“I don’t have to play with you if you don’t want me to,” Kim said in a pitiful tone. Timmy felt an ounce of hope but knew his parents, who melted at the sound of her feigned sorrow, would vanquish it.
“Don’t be silly. Timmy would love to play with you, wouldn’t you, Timmy?”
He sighed and studied the scuffed toe of his sneakers. “I guess so.”
“Speak up, son.”
“I guess so,” he repeated, wondering how this summer could possibly get any worse.
His mother went to Kim. With maternal grace, she eased the girl into the kitchen. Timmy felt the color rise in his cheeks and looked away.
“Now see,” his mother said. “Why don’t you both go on outside in the sunshine and see what you can find to do. I bet you’ll get along just fine.”
CHAPTER SIX
They were standing in the yard, Kim with her arms still folded and Timmy watching the bloated white clouds sailing overhead when she said: “I didn’t want to come over here, you know.”
Without looking at her he scoffed. “Then why did you?”
“Your mom called my mom and told her you were bored and lonely and—”
“I wasn’t
“Well, your mom thought you weren’t and asked if I could come over. I told
Timmy gaped at her. “Really?”
She shook her head and he had to restrain the sigh that swelled in his throat.
“So I guess we’ll have to do something for a while at least,” she said. “What do you want to play?”
“Not dolls, anyway. I hate dolls.” He watched a blue jay until it flew behind her. Tracking it any further would have meant looking in her direction and he wasn’t yet ready to do that.
“Me too,” Kim said, startling him, and he looked at her. Briefly.
“I thought
He saw her shrug. “I think they’re dumb.”
“Real dumb.”
“Yeah.”
The silence wasn’t as dreadful as Timmy had thought it would be. For one, she didn’t like dolls and that was a plus. Dolls really were dumb. He hadn’t said it just to annoy her. And at least she
But still, he didn’t like the idea of being seen hanging around with her. No matter how cool she might turn out to be, if anyone at school heard about it they’d say he was in love with her or something and that they were going to have a baby. And that would be bad news.
“Why don’t we go back to the pond?” she asked then, as if reading his thoughts.
Going back to Myers Pond was no more comforting an idea than hanging around with a girl, but at least there no one would see them together.
“I’m not allowed to go back to the pond,” he said, with an ounce of shame. Admitting you were restricted by the same rules as everyone else seemed akin to admitting weakness when you said it to a girl.
“Why not?”
“I’m just not.”
When she said nothing, he gave a dramatic sigh and conceded. “Pete Marshall’s dad thinks there might be some creeps back there or something. He thinks it might be dangerous for kids. My dad doesn’t want me going back there either.”
“Creeps? Like what kind of creeps?”
He almost told her, but caught himself at the last minute and shrugged it off. “Just some strange kids.”
She stared at him for a moment and he struggled not to cringe.
“Like The Turtle Boy?”
Now he looked at her and through the shock of hearing the name he had given Darryl, he realized she wasn’t so ugly and stinky and everything else he associated with the chittering group she swept around the playground with at recess. Her eyes, for one thing, were like sparkling emeralds, and once he peered into them his discomfort evaporated and he had to struggle to look away. Her skin reminded him of his mother’s soap and that conjured a memory of a pleasant clean smell. But still…she was a girl and that made him feel a strange kind of awkwardness.
“What?” she said after a moment.
Eventually he composed himself enough to croak: “You’ve seen him?”
“Yes. He’s awful creepy looking, isn’t he?”
“But…when did
“The first day of summer vacation. My cousin Dale came to visit with his mom and we went fishing back there.” She gave him a shy smile. “I’m not much good at fishing. I lost my bobber.”
Timmy remembered the small red and white ball drifting in the water the day they’d seen Darryl and wondered if it was hers.
“Dale caught a catfish. It was ugly and gross and when he reeled it in, he raised it up in front of my face and tried to get me to kiss it. I ran into the trees and that’s where he was. The Turtle Boy. He stank really bad and looked at me as if I had caught him doing something he shouldn’ta been. I was scared.”
Timmy was confused. “But why do you call him that? Did he tell you that was his name?”
“No. I just… I don’t know. I just remember thinking about it later and that’s the name I gave him.”
“That’s weird. That’s the name
“I guess that is weird.”
“Have you ever seen him around before?”
She shook her head. “Have you?”
“No, but I wish I knew why he was here and where he came from.”
A blur of movement caught his eye and he followed it to a groundhog shimmying his way along the bottom of the yard toward the road. He looked back to Kim. “Did he say anything to you?”
“Yeah.” She swallowed and the same fear that had gripped him when he’d seen Darryl’s ankle was written across her face. It made him feel better somehow to see it. It meant he was no longer alone in his fear. With Pete it wasn’t the same. Pete was afraid to ride his bike on the off chance he might fall and get hurt. He was also afraid of storms and dogs and pretty much anything that moved and had teeth.
“He said: ‘They’re hungry.’”
“When me and Pete saw him he was putting his heel into the water. There was a piece of it missing. He said he was feeding the turtles. What do you suppose it means?”
“There’s only one way to find out,” she said.
“How?”
Kim’s braces segmented her mischievous smile but couldn’t take away the appeal of it. A slight smile crept across Timmy’s lips in response. He got the feeling that even though The Turtle Boy had frightened her, she wasn’t easily deterred from any kind of adventure.
“We have to ask him, of course.”
CHAPTER SEVEN
