Memoirs of an Imaginary Friend (13 page)

‘So? What did she say?’ Max’s dad asks. He sounds annoyed.

‘She said that it went well. They talked a little, and Max answered some questions. She thinks she can eventually get him to trust her and open up, but it’s going to take a while.’

‘You don’t think Max trusts us?’

‘C’mon, John,’ Max’s mom says. ‘Of course he trusts us. But that doesn’t mean he tells us everything.’

‘What kid tells his parents everything?’

‘This is different,’ Max’s mom says. ‘And I’m sorry if you can’t see it.’

Except she doesn’t sound like she’s sorry at all.

‘Explain to me how it’s different,’ Max’s dad says.

‘I don’t feel like I know my own son. He’s not like other kids. He doesn’t come home telling us stories from school. He doesn’t play with other kids. He thinks that someone in his school wants to kill him. He still talks to his imaginary friend. For God’s sake, he barely lets me touch him. I have to kiss him after he’s asleep. Why can’t you see him for who he is?’

Her voice gets louder as she talks, and I think that she is going to either cry or scream or both. I think she is probably already crying on the inside but holding it back so she can keep on fighting with Max’s dad on the outside.

Max’s dad says nothing. It’s that silence that adults use to say stuff they don’t want to say.

When Max’s mom talks again, her voice is soft and calm. ‘She thinks he’s very smart. Smarter than he is able to show us. And she thinks that there is real progress to be made.’

‘She could tell all that after forty-five minutes?’

‘She sees kids like Max all the time. She’s not saying anything absolutely yet. She was just guessing. Based upon what she’s seen and heard so far.’

‘How long will insurance cover it?’ Max’s dad asks.

I’m not sure what this means, but I can tell by his voice that he is not asking to be helpful.

‘Ten sessions to start, and then it depends on what she finds.’

‘What’s the co-pay?’ Max’s dad asks.

‘Really? We’re getting our son some help and you’re worried about how much they’ll charge?’

‘I was just wondering,’ Max’s dad says, and I can tell that he feels bad for asking.

‘Fine,’ Max’s mom says. ‘It’s twenty bucks. Okay?’

‘I was just wondering,’ he says. ‘That’s all.’ He pauses a minute, and then he smiles and adds, ‘But if Max is seeing her for only forty-five minutes and the co-pay is twenty bucks, you have to wonder how much she’s actually getting paid an hour. Right?’

‘She’s not working at a liquor store,’ Max’s mom says. ‘She’s a doctor, for Christ’s sake.’

‘I was just joking,’ Max’s dad says and laughs.

This time I believe him. And I think that Max’s mom does, too. She smiles, and then after a second she sits down beside Max’s dad.

‘What else did she say?’ Max’s dad asks.

‘Nothing, really. Max answered almost all her questions, which she said was good. And he didn’t seem nervous being in the office by himself, which she said was unusual. But he still thinks that someone at school is going to kill him. Tommy Swinden. Do you know the name?’

‘No.’

‘Max said Tommy doesn’t like his name and that’s why he wants to kill him, but Dr Hogan doesn’t believe him.’

‘She doesn’t believe that Tommy Swinden wants to kill him, or she doesn’t believe that he doesn’t like Max’s name?’

‘She’s not sure,’ Max’s mom says. ‘But she didn’t think that Max was telling the whole truth about Tommy, and it was the only time she got the sense that Max wasn’t being honest.’

‘What should we do?’ Max’s dad asks.

‘I’m going to call the school tomorrow. Max is probably misinterpreting something, but I want to be safe.’

‘Helicopter Mom to the rescue?’

Max’s dad has called Max’s mom a helicopter mom before, but I don’t get it. I know what a helicopter is, but I’ve never seen Max’s mom drive one or even play with any of Max’s toy helicopters, and he has a lot of them.

Max’s mom smiles, and this makes me even more confused. When Max’s dad tells Max’s mom that she is a helicopter mom, it usually makes her angry, but sometimes she thinks it’s funny, and I can’t figure out why.

‘If Tommy Swinden has threatened my son,’ Max’s mom says, ‘I’ll bring the whole goddam air force down on his ass if necessary. Helicopter Mom and all.’

‘You’re a little crazy sometimes,’ Max’s dad says. ‘Possibly a little neurotic. And you’re capable of overreacting from time to time. But Max is very lucky to have you.’

Max’s mom reaches over and takes Max’s dad’s hand and squeezes it. For a moment, I think they’re going to kiss, which always makes me feel a little weird, but instead Max’s mom speaks.

‘Dr Hogan wants to meet with me again after two more sessions. Do you want to come to the next one?’

‘Will that cost us another co-pay?’

This time they do kiss, so I look away. I wish I knew what a co-pay was. The first time Max’s dad mentioned it, Max’s mom got angry. But now it made her want to kiss him.

This is why I understand Max so well. I am sometimes as confused as he is.

CHAPTER 21

Mrs Patterson is not in school today. Mrs Palmer might be mad about it, but I am relieved. Max is still not talking to me, but at least I have the weekend to convince him to forgive me.

It has been a strange day. Max won’t even look at me. We started off in Mrs Gosk’s room, working on multiplication tables (which Max memorized two years ago), and then we went to art class, where Ms Knight showed Max how to weave different colored pieces of paper into a pattern. Max didn’t seem to like it very much, because he barely paid attention to Ms Knight’s instructions, and Max usually loves things involving patterns.

He has just finished his snack in Mrs Gosk’s classroom and is now walking to the Learning Center. Even though I’m walking right beside him, he won’t even look in my direction. I’m actually feeling a little angry now. He is overreacting, I think.

Like Max’s mom sometimes.

All I did was follow him to Mrs Patterson’s car.

‘Max, do you want to play army after school?’ I ask. ‘It’s Friday, we could set up a huge battle and play all day tomorrow.’

Max does not answer.

‘This is ridiculous,’ I say. ‘You can’t be mean to me for ever. I just wanted to know what you were doing.’

Max walks faster.

We’re taking the long way to the Learning Center again, the way that Mrs Patterson took him the other day. I guess this is the new way, even though it takes longer. Maybe Max thinks it is a better way because it means he has to spend less time in the Learning Center.

When we reach the glass doors that lead to the parking lot, Maxstops and looks outside. His face is so close to the glass that the window fogs up from his breath. He’s not just looking. He’s looking for something. He’s searching for something. I look, too, to see what he sees, and then he sees it.

I don’t.

I don’t know what he sees, but he sees something, because he stands up straighter and pushes his nose right up against the glass. And there’s no fog on the glass now. He’s holding his breath. He sees something, and he is holding his breath. I look again. I don’t see anything. Just two rows of cars and the street beyond.

‘Stay here,’ Max says. It’s been so long since he has spoken to me that I jump a little.

‘Where are you going?’ I ask.

‘Stay here,’ he says again. ‘I’ll be right back. I promise if you stay here and wait here for me, I’ll be right back.’

Max is lying. I know he is lying just like Dr Hogan knew that Max was lying in her office the other day. But Max is talking to me again. He’s talking to me and he doesn’t sound angry, so I am feeling happy again. I want to believe him, because if I do everything will be all right again. Max won’t be mad at me, and even though I don’t have Graham or Dee or Sally or a mom or a dad, I will have Max back, and that’s good enough.

‘Okay,’ I say. ‘I’ll wait here. I’m sorry I didn’t listen to you last time.’

‘Okay,’ Max says.

Then he looks left and right, checking the hallway to see if anyone is coming. He reminds me of Mrs Patterson, and I suddenly feel worried. Afraid.

Max is lying and something is wrong.

No one is coming, so Max opens the doors and leaves the school. He walks down the cement path toward the parking lot, walking fast but not running.

I look again. What does he see? I look in the direction that he is headed and I don’t see anything. Just cars and the street. A few trees with yellow and red leaves. Grass.

Nothing.

Then I see it.

Mrs Patterson’s car. I see it now. It’s pulling out of a spot behind a silver truck. It was invisible behind that big truck. And she is pulling out face first. Mrs Patterson backed her car into the parking spot next to the silver truck so she could pull out face first, and that’s when I know that something is really wrong, because only Mrs Griswold is silly enough to back into a parking spot. But Mrs Patterson did today, and it feels wrong and sneaky and planned. And somehow I know that Max knew all about it.

The car pulls in front of Max, and Max opens the back door and climbs in. Max is inside Mrs Patterson’s car.

I pass through the glass doors and run down the cement path. I yell Max’s name. I yell for him to stop. I wish I could tell him that he is being tricked and I know it way down deep inside. I can’t explain how I know it but I do and he can’t see it because he is Max and Max can’t see the forest for the trees but there is no word that says all this so I just yell, ‘Max!’

The car is moving now, down the row of cars to the street, and I can’t catch up. It is definitely Mrs Patterson because I saw her before the car turned down the aisle. She is speeding up, as if she can see me coming in her rear-view mirror, and I can’t catch the car in time. The car reaches the end of the row and turns left onto the street and drives away. I keep running until I reach the street. I turn down the sidewalk and run until I can’t see the car anymore. I want to keep running because I don’t know what else to do, but finally I stop.

Max is gone.

CHAPTER 22

I sit on the curb and wait. I don’t care if Max knows that I tried to follow him. I am going to wait until he gets back, and then I am going to tell him that he should never get in Mrs Patterson’s car again. I am not a teacher, but even I know that teachers are not supposed to drive kids around in their cars in the middle of the school day.

If I knew that Max would be back soon, I would not be so worried. But I am worried. There is so much to make me feel worried.

Mrs Patterson was absent from school today.

She drove to school just to pick up Max.

She backed her car into the parking spot so that she could drive away quickly.

She parked behind the big truck so no one inside the school would see her car.

She and Max made a plan to meet.

Max knew she was coming.

She was waiting for him.

He held his breath when he saw her.

No one saw them leave.

I keep hoping that I am just overreacting like a character on television, the kind that accuses his friend of a terrible crime and then realizes that he was wrong. I must be overreacting, because Max is with a teacher, and even if she is breaking the rules, she is still a teacher.

But she was absent today and came to pick up Max anyway. I can’t stop thinking about that. It’s the worst part, I think.

I hear a bell ring. It’s the first recess bell. I have been sitting on the curb for more than an hour. Max’s class is walking down the hallway to the cafeteria right now. I wonder if Mrs Gosk knows that Max is missing. Even though she is a good teacher, the best teacher, Max has so many teachers that maybe Mrs Gosk thinks that Max is with Mrs Riner or Mrs Hume or Mrs McGinn, and maybe Mrs Hume and Mrs Riner think that Max is with Mrs Gosk.

Maybe Mrs Patterson knew that Max’s teachers would think like this, and that’s why she chose today to pick him up.

This makes me worry even more.

It’s hard to not worry, because trying not to worry reminds me that I should be worried. And when you’re sitting on a curb, waiting for your friend to come back, it is hard to forget why you are sitting on the curb in the first place.

Every time a car drives by, every time a bird chirps, every time a recess bell rings, I get more worried. Each car, each chirp, and each bell is one more in between the last time I saw Max and now. Each one makes it feel more like for ever.

Four bells have rung since Max left, which means that Max has been gone for two hours. I’m wondering if there is a back entrance to the school that no one ever told me about. Maybe there is a road through the back woods that ends in the parking lot, and maybe Mrs Patterson brought Max back on this road, since no one would see them together way back there. I’m wondering if I should get up and go look for a back entrance, or maybe go inside and see if Max has come back, when I hear Max’s name called on the intercom. The intercom plays inside the school and outside on the playground, which is on the other side of the building, but I can still hear Max’s name being called. It’s the principal. Mrs Palmer.

‘Max Delaney, please report to your classroom immediately.’

Max is not back. Or maybe he is back and is walking to Mrs Gosk’s room right now. I think about staying on the curb, waiting like I swore I would, but now that Mrs Palmer knows that Max is missing, maybe it would be better if I go inside and wait.

I want to find out what is going on, too.

Mrs Gosk, Mrs Riner, and Mrs Hume are standing in Mrs Gosk’s classroom. There are no kids in the classroom. They are in music class, I think. They have music on Friday afternoons. All three teachers look worried. They are staring at the classroom door, and when I walk in I think they are looking right at me. For a second, I think they can see me.

I enter the classroom. If I could look in a mirror, if I had a reflection, I think I would have the same worried face as the teachers.

Mrs Palmer walks in a second later. ‘He hasn’t shown up?’ she asks. She looks worried, too.