A VERY GOOD MOMENT IN MY LIFE, THIS reunion with my family, now spoiled. Harmony and Bro rushed to the edge of the well, peered down, their headlamps probing the darkness below.
“Oh my god!” Harmony said.
“Maxie?” said Bro.
“Help! Help!”
“Maxie?” said Harmony. “What are you doing down there?”
“GET ME OUT OF HERE!”
If you think much about humans—which I do not—you come to the conclusion that there are good ones and bad ones. Mom, for example, is a good one, the best I’ve ever encountered. Marlon Pruitt was a bad one, as bad as they get. I would have placed Maxie Millipat in the good category if he’d ever actually crossed my mind, but on this particular night I wasn’t so sure.
Let’s start with how I’d first seen him as I’d come out of the woods, standing by the well and fussing over a rope ladder. Good or bad? After a while, when he’d gotten it all straightened out, he reached into a backpack and took out a wooden mallet and some tent pegs with hooked tops, just like the tent pegs we have at home. I know because once I’d been taken on a family camping trip. Never again, by the way. Maxie then tapped the tent pegs into the top rope strand, gave the ladder a few tugs to make sure things were firmly planted, and put on a forehead lamp of his own. After that, he tossed the other end of the ladder into the wishing well. Then he swung one leg over the low circular wall of the well, grabbed on to the rope ladder, and started down. Almost at once, the pegged-down part of the ladder popped up out of the ground, the whole shebang getting yanked toward the well, up and over the lip, and down the other side, like the well had decided to swallow the ladder, with Maxie on it.
A troubling image. Perhaps I should have kept it to myself. After that came the sound of a fairly distant splash, followed by watery thrashing, and finally some screaming—calls for help, that sort of thing. The beam of his headlamp stabbed wildly up into the night sky and then went out. The volume of Maxie’s screaming rose a notch or two.
Maxie’s screams were rather unpleasant, so I got ready to put him in the bad category. On the other side of the argument we had the fact that he was some sort of friend of the twins, which would make him good. I climbed onto the lip of the well and gazed down, but it was too dark down there for even me to see. Meanwhile I was thirsty, tired, and hungry, too much of all those things. So I just sat there in the moonlight, maybe not at my best, but free. Free and on my own land.
Sometime after that, Harmony, Bro, and … and Arthur—I suppose I have to include him—had finally found me. No doubt they hadn’t rested since my disappearance and had been searching for me the whole time, but couldn’t they have been quicker? Still, I welcomed them. I was planning to let them cuddle me to their hearts’ content, except we had hardly gotten started when Maxie piped up from down in the well. Interrupting my big moment, if you see what I mean.
So: Maxie bad.
Meanwhile, the night had turned very noisy.
“How did you get down there in the first place?”
“GET ME OUT OF HERE!”
“Did you just dive in?”
“GET ME OUT OF HERE!”
“With what?”
“A ROPE!”
“We don’t have a rope.”
“THEN GO GET ONE!”
And now Maxie began to cry, a horrible sound. Harmony turned to Bro. “Isn’t there a coil of rope on the wall in the old barn?”
Without a word, Bro ran off toward the old barn. Harmony leaned over the lip of the well. “Don’t worry, Maxie. Bro’s gone for a rope.”
“It’s so bad, Harmony,” Maxie sobbed.
“Just hang on,” said Harmony. “Are you treading water?”
“No, no. It’s worse than that.”
“What do you mean?”
“JUST GET ME OUT OF HERE!”
“Everything’s going to be all right.”
Down in the well, Maxie whimpered and said nothing. Harmony reached out and stroked my back. It felt nice. I let her keep doing it.
“Where have you been, Queenie?” she whispered.
Nowhere I wanted to think about ever again. I preferred to simply be stroked for the time being, although a nice late dinner and a bowl of fresh cream would hit the spot. Any reason we couldn’t get going? I’d tired of Maxie and his situation. Everyone said he was brilliant. I was sure he’d figure it out eventually. To give Harmony the hint, I eased myself off the top of the well and took a step or two toward home, just the roof visible from where we were, the shingles the color of the moon. But at that moment, Bro came running up, a big coil of rope over his shoulder.
I’m the type who really needs no one, as I’m sure you’ve noticed by now. And when someone of that type decides it’s time for a nice late dinner and a bowl of fresh cream—served in Queenie’s special saucer, of course—then that someone doesn’t hesitate to get the show on the road, waiting for no one. Yet in this case our particular someone was in fact hesitating. Why?
Bro lowered the free end of the rope into the well, letting it uncoil slowly from his shoulder.
“Can you see it, Maxie?” he called down.
“Yeah,” said Maxie in a weak voice.
“Then grab on and pull yourself up.”
“How?”
“Huh?” said Bro. “Just climb.”
“CLIMB HOW?”
“Plant your feet on the side of the well,” Harmony called down. “Then go hand over hand on the rope and walk up at the same time, small steps.”
I heard Maxie muttering down below. “… feet on wall … hand over … small steps …” Then came a grunt or two, followed by a sudden cry, a splash, and a scream that hurt my ears. My only thought was: Can we go home now?
Bro and Harmony looked at each other.
“Time to get Mom,” Harmony said.
“Uh, let’s try one more thing,” Bro said.
Harmony’s gaze stayed on him a little longer. Then she nodded. Bro pulled the rope up out of the well, took it to the nearest tree, wrapped it around the trunk, and began tying a knot. “Rabbit comes out of his hole, goes around the tree twice, around the hole, and back in the hole,” he said as he worked. This was a bit confusing since there was no rabbit to be seen, heard, or smelled in the vicinity.
Bro rose and came back, wrapping the free end of the rope around his waist.
“And your plan is?” Harmony said.
“Rappel down,” said Bro.
“I must have missed when you learned how to do that,” she said.
“Saw it on TV,” he told her. Then he stepped up onto the top of the well, turned so he was facing out, got the rope nice and taut, and began to lower himself down. Harmony moved closer and peered down. Since by that time I was on her shoulder, I had a good view, although mostly what we saw was the glare of Bro’s headlamp. I could feel the fear inside Harmony. There was lots of it, but she didn’t say a word.
Using the rope and his feet, which must have been what rappelling was about, Bro went down and down. Then came a faint splash, and the headlamp beam swept back and forth over the wet stone of the well. I glimpsed Bro way way down there, standing in water up to his chest, and Maxie soaking wet and shivering whenever the beam passed over him.
“Maxie,” Bro said. “Just breathe.”
“I can’t.”
“Sure you can,” Bro said. “Just breathe and get on my back.”
“I can’t.”
“Try.”
“But—”
“Don’t think, Maxie. Get on my back.”
Bro’s headlamp blinked out. The inside of the well went black, down beyond the moonlight.
“Oh my god!” Maxie cried.
“Bro?” said Harmony.
“Battery died,” Bro called up. “We’re good. Ready, Maxie? On two.”
“On two what?” said Maxie.
“Hang on,” Bro said.
The rope went very taut. Bro grunted once or twice, quite softly. At the same time he seemed to be humming under his breath. Was that possible? I turned to Harmony, her face so close. It wore an expression I’d never seen on it before. She was scared but also proud of her brother, no doubt about that.
And now he rose up into the moonlight, hand over hand on the rope, bare feet—he’d lost his sneakers—walking up the side of the wall, and all this with Maxie on his back, his arms wrapped around Bro’s chest. Up up up they came and as they approached the top, Harmony set me on the ground, turned, and grabbed Maxie’s shoulders with both hands, and hauled him out of the well. Bro scrambled up and then there we all were, standing by the wishing well in the moonlight. Well, except for Arthur, still here, in a manner of speaking, but now lying down and fast asleep, tongue hanging out to the side in his usual way.
Harmony patted Bro on the back. “My Bro,” she said. She looked about to say more, but at that moment Maxie started crying.
“It’s so horrible!” he said.
“You’re safe now,” said Harmony.
“You don’t understand!” Maxie said. “There’s someone else down there. Down in the darkness!”
“Who?”
“I couldn’t see. But I could sense him. He just sat there across from me, not saying a word. I—I didn’t even hear any breathing.”
There was a silence, the kind that comes after a thunderclap.
“Time to get Mom,” Bro said.