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in my mind and then blurted it out: "Fuck." Nonie lip-farted. 236 neverland "You may enter," Sumter whispered gravely, mov- ing to the side to let me in. "Some password," Nonie said, but repeated it. "I can't say that," Missy shook her head, "it's too nasty." "You don't get in unless you say the password." "Well, I won't get in, then." "Lucy wants you to say the password." "Lucy can go have a cow." Sumter shot his hand out at Missy so quickly it was like a bird taking off in flight, and then slapped her so hard I could practically feel it. "Do not take Lucy's name in vain." Missy's eyes teared up; she reached up and touched the red skin along her right cheek where he'd slapped her. None of us took Missy's side in this. We were already inside Neverland. We had already said the word that was both dread and wonderful. I thought my sister would hate her twin and me for betraying her. She looked at all three of us, standing on the other side of the door. But like the rest of us, she wanted in. She knew that the only adventure she'd have for the rest of our last week on the island would be inside those old wooden walls. "Oh, all right," she said, frustrated. Then she repeated the password three times fast. Inside Neverland the air was fragrant, like garde- nia blossoms. Sumter held up the small atomizer that belonged to Grammy Weenie. "Isis of the Nile," he 237 douglas clegg said, spraying more of the perfume around. "I stole it from her table. One of Lucy's commandments is 'Thou shalt steal.'" "Oh, wow," Missy said, her eyes widening. Sumter had lit the shed with candles, also stolen from the Retreat. They were arranged in a starlike pat- tern around the dirt. He'd been cleaning, moving the broken pots and garden tools off to the sides, bring- ing the large peach crate to the star's center. The crate now rested upside down, and Sumter had carved a small hole near its base. "Our god resides within." Nonie cupped her hand over my ear. "You believe this?" Sumter clapped his hands. "No secrets. Not among us. All must be revealed." "Is something really in there?" Missy asked. "See for yourself." She tiptoed over the squat white candles and knelt down beside the crate. She put her ear against the wood. "I hear something." "Lucy." Missy screwed her face up. "It sounds like growl- ing. Don't y'all hear it?" "Put your hand in there." Sumter nodded to the hole at the base of the crate. "Uh-uh." He went over and knelt beside her. "Watch," he said, and thrust his hand inside the crate. "It's a test of faith." "There's nothing in there," Nonie huffed. 238 neverland "Then put your hand in." "Don't — " I said, grabbing Nonie's arm. She shook herself out of my grasp. She practically knocked a candle over on her way to the crate — the yellow light wavered. When Nonie strutted, nothing got in her way. Missy sat back on her fanny. Nonie looked bored as she stuck her hand in the crate. Then she grinned, smug with whatever knowledge she'd just grasped. She started giggling. "It feels," she said, "it feels . . ." "Not it," Sumter corrected, "Lucy." "It's licking me." "Lucy." Nonie stuck her arm in farther. "You have a kitten in there?" Missy said, almost greedily, "A kitty? Here, let me." Nonie had been reaching around inside the crate when she seemed to hold onto whatever she'd been grasping at. A look of puzzlement tightened her face. She drew her hand out, looking at it curiously. Missy leaned forward, her back to the crate's open- ing, thrusting her hand in. The hole in the crate was almost too small for her hand. "Kitty? Wait, it's tiny. It's the size of . . . all furry. Is it a hamster? Jeez!" She brought her hand out, shaking it. "That thing bit me." Nonie rubbed her hand. "It bit me, too, or some- thing." She bled slightly just around her wrist. "I did- n't feel it. It likes to bite. But it doesn't hurt." 239 douglas clegg "Lucy." Sumter beamed like a proud parent. "What you got in there, Sumter?" I asked. I didn't move from where I stood at the open door. "It's okay, c'mon. Beau, it's okay," Missy said, but she sounded slightly drunk. Her eyes were half shut. She wiped at her face, grinning. "Gawd, they all tickle, like little feathers. Lightning bugs." She nod- ded her head up and down and back and forth as if the air were liquid and pushing against her. "Swimming," she whispered, "swimming lightning bugs, lights, sea." "Lucy," Sumter mouthed without speaking, "Lucy likes blood." Nonie nodded. "Lucy. Yeah." She, too, seemed to be seeing what Missy saw. She grabbed at the air with her fingers. The yellow light painted their faces and made them seem very old and wizened, and I had a vision of my sisters as old ladies getting high on sherry and sitting on a porch, nodding at the lightning bugs on a summer evening. A ribbon of blood spun out from Nonie's wrist and tangled in and around her fin- gers as she flapped her hands in the air. I became itchy with hives, as if a cold wind had come up. I knew sometimes when to leave a room, when not to talk to strangers, when something bad was going to happen so that I might avoid it. I would- n't call this anything more than common sense or intuition. But for some reason, in Neverland, this ability was deadened. I knew I should've stopped this, 240 neverland but I was fascinated. Nonie and Missy stood, grabbing at the air, reaching higher, hopping up as if the light- ning bugs were getting away from them. Sumter grinned happily, his face dark with dried mud. "C'mon, Beau," he beckoned, "it's beautiful." Missy wiped her bloodstained wrist across the wall, creating a dark spiral smudge right beneath the words, NO GROWN-UPS. Nonie was lapping at her own wrist, her lips stained brown while the yellow candle- light aged her face. "It's more than beautiful," Nonie said delicately, as if she could not waste her breath, "it's . . . it's . . . delicious." [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ] |