Socko and Livvy lay on their stomachs at the edge of the empty pool. The early morning sun cast a sharp shadow across the floor of the blue concrete hole.
“That is one huge rat!” Livvy breathed.
Socko took his eyes off the animal and stared at her—she had to be kidding. It was definitely an opossum. Even living in the city all his life, he knew that.
The opossum rambled to the deep end of the pool, tried to scrabble up the wall, then slid back down. “It’ll never get out that way,” said Livvy. The opossum lay quiet for a few seconds. “You think there’s something wrong with it?”
“Maybe it’s overheated or something.” The animal tottered to its feet, then stumbled out of the shadow. In the sunlight its fur had a greasy shine.
“Did you see rats that big when you lived in the city?”
She wasn’t kidding; she really thought it was a rat. Socko decided to string her along. “Oh yeah, we had ’em that size and bigger. Not in our apartment, but around the Dumpsters and stuff.” He didn’t want her to think they’d had rats personally. But even though Delia had kept their place clean, rats came in now and then from other apartments. Sometimes he’d wake up to the snap of a springing trap, followed by the scream of a rat that was only half-dead—another thing he’d never tell Livvy about.
“I’ve seen rats at the pet store.” Livvy rested her chin on her folded arms. “But they weren’t this big, and they were cuter.”
He wished Damien were here. Damien knew how to take a story right up to the edge. “This is a different species. Ratus giganticus.”
Livvy looked suspicious. He kept a straight face. Ratus giganticus walked into a side wall, then shook itself.
She knelt up. “I guess you’ll have to teach me to skate somewhere else.”
“We can’t just walk away and leave him in there.”
Her nose wrinkled. “I don’t know, Socko. It might be rabid.”
The opossum yawned, showing off sharp yellow teeth.
“But if we don’t help it get out, it’ll starve or die of thirst.”
“You’re right.” Livvy dug for the cell in her pocket. “Let’s call someone.”
“Who? The rat suicide helpline?” Socko jumped into the pool, the smack of his sneaker soles reverberating off the pool walls. The opossum whirled around to face him. Socko held out his hands. “It’s okay, man, it’s okay.” The opossum puffed up until every hair stood on end. Socko was within three feet when its mouth gaped and it let out a hiss.
Socko fell back a step.
“Give it up, Socko. It’s not worth getting bitten!”
Socko didn’t want to get bitten, but he didn’t want to give up either. “Wait. Genius idea.” He ran at the short wall and vaulted out of the pool. “I’ll throw something over it.”
They found a dusty blue tarp near one of the heaps of dead trees.
“How are you going to do this?” she asked.
“You know, toss it over him and wrap him up.” He and Damien had never been much into planning. They got an idea and they did it.
“What if it runs out from under the tarp and bites you?”
“I won’t get bit!” Socko jumped back into the pool and held the tarp out in front of him. Advancing inch by inch, he tried not to step on the plastic or rattle it. Unexpected sounds seemed to incense the opossum.
Although it was hissing and flashing its yellow teeth, he noticed that the animal was backing steadily toward the wall at the deep end. Socko began to feel sorry for it. “Hey, I’m not trying to mess with you. I just wanna get you outta here.”
Livvy danced along the edge of the pool, following the action. “Don’t let it squinch itself up against the wall! You won’t be able to get the tarp over it. Socko, it’s about to squinch!”
“Go over there and make a loud noise. Scare him my way.”
Livvy dashed to the edge at the deep end. “Happy birthday to you!” Her thin, high-pitched voice cut through the air. Socko wished he could cover his ears. And he wasn’t the only one. “Happy birthday to you!” Her singing enraged Ratus giganticus so much, it charged.
No time to think, Socko flung the tarp over the opossum and fell on it. Hoping he hadn’t landed on it too hard, he knelt, bunched the blue plastic around the animal, and picked it up.
“Good work!” Livvy reached out. “Pass him to me.” Her blonde hair riffled in the wind, brushing his arm as he handed up the heavy bundle of crumpled tarp. Walking to the shallow end to climb out, he could feel the place where her hair had touched him.
By the time he reached her, the way-to-go look in her eyes was gone. She stared up at him through her bangs. “He isn’t moving, Socko. At all.”
It’s playing possum, Socko thought. This is so cool! “I forgot. The bigger species of rats have weak hearts.”
“You mean you killed him?”
“Guess we’d better check.”
While he scouted for a good place to lay down the opossum, Livvy followed him anxiously. “If he’s alive, he’s got to be suffocating inside this tarp!”
Socko wanted the opossum to wake up someplace where he’d feel at home. But when it came to natural habitats, there weren’t many choices around here. He settled for a spot near one of the heaps of bulldozed trees. Wildlife liked brush piles, and this was a brush pile on steroids.
Livvy set down the bundle and stepped back. “You do it.”
When Socko unwrapped the animal, it lay on its side, paws curled against its chest. Saliva foamed in its open mouth.
Livvy dropped to her knees. “It looks really dead.”
“It can’t be!” Socko’s knees hit the ground too. “It isn’t bleeding or anything.” He’d seen plenty of dead animals on nature shows dangling from the jaws of a big cat or a bear; he’d seen Frankie dead in the alley behind the Kludge. There was always blood.
“You fell on it pretty hard.”
He shoved his hands into his pockets. His first encounter with a wild animal and he’d killed it.
“Oh, gag!” Livvy slapped a hand over her nose and mouth. “Can dead things rot that fast?”
But for Socko the sudden putrid smell was good news—make that great news. He knew that to put off predators, opossums could emit a rotten smell.
“I know you didn’t mean to kill it, Socko, and it’s only a giant rat, but ten minutes ago it was alive,” Livvy said softly. “Sad. You think we should bury it?”
Socko saw a paw twitch. “Hey, watch this.” He held his open hands over the dead rat. “Rise!” he commanded.
The word had barely left his lips when the possum yawned and scrabbled to its feet. After giving its stiff fur a shake, it turned its back on the pile of dead trees and ambled slowly away into the scraped landscape.
“Socko! What—what just happened?” Livvy sounded suspicious.
He shrugged. “A miracle.”
He could tell she knew he had tricked her somehow, but she hadn’t figured it out yet.
“I don’t want to learn to skate anymore,” she said.
“Fine.” It had gotten too hot for skating in the pool anyway, and he hadn’t wanted to teach her to skate in the first place. They went back to his house, where Livvy told the General all about the “giant rat.”
The old man listened intently. “Sounds more like a possum to me.”
Socko reached into the refrigerator to grab the milk. “Yeah, it was.”
“Wait! It was an opossum, and you knew it all along?” Livvy asked.
“Well, yeah.”
“Socko! That was a mean trick! Thanks a lot for making me look stupid.”
“You were stupid. Who doesn’t know the difference between a rat and a possum?”
Livvy turned and flew out the front door, slamming it hard behind her.
Through the window, Socko and the General watched her surge across the street. “Definitely not a limp noodle,” said his great-grandfather.
Socko didn’t get it. If he’d tricked Damien, his friend would’ve said, “Good one!” and then gotten him back for it later. And who cared about looking stupid? He looked stupid all the time.