Boys in Control (10 page)

“How does she know he's no more?” asked Wally. “He disappears the day before and suddenly he's no more, and she goes on eating dinner?”

“Wally, if you keep interrupting you'll never find out,” Caroline said indignantly. “Sometimes you have to wait till things reveal themselves. Please save your criticisms until I've finished.”

“Okay, but at the end of the second act, she'd fainted, you know. And now she's making dinner….”

“Well, sometimes you have to just guess what went on in between, Wally. A playwright doesn't have to show every little thing. Obviously she woke up or somebody came along and revived her. The audience has to figure some things out for itself.”

“Okay,” said Wally.

Wally put down his stick and sat back on his heels. “Is that the
end
?”

“No. Just scene one.”

Wally didn't say a word. He was still thinking about the story.

“Well?” said Caroline, clutching her tablet, her eyes dancing with excitement and anticipation.

“If Jim was an amoeba all along, why did he yell when he left the bedroom that first time? And who was making the sloshing sound when he was with Nancy?”

Caroline didn't seem too sure. “Well, he'd sort of brought the netherworld with him. And the yell was just to trick his wife,” said Caroline.

“It's a horrible, sickening play with a bad ending,” said Wally.

“But you have to admit there's suspense! People like suspense!” said Caroline.

“Are you sure I get extra credit for being in this play?” asked Wally.

“Yes,” said Caroline. “I checked.”

“And if I read this play with you, I get to be the amoeba?” Wally asked.

“Yes,” said Caroline.

“Then I like it,” said Wally. Suddenly things began to look very bright indeed. Maybe Wally did want to be in the play after all. Where else could he cover himself with green slime and drag Caroline Malloy around?

“Really? That's wonderful! I knew you would!” said Caroline. “Who can we get to play the fisherman?”

“What about Peter?” Wally suggested, knowing the twins would never do it.

“Perfect. He'll do it, he's such a sweetie!” said Caroline. “All we need are a few props—a tie, some shoes, an ice bucket, a fishing rod, some golf clubs, dishes…”

“What do we do for the green slime?”

“We've got some left from Halloween,” said Caroline
“I'll tell Miss Applebaum that we'll perform my play on Friday, okay?”

“Okay,” said Wally. Oh, yeah! He was going to like playing an amoeba just fine.

He went into the house, where Peter was working a puzzle on the floor in the living room.

“Hey, Peter,” Wally said. “You want to be in a play?”

“What play?”

“A play Caroline's written. We have to put it on in front of our class.”

“What do I have to do?”

“Hit me over the head with an ice bucket and let me cover you with green slime.”

“Cool!” said Peter.

T
hursday after dinner, Caroline went to the Hatfords’ carrying some props for the play. She handed one of her father's old ties to Wally.

“You'll want to wear this, because it's the only thing left of Jim after he turns into the giant amoeba,” she said.

She handed a fishing rod and a Styrofoam ice bucket to Peter. “When you swing at Wally, you only
pretend
to hit him,” she said.

She held out an old pair of her mother's high-heeled shoes. “And these will be all that's left of me after the amoeba carries me off,” she said.

They went through a brief rehearsal in the Hatfords’ living room, and would have run through it again—all but the green slime, which they were saving for the real performance—if Mrs. Hatford hadn't called down from upstairs.

“Wally? The twins went shopping with your father, and I could use some help up here.”

Wally went upstairs, Caroline behind him.

Mrs. Hatford was seated on a folding chair in the middle of Wally's bedroom, surrounded by bags and boxes and baskets.

“Everything that people bring tomorrow night for Saturday's sale will go downstairs,” she explained. “The auxiliary women are coming over then to check it all in and put price tags on it. But meanwhile, there's all this stuff people donated in advance. I have to list everything we've stored in your room. Maybe Caroline could help too while she's up here.”

“Sure,” said Caroline. “What should I do?”

“As each of you picks up an item and tells me who it's from, I'll write it down on this clipboard. The women will price them tomorrow. After we've listed something, set it over there by the door.”

Caroline sat down on the floor beside a bushel basket, and Wally chose a box crammed between his computer and a couple of paper bags.

“This basket is from Susan Kemp,” said Caroline. “One sugar bowl… one cream pitcher… two candy dishes…”

“Wait a minute, don't go too fast,” said Mrs. Hatford, writing on her clipboard. “Susan's grandfather started the Kemp Real Estate business, you know. She's been such a help to the auxiliary….”

“One silver serving spoon,” Caroline continued. “Four sets of salt and pepper shakers…”

When the basket of dishes had been cataloged, Mrs. Hatford turned to Wally. He dug down in the box beside him and took out an old photograph with a thick backing and frame. “A picture of somebody's grandparents, I guess,” he said.

“Who donated it, Wally?”

Wally checked the box. “Jenny Bloomer.”

Mrs. Hatford wrote it down. “Oh, yes. Jenny. She's descended, you know, from Amelia Bloomer, the famous suffragette of the eighteen hundreds.”

“What's a suffragette?” asked Caroline. “Like a martyr? Somebody who suffers?”

“No, it's someone who stood up for a woman's right to vote and hold office and do the things women weren't allowed to do back then.”

“Oh,” said Wally. “One pen and pencil set…one leather dictionary…”

On it went. Everything in the bags and boxes and baskets in Wally's room had to be taken out and listed, until finally Wally's room looked positively naked and it was the hall beyond his door that was crowded.

“Can you imagine what our house is going to look like tomorrow night when all the women bring their things over?” asked Mrs. Hatford. “We'll hardly be able to walk through the rooms!” She looked at Wally. “Don't worry,” she said. “As soon as the game is over Saturday, the women will all come back here to take
over, and you can leave. We'll have everything in place before we go, and all you and Mrs. Larson will have to do is guard the tables and not let anyone buy anything before we get back.”

“What if it rains?” asked Wally.

“It's not supposed to rain. If it does, we have large sheets of plastic you can use to cover the tables.”

“What if there's a big crowd and I can't watch everybody at once?”

“There won't be. Most of Buckman will be at the game. The championship game's being played here, you know, right at your school.”

“I'll be here to help too, Wally,” said Caroline. “I'd be too nervous to watch Eddie play the last game. Just hearing them cheer will be enough excitement for me.”

“Really? You'll be here? Hey, Mom. What about if we leave Caroline in charge and I go to the game?” Wally asked.

“We'll do no such thing,” said his mother. “I need someone besides Mrs. Larson to keep an eye on the tables. People can look, but they can't buy, and three sets of eyes watching over the place are better than two.”

“It'll be sort of fun, Wally,” said Caroline. “We'll be like security guards at the mall.”

When they had checked the last of the bags out of Wally's room, they found more boxes in his closet. There were even some under his bed.

“One toy tea set…,” began Caroline. “One child's dress, size four… one blue umbrella…”

“Who's the donor?” asked Mrs. Hatford.

“Catherine Collier,” said Caroline.

“Catherine's great-great-grandfather opened the second bank here in Buckman,” said Mrs. Hatford. “She herself helped found the Women's Auxiliary. We couldn't do half the things we do if it weren't for Catherine Collier.” It seemed to Caroline as though every woman in Buckman had a history behind her.

Wally's room began to look so empty that Caroline began to wonder if they were carting half his own belongings downstairs with the rest. But Wally sure looked happy about having his room to himself again.

“Mom,” he said. “Promise me you won't ever take on the job of running the Treats and Treasures yard sale again. Not at our house.”

“If I ever do,” said his mother, “it will not be for a long, long time, and you'll be off at college by then, I imagine.”

“Okay,” Caroline said at the front door. “I'll bring all the props to school tomorrow: golf clubs, ice bucket, fishing rod, green slime, tie, shoes, dishes, and special effects.”

“I think a book report would be easier,” said Wally.

“Of course it would be easier, Wally, but would it be better? No! Did you know that great actresses have plays written especially for them? When you're really famous, movies are made for you alone. People beg you
to be in their plays or their movies. If I could write my own plays
and
star in them, I'd be a huge success.”

“Don't forget the pictures,” said Wally. “You know what you promised.”

“Oh. Right!” said Caroline. “The pictures.” Did she only imagine it, she wondered, or was Wally trying not to smile?

She started down the walk to the road and the swinging bridge beyond, and then she turned around suddenly to look at Wally again, up on the porch. He
was
smiling, but not at her. He was smiling to himself. He did not look like a boy who had to do something he hated. He looked like a boy who had a secret, and Caroline had a strange feeling that the secret had to do with her and her sisters.

W
hen it came time for Caroline to read her play to the class, she got permission to borrow Peter from his second-grade classroom and led him back to Miss Applebaum's room. Peter smiled shyly at the fourth graders, obviously feeling very important to be there.

Wally did not feel as embarrassed as he had thought he would. In fact, knowing how the play would end, he couldn't wait to get started. For too long the Malloy sisters had seemed to get the upper hand in their arguments with the Hatford brothers, but this time, unknown to the girls, it was the boys who were in control.

So when Caroline stood up and announced that she was going to read an original play, “A Night to Forget,” Wally stood behind a file cabinet off to one side with Peter and did not come out until Caroline read, “Act one, scene one: A cottage on the beach in a
faraway town. Ten o'clock at night. A couple on their honeymoon.”

The kids burst into laughter.

“Ha, Wally!” one boy yelled.

“Your
honey
moon!” crooned another.

Wally ignored them.

“Class, let's be quiet now and listen,” said Miss Apple-baum, and the dialogue began. But as soon as Wally said, “Wasn't that a nice walk on the beach … honey?” the class giggled again.

Peter, however, had been assigned to make the sound effects, and as soon as the class heard the sloshing and sliding, which was the noise a balloon half filled with water made as Peter dragged it around the floor behind the file cabinet, the class gave the play its full attention.