Of course, Dean usually had to work some kind of tradeoff and give Calgary something he wanted. Most of the time what Calgary wanted was easy enough, getting shown a wrestling hold he’d seen Dean use in phys ed, stories about some of the things Dean had seen while traveling with his dad, Krysty and the others and sometimes just to hold one of the knives Jak Lauren had left with him.
What Calgary had wanted for helping with the frog-dissection test had been different. At first the boy had been kind of cagey about telling Dean what he wanted. He’d helped Dean track frogs in the little creeks around the vegetable acreage, nail them to boards they salvaged from the carpentry shop, then cut them open and name all the parts.
Dean had seen the insides of lots of things, living and dead, but he’d never thought about naming what was in there. On a frog, as with most things, there were parts he’d eat and parts he wouldn’t eat. Sometimes, when things had gotten really desperate for the group, there’d even been parts that he’d rather not have eaten but did anyway.
Almost a dozen slow and luckless frogs came and went, some in more pieces than others as Dean got better at naming the parts and got better at cutting really carefully, and Calgary still didn’t say what he wanted in exchange.
Dean had even asked, as if he were just curious.
Calgary hadn’t said.
Then the test came and went.
Dean asked again, telling him he didn’t know why he was keeping all closemouthed about it Calgary said to wait.
Last week the test results had come in. And though Dean didn’t figure himself a scholar, and biology wasn’t all that interesting anyway, he’d made an A on the test. He was proud, but at the same time he knew Calgary would be figuring Dean owed him big.
Of course, Calgary had. And when he’d told Dean what he wanted, down in the root cellar of the school putting away canned vegetables on their rotation, Dean had had to ask him to repeat himself.
“Phaedra Lemon,” Calgary had said, “sleeps in the nude. I have it on good authority from some of the girls I know.”
Dean hadn’t thought it was a big deal. Nudity was just something that happened to folks when they didn’t have their clothes on. He couldn’t see why Calgary would be so interested in seeing a naked girl.
“Because,” Calgary had informed him in a strained voice, “I’ve never seen one.”
“Oh,” Dean had said. Evidently Mr. Ventnor was really strict, because Leadville had gaudies where a woman could be seen naked for very little jack.
Since the quest to discover whether Phaedra Lemon really slept in the altogether involved some subterfuge and breaking of school rules, Dean’s interest had been piqued. And he’d made the plan that had brought them here tonight.
“Keep your head down,” Dean admonished the boy, “and follow me.”
Calgary grabbed Dean’s ankle. “I’ve changed my mind.”
Dean couldn’t believe it. “What?”
“I don’t want to go.” Calgary sucked on his teeth and couldn’t meet Dean’s eyes.
“It’s all you’ve talked about for a week.”
“I no longer think this is a good idea.”
Dean had noticed whenever Calgary got stubborn, his diction improved. “Fine. Suit yourself. Now that I’m out here, I think I’m going to go have a peek.”
Calgary grabbed his arm. “You can’t do that!”
“Why not?”
For a moment the boy seemed stumped. “Why, because I don’t wish for you to.”
Dean shook his head. “I’ll be double-damned for a mutie stupe if I’ve made this trip all for nothing.”
“You just want to look at her,” Calgary accused.
“No.” But Dean knew it might be true. In order to set up tonight’s little foray, he’d had to find out which one of the girls’ dormitories Phaedra Lemon was in, which part of that building she bunked in andfinallywhat she actually looked like. It wouldn’t have been good at all to go creeping around in the wrong girl’s bedroom.
And he especially didn’t want to end up in Edna Royerer’s bedroom by ill luck. The old dormitory supervisor, it was said, had a habit of sleeping on a shotgun loaded with salt rock.