Edenville Owls

Chapter 44

All day Monday and Tuesday I walked around with a sinking feeling in the middle of my stomach, like you get sometimes going down in an elevator. In class, I thought Miss Delaney seemed a little tired, but maybe it was just me. Nobody else seemed to notice.

On Wednesday after school, all of us, Joanie too, rode our bicycles up to Searsville. We stopped and huddled up just before we got there, at a bend in the road, out of sight, about a hundred yards from the church and meetinghouse.

“What if he’s got a gun or something?” Russell said.

“He can’t shoot us all,” I said.

“He can if we all go in,” Russell said.

“I’ll go in,” I said.

“And me,” Joanie said.

Everyone looked at her. And at me. You couldn’t expect a girl to go in. But she wanted to. She’d snuck in upstairs at Miss Delaney’s house with me. The truth was, I felt safer with her along. I didn’t know why. She couldn’t do anything if Tupper did have a gun.

“Okay,” I said. “Me and Joanie will go in. The rest of you will string out along the road. Russell will be right at the turn where he can see and hear what’s going on. Then down the road farther, but where he can still see Russell, will be Nick, and farther down will be Manny and farther will be Billy. Anything happens, you can signal each other and take off for the cops... You all know where the police station is in Searsville?”

They all did.

“Anything happens... any gunshots... or you get a signal from me or Joanie or Russell, you know. All of you ride like hell for the station. Don’t wait for me, or Joanie, or each other. All of you ride for the cops, whoever gets there first...”

They took their positions.

Joanie and I went on around the bend and into the gravel yard. There were no cars there. The door to the meetinghouse was half-open. We stood for a minute and listened. We didn’t hear anything. We walked to the meetinghouse door.

“Stay outside,” I said to Joanie, “so Russell can see you.”

She nodded. Her face was pale and tight. Her eyes seemed even bigger than usual.

With a big clenched lump in the middle of my stomach, I pushed open the door and peeked in. Nothing. I went in. Nothing. No movement. No sound. I walked around the room. The folding chairs were stacked where we had stacked them before we had left on Sunday. The big flag with the cross on it was gone. I went back out.

“Nobody there,” I said to Joanie.

She nodded. We walked to the church. She stayed out. I went in. Silence. Emptiness. Nothing. I went back out and shook my head. Both of us looked at the space where the shiny new trailer had been. It was gone. Joanie looked at me and smiled. I nodded.

“Gone,” I said.

My knees felt a little shaky. So did my stomach.

“Gone with the wind,” Joanie said.

She patted my shoulder.

“You did it, Bobby,” she said. “You won.”

I nodded. Then we got on our bikes and collected the rest of the Owls. Russell fell in with us as we passed him.

“Gone,” I said.

Russell grinned and nodded.

Then Nick, then Manny, then Billy.

“Gone,” I said each time. “Gone. Gone.”

Together we formed a small close column, three rows of two. And rode to Edenville. In front of Miss Delaney’s house we parked our bikes in a semicircle. I got off and walked to her door and rang the bell. In a moment I could hear her walking down the stairs.

She opened the door. Her face tightened up when she saw me, and past me to the other five on their bikes. “He’s gone,” I said.

She stepped out onto the little porch.

“Excuse me, Bobby?”

“Mr. Tupper is gone. We had a... a kind of meeting with him and told him if he didn’t leave here and leave you alone, we’d tell the army where he was.”

“Jesus, Mary, and Joseph,” Miss Delaney said.

“He seemed kind of crazy about it,” I said. “But there was six of us and he couldn’t catch any of us, and... he’s gone.”

“You’re sure?”

“Meeting hall’s empty, church is empty, house trailer’s gone, car is gone,” I said. “He’s gone.”

She sat down all of a sudden on the front step, with her skirt tucked under her, and hugged her knees and began to rock a little.

“My God,” she said. “Oh my God.”

I didn’t know what to do. I patted her shoulder and she put her hand up and placed it on mine and kept rocking and saying, “Oh my God.”

Behind me, Joanie said, “Come on, Bobby.”

I looked back. Joanie jerked her head at me. I nodded and slipped my hand out from under Miss Delaney’s.

“We’ll talk later, Miss Delaney, just remember everything’s all right now.”

She nodded and began to cry. I went back to my bike and all of us rode away.

Nobody said anything for a time until Russell broke the silence.

“Think we’ll all get A’s in English?” Russell said.

“Except you,” I said.

“I’d get one anyway,” Russell said.

“Now all we got to do is win the state tourney,” Nick said.

“Piece of cake,” I said.