“I”d never ditch you, Will — “
“Ditch me in a minute. Well, go on, Jim, just go on leave me because I got my pocket knife and there’s nothing wrong with me sitting under a tree playing mumblety-peg while you get yourself plain crazy with the heat of all those horses racing around, but thank God they’re not racing any more — “
“And it’s your fault!” cried Jim. He stopped.
Will stiffened and made fists. “You mean I should’ve let young mean-and-terrible get old mean-and-terrible enough to chew our heads off? Just let him ride around and hock his spit in our eye? and maybe you with him, waving good-bye, going around again, waving so long! and all I got to do is wave back, Jim, that what you mean?”
“Sh,” said Jim. “Like you say, it’s too late. The carousel’s broke — “
“And when it’s fixed, they ride old horrible Cooger back, make him young enough so he can speak and remember our names, and then they come like cannibals after us, or just me, if you want to get in good with them and go tell them my name and where I live — “
“I wouldn’t do that, Will.” Jim touched him.
“Oh, Jim, Jim, you do see, don’t you? Everything in its time, like the preacher said only last month, everything one by one, not two by two, will you remember?”
“Everything, “ said Jim, “in its time…”
And then they heard voices from the police station. In one of the rooms to the right of the entrance, a woman was talking now, and men were talking.
Will nodded to Jim and they ran quietly over to pick their way through bushes and look into the room.
There sat Miss Foley. There sat Will’s father.
“I don’t understand,” said Miss Foley. “To think Will and Jim would break in my house, steal, run off — “
“You saw their faces?” asked Mr Halloway.
“When I screamed, they looked back under the light.” She’s not mentioning the nephew, thought Will. And she won’t, of course.
You see, Jim, he wanted to shout, it was a trap! The nephew waited for us to come prowling. He wanted to get us in so much trouble, no matter what we said to anybody, police, parents, that nobody”d listen to us about carnivals, late hours, merry-go-rounds, because our word”d be no good!
“I don’t want to prosecute,” said Miss Foley. “But if they are innocent, where are the boys?”
“Here!” someone cried.
“Will!” said Jim.
Too late.
For Will had jumped high and was scrambling through the window.
“Here,” he said, simply, as he touched the floor.
27
They walked home quietly on the moon-coloured sidewalks, Mr Halloway between the boys. When they reached home, Will’s father sighed.
“Jim, I don’t see any reason to tear your mother to bits at this hour. If you promise to tell her this whole thing at breakfast, I’ll let you off. Can you get in without waking her up?”
“Sure. Look what we got.”
“We?”
Jim nodded and took them over to fumble among the clusters of thick moss and leaves on the side of the house until they found the iron rungs they had secretly nailed and placed to make a hidden ladder up to Jim’s room. Mr Halloway laughed, once, almost with pain, and a strange wild sadness shook his head.
“How long has this gone on? No, don’t tell. I did it, too, your age.” He looked up the ivy toward Jim’s window. “Fun being out late, free as all hell.” He caught himself. “You don’t stay out too long — ?”
“This week was the very first time after midnight.”
Dad pondered a moment. “Having permission would spoil everything, I suppose? It’s sneaking out to the lake, the graveyard, the rail tracks, the peach orchards summer nights that counts…”
“Gosh, Mr Halloway, did you once — “
“Yes. But don’t let the women know I told you. Up.” He motioned. “And don’t come out again any night for the next month.”
“Yes, sir!”
Jim swung monkeywise to the stars, flashed through his window, shut it, drew the shade.