Last Summer Boys(72)

Dad and Pete keep firing off rockets, and after a time I get used to the explosions. The breeze blows the smell of burnt fuses and cordite back our way while above, wisps of smoke stretch pale and thin across the moon. I almost forget about Pete’s joining the Marines this morning. I almost forget that he’s going to a place where the rockets don’t just shoot up and explode harmlessly into pretty pictures. But then it all comes back to me in the dark and I stop my oohing and aahing.

Ma knows. Ma understands. She puts her arm around me and draws me in close. She rocks me gently as those rockets take off.

“This has been a hard summer for you, John Thomas,” she says. “But you are holding up. I’m proud of you. And I love you.”

She squeezes me tight.

We watch the fireworks for what seems like hours as the dew falls and that white smoke becomes part of the mist creeping up the creek. At last Dad and Pete’s crate is empty and they come back, smelling like smoke.

Dad brings the pickup around to drive Anna May back to her house in town. She and Will are just about to climb up when she lifts a finger and points.

“What’s that?”

Across the valley, a light twinkles at us. A flickering light.

Then Ma says in a low voice, “My God, Gene, you’ve started a fire.”





Chapter 22


BACK TO MADLINER PLACE





It’s a tiny little light. Noiseless. Gentle. Like the flame from a candle.

Pete hops up on the truck fender to see better. “Can’t be us. Our rockets can’t reach that far.” He squints. “That looks like it’s clear across the valley. That looks like . . .” His voice trails off. “Like it’s at the Madliner place.”

A hush falls over us.

Then Will says suddenly, “It ain’t us. It’s him. Caleb’s lit a fire. He’s a firebug! What’d I tell you?”

Ma tells him to hush, but Dad moves for the house. “I’ll call Arthur,” he says. “Could be he’s just burning rubbish.”

Dad goes inside to make the call while we wait and watch that far flickering light.

The sudden awful feeling in my stomach tells me something ain’t right at all. Something about that far light has got me spooked.

“Who burns rubbish on the Fourth of July?” Will is asking. “Nobody, that’s who. That’s one of Caleb’s fires for sure.”

“But why’d anybody light a fire on purpose?” Anna May asks.

“Because he’s a firebug. He likes fire. He likes watching things burn.”

Anna May tells Will that what he’s saying is hearsay. Will tells her it ain’t, and the two of them go back and forth about what hearsay is and what it isn’t.

But me, I don’t take my eyes off that little light on the hill. It holds me hypnotized. And that awful feeling in my stomach gets worse and worse. And then it hits me: a fire at Madliner House could easily spread to the trees. Or the meadow. And somewhere in those trees or that meadow, running scared, is my dog.

“Butch!” I say suddenly. “Butch’s out there!”

Anna May and Will stop their arguing. Everyone looks at me.

“He got scared from all those fireworks and took off running. If there’s a forest fire, he’ll be out in it. We’ve got to find him!”

Ma pushes out her lower lip. “John Thomas, there is not going to be a forest fire. And our family is not going looking for Butch.” She turns to Will and starts in on him about how his fire talk has got me upset.

Right then and there I decide. Maybe my family isn’t going looking for Butch. But I am.

Dad comes out of the house. His face is grim.

“No answer. I called the fire department. Chief Coop’s sending a truck.” Dad walks toward where our Ford is parked in the drive. “I’m going to have a look.”

Pete follows him. “Not alone you’re not.”

“Now wait a minute, Gene,” says Ma, sounding alarmed for the first time. “Arthur could have been outside. He might not have heard the phone.”

Dad turns back to her. They start arguing. Will joins in. It’s my chance. I simply turn and walk away. That’s something good about being the youngest: you get overlooked occasionally. I aim for the barn, but then I circle right back around to the truck and come up with it between me and my family. Silent as a shadow and half as quick, I’m up into the bed. I lie down flat as a board on those rivets and wait for what I know will happen: Pete and Dad will drive over to check on Madliner House. And they’ll be taking me along for the ride. And while we’re there, I’ll look for Butch.

I’m in that truck bed a full minute before I hear the gravel crunch on the other side of the fender.

Frankie’s voice comes in a whisper. “You can’t sneak off easy as that, Jack.”

“Fooled everybody else,” I whisper back.

“Yeah, well, not me. Come on down from there.”

“Nothing doing, Frankie. Butch’s out there and I’m going to find him.”

From the direction of our porch I hear Dad telling Ma to keep near the phone. Their discussion is over. He and Pete start this way.

“Get back, Frankie, or they’ll see!” I whisper urgently.

“You shouldn’t be up there, Jack. Let your dad and Pete go and check on the Madliners. If Butch’s there, they’ll bring him back.”