14

THE MALL

By the time I got inside the mall there was only one thing on my mind. Call home. But I didn’t have any money. So when no one was looking I ran up to the wishing well and began to scoop all the change out and put it into my hat. It didn’t make me feel good to be stealing other kids’ wishes, but then I thought there must be some nice kid out there who if he knew me would make a wish that I was home with my mom and wouldn’t mind if I used his wish money in the pay phone to make it come true.

After I cleaned out the well I went into the grocery store and handed the cashier my hat full of change. “Can I have quarters for this?” I asked.

She shrugged. “Sure,” she said, and began to count it out. It was mostly pennies and it took her forever.

Once I got the quarters I ran to the pay phone and shoved them all in the slot and dialed the number. As soon as Mom answered I blurted out, “I have to tell you my secret.”

“What, Joey? What’s wrong?”

“I haven’t been taking my medicine and I thought I was normal but I’m not and now I’m like my old self and I’m in trouble with Dad and I’m really scared.”

“Slow down,” she said. “Just take a deep breath and let’s take this one step at a time. I thought you were pitching tonight?”

“I was, but then I lost it.” And I told her as fast as I could what happened and the whole time I was looking left and right just expecting Dad to explode into the store and grab me.

“Joey, now listen to me,” Mom said. “I’ll have to borrow the car and then I’ll come get you. It’s going to take some time to do this so you have to wait for me. Where are you?”

“The North Side Mall,” I said. “Where Steel City Sports is.”

“Well, you wait out front for me,” she said. “I’ll be there as fast as I can, license or not. But you know how long the drive is, so it’ll be a while. Okay?”

“Okay,” I said. And when I hung up I ran outside to the front entrance and hid in one of those fancy hedges that spell out Welcome in cursive. I was all squatted down inside the o like a soldier in a foxhole. I peeked out at every car and person. I was so afraid to see Dad and I was so hoping to see Mom. A long time passed and then I saw her. A car drove by and parked under a light and when the door opened I saw a woman with red hair. I jumped out of my hole and started running across the asphalt. “It’s me, it’s me!” I yelled and waved my arms over my head, but as soon as I got close enough my heart stopped. Because it wasn’t Mom. It was Leezy and there I was running toward her with no place to hide.

“Joey?” she said. “What are you doing here? Your father is looking for you everywhere.”

“My mother’s coming to get me,” I said, hopping from one foot to the next. “You won’t tell Dad, will you?”

“Not right away,” she said. “Although he might be on his way to see me. So hurry into the store. You can hide from him in my office while we figure out what to do.” She held both my hands tightly like they were the reins on a wild horse and we started to run.

“Did we win?” I asked.

“No,” she said. “After you went AWOL they put Virgilio in and he couldn’t hold the lead.”

“Well, I didn’t lose,” I said. “When I left we were ahead.”

“Technically,” she said, “you took the loss. The bases were full when you left, and you were responsible for the runners.”

“Oh,” I said. “I thought Dad could still have a perfect record tattooed on his arm.”

“Well, right now I feel like tattooing J-E-R-K on his forehead.”

I smiled because I was a good speller.

“What happened to you on the mound?” she asked as we entered the mall and slowed down.

“I flipped,” I said. “Dad flushed my medicine down the toilet and I became my old self and just went around the bend.”

“I’ll say,” she said, agreeing. “Your dad’s the same way. Right now he’s gone off the deep end himself. He’s got his ups and downs and I’m sure when he wakes up tomorrow he’s going to hate himself for this—but I’m not going to make any excuses for him. He can tell you himself how he feels. Right now, what can I do to help?”

“I already called my mom,” I said. “She’s on her way from Lancaster.”

Leezy looked at her watch. “I figure that’s about three hours,” she said. “Why don’t you hang out in my office. I have a TV in there and you can watch it, and tell me what kind of car your mom has and I’ll watch for her.”

“Please don’t tell Dad where I am,” I said.

“I won’t unless I have to,” she said, and held me to her with her arms around my back. “We don’t want him calling the police. But no matter, I’ll see to it that he doesn’t come here before your mom arrives. I know how to handle your father.” She made a fist and nicked herself across the jaw. “You gotta fight fire with fire,” she said.

I went into the office and for the next three hours I changed the channel about once every second. I wanted to watch everything and I couldn’t get myself to watch any one thing so I just spun through the channels so fast that I nearly watched them all at once and that seemed to keep me in one spot.

Finally Leezy came in. “Joey,” she said. “Your mom’s out back. Come on.”

I stood up and ran in the direction Leezy pointed. A door was open and I ran out onto a loading dock. Mom was standing in front of the car and I just ran off the edge of the dock and right into her arms and knocked her back against the fender.

“Easy, partner,” she said as I slid down the front of her dress like a cartoon character who had run into a wall.

“You better get going,” Leezy said. “I’m keeping Carter at bay, but you know how unpredictable he can be. And once you guys have gone I’ll call and tell him what’s happened.”

“Thanks,” Mom said.

I turned and waved to Leezy, then hopped up and jumped into the passenger seat. Mom got in and we took off across the parking lot.

“There is a patch in my purse,” she said. “It won’t kick in for a few days, but the sooner we get you started the better.”

I reached in and found it. I ripped open the package and slapped the patch on the back of my arm. She reached over and rubbed the side of my face and it was the best thing I ever felt.

“Who was that woman?” Mom asked.

“Dad’s girlfriend,” I said.

“She must be a saint,” Mom remarked.

“She is,” I said, and I was smiling because she was a saint for me.

“This visit with your dad has been a fiasco,” Mom said, shaking her head.

“It’s not your fault,” I said. “I wanted to see him.”

“And if I didn’t let you see him I thought you’d always blame me for keeping you away. Now you know on your own,” she said.

“But I wanted Dad to work out,” I said quietly. “I wanted the whole family to be together.”

“He blew it again,” she said. “Looks like it’s just you and me.”

“Leezy said he’ll hate himself in the morning,” I said.

I could see in her face that she was going to say something mean. Then she paused, and just looked tired.

“Yeah,” she said. “That’s one of his biggest problems. He always hates himself the next morning.”

“He needs meds,” I said.

“He’s been self-medicated forever,” she replied.

“He needs help,” I said.

“He doesn’t believe in help.”

“He needs me,” I said.

“Sure he does,” she said. “But he’s still too messed up to know it.” And when she said that, the tears started running out of her eyes and her driving got all curvy.

I knew it was my turn to cheer her up. “One thing about Dad,” I said, “is that he is a better driver than you are.”

She started to laugh. “There is a Kleenex in the glove box,” Mom said as we headed toward the highway. I pressed the button and the little door dropped open and hit me on the knee.

“Oh my god!” I shouted. “Pablo is with Grandma back at Dad’s house!”

“Aw, sugar!” Mom hissed and hit the brakes. “Sugar, sugar, sugar! I knew this was too easy.” We slowed down until we could turn around. “Okay,” she said. “We’ll get him.”

“We have to,” I said. “He’s the rest of our family.”

“Then he better start acting like he wants to stick with us. That darn dog is destined to be forgotten. Next time get a bigger dog. This one’s like, out of sight, out of mind, if you know what I mean.”

I did. But I wasn’t getting another dog. “That would be like me saying to you, next time pick a different kid.”

“Well, we couldn’t have that,” she said, and pulled me over to her side. “Nope. I like the one I got right here.”

I was the right kid. And she held me to her side until we pulled up to Dad’s house.

“His car is here,” Mom whispered. “He’s probably waiting for us.”

“Look,” I said, pointing. “Pablo is tied to a leash out front.” I hopped out of the car. I ran over to Pablo, who started yapping like I had come to strangle him instead of save him. My hands were shaking so hard I couldn’t get the clip undone on the leash and he kept prancing from side to side and all I could think about was how I should put a patch on him. I looked up for a moment and saw Grandma pull the curtain to one side and glance out the window. Then she disappeared and I heard her unsnapping the locks on the door and figured Dad would be on me in a second. I pushed Pablo over to his side and pinned him down and got the snap opened and grabbed him and ran to Mom’s car and as we tore down the road I glanced into the side mirror and there was only a tiny image of Grandma standing on the sidewalk. She was waving and at first I thought she was telling me to come back, then I realized she was waving goodbye. I leaned out the window and yelled, “So long! I’ll miss you!” I felt sorry for her because she was stuck there with him, and he wasn’t nice. He wasn’t like me only bigger, as Mom had said. He wasn’t like me at all.

After a minute I looked over at Mom and said, “Do you think he’ll ever really turn himself around?”

Mom’s driving got all curvy again and she pulled the car over on the side of the road. “Family hug,” she said, and put her arms around me and Pablo. She never could do two things at once, which was good, because when it came to hugging me I wanted her all to myself.