LATER, ALLIGATOR
When Charlie dropped Justin off late that night, they gave each other fake punches on the arm. Justin would have hugged him, but he’d figured out long ago that Charlie wasn’t the hugging kind of dad.
“Later, alligator,” Charlie called as he backed out.
“After while, crocodile,” Justin answered.
The house was quiet. Mom had left a light on for him in the living room. Justin headed for the kitchen to get a glass of milk, glad to have a few minutes to himself.
He hadn’t finished pouring the milk when he heard bare feet padding into the kitchen behind him.
“Hi,” Kate said.
He shoved the carton back in the fridge. “Hi.”
Kate reached past him and took it out again to pour a glass of milk for herself. “You think he’ll come back?”
“Said he would.”
Kate leaned on the counter. “Last time he didn’t.”
“He did. It just took a while.”
“If it’s another four years, we’ll be grown.”
“Yeah.” Justin drained his glass. “Maybe it won’t be that long this time.”
Justin rinsed the empty milk glass and headed for his room. Kate took the hint and didn’t follow.
That’s why he didn’t find out about the rabbit until the next day. When he got home from school the following afternoon, they were all waiting, and all told him more or less at once.
“The rabbit’s gone,” said Chip.
“We couldn’t find him anywhere around the barn,” Luther added.
“We looked for him on Saturday and again Sunday before you and Mom got home,” Kate said. “We called and called but he never came.”
The three smaller children stood around him, waiting expectantly.
For what? Justin wondered. This was not his problem.
“There wasn’t anything to keep that rabbit there,” he pointed out. “You decided to set him free, so now he is. If he decided to leave, that was his choice.”
“Maybe he got lonesome and went looking for Little Billy,” Luther said in a mournful voice.
“And got lost,” Chip said sadly.
“And really, really hungry,” Lily worried.
“I don’t think rabbits get lost,” Justin told them. “If they’re not penned up they go wherever they like. Usually somewhere there’s food. Remember Peter Rabbit, in Mr. What’s-his-name’s garden?”
Justin shouldn’t have said that, because Lily promptly howled, “Oh no! What if he gets in my dad’s nursery?”
Justin rolled his eyes. “He wouldn’t have gone that far. There’s plenty of grass right there on the Old Place.”
“But he’s not there,” Luther moaned.
“So he’s not there!” Justin threw up his hands. “There’s nothing I can do about it.”
“You can help us look for him,” Kate insisted.
Justin’s heart sank. Once again he was getting dragged into something when he already had his hands full. “I can’t. At least, not during the week. I have ball practice every day, and when I get home, I’ve got to study. I can’t be running around looking for a rabbit.”
“What about Saturday?”
“Saturday morning we have our first official game of the season. And in the afternoon—” Justin didn’t say so, but he was hoping he’d do well enough in the game that the others would stop treating him like he didn’t deserve to be there and invite him to hang out with them. If that didn’t work out, he planned to stop by Brad’s, to see if maybe his mother would let him off the leash.
“Ruby told the little kids they could walk to town with us again on Saturday,” Kate explained. “But of course, she’s having lunch with Mr. Jackson, and expects me to walk back with them.” Kate put on her most pleading voice. “Come on, Justin. Can’t you meet us at Miss Tutweiler’s after your game and then come with us to hunt for the rabbit?”
Justin wasn’t fooled by Kate’s show of concern for the rabbit. She hadn’t said a word about not getting to go to Atlanta with them, but he knew she wasn’t all that thrilled about having to stay behind. She’d had to look after the younger kids for four whole days, and now she was faced with another weekend of babysitting. Justin didn’t want babysitting detail any more than Kate, but he did feel that he owed her.
“All right,” Justin sighed. He hoped that if any other members of the team went to town after the game, they wouldn’t see him there surrounded, once again, by a tribe of seven-year-olds. The best way to keep that from happening was to herd them home as quickly as possible.
Brad was back in school, so every lunchtime Justin was able to practice catching his friend’s impossible throws. It paid off. During the Saturday game, he dived to catch a fly, rolled to his feet, and made a perfect throw to pick off a base runner. It earned him a slap on the back from Coach Donovan that almost knocked the breath out of him. He could still feel it as he cycled toward the restaurant, and it felt good. The older guys hadn’t invited him along after the game, but some of them had said things that made him feel, at long last, like he was one of them—or would be before the year was out.
He stopped at a traffic light and leaned on the handlebars, remembering how he’d dived for that ball, knowing before it smacked into his glove that it was his. Far up the block, in front of Miss Tutweiler’s hotel restaurant, he could see Chip, Luther, and Lily sitting on a bench eating ice cream. Actually, Chip and Luther were sitting on the bench and Lily was straddling the back. He didn’t see Kate and Ruby. They were probably inside talking to Miss Tutweiler, who bought most of their gourmet chocolates.
Then Justin saw something that caused his stomach to do a flip-flop. Mr. Grimsted was striding toward the restaurant. Chip, Luther, and Lily, busy trading licks on each other’s ice cream cones, hadn’t even seen him.
In the seconds before the light changed and Justin could get there, Grimsted marched up to the bench and grabbed Chip by the shoulder.
“Don’t think you brats are going to get away with it!” he bellowed. “That goat was worth a damned sight more than seventy-five dollars.”
“Hey! Leave him alone!” Justin yelled, but he was still a good distance away. As loudly as Chip was screeching, Grimsted probably couldn’t hear Justin anyway.
Lily stood up on the bench and jammed her ice cream cone on the top of Grimsted’s head. He gave her a shove and she fell off the bench onto her backside. Lily scrambled to her knees, wrapped herself around his leg, and sank her teeth into his thigh. Grimsted yelped and tried to swat her away, but Luther grabbed his arm and hung on.
“You!” Grimsted tried to shake Luther off. “I saw the back of your kinky head when you dropped that envelope in my mail slot!”
At that moment Ruby and Kate stepped out of Miss Tutweiler’s restaurant. “You low-life!” Ruby shouted. “Are you making racist remarks to my son again?”
Kate snatched her little brother out of Grimsted’s grip and hugged him to her. “Chip! You okay?”
Justin skidded up beside them and was off his bike in a flash. “Pick on somebody your own size!” he yelled, and bent down to help Lily.
The sidewalk was now crowded with passersby who had paused to see what all the commotion was about.
“Mr. Grimsted picks on little children,” Lily said tearfully.
“And abuses animals!” Chip said loudly.
“Keeps them locked in dark garages!” Luther shouted.
“Ah-ha!” Grimsted pointed at Luther. “That just proves—”
“Proves you better leave my kids alone,” Ruby said, getting right in his face the way only she could.
“Kids are my business,” Grimsted said, looking around at the crowd, hoping for some sympathy. “I make ‘em laugh. Good clean entertainment for nice kids. But kids like these—why, they ought to be in reform school!”
Justin finished brushing Lily off and looked up. Kate had her arms protectively around Chip and Luther. Ruby had one long red fingernail just inches from Grimsted’s nose. That was when Miss Tutweiler appeared in the doorway of her restaurant. She patted her white-blonde hair, tilted her powdered nose in the air, and asked in her most ladylike Southern drawl, “Ruby, dear, is this man mo-lesting you-all? You want me to call the po-lice?”
Suddenly Grimsted seemed to realize that everyone was looking at him in a not particularly friendly way. He made a sweeping gesture at the crowd. “Your kids are juvenile delinquents, and you’ve got the dumbest animals I ever saw!” he yelled into the startled faces of total strangers. “If you think I’m going to keep doing business in this hick town, you’re crazy!”
As he stomped away, Justin saw that Lily’s ice cream was still stuck in his hair.