“Yeah. Do you know why?”
“He was supposed to take me to Seattle to go to the big zoo. Now he says he can’t.” She sniffed. “Have you ever been to that zoo?”
“No.”
“Me neither. Mom said there are zebras and giraffes and gorillas. And you can watch penguins swim in a pool.”
I thought for a second. “Well, if your dad can’t take you, I will. It’s only five years until I can drive. I bet Grandad will let me borrow the truck and we’ll go, just you and me.”
She smiled a little. That made me feel better. And made me want to make her smile more.
I dug in my pocket, wondering if I had anything left from our last trip to the Sugar Shack for snacks. My fingers found a few empty wrappers, but I still had one stick of gum.
“Here.” I held it out to her. “It’s my last piece. Want it?”
She smiled again and took it. “Thanks. Let’s split it.”
Without waiting for me to answer, she opened the gum and ripped the pink strip in half. She handed one side to me and popped the other in her mouth.
Gum could fix a lot of things.
The air beneath the comforter was getting hot and stifling with two of us under here. I tossed it aside and hopped off the bed.
“Come on. Let’s go.”
She sat up and wiped her eyes. “Where?”
“Outside.”
I reached for her hand and helped her slide off the bed. Smacking our gum, we ran downstairs and out the back door.
Her dad’s voice boomed out front and she flinched. My first thought was to get her away from the arguing, but he made me so mad. He was supposed to take her to the zoo, and instead he’d made her cry. He was such a dumb jerk.
I grabbed her hand and led her around the side of the house, heading for the front.
“Where are we going?” she whispered.
“I have an idea.”
We stopped next to the porch and crouched low so they couldn’t see us. Miss Naomi had her hands on her hips and she looked mad. Scary mad. It wasn’t good when Grace’s mom made that face. It meant you were in big trouble.
Her dad had his back to us and his arms were crossed. But more importantly, his car was parked close by.
I took the gum out of my mouth and held out my hand. “Give me your gum.”
“But it still has flavor.”
I grinned. “Trust me. I have an idea.”
As if she could read my mind—and sometimes I figured she could—she smiled back and handed me her chewed-up gum. “Do it.”
I mushed our two pieces of gum together and watched Miss Naomi. I’d have to make a run for it and hope she didn’t see me.
“Don’t get caught,” Grace whispered.
“I won’t. But if I do, just run. I won’t tell them you were here.”
Staying low, I darted toward the car. The grown-ups kept arguing. I stretched the sticky wad of gum so it would cover more area and stuck it to the driver’s side door handle, right where he’d grab it.
Grace clapped her hand over her mouth to keep from giggling out loud as I ran back to her.
“Let’s go.”
Grabbing each other’s hands, we made a run for it, dashing for the creek. By the time we splashed through the water, Grace wasn’t crying anymore. Her blond hair streamed behind her and she smiled big.
She made me feel kind of funny when she did that.
We kept going until the sound of her parents fighting faded behind us. Narrow pine trees replaced the grass and gardens that grew in our yards, their needles covering the ground. This was still our territory, although we had to be careful not to go too far. There were bears in the hills, and coyotes and who knew what else. I was pretty sure I could keep a coyote from hurting Grace, but I didn’t want to come face to face with a bear.
Plus, if we couldn’t hear Gram calling us in for dinner, we’d get in trouble. I was already going to get it for the gum on Mr. Miles’ car, but I didn’t care. It was worth it.
We stopped when we got to a tall maple. It was a great climbing tree. Grace went up first, nimbly scaling the low branches. She was the best tree climber in Tilikum. She wasn’t scared to go up really high. That wasn’t the main reason she was my best friend, but it was one of them.
I followed and scooted out onto a thick branch to sit beside her. I had a fresh scrape on my leg, probably from the bark, but it wasn’t bleeding and it only stung a little, so I ignored it.
Our legs dangled high above the ground. It felt like nothing could get us up here. Nothing could hurt us. It was me and Grace against the world.