When Ratboy Lived Next Door (6 page)

“Yes?”

“Well, I don't really like church, either. But”—I squeezed the Bible hard and croaked out—“I've been wondering … Why don't you ever go with us?”

I made myself stand very still. I didn't want to fidget.

She took a deep breath and looked around the hall, as if she might find the answer there. Finally she said, “God and I parted ways a long time ago, Lydia.”

I slowly walked downstairs thinking about that. I didn't much care for the fuss of church, but God was a whole other story.

*   *   *

Monday morning came before I was ready for it, but then Monday morning has a way of doing that when it's a school day.

As soon as the class finished saying the Pledge, Mrs. Warren was called into the hall. My head held up my desk lid while I searched for my science book. She came back into the room and said, “Class, I'd like you to meet our new student, Willis Merrill.”

I rose out of that desk so fast the bang of the lid could have been heard all the way to Chicago. Sure enough, there stood Willis with Mrs. Warren on one side of him and his brother, Elliot, on the other. At least I knew his daddy hadn't killed him for spending that nickel.

Mrs. Warren fiddled with her brooch the way she always did when she was happy, mad, or just plain thinking. “Willis, we'll need to have a desk moved in for you. All our desks are full right now, but you may take a chair from the reading area and sit…”

Bobby Wayans sat third seat back, same as me, but on the other side of the room. I heard his whiny voice saying, “Mrs. Warren? Oh, Mrs. Warren? Willis can sit with me. I'll be happy to share my books and desk with him.”

“Oh, Bobby, what a nice gesture. Yes, Willis, why don't you sit with Bobby? He's one of our best students. I'm sure you'll get along beautifully.”

You could have hung coats on the sides of Bobby's mouth, they were turned up so high into a smile. Nobody could stand Bobby's mealymouthed ways for long, and it had been years since anybody'd tried. Bobby was almost giddy as he ushered Willis to his desk.

When I looked back at the door, Elliot was walking out. Maywood Junior-Senior High School was one block away on the other side of the ball diamond, and he was probably headed there to enroll himself. I wondered why Elliot had come instead of Willis's daddy or his stepmother. But more than that, I wondered why on earth anybody would start school just two weeks before summer vacation.

All in all, the morning went pretty smoothly, considering the kids kept craning their necks to get a look at Willis. Mrs. Warren didn't call on him, so he just sat quietly at Bobby's desk. It was lunch that I was dreading.

Rae Anne was on me the second the bell rang. “He's in our class!”

“Gee whiz, Rae Anne. What was your first clue?”

“Well, you didn't tell me he'd be in our class! Poor you. There's just no escaping with him being your neighbor, too.”

“Is reminding me of that supposed to make me feel better?”

“Sorry. Who was that with him?”

“You've gone to school with Bobby Wayans your whole life and you forgot his name?”

“Not him, silly. I mean that cute guy. Was that his brother?”

“Well, yeah, that's Elliot. What's got into you, calling him cute?”

“He's sure better-looking than Willis, you've got to give him that!” she said.

Picking up my lunch tray, I said, “Willis's raccoon is better looking than he is.”

We sat down, and Bobby sat at the table next to us with Willis. Bobby looked proud as a peacock sitting among boys who wouldn't normally give him the time of day.

I took a bite of my lunch and heard Bobby say, “Go on, Willis. Tell the guys how you taught your raccoon to do tricks. Tell them about how he'll ride piggy-back style.”

“You've got a pet coon?” one of the boys asked.

Willis just nodded.

Another said, “Bring him to the next Free Show. Would he ride on my back?”

I snorted loud enough for them to hear me.

Willis whispered something to Bobby, then Bobby said, “Willis says he's particular about whose back he'll touch. For instance, Willis said his raccoon wouldn't ride Lydia Carson's back if she tied bait around her neck!”

Everyone at the table laughed. Doing a slow burn, I picked up my napkin and put a blob of green Jell-O in it. “Watch this,” I said to Rae Anne. I walked right over to Bobby and Willis, picked up my napkin, and said, “Ah-ah-ah-choo!” blowing into the napkin on the “choo” part. Green Jell-O sprayed all over the back of Bobby's head. The whole cafeteria roared with laughter.

It was a pity Jell-O hadn't landed on Willis, too. I'd have to think up something else for him.

*   *   *

After lunch we all filed back in for our history lesson.

“Class, get out your history books, please, and turn to chapter 34.” Mrs. Warren was still smiling “the smile.” She'd been wearing it since Willis and Elliot had shown up this morning. It was a smile I'd seen before. She wore it on Parents' Night or when the principal observed our class. I didn't know a new student would rate the smile, but then we'd never had a new student before.

“Willis, we are reading about the industrial revolution. If Bobby would be kind enough to let you borrow his book, I'd like you to read the first page, please.”

Willis just sat there. Bobby hurried to find the page and handed him the book. Willis gave Bobby a lazy look, then crossed his arms instead of taking it.

You could see the first crack in the smile. Mrs. Warren fingered her brooch and said, “Um, Willis, here at Maywood Grade School we stand up to read. I know different schools have different ways, but that's our way. You may stand now and read the first page of chapter thirty-four.”

Willis looked down at the fingernails on one of his hands as if checking to see whether it was nail-clipping time. The rest of us turned our heads from Willis to Mrs. Warren. Her face was as red as the lipstick she wore.

“Willis, do you have a hearing problem that I wasn't made aware of?” She seemed to genuinely hope he did.

“No. I hear just fine.”

“Then stand and read.”

Nothing.

“Now!”

Willis crossed his arms and kept his eyes on the desk in front of him. The longer he sat and stared, the more irate Mrs. Warren looked. All three of her chins quivered as she marched her considerable self to the side of Bobby's desk. For once I felt a little sorry for Bobby. He'd never been in the vicinity of trouble before. Even though it was Willis our teacher was after, I'll bet Bobby darn near peed his pants.

Mrs. Warren put both hands on the desk and her face right in Willis's. She used her quiet voice, which was ever so much scarier than her loud voice.

“Willis Merrill, I do not tolerate this kind of behavior in my classroom. When I ask a student to do something, that student had better do it or have a very good reason not to. You're new today. In light of that, I'm giving you one more chance than I would anyone else. Is there a reason you refuse to read?”

It was deadly quiet. I could hear the blood pounding in my ear. A quick look around the room told me that everyone's eyes were locked on Willis. We all knew that when Mrs. Warren talked like that, the only thing that would save you was vomiting, right then and there. Anything short of that, you were a walking dead kid.

Despite my feelings for Willis, I wished he'd just read and get it over with.

“Willis,” Mrs. Warren tried again, “your choices are to read or visit the principal.”

Willis slumped a little and raised his head. I was surprised to see him look so weary, like a person who'd been in too many battles. Then, almost as fast as it came, the expression left and he slowly sat back. First he looked at Bobby, then he looked around the room, and finally his eyes fell on Mrs. Warren.

“What would you have done for fun today if it wasn't for me comin' to this school? Pulled wings off flies? Picked on Tubby here?” He pointed to Bobby. “Seems to me you oughta have better things to do than yank my chain.”

“Huhhh!” Mrs. Warren's intake of breath could be heard above all twenty-five of ours.

“And how about you take a step back, 'cause that per-fume of yours is makin' my eyes water.”

Mrs. Warren's hand shot out quicker than a serpent's tongue. She grabbed Willis's ear, twisted it, and pulled up. Willis had to either stand or knock her hand off his ear. I'd have bet the farm he would have fought her, but not being as dumb as I thought, he chose to stand. She didn't let go either. “Now march!” she said, leading him out of the room.

*   *   *

When Mrs. Warren came back, she didn't say one word about Willis. It drove everybody crazy wondering what happened to him. As far as I was concerned, no punishment was too severe. Willis was just plain ornery, and this time the whole sixth-grade class and Mrs. Warren had been there to see it.

I'd been able to get my homework done at school while Mrs. Warren had Willis in the principal's office, so I got home earlier than usual—just in time to see Willis and his coon take off. I ran upstairs and changed out of my school dress into some real clothes. Running back down, I swung wide over the newel post and jumped—but landed no closer than ever to the linen closet door. Since Nanna wasn't in the kitchen, I grabbed a couple of buttermilk cookies and looked out the back door.

Nanna was leaning over the fence holding a sack out to Mrs. Merrill. You'd have thought the sack had live snakes in it the way Mrs. Merrill held back, seemingly scared of touching it.

I gently opened the door and crouched low beside the steps, listening to Nanna and Mrs. Merrill as I nibbled on a cookie.

“Carolyn, it's a shame to throw these seed potatoes and onion sets away. Please take them. We've got all we need in our garden.”

“I just don't know…” Mrs. Merrill said in that vague way she had.

“Look over there.” Nanna pointed to where Mr. and Mrs. Ogle had had their garden. “The Ogles grew some of the biggest vegetables in town in that patch of ground. It may seem like work now, but it will be worth it once the garden starts producing.”

“It's not the work. It's … I need to ask Boyd if it's okay,” Mrs. Merrill said, looking down at her feet.

“I'll take that sack, ma'am.” We all turned when we heard Elliot's voice. He cleared his throat and said, “Carolyn's probably unsure about it because we don't have any hoes or rakes.”

“Well, land sakes,” Nanna said, “you can borrow ours if that's all that's keeping you from a garden!”

“Ma'am, I would appreciate you lending me your garden tools, but I can't do it unless you let me pay you back,” Elliot said. “How about if I weed your garden for the summer? Would that be a fair deal to you?”

“Oh, honey, Mr. Carson takes care of the garden,” Nanna answered. “It's really not necessary.”

“Then I can't accept your offer, ma'am.”

I looked from Elliot back to Nanna. He was messing with Nanna's job chart. She had some peculiar ideas about how our household should be run. Nanna did everything around our house and wouldn't accept help from Mother or Daddy. She did, however, expect Mother to keep up the flower beds and Daddy to mow the lawn and do the vegetable garden. Come summer, I was to hang the clothes on the line. Heaven forbid if Mother made her own bed or pulled a weed as she walked by the garden.

I figured it must really be important to Nanna that the Merrills have a garden when she said, “All right, Elliot, you have yourself a deal. I'm sure Mr. Carson could use your help in the garden. The shed is unlocked and you just help yourself to the tools. You'll need to get busy, though. This is planting season.”

“Thank you, ma'am. Thank you very much!” Elliot took the sack of dirty old seed potatoes from Nanna as if it were a really nice gift.

“Well, then, I'll go on in and finish cooking supper.” Nanna sounded plumb worn out from the work of talking them into a garden.

I scooted around the corner of the house until Nanna was inside. There wasn't any sign of Willis, and curiosity about what had happened to him at school was eating at me. I also wanted to know more about the Merrills. I decided to spy on them from my tree house.

When I was in first grade, Daddy had built it for me in the old oak that grew right alongside the fence that separated our yard from the Ogles'. I hadn't used it much last summer, and I hadn't been in it at all this year. The tree house had a back wall and sides just high enough to hold up a roof. The front was wide open, so I would have a good view of our new neighbors. If I slid to the back wall, they wouldn't be able to see me.

I climbed up and heaved myself onto the floor and pulled my legs in. At that moment, Elliot jumped over the fence to get a spade from our shed. When he got back to his own yard, Mrs. Merrill said, “Elliot, your pa won't like it we didn't ask his permission. You know how he is.”

“We've got to eat, that's all I know. I doubt Pa will notice a garden. We've been here three days and he hasn't even looked at the other rooms in the house, just the one he eats in and the one he passes out in.”

“Elliot!” Mrs. Merrill looked around as if to see if anyone had heard him.

“Look, Carolyn, I hope Pa keeps this job, I really do. But you know that if he keeps the rent paid up, there won't be a whole lot of money left. With a garden, at least we'll have some food.”

Rent? It never entered my head to think about how my family paid their bills and if there'd be enough food. It seemed funny to hear those words coming out of Elliot's mouth. Mr. Merrill didn't sound like too good a husband or dad from what they were saying. It made me think back to that time he chased Willis with a belt. Would he really have hit him?

Elliot said, “I'll look for odd jobs around town. We'll have beans and tomato plants. It will be a nice garden. Don't worry about it.”