THE KEY WAS on a ring along with a flat metal disk. “How’s Fred?” I whispered.
“He broke his arm. They took him to the hospital to put a cast on it.”
“How’s Fred?” Eli asked, coming toward us. Everyone was waking up and crowding around my bed.
“He broke his arm,” Jeff said.
I wondered if he broke it getting the key. “What happened?”
“Mr. Doom lied about sharing his dinner. There was no food. When we got to his office he started talking. At first he didn’t make any sense. He said something about, uh, ‘culture’ and his wife liking to read about high society. Then—”
“He talked that way to me too,” I said. I guess he started every beating the same way.
“Then he said how much it costs to feed us. We remembered what you said and we didn’t argue.” Jeff sat on the edge of my bed. “But he got madder and madder anyway. He kept talking softly, but you could tell.” Jeff stopped.
“How?” Mike asked.
“He started smacking his yardstick into the palm of his hand.”
“Oy vay,” Joey said.
Jeff went on. “He said it was easy for lazy yentas like our grandma to complain. Smack, smack with the yardstick.” Jeff turned to me. “I was thinking about running when Fred raced for the door.”
“Then what?” Harvey said.
“Mr. Doom is fast. Fred wouldn’t have gotten out of the office if I hadn’t yelled, ‘Bully! Pig! Stinker!’”
Even in the dark, I saw that Jeff was grinning. And I heard it in his voice.
“It was the best I could think of. Anyway, Mr. Doom turned, and Fred got out, and Mr. Doom went after him. That’s when I thought of your carving, buddy.”
Buddy. He sure was.
“I went to the knickknack cabinet but it was locked, like you said. So I ran to his desk, and a key was there, right in front. I started towards the cabinet to see if the key opened it, but then Fred hollered, and I ran out to help him. Sorry.”
“That’s okay. Thanks, buddy.” I shook his hand.
“Then what happened?” Eli asked.
“Joey’s papa came in.”
“My papa?”
“Yeah. Fred was running up the stairs to the balcony. I didn’t see this part. He told me about it. He said he wasn’t thinking straight or he would have stayed by the wall, not the banister, because all Mr. Doom had to do was reach through and grab him. Fred pulled away hard and he fell. He put out his hand to catch himself, and that’s how he broke his arm.”
“What did my papa do?”
Jeff didn’t answer for a few seconds, and I realized he was crying. “Mr. Doom didn’t care that Fred was screaming. He stood over him, hitting him with the yardstick and yelling, ‘Teach you . . . Teach you . . .’ And then your papa came in.” Jeff choked out a laugh. “The second the door started to open, Mr. Doom was hugging Fred and asking him if he was hurt and telling him to be brave.”
“What was Papa doing here?”
“He forgot his hat.”
“Where was Mr. Meltzer?” I asked.
“I didn’t see him when I ran out of the office, but he was there a minute or so after Joey’s father came. He took us to the infirmary and then he left.”
We were quiet for a minute, thinking about Mr. Doom.
“He shouldn’t be in charge of a zoo,” Danny said, “much less us.”
“Here,” Eli said. He handed Jeff his share of the Visiting Day treats. “You didn’t get any dinner.”
“We should tell the police,” Mike said.
“Who’d believe a bunch of halfs and wholes?” Harvey said.
“I hate him,” Mike said. “I’d like to punch him. I’d like to punch his nose in.”
I sat down next to Jeff.
“We have a roof over us,” Eli said. “We aren’t starving. It could be worse.”
“Our families feel better because we’re here,” Joey said.
Yeah. Ida felt a lot better. I stretched out and got under my blanket. Jeff started to get up, but I told him he could stay.
“I wish he could be one of us for a day,” Harvey said, “and see what it’s like.”
“If he was one of us,” Jeff said while chewing, “Fred and I would beat the living daylights out of him. We’d break both his arms.”
I closed my eyes. I pushed the key under my pillow and covered it with my hand. Around me everybody was still talking. It was nice, aside from the topic. Cozy. I was going to miss them.
Later, I woke up because I needed to use the toilet again. I took the key with me. The chair at the end of the hall was still empty. I wondered where the prefects had their poker game.
In the hall light I looked at the key, which was small and made of brass. The metal disk on the key ring had writing on it. “To Mordecai Bloom,” it said. “A beneficent leader of boys and men.” I didn’t know what beneficent meant, but unless it meant lousy, rotten, and paskudnyak, it was way off base. The other side said, “HHB Board of Directors.”
Back in our room, I fell asleep holding the key. When the wake-up bell rang, my hand was cramped and the key was still in it.
After I got dressed, I put the key in one pocket and the drawing of Irma Lee folded up small in the other. I wanted to show the drawing to Mr. Hillinger so he could tell me how to do faces better.
Fred came in with his arm in a cast. Everybody went to him, wanting to know how he was. He said he was okay and wiggled his fingers at the end of the cast. He started to tell us what had happened, and he was annoyed that Jeff had beaten him to it.
I walked to breakfast with the twins, Mike, Harvey, and Eli. “At breakfast,” I said, “call me ‘wizard’ and act scared of me.” I wanted to try out my idea to stop the food stealing.
“Why should I?” Harvey said.
“Dave has a good reason,” Mike said, scratching his ear. “He has something up his sleeve.”
“Okay, Harvey,” I said. “Call Eli ‘wizard,’ and act scared of him. I will too.” That would be better, since I was leaving, and the wizard had to be here if this was going to work. Eli would make a fine gonif. He’d fool Moe because he always seemed so serious and honest.
“Just make sure the bullies notice, especially Moe.” I told them my idea. They all liked it, even Harvey. Breakfast would set the stage. We’d get ready during morning recess, and at lunch we’d do it.
In the dining hall, I sat next to Eli, and a minute later Moe squeezed between us. When he kissed his rabbit’s foot, I stuck my head around him and yelled, “Wizard, does that really do any good?”
Eli shook his head. “If it was a black rabbit, he’d have something. But a white rabbit’s foot only carries germs.”
“Huh? How does he know?” Moe asked.
“He knows,” I said.
From across the table, Fred waved his cast. “See this?”
The ladies started carrying the coffins out of the kitchen. Everybody knew about Fred’s broken arm. Everybody always knew when Mr. Doom beat somebody.
Jeff held his unbroken arms up. “And see this? Not a scratch.”
“So what?” asked Moe.
“He cast a spell to protect me,” Jeff said.
“I didn’t have time to do Fred,” Eli said.
The coffin reached us. Moe started on my food while keeping an eye on Eli. When Eli reached Moe’s way for the water pitcher, Moe drew back a little.
Good. I might be able to do something for my buddies before I left.