All the Ugly and Wonderful Things(56)

Downstairs, the night nurse was watching TV, too, and probably wondering when I was going home. I’d tried about half an hour before and that’s when Wavy showed me a crumpled up note from a boy in her Algebra class.

It said:

Dear Wavy,

I like you a lot. Will you go to the 8th grade dance with me? You don’t have to talk to me if you don’t want to. Do you like me even a little?

Jimmy Didier

She’d answered him on his own note, with her fancy handwriting:

Jimmy,

Not even a little. And I think my fiancé would be very angry to find out you’re writing me notes like this. Please don’t do it again.

Miss Wavonna Quinn

It was sad but funny. Sad that the boy got his heart broken, wadded up the note and threw it back at her. Funny how Wavy answered him. Funnier how she showed it to me, not bragging but embarrassed.

“I broke the rule,” she said.

“You know, if there was a boy you liked, you could go to the dance with him. I wouldn’t be mad.” I made myself say it with a smile. To be fair to her, I didn’t have no business keeping her from that kinda thing.

Her answer was to punch me in the chest, hard enough that it stung. Then she patted the place she’d punched. I was the boy she liked. When she held out her hand, I kissed the ring to apologize.

She wore it everywhere, including school, even though we were still working out who could know. Teachers, no way. Cutcheon and Roger, yes. Donal, Dee, and Sandy, and that meant Liam knew. I’d been worried at first, but then I figured if Liam didn’t like it, he could come out and say something instead of pretending Wavy didn’t exist. Val? Who could tell what Val knew?

The only trouble I had was at the lab barracks one night when Butch said, “All I’m gonna say about this wedding ring business is there’s a special place in hell for folks who hurt children.”

“You don’t have to tell me that.” I was mostly thinking of Liam, but I knew what Butch meant.

“You know what I’ve heard?” Neil said. “I heard if you get a girl young enough, if you’re the first guy to f*ck her, it’ll make her * so—”

We never got to find out what he heard, because I went across that poker table and grabbed the son of a bitch by the throat. Then I squeezed his windpipe hard enough to give him a taste of what going without air for the rest of his short life would be like.

Butch, who usually made peace, didn’t say boo.

I liked seeing the ring on Wavy’s finger. It gave me an excuse to kiss her hand and when I did, she always smiled. That’s what I was doing while we watched TV, kissing her hand and petting her hair the way she liked, when I heard footsteps creeping up the stairs. My first thought was to get off the bed and quick, before the nurse got to the top of the stairs. Except I wasn’t doing nothing wrong. We were just watching TV. If Patty wanted to spy on us, that’s what she’d see.

It was only Donal, coming to crow about how good he was at sneaking around now that he had the cast off his arm.

“I came up the meadow all in the fog and snuck in here. The nurse didn’t even hear me.”

“You keep talking like that and she will,” I said.

“You didn’t hear me either, creeping up the stairs.”

“Did,” Wavy said.

“What are you guys watching?” Donal leaned over the foot of the bed, looking at the TV upside down.

“Lawrence Welk,” I said.

“Let’s go swimming.”

Wavy sat up and nodded. Donal and her went down first, as quiet as they could. I stomped down after them, calling out, “Val, Patty, I’m going. Have a good night.” Then all three of us went out the door, across the porch and into the meadow.

Even with Donal’s flashlight, we could hardly see through the fog. The windmill snuck up on us: a creaking, rusted tower coming out of a wall of white.

Donal stripped down and went into the stock tank, yelling, “It’s cold!”

“What’d you expect?”

“Get in, Kellen!”

“No, I didn’t bring any shorts to swim in.” Beside me in the fog, Wavy was getting out of her boots and dress.

“I didn’t bring any shorts either!” Donal was as loud as Wavy was quiet. He splashed over to the edge of the tank and said, “I’m totally buck naked.”

“Well, I’m not getting buck naked.”

“Why not?”

“Because Wavy’s not my sister,” I said.

“She doesn’t care.”

“I don’t.” Wavy tossed her dress over my shoulder and stepped into my arms.

“I do.”

“Up,” she said.

I put my hands on her waist and lifted her up to the lip of the tank, where she balanced on the balls of her feet like a tightrope walker. Holding onto her hand, I walked her around the tank’s edge. Then she let go of my hand and tumbled backwards into the tank with a splash that made Donal hoot.

“Do me next!” So I balanced him on the tank edge and let him fall in.

They had so much fun, I sometimes wished I wasn’t scared of water. Anyway, it was my job to keep track of Wavy’s dress and Donal’s flashlight, so I leaned against the tank and watched them laugh and splash around. After a while, Wavy circled back to me and held out her hand. I took it, thinking she wanted me to help her out, but she slung her other arm around my neck and tried to pull me in. There was no way she could do it, and after a second she let go and fell back in.