a bad idea," Linnie said.

"But we don't have any choice, sweetheart," Peter said.

"All I know is families shouldn't be apart on Christmas, no matter how mean they are to each other the rest of the year," Linnie said. "It's not right, Daddy. Us here, them there. Christmas isn't about being in Paris. It's about being together."

Peter looked up at his daughter in awe. She was right. How come a twelve-year-old understood these things better than he did?

Kevin had a plan for getting his family back. That was why he was pushing a cart through the grocery store. To avoid detection he wore one of Buzz's baseball caps low on his head and the collar of his coat pulled high.

He picked up a half-gallon of milk and moved on to the bread section, where he squeezed several loaves for freshness.

"Pushing the cart for mommy?" someone said.

Kevin turned around and looked up at a middle-aged woman with streaked blonde hair.

"Yes, ma'am."

"What a good little helper you are," the woman said. "I'II bet you get lots of swell things from Santa tomorrow morning."

"You never know," Kevin said. There was only one thing he wanted for Christmas. His family back. The woman Started to push her cart away, but Kevin needed some help.

"Excuse me," he said. "Could you tell me what the stuff is that you put in the washing machine to make clothes feel as fluffy soft as a kitten and smell as fresh as a springtime breeze?"

The woman frowned, then smiled. "Oh, you mean fabric softener. It's two aisles over."

"Thank you," Kevin said. "And have a merry Christmas."

When Kevin had everything he needed, he pushed his cart up to the checkout counter. A bored-looking older girl was behind the cash register. She looked about Heather's age.

"Hi," said Kevin. The girl ignored him and started ringing up his stuff. First the milk, then fabric softner, bread, soup, and a microwave macaroni-and-cheese dinner. Kevin picked up a
Woman's Day
magazine and thumbed through it. He found a recipe for Macafurters.

"I wish I could use the stove," he said, holding up the magazine for the girl to see. "I'd make some of these Macafurters. They look good, don't they?"

The girl nodded and rang up a large package of plastic Army men.

"Uh, for the kids," Kevin said.

The last item was a half-gallon of orange juice.

"Hold it," Kevin said, handing her a coupon. "It was in the paper this morning."

The girl rang up juice minus the coupon. "That'll be nineteen dollars and eighty-three cents."

Kevin gave her a twenty-dollar bill. "Keep the change," he said.

The van was parked all the way at the end of the Murphys' driveway. From there Harry and Marv could See into the McCallisters' backyard.

"Looks awful quiet," Harry said.

"Maybe they're still asleep," said Marv.

"At two in the afternoon?" Harry asked. "No way. Something ain't right. Last night the place was jumpin'. Now it don't seem like anybody's home. I can't figure it."

He pushed open the van door.

"What're you doing?" Marv asked.

"Wait here," Harry said.

Inside the house, Kevin was standing at the kitchen sink, doing the dishes. If he was going to get what he wanted for Christmas, he was going to have to be extra, extra good. That's why he went down to the basement before and did all the family laundry. Now he was cleaning the rest of the house.

Kevin looked outside at the bare brown lawn. He was trying to save all his wish power to bring his family back and didn't want to waste any on a white Christmas. But it sure would be—

Suddenly Kevin froze. A dish slipped out of his hands and back into the soapy water. To his horror, the guy from the van, the phony policeman, began to emerge from the bushes. Kevin quickly pulled the kitchen curtains closed. He whipped off his rubber gloves and flicked on the VCR.

Harry stepped softly across the back porch to the kitchen door. He tried to peek in through the curtains. Then he pushed open the doggie door with his foot.

Inside Kevin held his breath as the doggie door flapped open. His heart started to pound as the kitchen doorknob rattled. He pushed the "play" button on the VCR and the gangster movie went on.

"All right, Johnny," the thin kid said. "But what about my money?"

"What money?" snapped the gangster.

The sudden sound of voices from inside made Harry jump back.

"Acey said You'd have some dough for me."

Acey? Harry scowled. He stepped up to the kitchen door and pressed his ear against it.

"Is that a fact?" the gangster said. "How much do I owe you?" While the gangster movie continued to play on the VCR, Kevin carefully opened a pack of Buzz's firecrackers.

"I'll tell you what I'm gonna give you, Snakes," the gangster said.

Snakes? Harry thought.

"I'm gonna give you to the count of ten to get your ugly, yellow, no-good face off my property before I pump you fulla lead," the gangster snarled.

Harry's eyes went wide. Inside a frightened voice was saying, "Awright, Johnny. I'm sorry. I'm goin'."

Kevin lit a match and held the firecrackers over a wastebasket. The gangster was counting.

"One, two! . . . ten!"

Kevin lit the pack. The fuse sparked and hissed as the firecrackers fell into the wastebasket.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

Harry dove off the back porch and ran across the yard. He jumped into the van and slammed the door. He was panting.

"What happened?" Marv asked, alarmed.

"Someone just got blown away in there,"

Harry gasped. "What!?"

"Someone beat us to the job," Harry said.

"They were in there arguing. Then one blew the other away."

"Do we know 'em?" Marv asked.

"I don't know," Harry said. "Two guys named Snakes and Acey. I thought I recognized one of the voices."

"Snakes?" Marv frowned. "I don't know no Snakes."

"Well, I say we split," Harry said. He started to turn the key in the ignition, but Marv stopped him.

"Wait a minute," he said, "We better see who it is. We're workin' this neighborhood, too. Suppose we get nailed and the cops try to pin this murder on us. It would help if we could steer 'em to the guilty party."

"Good thinking," Harry said, taking the key out of the ignition.

Kevin didn't hear the van leave, but he waited a long time until he was sure it had. Those guys might be grown-ups, but they were pretty easy to fool.

His thoughts turned back to preparations for Christmas. If Santa was going to bring his family back, he had to have a tree. There was no way he could buy one, but maybe there was one in the backyard he could use.

In the van, Marv was asleep. Harry was just starting to doze when the kid came out of the house with a saw. He quickly shook Marv's shoulder.

"It's him!" Harry said. "The kid who looked at me funny. Come on."

Harry and Marv .slipped out of the van and cut across the Murphys' yard. They hid behind some bushes and watched Kevin cut the top off a short fir tree and carry it back into the house. Then Harry and Marv snuck up to the living room window.

Inside Kevin put the little tree in the tree stand and started to decorate it. He also put out a glass of milk and a plate of cookies for Santa and some carrots for the reindeer. As he put the carrots under the tree, he happened to glance at the window. His heart almost stopped. One of the bad guys was staring through the glass at him!