The Summer Experiment (7 page)

Johnny caught my eye and shot me a “What an idiot” look. It almost made me smile. Even fearing for Marilee's safety, it was hard not to have fun with Harold. And then he went and said something really stupid, something Sheriff Mallory never would have said.

“I don't want to alarm you city folks,” said Temporary Sheriff Harold Hopkins. “But there've been a lot of UFO sightings in this area. As a matter of fact, we're famous for abductions. So we can't rule that out where your daughter is concerned.”

Even if Sheriff Mallory
had
seen a UFO, he'd never say that to worried parents! Wait until the mayor and the Chamber of Commerce heard about this.

Catherine gasped, and her hand flew up to her mouth.

“Well, of all the crazy notions,” my mother said, putting her arm around Catherine. “Harold, I've known you to make some foolish mistakes as a policeman, but this takes the cake.”

“Officer,” said Mr. Evans. He was now very angry. “You had better concentrate on looking for my daughter in the logical places, unless you want to be hit with a lawsuit.”

Harold turned a little pale. The only thing he'd ever been hit with was a
baseball
, when Lonnie Black struck a line drive to third base during the big Fourth of July game between the firemen and the police department. Instead of keeping his eye on the ball, Harold was looking at Myra Colburn, who was sitting in the bleachers and giving him the fake eyelashes. He was out cold for two hours.

“Sorry, folks,” Harold said, putting his hat back on. “I was just trying to cover all the bases.”
Bases.
He must have been remembering the Fourth of July game too.

“Idiot,” I muttered, but it was under my breath. Mom would be mad if I was rude to an adult, even Harold. I went over to sit on the swing and wait to see what the adults would do next. To my surprise,
she
followed me.

“Hello, Robbie,” she said as if she even knew me. “I'm Sarah. May I talk to you a moment?” I nodded that it was okay, so she sat next to me on the swing.

“We will find Marilee. I'm sure of it,” Sarah said. “Thank God this isn't Boston but northern Maine. Or I'd be more worried than I already am.”

“You're worried about her?” I asked. Sarah's eyes got all watery then. I assumed it was due to tears.

“It's not easy for any kid,” she said. “I know because my parents divorced too. Sometimes, it still hurts when I talk about it.”

“Wow,” I said. I needed to be a better daughter to my parents.

“But her father and mother were already separated when I came into the picture,” Sarah said. “And there's nothing I'd like any more than to be a good stepmother to Marilee. Will you tell her I said that?”

I nodded. Sarah patted me on the shoulder then and smiled.

“Now, to find her,” she said.

***

By midnight I was still awake, staring out my window and wishing on every star I could see in the sky. There was still no word of Marilee. The local news carried the story, and we all prayed that would help us find her. I decided to sleep with my clothes on that night, even though my jeans were kind of dirty, just in case something happened. I wanted to be ready to run and hug Marilee if she was found. For the first time in almost a year, I fell asleep not knowing where my best friend was.

The Search

By the next morning, the whole town had turned out to look for Marilee. And then the state police were called in. They figured it was a runaway case upfront, but in small towns like this, people and police still take the time to look. It's not every day someone goes missing. In fact, nobody
ever
goes missing.

I finally told my parents everything Marilee said, that if she ran away, maybe her mom and dad would get back together. I knew she'd feel obligated to do the same thing if I were the one who was missing.

“Could she have gone back to Boston?” my mom asked.

“I don't know why she would,” said Catherine. “Her father is here in town. And she lost touch with most of the friends she had down there once she and Robbie became so close.”

And then Marilee's mother got a phone call from a former neighbor from when she and Marilee first moved back to Maine. This was at an apartment building in Fort Kent where they stayed for a couple months until Catherine found a house for sale in Allagash. The neighbor had looked out her kitchen window and there was Marilee, swinging on the swings used by children who lived in the building.

“I saw the missing person story on the news,” said the neighbor, a woman named Carla. “So I called out to her and asked her to come in, but she refused. I ran inside to get the phone and when I came back out, the swing was still swinging but she was gone. It's only been five minutes since she was here.”

We knew where she was and that she was okay! At least she was still in a safe part of the country. Our hearts almost burst with joy, as much as some of the adults wanted to throttle Marilee. Funny how you can do that. You can pray with all your soul that someone is unharmed,
please,
and still alive. And then when you find out they are, you want to kill them. But I think everyone was mostly just relieved and happy, even though it wasn't over yet.

“I'll call the Fort Kent police,” my dad said. He had stayed home from work to join the search. “I know Doody Michaud personally.” So he called and explained to the chief of police what had just happened. He also told him what the women said Marilee was wearing—a green sweatshirt and blue jeans. “And she has her brown hair tucked up under a black bandana to hide it.”

Now Fort Kent was buzzing like a saw. And, of course, everyone wanted to drive there as fast as they could to search for Marilee. So her parents and my parents and my baby sister and my big brother and a fiancé named Sarah all piled into my Dad's two-seater pickup truck and headed to Fort Kent. I didn't want to go with them. Something in my mind kept telling me to stay there at home, that I could do more good there, especially if she finally telephoned me. And then, if I
had
gone, I'd have had to sit on Johnny's lap or Marilee's dad's. Stay here at home, my mind whispered to me. So I stayed.

Fort Kent was beyond buzzing now. But by mid-afternoon, when my mom telephoned to update me, things hadn't changed. I was now sorry that I hadn't gone with them. By now, almost three hours had passed since Marilee was spotted on the swing. Yet, no one in that town of 4,000 people had seen a young girl wearing a green sweatshirt. You almost had to be proud of her.

“Robbie, there's nothing you can do but wait,” Mom said. “Take a shower and get something to eat from the fridge. I'll call you if there's any news.”

I went upstairs to my room and slipped out of the jeans I'd had on since the day before. They were really dirty from the search. There was even some hay in my back pocket from climbing up into Mr. Finley's loft. I threw the jeans into my wicker laundry hamper and pushed open my closet door. I pulled a T-shirt from the top shelf and grabbed a clean pair of jeans. When I reached down for my leather sandals, I saw two red sneakers with white laces staring up at me. I didn't own red sneakers, period, let alone ones with white laces. Where the heck did
they
come from? I leaned in for a closer inspection. When I grabbed one of the sneakers I discovered, to my surprise, that it had a warm foot in it.

That's when I remembered where I'd seen the red sneakers before. I pushed through my clothes hanging on the closet rod. And there she was.

“Marilee Evans,” I said. “You come out of my closet and you come out
now
!”

Her face was pale and streaked, so I knew she'd been crying. Her bottom lip was trembling.

“I'm sorry, Robbie,” she whispered.

Mad as I was, I threw my arms around her and hugged her tight.

“We've been so worried,” I said. “When I first heard you were missing, I thought you had gone south and maybe a killer had picked you up.”

“I wish,” she said. “But you're right. I'm a big chicken. The Gutless Girl, remember?” She sat on the end of my bed and I sat next to her.

“You are none of those things,” I said. “What you did was very brave.” I waited for a drum roll that never came. “Brave and also very
stupid.
”

“I know,” she admitted. Then she sat wringing her hands as I called my mom pronto. Thank heavens her cell phone worked in Fort Kent. I heard Mom gasp and then cries of relief in dad's pickup as she told Marilee's parents. I hung up, knowing they'd be home in half an hour. I wanted that time to talk to my best friend.

“Where did you sleep last night?”

“In the big laundry basket they have at the apartments for tenants to use,” said Marilee. “I covered myself with my jacket. No one ever goes into the laundry room before eight a.m. anyway. So I knew I could be gone by then.”

“Where are your green sweatshirt and black bandana?” I asked, looking her over. Marilee stared down at the red blouse she was now wearing.

“When Carla spotted me on the swings,” she said, “I knew she'd tell everyone what I had on. Carla has the biggest mouth in the apartment building. So I threw the sweatshirt away and just wore my blouse. And I got rid of the bandana too.”

“If I ever plan to run away,” I said, “I'd like for
you
to organize it for me.”

“I must be in trouble so big it's invisible,” said Marilee. “I feel foolish, Robbie. My poor parents.”

“Why did you go swing there in the first place?” I asked. That part had really gotten my attention and I'd put a lot of thought into it, trying to figure out a method to her madness and, therefore, maybe find her.

“That swing is the last place I remember being truly happy,” said Marilee. “When Mom and I first moved up here, she and Dad were still together. She rented the apartment and started looking for a house. I thought we were all going to live in it. Then Dad drove up from Boston one weekend. He and Mom came out to where I was swinging in the yard and said they had to talk to me. That's when they told me the truth, that Dad wouldn't be moving into the new house after all. It felt good to be swinging there again. And then Carla Fowler saw me. Carla has eyes all over her head, like a housefly.”

“Well, how in the world did you get
here
from
there
?” I asked.

“I ran from the swings at the apartment building and around the corner to the Irving Station. That's when I saw Mr. Hileman gassing up his truck there.”

“Genius,” I said. “You're a genius.” I knew right away what this meant. Charlie Hileman wouldn't know if aliens landed on the roof of his rattling old truck. He was so out of touch that the transistor radio would seem like
Star
Wars
. He lived alone on the other side of Peterson's Mountain in a little house in the woods. Folks in town claimed Charlie still thought John Fitzgerald Kennedy was President. Unless a neighbor told him—and his closest neighbor was two miles—he wouldn't even know Marilee had run away.

“I got a ride back to Allagash with Mr. Hileman,” she said. “I told him Mack's Bike Shop was fixing my bike and I needed a lift.”

I thought about this. My dad's pickup probably met Mr. Hileman's old truck on the road. My dad probably even waved at Charlie.

“Then I hid behind your mom's lilac bushes,” Marilee continued, “until I saw you go out to the mailbox for the mail. That's when I sneaked in the back door and up the stairs.”

“You've been in my closet for over two hours?” I asked, amazed. I could never stand still that long, not in a closet anyway.

“It felt like two days,” said Marilee. “So what happens now?”

“Any second, you'll hear a pickup truck roaring into this yard,” I said. “You will then go downstairs and out the front door. In the driveway you will find your mom, your dad, and a very nice woman named Sarah.” It was an order, not a request.

“I can't, Robbie,” Marilee said.

“Yes, you can.”

“They'll ground me forever.”

“Then I'll see you again when you're eighteen,” I said.

Right on cue, I heard my dad's pickup truck pull into the drive, spraying the pebbles Mom had put down that spring, once the snow was gone for good.

I went to my bedroom window and peered down at the driveway. They were all piling out of the truck, like sardines from a can. And they were all talking nonstop. I turned and looked back at Marilee.

“Ready?” I asked, and she nodded.

“Ready,” she said.

“Prepare to be hugged,” I added, “before you're severely punished.”

I stood at my bedroom window and watched the scene below. I figured Johnny would disappear before all the emotion started up, and I was right. He was nowhere to be seen. Marilee walked toward her parents with a straight and confident posture, which was a good sign. Although, I've read that Anne Boleyn did that same walk at the Tower of London just before they beheaded her.

I saw Catherine's face break into a big smile, her arms opening to her daughter. Then Mr. Evans hugged Sarah. And then Sarah and Catherine hugged. Then Sarah hugged Marilee. Then my mom and dad hugged Marilee at the same time. Then Mr. Evan hugged Sarah, and then Catherine. Then everyone hugged my mom. It was like watching
Wheel
of
Fortune
, when the contestant wins the money at the end of the show and their family and friends come running from the audience to rejoice with them.

I heard the bad news later from my mom. Marilee would be grounded for a month. No computer. And no social activities, which meant no Taylor Swift concert. Ms. Swift was playing at the Caribou State Fair and we'd bought tickets. If Marilee couldn't go, I would just give my ticket away. Going to a concert alone is like being one bookend. Taylor would just have to understand.

But a
month
, and in the middle of summer vacation? That's
forever
in my book.

We might as well have stayed in school year-round.