We stashed the motor behind the same log where we’d hidden the wagon. By the time Styx and I got it tucked away, Bobby Gene was already walking toward the house.
Styx left me at the tree line. “Tomorrow we’ll pop it into the lawn mower?” He fidgeted with his hands in his pockets.
“Usual time?”
Styx raised his chin. “Yeah?”
“Sure thing.” Then I ran to catch my brother.
“Hi,” Mom said as we staggered inside. “How was the picnic?”
Bobby Gene walked straight over to Mom and let her hug him. Uh-oh. This was way worse than I thought.
“Where have you been?” Mom patted his head. “You both look filthy.”
“To the moon and back,” I told her.
“Huh,” Mom said. “I thought the astronaut phase was last summer. What happened to your international spy ring?”
“If we told you we’d have to kill you,” I said.
“Right.” Mom zipped her lip with two fingers. “Pretend I never asked. Go change and get washed up for dinner.”
We stood side by side at our sinks, scrubbing our hands. White soap bubbled up, then turned brown from all the train dirt. The water felt good; slipping, sliding away all the things I wanted to forget.
“Caleb—” Bobby Gene began.
“Don’t.” I held up a dripping hand to him.
“It seemed fun at first. But today was pretty scary.”
“Scary COOL,” I said. Now that we were back home, safe, it all felt awesome again. We’d hopped a boxcar like movie-star outlaws. We’d ridden toward the horizon. We were one step closer to the Grasshopper.
Bobby Gene stared pointedly at me. “We stole, Caleb.”
“Styx says we didn’t.”
“And you believe him?”
“Well, yeah. Why shouldn’t I?”
Bobby Gene sighed. “I don’t think we should do this anymore.”
Panic sliced through me. “We have to. We made a deal.”
“We never said we’d lie, cheat, and steal.”
“We haven’t!”
Bobby Gene ticked off his fingers. “We lied to Mom. We cheated Cory. And now we—”
“Stole! Says you. Anyway, we didn’t cheat Cory. We paid him.”
“You know what I mean.”
I whipped the hand towel at him. “We’re about to achieve something awesome. We can’t quit now!”
“How about being honest?”
“How about being fair?” I shot back. “Those fireworks were ours. Everything that comes from them belongs to us.”
“And is our responsibility,” Bobby Gene added.
“Exactly. We have to see it through to the end.”
“Caleb—”
“B.G.”
“Caleb.”
“I’m meeting Styx tomorrow, whether you want to or not!” I was dragon-fierce.
“No way. I’m not letting you go alone.”
“Then I guess you’re coming with me.”
Bobby Gene wrinkled his mouth. He’d backed himself into a corner.
Finally he nodded. “We made a deal. If you insist on holding up our end of it, then I’ll stand by you.” He glared at me. “But no more crazy stunts. No stealing. Nothing dangerous.”
“Sure. Yeah, sure.” I decided not to remind him that riding a moped might be considered a daredevil stunt by some. Like Mom and Dad.
But we could cross that bridge when we came to it.