[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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 ]

zanotowane.pl

doc.pisz.pl

pdf.pisz.pl

kudrzwi.htw.pl