The Fight for Kidsboro (14 page)

PLAYING WITH FIRE

I
DECIDED
J
ILL WAS RIGHT
about coming back and being a productive member of society, so I went back to Kidsboro. But I still wanted to ease back into it, so I figured I would take a job in which I wouldn't have to do any work. The perfect job immediately came to mind. I would work for the Scott Sanchez Detective Agency!

Scott was excited about having me as an employee, not just because he had his best friend with him, but because he liked the idea of being my boss. Of course, he didn't have any real orders to give me, but every now and then he would make something up. “Wipe off my magnifying glass,” he would say.

I was pulling up weeds in front of the agency when I saw someone walking toward me. I couldn't believe my eyes. It was Rodney Rathbone, the biggest bully in school and a mortal enemy of mine. He had on swim trunks and had a towel draped around his neck.

“Cummings!” he said, smiling like he was my best friend. “Thought you quit this place.”

“I just … took a vacation.”

“Well, how about a little swim?” I didn't like being in the same zip code as Rodney, much less a place that introduced the possibility of drowning.

“No thanks.”

“Oh, come on. What, you can't swim or somethin'?”

“I can, but I'm gonna stick around here.”

“Be that way then,” he said and started to leave. As if he regretted missing a perfect opportunity to pound me, he flicked his towel at me and stung my legs before he was out of reach.

After he was gone, I went inside to see Scott. “What is Rodney Rathbone doing here?”

“Oh, yeah,” he said. “I've been asking myself the same question. He just made it in last week.”

“He's a citizen?”

“Valerie thought he could help out with getting electricity in the houses, since his Dad owns the Electric Palace store.”

“He'll never pay attention to the rules here.”

“He probably doesn't know there are any.”

“He asked me if I wanted to go to the pool.”

“Yeah,” Scott said. “I don't go to the pool any more. Valerie's friends always hog it. And they splash water in your face and dunk you and stuff.”

“What about everybody else? Do they go to the pool?”

“No. All the original people kinda stay away from Valerie's friends. Pardon me for being blunt, but nobody really wants to be around them.”

My heart sank. I had to go to the pool and see this for myself.

Just as Scott said, Valerie's friends were the only ones there. They seemed to be having fun, doing stunts and tricks they would never be able to do in a regular city pool with paid lifeguards. There wasn't an original member of the town in sight.

I was about to go back to Scott's place when I spotted someone out of the corner of my eye. It was Valerie, watching her friends in the pool. She looked worried, as if she knew She was losing her grip on things. She turned and saw me. We stared at each other for a second, and for the first time I found myself feeling sorry for her. I wanted to help her, if not for her sake, then for the sake of the town.

I walked over to her and we watched her friends in the pool for a few seconds. She didn't look at me, as if it were illegal for us to be talking to each other.

She finally broke the silence. “I appreciate your concern, but don't worry. I'm gonna fix this.” She left quickly.

Valerie called for a meeting, and the entire town gathered for it. The meeting hall had never been this packed. If everyone crowded under the roof, it would hold about 30 people. Today there were 35.All 28 pre-Valerie members of the town, plus seven of Valerie's friends. A few people stood out from under the roof.

No one knew why the meeting was called, but everyone (except for maybe Valerie's friends) was aware that there was a problem in the town. We figured this would be Valerie's solution for it. Valerie stood up on stage and got everyone's attention. She was all smiles, as if everything was just peachy.

“Thanks, everybody, for coming. I won't keep you long, I just have one announcement. I've decided we should do something to celebrate the new era of Kidsboro.” Of course, this meant the era that started when she got me out of the way. “We've had a lot of new comers recently, and it doesn't seem like we know each other very well. I think we should have a get-together. So this Thursday, we're going to have a campfire.” This was met with a few smiles. Other people exchanged looks and shrugged their shoulders as if to say, “I guess there are worse ideas.”

Valerie went on. “It'll just be a time to hang out. We'll have some organized games, each of us will bring hot dogs and marshmallows …” Valerie's friends suddenly paid attention. Food was involved. “And at some point, we'll all introduce ourselves and get to know one another.” Most of the crowd seemed to approve of the idea, and Valerie grinned. “Any questions?”

There were none, and she dismissed us.

I'm not sure what Valerie expected to happen at the campfire. I imagine she had dreams of people holding hands around the fire while singing “Kumbayah.” Maybe Luke Antonelli and Scott Sanchez locked in an embrace of unity. I thought It was a good idea to try to bridge the gap between the two groups of people in the town, but I doubted it would actually happen. I figured I should show my support for Valerie by actually attending, at least for a little while. But I was not in the mood to bond with Rodney Rathbone.

The night was perfect. The sky was clear and the stars were bright. There was a cool breeze blowing through the woods so that when the fire started going, it would provide just the right amount of heat to make us all comfortable. Rodney had already picked the spot for the fire—a place in the middle of town. Everyone arrived with food, even the bullies, which surprised me. People had marshmallows and hot dogs and buns and potato chips and dip and soda and cookies and lots of other things. Everyone seemed to be taking this seriously. This was a great sign for Valerie, who I knew had to be nervous.

We all ate, and the groups sort of naturally separated themselves. Valerie's friends were huddled in one group on one side of the fire, away from everyone else. There Was some interaction, but It was limited. At one point, I saw Luke Antonelli squeeze ketchup on Nelson Swanson's hot dog. Valerie saw it and smiled. This was quite a victory for her, I knew. She must have had a talk with Luke beforehand.

I sat next to Scott as we ate, but we talked little. We both kept a close eye on Rodney and his friends, frankly because we didn't trust them to be nice for any length of time.

Near the end of dinner, Valerie brought us all closer to the fire and suggested that we introduce ourselves. We were to say our names and what positions we held in town.

“I'm Valerie Swanson,” she began, “and I'm the mayor.” She chuckled artificially, obviously very proud of being able to say that.

We went around the circle. “I'm Ryan Cummings, and …” Everyone waited to see what I would say and how I would say it. “I work for Scott, here, at his detective agency.” I tried to say that with all the dignity that I could muster, but it just didn't sound right. Rodney and his friends chuckled.

Then we got to them. “I'm Rodney Rathbone, and I'm the town drunk.” This was met with hilarious laughter from his group but no one else. I could tell Valerie was bothered by it, but she put on a straight face.

“Rodney is going to take my place as one of our town lawyers,” she said.

“Oh, yeah,” Rodney said. “That's right. I'm doing that on the side.” More laughter from his crew.

They went on. “I'm Luke Antonelli. Pool maintenance.” More laughter. This was hardly a real job. Then again, neither was being Scott's assistant.

Rodney and his gang of laughing hyenas continued, each making up a position and receiving a lot of laughs for doing so.

After the introductions, Valerie suggested we all play a game. As everyone was scurrying around getting ready, Scott and I took the opportunity to leave. I had put in my appearance, showing I supported and approved of our new mayor and her harebrained … I mean,
good
ideas.

Scott and I sat in his clubhouse and talked for a while. As we did, we heard encouraging sounds from the campfire area. People were laughing and having fun. I couldn't believe it, but Valerie's idea seemed to be working. She had brought together two groups of people that I never thought could've been brought together.

“So, what if this works out?” Scott asked.

“What do you mean?”

“Will you be happy or sad?”

“I'll be happy,” I replied, and meant it. “Maybe Valerie knows what's she's doing. If it works, we've all made some new friends and the town is better for it.”

We sat for a little while longer, listening to the sounds coming from the campfire. Just as I was contemplating going back to the fire to get a refill of my drink, we heard a noise that didn't sound encouraging. It was a scream!

Both of us dropped our cups and ran outside. There were a few more screams as we approached the campfire. Nelson was running toward his house like he'd just seen a bear.

“What's going on?” I shouted.

“They're going crazy,” was all he could say as he kept running.

We ran as fast as we could toward the campfire. Several people were backed up against a house, acting as if they were being rushed at by angry wolves. Then I saw what they were so afraid of—Rodney and Luke were holding burning sticks and poking them at people.

Rodney was waving his torch and laughing. Luke rushed at Reverend Joey and came within inches of burning his face. Everyone screamed. People were paralyzed with fear, afraid that if they attracted attention to themselves, the two boys would pick them as their next target.

“Come on, everybody! I'm not gonna hurt you. Come over here and let me show you how friendly I can be.” Rodney waved his torch wildly, and sparks fell to the ground. “Come on, you can trust me.”

Luke went over to a group of people and scared the daylights out of them. The rest of Rodney's crew were getting some big laughs out of this. Alice was motioning for kids to run.