Republic of Dirt (23 page)

Jennifer Wong, who just turned twelve, was dressed as a bantam rooster, which was good because she’s the size of an eight-year-old. If Miss Singer had stayed, I would have explained the joke to her. (The joke is that bantams are small. They are also kind of feisty, which Jennifer also is. She’s been known to argue with judges when they disagree with something she says at shows. I would never dare to do that!)

Tommy Bristol was dressed as an ugly chicken coop, which was really funny because the costume was so big he could hardly move and pieces of wood kept falling off it. There were even fake chickens on the top. I like that Tommy can laugh at himself. I also like that I have now seen a coop worse than the first one Earl and Seth built for my birds.

Rylan Smith, who only goes to Poultry Club because his dad owns the biggest organic egg farm in the mid-Island, was dressed as a feed sack. He never makes much of an effort. I bet he’s going to quit the club soon, and that’s fine with me because poultry fancying is not for people who don’t take it seriously.

Mary-Ellen Scottolini, who just turned sixteen, was dressed kind of like a sexy chicken. It was weird. Her outfit had feathers but you could see half her boobs and she had on those tights that are made of nets, a big feather headdress and a lot of makeup. The boys in the club kept asking her if she wanted to dunk for apples and she said yes! Even Tommy stayed as close to her as his chicken coop let him.

During our meeting, which was really just a party except for Poultry Club announcements, we played poultry-themed games for prizes and dunked for apples, and then Mr. Lymer, our leader, took us all out in the special needs bus, which was loaned to us by Bethany Blaine’s parents, who bought a bus to take Bethany and all her friends around to do activities. When I first started at Poultry Club, Bethany didn’t have any friends except me, but then her parents put her in Christian school and a special after-school social group and now she’s way more popular than me. I guess that’s nice for her, even if I do feel sort of left out sometimes. In fact, Bethany is probably one of the most popular people I know.

Her and her friends were all dressed like princesses, which wasn’t
very original but they did look pretty with their shiny blond wigs and pink gowns and wings. They said I looked neat, even though I had to tell them what I was and even then I don’t think they quite got it.

Mr. Lymer drove us to some farms that have chickens and we got some good candy, but all the places were very far apart, so we didn’t get as much stuff as kids who live in the suburbs where the houses are squished together. Also, quite a few of our members are older kids and they seemed sort of embarrassed about trick-or-treating and so they hung around the bus and stared down Mary-Ellen’s top.

Then I told Mr. Lymer about the Halloween party at Woefield and he said we could go!

“I bet you had a hand in this,” he said when we pulled up and saw the fort all lit up and a lot of people standing around it and a fire and everything! Seth and Prudence and Earl were there, and Eustace too. Seth’s mom and her boyfriend, Bobby, who sells parts for remote control helicopters, were there, along with lots of other people I didn’t know and their kids. Everyone was gathered around the fort. Some people were drinking apple cider and some people were making s’mores on a fire. I bet Eustace built it, because Earl and Seth are very bad at making fires.

The best part was that the fort was decorated like a haunted house. It was cool and I wished I got to help with it, but I was glad that Earl wrote me a note and told me about the party.

Then I noticed that there was a kid in the fort and the kid was handing out candy, which should have been my job.

I went to Bethany’s church a few times last summer. The minister gave this one talk about how envy is one of the worst sins. He said it’s extremely deadly and that people go to hell for less.

That made me worry, because I felt really envious seeing that other kid in the fort. There were other kids around too and they spoke all kinds of different languages.

At first, I was so upset that I stayed near the bus. All the other Poultry Club people were looking at all the decorations. Even the older kids thought they were excellent.

Mary-Ellen said that if you looked through a window, you could see three mean dolls in fancy dresses stealing a red shoe off another doll in an ugly dress who was tied up with duct tape. Jennifer, who always has to correct everyone, said it was a scene from Cinderella, only it wasn’t accurate. She said all the stuff in the house was from fairy tales but that whoever decorated didn’t know much about how the stories actually went. Rylan said to Mary-Ellen that if he told her she had a beautiful body would she hold it against his grain sack, and Tommy punched him, but not very hard. Rylan said, “I’m sacked! I’m sacked.”

I think they had too much candy, even though they are teenagers and should be able to handle candy. Them being so immature helped me forget to be envious of the kid who got to be in the fort to hand out the candy. There were three stuffed pigs outside lying under a pile of bricks and sticks and straw, which was from the story of the three little pigs.

A blond princess doll hung by a braided noose made out of her own hair from the window and there was a wolf with a big water gun.

“That doll is supposed to be Rapunzel,” said Jennifer. “But that’s not what really happened in the story.”

Behind the fort, there was a tiny bed with a doll lying on it. Her eyes were covered with a tiny leather mask and there was a weird leather strap with a ball on it in her mouth. No one understood who
she was supposed to be and I heard two parents saying that it was “too much.”

Seth and Prudence and Earl and Eustace didn’t recognize me at first because I was dressed as a box.

“And what are you supposed to be?” Seth asked Tommy when a couple of pieces of wood fell off his costume. “Let me guess? You’re a building here on Woefield Farm?” Seth was dressed all in green, like an elf, but there was a fake pitchfork sticking out of his back. The tines showed in the front of his chest and there was a lot of fake blood. It was awesome and I felt proud that I know him, even though I didn’t know what he was supposed to be and he didn’t recognize me.

“Lotta chickens in this group,” said Earl, who is more observant than most old people. I don’t know why. He was just dressed like himself.

“That’s right, sir,” said Tommy, who has excellent manners.

“This the chicken club?” asked Earl, who was the only one really paying attention, because Eustace and Prudence were leaning against each other in a boyfriend-girlfriend way and Seth kept checking his phone. “Sara with you?” asked Earl.

“Sir?” said Tommy.

“I’m here,” I said, and waved my hand. “In the box. I’m an iPod.”

Then before I knew it, Prudence and Seth and Earl and Eustace were all around me and Prudence hugged me, as much as she could with me in the box. Earl kept patting my box so it made a funny, hollow sound.

“Looking awesome!” said Seth. “Sweet Nano Sara!”

Eustace was smiling and looking handsome.

I don’t know when I have ever been so happy.

“Off with your head!” said Seth.

“Let’s get a look at you,” said Earl.

“Let me help,” said Prudence, when I couldn’t quite get it off by myself.

Her and Seth helped me get my head off and they all crowded in front of me, staring at me, and I felt really good, even though another kid was giving out Halloween candy from the fort.

Prudence put her hands on either side of my face and stared at me really hard, like she was trying to see if I had something in my eye.

“What?” I said.

“Are you okay?” she asked. “Getting enough sleep?”

I nodded. It was a lie, but at least I didn’t say the lie out loud, which would have been worse.

Mr. Lymer was standing there watching us and he said he thought I lived at Woefield. And I said I had gone back to stay with my parents for a while.

Prudence and Seth and Earl all got funny looks on their faces then.

“We invited Pete,” Seth whispered to me. “But he hasn’t shown up yet. We hope he’ll come, see what a good party we throw, and make his report.”

“Who’s Pete?” asked Mr. Lymer, who can be a bit nosy because he’s in charge of Poultry Club. “What report?”

Then Bethany, who doesn’t really know about not saying things, said I wasn’t allowed to visit the farm because they didn’t take care of me properly. She said Pete was my social worker.

When I first had to leave the farm, I told Bethany that my parents and Pete the social worker thought Seth and Prudence and Earl didn’t look after me right after Target’s brother tried to hurt me. I didn’t think Bethany was even paying attention, because her and her
new friends were playing some game on their iTouches at the time. I was wrong. At the Haunted Fort party, she started saying almost everything I said but getting it all wrong.

“Yes,” said Bethany. “A boy hurt her here.”

She looked at Seth, who opened his mouth, which was already sort of scary because there was fake blood dribbling down his chin.

“Jesus! Not me!” he said.

“You said the Lord’s name!” said Bethany. Her friends looked shocked.

“Not him,” said Prudence in that voice she uses when she’s trying to get people to calm down. “He didn’t hurt Sara. It was another boy. A stranger. It’s all a big misunderstanding. Sara is part of the family. And she wasn’t really hurt. I mean, Eustace got there before anything happened.”

Even I knew that didn’t sound very good.

“My mom said they have bugs here,” said Bethany.

“Categorically untrue,” said Seth.

“We only have the ones we should have. The ones indicative of a healthy ecosystem,” said Prudence.

“Bugs that live in beds,” said Bethany.

Then Earl said a swear, which I will not repeat in case younger people read this.

“It was a misunderstanding. I’m in training to become a pest control specialist,” said Seth. “I’m going to treat other people’s problems.”

“I told you to go to Courtenay to buy your supplies,” said Eustace.

“Sara,” said Mr. Lymer. “Are you allowed to visit the farm right now?”

I didn’t answer because I didn’t want to say.

He sighed. “We ought to be going. I don’t want to upset anyone.”

By “anyone” he meant my parents.

“It’s really fine,” said Prudence and her pleasant voice didn’t sound very calm anymore.

Mr. Lymer told all the Poultry Clubbers to head for the bus.

I said I needed to go check the coop. If there’s one thing a Poultry Club leader knows, it’s that you can never check your chickens too many times, so he said okay. While everyone else was getting on the bus and eating candy and shoving each other, I tore off a piece of my box and got a pen out of my pocket.

I wrote as fast as I could and left the note on the front door of the coop, tucked into the latch.

When I got back on the bus, no one would sit near me. I heard Mary-Ellen say I had bugs and she didn’t think I should be allowed on the bus. Tommy said she should shut her mouth and then he came and stood near me, but because we both had on boxes, we needed our own seats and couldn’t even really sit down properly. Tommy has excellent leadership.

Anyway, I don’t care if even people at Poultry Club except for Tommy don’t like me now because of what Bethany said. I have other things that are worse to deal with, such as sleeping in a car by myself.

I was so upset that I barely remember getting to the high school. All I know is that my mom was waiting for me in the parking lot, and after everyone got out of the bus, her and Mr. Lymer talked and she shook her head and said she hadn’t seen any bites. I got out of my iPod costume, which I sort of wished was an iTouch outfit, and got in the car and my mom asked me if I had a good time and I said yes and she said that was good. Then she drove us to the campground again.

I
couldn’t tell you what made me check the chicken coop after the party. I checked them birds at least twice that night already. But I stopped by to take one last gander before going in for the night and there was the little Sprout’s note.

Took me a minute or so to make sense of it.

Jesus, Jesus, I said, and I ran for my truck.

I was thanking the good lord that the damned thing was running for once as I pulled out of the driveway, going as fast as I dared, considering I can’t barely see a goddamned thing at night.

What the hell was she doing alone at night? In a campground? I knew her old man lived in one of the units near the used tire store, so she must be staying with that mother of hers. Useless damned woman.

I had no idea what time they’d get to the campground or whether her mother would go out and leave her alone right away. My old head felt like it might blow right off my shoulders if I didn’t calm the hell down and figure out what to do. I’d end up in a ditch if I wasn’t careful.

As soon as I saw the gas bar, I pulled in, parked and collected my wits. What would Prudence do if she wasn’t down with the thyroid troubles? I had no goddamned idea. All I knew was that she’d do something.

First I had to find Sara and then I’d figure out the next step.

They weren’t in the first campground I checked. The place was nearly deserted except for the attendant’s RV and a few permanent residents parked close to the entrance. I drove up and down all them little gravel roads. It was damned near impossible to see in there.

When I got to the Little Lake Campground, the entryway was closed for the night, I guess due to it being winter. Hell and damn, that was no good. Lucky for me I brung my headlamp with me. So I left the truck on the side of the road and started walking. Same as the other campground, there were a few sites occupied around the entrance and then it was empty.

I passed one truck and camper, shut up tight for the night, but I knew Sara’s mom drove an old Buick.

Them campgrounds is bigger than you would think. My feet was hurting something fierce when I finally saw the car. There was a little light on inside and I stood on the road, wondering what the hell I was going to say if Sara’s mother saw me. I didn’t know if people was
allowed to make their kids sleep in cars or not. Prudence was trying to get on the good side of both Sara’s parents, so I needed to keep myself calm and not tell her what I thought about her mothering.

I walked into the campsite and saw someone move inside the car. Then Sara’s pale little face, eyes wide, scared as hell, staring out the window at me.

Ah, Jesus, I said, and stopped.

I couldn’t see anyone else in there with her.

She rolled down the window an inch or two.

Hello? she said. Brave goddamned kid, I’ll tell you. Rolling down the window like that.

It’s Earl, I said.

Her little face changed and I could see some of the scared leave it, and by god I didn’t know what the hell to do with myself.

She was having a little cry and I walked over and told her it was okay.

Her mother hadn’t made a fire or anything and they didn’t have no camping chairs to sit in, so I just stood beside the Sprout. She was in her pajamas and wrapped in a couple of blankets.

So you and your mother are staying here? I said.

She nodded and wiped her nose.

We’ve been coming here at night and then she goes out. She comes back in the morning, really early.

I didn’t ask Sara where her ma was going. I didn’t tell her that I couldn’t think of a thing to say to her mom that wouldn’t make things worse. That woman could make sure Sara never came back to the farm again.

I don’t like it here, said Sara.

It’s damned dark, I agreed. But it’s peaceful though.

Even though we was in the trees in a campground, we could hear firecrackers going off somewhere.

Yes, she said, being real brave. I like the woods.

I’ll tell you what, I said. You got school in the morning, so you better turn out that light and get some sleep. And I’ll scamper out of here when I hear your ma coming back. Then we’ll figure out what to do. You get some rest. I’ll be right here.

Then I thought about them dark circles under her eyes. You getting enough to eat? I asked her.

Sara held up a bag of candy.

I mean proper food, I said.

She shrugged. My mom’s really distracted lately.

I could have kicked that woman right then. But I didn’t say nothing and I wouldn’t until I talked it over with Prudence and Seth.

We’ll make sure there’s a good lunch and snacks at your school tomorrow. Now you go to sleep and I’ll be right here at the picnic table until your mom comes back.

Do you want to sit in the car? she asked.

No, darlin’, I said. I might fall asleep and then your mother would wonder what was going on.

I took myself over to the picnic table, uncomfortable goddamned thing, especially in that cold, and sat down. Sara turned out the little light. After about five minutes, I heard the car window roll down.

Earl? she said.

I’m right here.

Okay, she said. And she rolled that window back up.

I sat there all night like that until I heard the sound of gravel crunching under somebody’s feet. I’d already looked around and knew I could duck onto a little trail that led off to another campsite
without going on the road. The path was mossy and my eyes were used to the dark and so I didn’t make too much noise or have to switch on my light.

I turned around and saw the headlight bob into the campsite. It stopped and moved around, like Mrs. Spratt had heard me moving. I held my breath.

Then the car door opened and the interior light came on. Quick as a wink the door shut and the light went out.

And I made my way back to the truck, wondering what in god’s green earth to do next.