The Box and the Bone (9 page)

At first she couldn’t quite hear what Laura was saying but she did hear something that Bucky Brockhurst said.

“Okay,” he was shouting. “If you don’t like it you know what you can do.”

But then, when Laura was quite a bit closer, Athena began to hear what she was saying too. “Stop it.” Laura’s voice was tight and shaky, almost like crying. “Just stop following me.”

“Sure,” Bucky said. “We’ll stop. As soon as you give back what belongs to us. Just hand it over and we’ll clear out. Won’t we, dudes?”

Bucky looked at Eddy and Carlos when he said “dudes” so Athena guessed he meant them. They both nodded their heads, but Athena thought they didn’t look too happy. Particularly Carlos. Carlos kept looking away in other directions like he didn’t want to look right at Laura while Bucky was yelling at her.

Carlos was looking away in another direction when all of a sudden he yelled, “Hey! Hey. Look over there. Somebody’s hiding in the bushes. Just like before. I thought someone was in there yesterday but I wasn’t sure. See? Right over there in the planter area.”

“Oh yeah,” Bucky said. “We’ll see about that. Come on, you dudes.”

While the three “dudes” started across the cul-de-sac, Laura came on up the sidewalk. When she got to where Athena was sitting in her wagon she stopped to say hello.

“Hi, Athena,” she said, smiling her nice friendly smile.

Athena said hi too. She was starting to ask Laura what was the matter and why Bucky was yelling at her, when he started yelling again. But this time Bucky was yelling at somebody he was pulling out from under a bush. The somebody was his sister, Muffy Brockhurst. And Susie Garcia was there too. Carlos and Eddy were pulling her out from under another bush. Then they were all yelling at each other. Standing there in the middle of the road, all five of them were yelling their heads off.

Right at first Athena couldn’t tell what any of them was saying, but just then a truck came down Castle Avenue, turned into the circular drive, and honked its horn. So they all came over to the sidewalk—right next to where Athena was sitting in her wagon.

“Okay, what’s coming off here?” Bucky was saying. “What do you dweebs think you’re doing following us around?”

Muffy stuck her chin up in the air and said, “We can follow anybody we want to. Can’t we, Susie? I mean, it’s a free country, isn’t it?”

“Yeah,” Susie said. “And besides, you’re following Laura, aren’t you? If you guys can follow Laura, why can’t we follow you? Why are you guys following Laura?”

Muffy looked at Susie in surprise. In pleased surprise. “Right,” she said. “Why are you dudes following Laura?”

“That’s none of your business, dog meat,” Bucky roared. “And you better keep out of this, if you know what’s good for you.”

By then they were all around Athena’s wagon. Laura and Muffy and Susie were on one side and Bucky and Carlos and Eddy were on the other. Athena sat in her wagon and looked back and forth as they went on yelling. It was all very interesting.

Muffy yelled at Bucky and Susie yelled at Carlos and then everybody yelled at everybody. The yelling went on and on, and Athena went on looking back and forth, until everyone seemed to run out of breath at the same time. Suddenly it got kind of quiet. And then Carlos said something. Not yelling. Just talking.

What Carlos said was, “This is stupid. This whole thing is stupid. I’m outta here.” He turned to Bucky. “Brockhurst, I’m through with this whole stupid mess.”

T
HE NEXT FEW DAYS,
Bucky wasn’t speaking to Carlos. Not even at school. And that meant that Carlos didn’t get to be on the best team anymore, because it was Bucky’s team and he got to choose who was on it. Eddy was still speaking to Carlos but only when Bucky wasn’t looking.

Once on Wednesday, or perhaps it was Thursday, when Bucky wasn’t looking, Carlos asked Eddy what Bucky was planning now. About Laura and the gold coins.

Eddy laughed. “The latest thing is that he’s going to sue. He says his dad is always suing people and usually it works really well. He says he’s going to get a lawyer to write up a paper. You know, a paper that says to give back all the coins or else she’ll get taken to court. He says that’s the kind of thing his dad’s lawyers write up.”

“But I thought lawyers cost a lot of money,” Carlos said. “Like hundreds of dollars. Where’s Bucky going to get that kind of money?”

“Yeah, I know. His other idea was, it wouldn’t be a real lawyer. Just someone who writes real well who could write something that would sound real legal. You know, like a real lawyer did it.”

“Like who, for instance?”

“I don’t know for sure. He was kind of thinking of Ari Pappas. You know, Ari writes all kinds of stuff.” Eddy laughed. “Bucky says Ari would be really cheap. All he’d have to do—” Eddy made his voice deep and scary, “—he’d just have to go, ‘Okay, Pappas. Take your choice. You write the paper or your arm gets broken.’”

“Great,” Carlos said. “Just great.” But at that moment he saw Bucky heading their way. “Well, I’m outta here,” he said. “See you later.”

That was about how things went for the rest of the week. When Sunday came Carlos went to late mass with his father, as usual. Everything at church was the same as always, too, until right at the end when the priest was making announcements about classes and things like that. Only this time there was another announcement.

This time Father Andrew asked everyone to notice the extra page that was in the bulletin that morning. Carlos hadn’t noticed the extra page, and he still wasn’t noticing it, until Father Andrew said something that really caught his attention. What he said was something about a “very valuable coin collection.” That was when Carlos really started listening.

Father Andrew was talking about the wonderful secret gift that someone had made to the fund for hungry children. Actually the priest said “anonymous” gift but when Carlos poked his father and asked, he found out that “anonymous” meant “secret.” Someone had donated the coin collection without letting anyone know who he was. Father Andrew also talked about how the collection had turned out to be very valuable—particularly the
three gold coins
—and how many hungry children it would save from starving. Father Andrew also said that he understood the donor might not want any publicity, but that he deserved great honor and glory, which he would surely get in heaven. Carlos went home from church in a kind of daze.

Right after lunch he called Eddy and asked if he could come over.

“Sure,” Eddy said. Then he laughed and said, “Bucky keeps saying that you are dead.” He made his voice sound like Ducky’s and said, “Garcia is dead, man. I mean
dead
, until he gets smart and starts helping us tail the Grant dude again.” Eddy laughed again. “So come on over. I like talking to dead people.”

So Carlos went to Eddy’s house and as soon as he got there he handed him the page from the church bulletin. Eddy read it over, stared at Carlos, and read it over again. Then he said, “Well, that’s it. That’s our coin collection for sure.”

“That’s what I thought,” Carlos said.

They both stared at each other for a while longer before Carlos said, “Should we show this to Bucky?”

“Sure.” Eddy grinned. “Why not?”

“Well, for one thing, because he might think I did it. I mean, my whole family goes to Saint Patrick’s.”

“Well, you didn’t do it, did you?”

Carlos shook his head slowly from side to side. “Absolutely not. I didn’t even know there was a collection box for hungry children until today.”

Eddy nodded. “I believe you,” he said. “Let’s go tell Brockhurst.”

They went on talking about it as they walked across to Bucky’s house. About who took the box and why they donated all the coins to the hungry-children’s fund.

“Wait,” Carlos said. “I just thought of something. If we convince Bucky that I didn’t do it, he’ll probably go on blaming Laura. Even though she doesn’t go to our church.”

“So what?” Eddy said. “At least he’ll know that she can’t give it back now, even if she wanted to. So there won’t be any reason to go on following her. Right?”

“Right,” Carlos said. “That will be one good thing, huh?” He sighed. “But I wish I
knew
who did do it. I mean, who took the box in the first place and why they just gave it away like that. It sure is a mystery.”

Just then the little Pappas kid came up the sidewalk pulling her red wagon. She looked up at Carlos and Eddy and said, “Hi, dudes.”

Eddy and Carlos both laughed and Carlos said, “Hi dude, yourself, kid.” Then they both stepped aside and let Athena pull her wagon between them and on up the sidewalk.

After she’d gone past, Eddy said, “Yeah. It sure is a mystery. Do you suppose we’ll ever find out who did it?”

Carlos shrugged. “Naw,” he said. “I don’t suppose so. The funny thing is, all of a sudden it doesn’t seem to matter all that much.”

Eddy gave him a funny look, but then he began to nod his head. “Yeah,” he said. “I guess I kind of feel the same way.”

“And another good thing,” Carlos said. “Maybe now we can stop digging holes and following people and get back to something important. Like playing ball.”

Eddy nodded. “Right on.” But then, as he rang the Brockhurst doorbell, he added, “Baseball or basketball?”

“Baseball!” Carlos said. “What else? Everybody for baseball say ‘It’s a free country.’”

They were both yelling “It’s a free country” at the top of their lungs when Bucky Brockhurst opened the door.

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U
NDER THE TALL TREES
the shade was deep and dark and the only sound was a leafy whisper from high above. The air smelled of pine needles and sun-warmed dust. Kate Nicely and Aurora Pappas moved slowly and silently, watching and listening. They could see the barn now through the trees—paintless gray-brown walls rising to a sagging roof.

“Shh,” Aurora said suddenly. “There it is. Don’t you hear it?”

Kate listened. “Hear what?” she said softly.

“Nothing,” Aurora whispered. “That’s just it. How quiet it is. Everything’s holding its breath.”

Kate listened again. It did seem quieter, somehow. There were no bird sounds and even the leafy whisper seemed farther away. “What—what is it?” she asked again.

Aurora shook her head slowly and thoughtfully, and then suddenly froze. Her face turned upward and her hands, too, as if her open palms were receivers, sensing sound or motion. Kate watched her approvingly. Aurora looked so—mysterious. Even in her usual grungy T-shirt and ragged tights, and with her crinkly hair frizzing out in all directions, she still managed to look like an enchanted creature. A gray-eyed creature staring out through flyaway strands of hair, like a wild thing in a tangled thicket.

Following the direction of Aurora’s stare, Kate could see only trees and distant glimpses of barn, with slanting rays of sunlight making glittering pathways through the deep shadows. She sighed and went back to watching Aurora—and waiting. Like always. Every time they came to the barn they stopped and waited for a while before they went in.

They’d been coming to the old, deserted barn for months now. Not often, of course. Only now and then when Aurora got a mysterious feeling that it was the right time. They would walk around the cul-de-sac once or twice, checking things out and deciding which secret path to follow. Whether to take the short, dangerous route, right through the Andersons’ property, or the longer, safer way, by a trail that started behind Kate’s house, wound up into the hills, and came down again into the small pine forest that surrounded the old barn. And even then, after they’d finally arrived safely at the barn, they always stopped and waited. And waited …

“Now,” Aurora said. She turned toward Kate, her gray eyes glowing. “Let’s go in. It’s all right to go in now.”

The heavy barn door creaked, groaned, and swung open into a dark, confusing maze of passageways, bordered by horse stalls and other dark, cobweb-filled rooms. The brick floor was covered by a thick layer of dirt and straw. The light was very dim and, as always, there was a special smell. An old, dead smell of dust and decay with a ghostly hint of hay and horse. Aurora led the way through the near darkness, moving slowly but surely toward the ladder that led to the loft. Kate followed close behind her.

At the last box stall, an especially large one, Aurora stopped and, on tiptoe, looked over the door. It was a largish space, empty except for the remains of a wooden manger. They stood there staring into the stall for several seconds before Aurora sighed softly and moved on. They were almost to the ladder when Kate asked a question she’d been wanting to ask for quite a while. “Why do you always look in that stall?”

Aurora stopped and turned back to face Kate. “I don’t know,” she said. “Not for sure, anyway. There’s just something …” She shrugged and turned away. “Come on. Let’s go up to the loft.”

Kate liked the loft a lot better. She liked the open, soaring space and the beams of sunlight that drifted down through holes in the rotting roof. At one end of the huge floor a stack of straw bales made a good place to climb up and sit.