The Masked Family (6 page)

 

*****

 

"We need to get him," said Cary, "before he gets us worse."

Celeste nodded emphatically, but Baron and Paisley just frowned. They all sat in a circle on the ground in The Cage, their headquarters under the back porch.

"Maybe he'll just stop," said Paisley, stroking her perfect black hair. "Maybe we should wait and see."

Cary shook his head. "Blacksheep won't stop. He's just getting started."

"Maybe if we talk to him about it," said Paisley. "Tell him we don't want him to do any more bad things."

"Hey, Paise," said Celeste. "What kind of person pees in another person's bed? What kind of person gets someone else blamed for stealing five hundred bucks?"

"And threatens to kill me," said Cary.

"That, too," said Celeste. "That kind of person's an evil liar. He'll say anything to get out of trouble, and then later he'll get us."

"He's good," said Cary. "Good at being bad."

"We can't keep letting him get away with stuff," said Celeste. "If Mom and Dad won't stop him, we'll have to do it ourselves."

"He's bigger and older than any of us," said Paisley. "How're we going to stop him?" She directed the question at Baron, who'd been quiet so far.

Baron was drawing concentric circles in the dirt with the tip of a stick. When he looked up, his sisters and brother were all staring at him.

Among the four of them, he was the oldest. He was the leader of the Nuclear Family kids.

They expected him to make the call.

"We have a team-up," said Baron. "Four against one."

"I'll bet he can't beat the whole Nuclear Family," said Cary.

"We'll still have to be careful," said Baron. "We'll need a plan."

Paisley looked miffed. "I still say we should try talking to him first."

"When somebody comes after one of us, there's no more talking," said Baron. "The Nuclear Family takes care of its own."

 

*****

 

Hours after the secret meeting, when Blacksheep got back from the hospital, Cary realized that he and his brother and sisters were too late.

Blacksheep had made his next move.

"All four of you," said E.Q. as he led Grogan up the sidewalk to the front door. "Go to the living room and sit down.
Now
."

The kids were standing on the front porch, watching Grogan's return. They'd seen E.Q. and Lydia whisk him away earlier without explanation, and they'd wondered ever since what had happened.

Especially because of the trail of blood Grogan had left behind on the carpet, sidewalk, and driveway.

"I said move it!" E.Q. rarely raised his voice, so when he did, it had extra impact. "Get in there!"

Baron went in first, followed by the girls. Cary went last, taking a hard look at Grogan on the way.

Slouched under E.Q.'s arm, Grogan shuffled toward the front steps. His left forearm was wrapped in white bandages. His orange T-shirt was spotted with blood.

When he looked up, Cary saw that his left eye was black and blue.

Grogan looked like he'd been in a fight, but Cary couldn't figure out when it had happened. For most of the morning, Grogan had been shopping with Lydia. After that, he couldn't have been home more than an hour before E.Q. had taken him to the hospital.

It doesn't make sense.

The only thing Cary knew for sure was that he and the others were in big trouble. Right after they'd agreed on a plan but before they could put it in motion, Grogan had headed them off.

It was as if he had the power to read minds or see the future. Cary wondered if the Nuclear Family could
ever
defeat him.

"You four stay right here till I get back." E.Q. glared at the kids through his black-framed glasses as he guided Grogan through the living room. "And not a word out of anybody." With that, he and Grogan went upstairs, followed by Lydia.

Staring at each other, the brothers and sisters communicated silently. Baron shook his head slowly in disgust. Beside him on the sofa, Paisley looked terrified and seemed to shrink and curl up into herself.

On the loveseat, Celeste took hold of Cary's hand and squeezed hard. She gave him an encouraging smile:
Don't worry. It'll be all right.

Cary couldn't quite manage to smile back at her. His stomach was twisting and wrenching. He felt freezing cold.

It was the way he always felt when he knew something bad was about to happen, something painful and inevitable. He just wanted to run away, but he couldn't without making things worse.

The feeling intensified when E.Q. stomped down the stairs and into the living room.

He took up position in the middle of the room with Lydia at his side. He stood with arms folded over his chest and glowered at the kids seated before him.

"Grogan wants to leave," said Lydia. "He doesn't want to stay here anymore."

A surge of joy and relief rushed through Cary...until he realized his brother and sisters weren't having the same reaction. Ipso facto, Grogan wasn't actually going to leave.

"I don't blame him." E.Q. was still using his mad Dad voice. It sounded like he was barely holding himself back from exploding. "Not the way you four have been treating him."

"Don't you think it's hard enough being a stranger, without being ganged up on?" Lydia shook her head and cast a look of pure disgust and sadness at each of the kids in turn.

It was enough to break Cary's heart. "But we didn't do anything," he said, his voice pitched high with desperation.

"Honest to God." E.Q. angrily scrubbed his fingers through his curly brown hair. "I didn't think you kids had it in you to be so
mean
."

"We don't!" said Cary.

"How can you even say that?" Lydia pointed upstairs. "Did you
see
him? He had to have
stitches
in his arm."

"What did he say happened?" said Celeste.

"He wanted to play super-heroes with you," said Lydia. "You let him be the bad guy, and then...the four of you beat him up."

"You gave him a black eye," E.Q. said to Baron. "You kept hitting him when he told you to stop."

"That didn't happen," said Celeste.

"You pushed him right into broken glass," said E.Q. "He needed sixteen stitches!"

"What were you kids
thinking
?" said Lydia.

Cary felt like he was falling fast, with nothing to grab onto. "We didn't do it!" he said. "Grogan's lying!"

"Oh, Cary." Lydia shook her head. "What are we going to do with you?"

E.Q.'s voice finally broke into a full-fledged shout. "How could he possibly hurt
himself
like that?"

"I don't know." Cary clenched his teeth, fighting to keep from crying.

"You're all grounded for a month," said Lydia. "Now get up to your rooms and
stay
there."

"Correction," said E.Q. "Get up to your
room
. You're all sharing the same bedroom from now on."

"
What
?" Baron looked like he was ready to leap off the sofa and have a fit.

"Since you can't be trusted around Grogan, you won't be in the same room with him anymore." E.Q. pointed at Baron. "You'll sleep on the cot, and Cary will use a sleeping bag."

"Now get up there and think about what you've done," said Lydia. "Think about how you'd feel if you were in Grogan's shoes. Think about how you're going to make it up to him."

As the kids trooped upstairs, E.Q. shouted behind them. "I'm ashamed of every one of you!"

"Think long and hard about this," said Lydia.

"I will," said Cary, but his parents probably didn't mean it the way he did. They probably didn't want him to spend every waking moment thinking of how he was going to get revenge against Blacksheep.

He was making it his mission in life to do exactly what he and his brother and sisters had been falsely accused of already.

And he wouldn't care what the consequences might be. How could things get any worse?

Grogan's trick was going to backfire. He'd fixed it so his enemies had nothing to lose.

At the top of the stairs, Celeste ran into the bedroom, but Paisley stopped Cary by touching his arm. "Don't worry, Cary," she whispered. "It'll all work out."

Baron turned, his features fixed in an icy glare. "Baa baa black sheep," he said. "Have you any wool?"

Cary grinned. "Yes sir, yes sir, three bags full."

"And the Nuclear Family's gonna take it all away," said Baron. "Baa baa baa."

 

*****

Chapter Thirteen

Lilly, Pennsylvania

Saturday, April 5, 1924, 9:45 PM

 

A mob of local men stormed down Main Street, hauling Olenka's future husband between them...though Olenka did not yet know that she would someday marry him.

"Who's that?" she said.

"Let's find out." Father Stanislavski led her through the crowd that had grown in the middle of town after the two explosions. Most everyone who lived in Lilly was there, trying to decide what their next step should be.

As the men with the captive swept past, the crowd followed them. Olenka and Father had to jog and weave between neighbors to get out ahead.

The men stopped at one of the trains on the siding. Dominick and Nicolo each had hold of one of the captive's arms and pinned him back against the side of a black boxcar.

"Hey, Father!" said Dominick. "We got the right man
this
time!"

Stefan Volta swaggered forward with a sneer on his pockmarked face and a coil of rope in his hand. He was older than Dominick, in his mid-thirties or so, with unruly black hair, six kids, and a mean streak as wide as a coal seam.

Olenka realized from his attitude that he was in charge now. "Who wants to do the honors?" When he lifted up the coil of rope, a loop swung free at the end of it.

Olenka recognized it immediately as a hangman's noose.

"Hey, buddy." Stefan held up the noose for the captive to see. "Isn't this what you Klannies use to kill people like us?"

The man's eyes widened with visible terror.

Olenka stared at him but didn't recognize him. She thought he looked like he was in his early twenties and more a farmer than a miner. He had bright blonde hair, plastered to his skull with sweat, and eyebrows and a mustache of the same color. His nose was long and sharp, his eyes pale blue. He was taller than either Dominick or Nicolo, and his frame was on the bony side.

Olenka was fascinated by him. She knew Klansmen were ordinary people under their robes and masks, but she had a hard time imagining this young man in his red flannel shirt and bluejeans as a soldier in an army of evil.

"Betcha didn't think
you'd
be the one swingin' from a tree tonight, son." Stefan laughed as he draped the noose around the man's neck. "Life's full a' surprises, huh?"

"Excuse me." Father Stanislavski chose that moment to step forward. At seven feet tall, he towered over the rest of the crowd. "What's your name?"

The captive's eyes only flickered away from the noose around his neck for an instant. "Max Beckenbauer," he said.

"Thank you, Max." Father turned to Stefan. "And why do you think we should kill Max, did you say?"

"He's Klan." Stefan glared at Max like he wanted to tear out his throat with his teeth. "It's them or us."

"I understand," said Father. "But what has this man right here done wrong?"

"He came to town with the rest of 'em," said Stefan. "To attack us."

"And where did you find him?" said Father.

"He was wanderin' around town."

"Just wandering?" said Father. "And how many Klansmen were with him?"

Stefan shrugged. "You'll haveta ask Yock. He's the one who found him."

Father turned and scanned the crowd. "Hey, Yock! How many Klannies were with Max here when you found him?"

Yock hollered back from the crowd. "None, I guess."

"But you're sure he's a Klannie?" said Father.

"If he's not, I don't know what the mask was for," said Yock.

The crowd growled and mumbled. Father looked down and met Olenka's dark-eyed gaze. For an instant, she felt a flash of his hope, his determination to save the man's life...and underlaying it all, his own fear that he wouldn't succeed.

He looked away from her. "He was wearing a Klan mask? A hood?"

Now it was Yock's turn to hesitate. "He was stuffin' it in his pocket. Didn't want me to see it."

"But you're sure it was a mask?" said Father.

"It was white," said Yock. "Don't know what else it would be."

A handkerchief, maybe?
Olenka expected Father Stanislavski to say exactly that. It was the obvious answer.

But he didn't. She was ready for him to shoot her a knowing wink, but he didn't do that, either.

"Bring him," he said to Dominick and Nicolo. "I need to hear his confession before he dies."

Men and women in the crowd cheered and clapped. Dominick and Nicolo looked confused, then followed Father when he waved for them to hurry. Stefan hung back, glaring, then ran out to walk alongside Father.

Olenka couldn't believe what was happening.

Was Father Stanislavski really going to let them hang Max? It went against everything she'd heard Father preach and everything she'd seen him do. Even if Max was a Klannie, Olenka couldn't imagine Father standing back and letting him be killed.

She couldn't imagine herself letting that happen, either.

"In here, please." Father led the way into the train station and held the door open for Stefan, Dominick, Nicolo, and Max. After Olenka crossed the threshold, he shut the door and locked it, cutting off the leading edge of the crowd from pushing in, too.

"Now then." Father turned and folded his hands. "Confession time."

Max swallowed hard. "I'm not a Catholic, Father. I'll take last rites if you'll give 'em, though."

Father shook his head. "That's not the kind of confession I was talking about. I just want you to answer some questions truthfully."

"Okay, sure."Max looked as worried as ever.

Father stood close to him and stared into his eyes. "Are you a Klansman?"

Max didn't look away and didn't answer, either.

"We can twist his arms a little, if you like," said Dominick.

"No thank you." Father didn't break eye contact with Max. "In fact, I'd appreciate it if you and Nicolo would let go of him."

After a moment's hesitation, Dominick released Max's arm. Nicolo did the same. They both stayed close to their prisoner, however, and Stefan moved closer than he'd been.

"That's better, isn't it?" said Father.

Max rubbed his wrists and nodded.

"Now, I'll ask the same question," said Father. "But there's something you should know before you answer."

"What's that?" said Max.

"If you tell us the truth, we'll let you go."

"Hey!" Stefan Volta grabbed Father's shoulder. "Says who?"

Father turned to Stefan. "Says the Roman Catholic Church, that's who."

Then, he flashed a wink, just quick enough for Stefan to catch it.

Olenka saw it, too, and for the first time felt a flicker of doubt in Father Stanislavski's intentions. Other people had let her down before, that was true.

Wasn't it possible that he could let her down, too?

"All right then," said Stefan. He let go of Father's shoulder and took a step back.

"As I was saying." Father spread his arms wide. "If you tell the truth, you'll be free to go."

"I won't get very far," said Max.

"We'll personally escort you to the train and get you safely onboard," said Father. "After that, well...if I were you, I might have second thoughts about coming back to town for a visit."

Max looked around the room, from Dominick to Stefan to Olenka to Nicolo. He ended up meeting Father's gaze again and holding it for a long moment.

Outside, the crowd was chanting something about stringing up the Klannie.

"Okay," Max said at last. He sighed and shrugged. "I'm with the Klan."

Father Stanislavski smiled. "Was that so hard?" He patted Max on the back and led him toward the station door. "Now let's get you out of here."