"Now you must be all packed on Tuesday night," I said. "And I'll be ready so we can just take off on Wednesday anytime we want. I think we should go around noon, which will give us time to pick up the money from Uncle Chas and start out before it gets dark."
"Boy," he said, "you sure are bossy."
"Well, my goodness," I said, "somebody's got to think of these things.
And I wish you'd wear your cap the right way. You look silly."
"Do not," he said.
"Do so,' I said. "But if you want to look silly, I really don't care."
"Listen," he said, "my folks haven't been so bad lately.
Maybe we should talk about this some more."
"You mean you don't want to go? Chet, it was your idea."
"I know it was," he said like he was mad at me.
"I'm just saying maybe we should give them like another chance."
"Chester Barrow, " I said, "if you back out now after all my work, I'll never speak to you again as long as I live.
"I'm not backing out," he said, getting that look he gets sometimes when he clenches his teeth. "I just mean my mother and father have been nicer to me lately, like I told you. Are your parents still fighting?"
"Yes, they are," I said, "and if you don't want to leave home, then I'll go by myself."
"Oh, no," he said, "you can't do that. I'll go, I'll go just like we planned."
"Promise?"
"Sure," he said, "I promise."
I felt sort of guilty because to tell you the truth my parents hadn't been fighting lately like they usually did. My father was still missing dinner and coming home late smelling from alcohol, but it didn't seem to bother my mother anymore, because she didn't yell at him, and she smiled a lot and was always humming. just because I'm a girl going on nine doesn't mean I don't notice things, and I wondered why she was acting so happy.
We were eating in the kitchen one night late in August, and I said, "I wish Daddy would come home to have dinner with us every night."
And Mom said, "Oh, I think he will. I think he'll change his ways real soon."
I wasn't so sure. "Can people change the way they are?" I asked her.
She said. "People change of course they can," All the time."
I thought about that awhile. "I think Chet Barrow is changing," I told her.
"Is he, dear? How is he changing?"
"I don't know," I said. "But sometimes he says things, and then he goes back on them. I don't like that.
Suddenly she looked sad. "Men are like that, Tania, she said. "As you get older, you'll learn that they frequently say things, promise things, they don't really mean."
"Well, that's just lying."
"Not exactly. Sometimes they'll say things because they want something, or to keep you happy, or because they don't want an argument."
"And all the time they don't really mean it? I think that's awful."
"Yes, it is," she agreed with me. "But you'll just have to learn to put up with it."
Well, she could put up with it if she wanted to, but I wasn't going to.
So the next time I was alone with Chet I spoke right out.
"Now listen here, Chester Barrow," I said, "I don't like the way you've been acting."
He looked at me. "What are you talking about?" he said.
"Well, sometimes you say things because you want something, or to keep me happy, or because you don't want an argument. And all the time you don't really mean what you're saying."
"You're nuts," he said. "When did I ever do things like that? "
"All the time," I said. "Like I can tell that now you don't really want to run away. You're just pretending."
"Oh my gosh," he said. "I told you I'd leave with you, didn't I? I promised, didn't I?"
"But you don't really mean it," I said. "I can tell."
"I do so mean it."
No, you don't. At the last minute you'll make some excuse not to go."
"You know," he said, "you can be a real pita.
"Pita?" I said. "That's like a bread."
"Yeah, I know," he said. "It also stands for'pain in the ass." And that's what you can be."
I started crying. "That's the worst thing anyone ever called me in my whole life," I told him, "and I hate you."
"Well, you called me a liar."
"Did not. I just said that sometimes you say things you don't really mean. Like running away."
"But I do mean it " he insisted. "Will you stop crying, for gosh sakes. just because I said maybe we should think about it some more, that don't mean-"
"Doesn't."
"That doesn't mean I'm not going to keep my word. When did I ever go back on my word, tell me that."
"Cross your heart and hope to die that you'll absolutely, positively, run away with me on Wednesday, September second."
"All right," he said. "Cross my heart and hope to die."
"Well, that's better," I said, sniffing.
"You believe me now?"
"Yes, I believe you."
We've got some frozen Milky Ways in our fridge, he said. "You want one?"
"Okay, " I said. Making up after an argument is the best part.
Hey," Chet said,,what you said about hating me you don't really mean that, do you?"
"No," I told him. "I just said it because you called me a pita and I was mad, but I didn't really mean it." ,That's good," he said.
After we ate our frozen Milky Ways, we decided to put on our bathing suits and have a hose fight. So that's what we did. We were playing around, dousing each other, when suddenly Chet stopped and stared out at Hibiscus Drive. I looked and saw a big silver car driving slowly by.
"There's that guy again," Chet said.
"What guy?" I asked him.
"A man who knows my mom and dad. He says he's going to stop by when they're both home and surprise them. it's supposed to be a secret."
"What's his name?"
"He didn't say. But he gave me five bucks."
"That was nice of him," I said., "Yeah," Chet said. "He's an okay guy.
BOBBYGURK Something going down," Teddy O. says to me.
"I can smell it."
"How do you figure that?", I ask him.
He squints at me through those crazy specs he wears. "The three of them, Brevoort and the two women, are thick as thieves.
They get together almost every night. Usually at Fiddler's house, but sometimes at Gunther's condo."
"But never at Willie's place?"
"I've never spotted them there."
"Teddy, what do you think they're cooking?"
"You want me to guess?" he says. "That's all I can do-guess.
I'd guess they haven't got the ZAP pill yet from the Mcwhortle chemist.
Otherwise they'd be long gone. Am I right? But they know they're going to get it, maybe soon, and they're figuring how to handle it. If I was them, I'd grab the pill, get out of town, and set up business somewhere else."
I think about this a long time. "Yeah," I tell him finally, "I do believe you got it. And I can't stand the idea of getting the shaft on this deal. People are such rat finks-you know?"
"Maybe we should move on them right away," Teddy O. says.
"Even before they get the pill. Make them tell us the name of the chemist." He takes his ice pick out of the sheath strapped to his shin and waves it at me. "I know how to do it," he says.
"Sure you do," I says. "And maybe we'll have to do it your way. But if we lean on them to get the chemist's name, then we need to pick up the chemist and lean on him to get the pill. So it gets messy-know what I mean? Maybe someone goes screaming to the cops-and then where are we?
If it has to be done, then we'll do it. But first let the Gunther dame again. Maybe she'll go missing.
"I think she's in on the swindle," Teddy O. says.
"Maybe yes, maybe no, I says. "I'll sure as hell find out."
So I give Laura a call and tell her I'm stopping by that night.
"That's nice," she says.
I shouldn't be telling you this because you might think I'm an airhead, but I had a thing for tazy dame. Like what they call a soft spot in my heart.