The Wild Things

CHAPTER XXII

There was a good deal more rumpusing done over the course of the night, all the way until the night paled into dawn and dawn tipped toward morning.

Max was becoming tired, at last, when he saw Katherine, the one who had given him the knowing smirk. She was alone, observing the mayhem from afar. Max watched her as she took everything in, processing it, a bit dismissively.

Then Max did the obvious thing: he ran up a tilted tree-trunk until he was above her, and then jumped onto her back, growling like a wolf.

Surprised, she stumbled back and fell to the ground, giggling. “I’m eating you for breakfast!” he yelled, as he pretended her stomach was oatmeal and his thumb was a spoon.

“Okay, okay,” she sighed. “Just don’t use any spices. I’m good enough as is.”

This made Max laugh, and it caused in Katherine a full-throated laugh, and the laughing aroused the attention of the rest of the beasts.

“Get over there and be social,” Judith said, pushing Alexander directly onto Max and Katherine.

Now Max was on top of Katherine, and Alexander was on top of both of them, and because there seemed to be a pile in progress, Carol came running over and jumped atop them all. Seeing where this was going, Max ducked into the pile and found a safe pocket and covered his head. Judith soon jumped aboard, and Ira followed, and finally Douglas and the Bull. Each landing shook the earth.

When they had all arrived, Max found himself in a hollow at the bottom of the pile. It was dark and furry there, but he could imagine the look of the scrum from outside — probably twelve thousand pounds of hairy flesh, piled thirty feet high.

Groans and jokes ricocheted within.

“Somebody’s leg is in my armpit.”

“Who’s drooling?”

“Drool? I thought that was ear-juice.”

“Is someone tickling?”

“Carol, that’s not funny. Don’t.”

“It is ear-juice. But it doesn’t taste like mine.”

The assemblage of bodies had created a network of Max-sized tunnels, so he began to crawl through. As he did, he felt like tickling everyone, so he did this, which turned up the volume on the laughing. It was deep, rumbling laughter, big vibrating laughter that shook the walls of the tunnels, changing them, and suddenly Max’s leg was trapped under a pile of flab and fur. He pulled at it, to no avail. He began to get claustrophobic and more than a little nervous.

In the wall of bodies, a head suddenly turned, and a pair of huge eyes opened, like two headlights coming alive. Max looked up. It was Katherine.

“Hey,” she said.

“Hey,” Max said.

“Are you all right?”

“My foot’s stuck.”

With her free arm, she pushed someone’s blubber off and reclaimed his foot for him.

“Now you owe me,” she said.

“Okay,” he said. He liked the idea of owing her.

She looked at Max, grinning for a moment. “Wow, I can’t even look at you.”

She closed her eyes tightly.

“Why?” Max asked.

Her eyes remained closed, a wide smile on her face. “I don’t know. I guess you just seem good.”

“What do you mean?” he asked.

She opened one eye, just a sliver.

“Yeah, wow. It’s almost unbearable.”

Max didn’t know what to say. Katherine opened her other eye just a bit now. “I’m getting used to it now,” she said, squinting. “But it’s like staring into the brightest light.”

Max smiled. Was there something new about him that she was seeing? His stomach was shooting all over, splitting, oozing down his legs — he liked this creature, her bright eyes and raspy voice, so much that he couldn’t control his interior.

“So why’d you come here?” she asked.

Max cleared his throat and thought of how he would explain it. “Well, I’m an explorer,” he answered, trying to sound professional. “I explore.”

“Oh, so no home or family?”

“No. Well. I mean …” This was a tough question, when Max really thought about it. What had become of his family? It seemed like months since he’d seen them. He tried to explain: “Well, I had a family but I—”

“You ate them?” she blurted, very excited.

“No!” Max gasped.

Katherine quickly backed away from her assumption. “Of course not! Who would do that?”

Max shrugged.

“So what did happen?” she asked.

Max wasn’t sure how to explain what had happened. “I don’t know,” he started. “I did something. I mean, I think I did stuff to make them not like me anymore.”

“So you left,” she said, matter of factly. “That makes sense. Will you go back?”

“No. I can’t,” he said. “I caused permanent damage.”

Katherine nodded gravely. “Permanent damage. Wow, that sounds serious.” Just as quickly, she brightened into a bigger, toothier smile than before. “Well, now you’re our king. Maybe you’ll do a good job here.”

Max really believed he could. “Yeah, I will,” he said.

Just then, a body on top of Katherine shifted and seemed to put extra pressure on her head. She looked pained, her expression changing from a sleepy smile to one of great contortion.

“You okay?” Max said.

“Yeah, I’m used to that kind of thing,” she said. “Well, good night,” Katherine said, though her face was still squashed.

“Night,” someone else said.

The beasts began to bid each other good night, and this turned into a hubbub of talk about the best parts of the rumpus.

Ira laughed. “Remember when we threw you, Judith? You were so beautiful.”

“I’m most beautiful flying through the air, is that what you’re saying? Was I beautiful when my head hit the rock?” She shrieked suddenly. “Hey, who’s tickling?”

Ira got it next. “Yow! I think it’s Carol. Is that you, Carol?”

Carol laughed. “Who, me? I would never—”

Judith snorted. “You haven’t tickled in years, Carol. Is this the influence of the new king? Do we have more tickling to look forward to?”

“I told you, it’s not me!” he said.

Then Judith shrieked again.

“Not there, Carol! I’m feeling vulnerable! No!”

As the rest of the pile calmed down and began to sleep and snore, Max crawled out of the pile-on to find fresh air. He settled on the edge of the fur mountain, putting his head on someone’s leg. The sky was just beginning to change, the world pulsing in the gauzy pink light of dawn. There was debris everywhere, like a landscape after an earthquake, and Max felt very much at home.