“Yes,” he said simply.
Every summer our family got a house in Cape May, New Jersey (don’t think about Cape May being gone), for a week. My mom grew up there so we’d eat like kings at all the local restaurants (don’t think about Jaime’s Waffle Stop being gone) since she knew all the locals (don’t think about Jaime). But since my brother and I weren’t really beach types, we’d mostly play Monopoly (Monopoly, safe to think about).
We spent maybe an hour making our own little game-room area. We pushed aside the fallen boxes to clear a space. Then we brought over a card table from the Home Department. We took a mini-fridge and stocked it with sodas. We got a bunch of chips and snacks and what have you. We even draped some beach towels over the aisle dividers to give our game room a beachy feel.
Somewhere around early afternoon, Niko came and found us. He didn’t say anything, just took a look at what we were doing. We stopped and looked at him. His eyes revealed nothing, which was no surprise. After a moment, he turned and walked away.
It’s hard to believe you can spend a whole day playing Monopoly, but of course, you can.
My brother and I had very different strategies. I bought everything I could. My brother only ever bought the railroads, the utilities, and the light-blue properties (Vermont, Connecticut, and Oriental Avenues).
The problems with his strategy, in my opinion, were many. First of all, it was incredibly annoying to play against him. Second, it seemed like it had to be insanely boring for him. Third, it felt like his strategy to only buy the light-blue properties was really shortsighted and somewhat stupid but he would always land on them. I mean, of the maybe fifty games we’d play each summer, I’d only get the chance to buy a light blue maybe three times. But the biggest problem about his inane strategy was that he’d often win.
For example, he won the first game.
I got him on the second, however, when he hit my hotel on New York.
Game three, our big tiebreaker, was ended prematurely by the smell of pizza.
It smelled delicious and I sort of jumped up.
It had occurred to me that maybe Astrid was feeling better and had made us all lunch.
“When we come back, I’m going to destroy you,” Alex said.
“Yes, sir, Mr. Water Works.”
It was only Niko, though. He had figured out how to run the Pizza Shack ovens. He had cooked a bunch of pizzas and lined them all up on the counter.
The smells had not only drawn us—all of the little kids were there, and so were Jake, Brayden, and Sahalia.
Jake, Brayden, and Sahalia were sprawled out in one of the bigger booths. There was something in the way they were slouching and the way the little kids were looking at them that made me know immediately what was wrong.
They were drunk.
They had three big slushies in front of them and, as I watched, Jake took out a hip flask of some kind of alcohol and poured a shot into his cup.
Sahalia giggled and leaned across Brayden, putting her straw into Jake’s cup.
“Hey, girl, keep your straw to yourself!” Jake half shouted, smiling.
“It’s just a little sip,” she crooned.
“No, no,” Jake said. “It’s the last straw!”
They thought this was hilarious.
Max and Ulysses also laughed, in that dumb way kids laugh when grown-ups do, just to be in on it.
Niko looked at me and Alex pointedly.
“Dinner’s up,” Niko said. “Everyone come up and help yourselves.”
“You heard him!” Jake said with a grin. “Chop, chop! Everyone get up there!”
“Brave Hunter Man has spoken,” Brayden said.
“You’re not the boss, you know,” Sahalia said to Niko with a roll of her eyes.
“Can it, Sasha,” Jake said.
A nickname. Awesome. The senior had given the sexy thirteen-year-old a pet name.
“Come on, guys.” I tried to break it up. “The pizza’s hot. Let’s eat.”
Everyone sort of ambled up into a line for the food.
“I’m not eating sausage,” Max protested. “My mom says sausage is made of pig bottoms.”
“Your mom, your mom, your mom,” Sahalia mocked. “You little kids are always talking about your moms! Enough already with the moms. They’re not here and they’re not coming anytime soon!”
This was a dumb thing to say and she didn’t even notice.
The twins started to cry and Ulysses was right behind them with his jelly-bean tears.
Niko stepped in front of the counter and addressed the group, trying to get things back on line.
“I’ve been thinking,” he said. “With Jake’s permission, I have a plan for us to get some structure in place here.”
“‘With Jake’s permission,’ that’s bull,” Brayden said, his voice too loud. “You want to take over.”
“I don’t want to take over. But I do think we need some clear plans—”
“You know what, Niko?” Jake said. “I know you have good intentions, but we just, like, went through a terrible thing, you know? The world outside is a total disaster and we don’t know what’s going to happen. I think we deserve a little break. A little chance to just like, relax and, like, chill out and even enjoy what we got here. Let’s hang for a while. I mean, truly, honestly, what’s the harm?”
“We’re going to fall apart,” Niko said calmly.
Jake threw up his hands and took an unsteady step back as Brayden pushed forward.
“Screw you, Niko!” Brayden said. “We don’t want be told what to do by some freakish outcast!”
Brayden pushed Niko and Niko stepped back.
“I don’t want to fight,” Niko said.
“No, you just want us to take your orders. Like you even know what you’re doing!”
Brayden pushed Niko again. Now Niko was backed against the counter. Niko tried to step away but slipped on a paper plate someone left on the ground and fell.
Niko scrambled to his feet but Brayden pushed him down again.
“Stop it!” Alex shouted.
The kids started to totally lose it, screaming and screeching in alarm, like a pack of monkeys.
“Cut it out, Brayden,” Jake said.
Brayden was standing over Niko.
“What? You don’t fight? You too ‘Zen master’? You too ‘Brave Hunter Man’? What is it with you?”
“I just want to be prepared,” Niko said. “So that—”
“Oh my God!” Brayden yelled. “Oh my G-A-double dog-D, I just got it.” He looked triumphant. Menacing and victorious. “You’re a Boy Scout! A Boy Scout! Aren’t you?”
Niko shrugged. Brushed his hair out of his eyes.
“Yes. I am a Boy Scout,” Niko said.
Brayden doubled over in violent laughter.
Jake chuckled, too, and the little kids started laughing, mostly, I think, to relieve the tension that was building.
“‘Be prepared,’ that’s your motto. A friggin’ Boy Scout. He wants us to take direction from a friggin’ Boy Scout.”
“I don’t know what’s so funny about it,” Niko said.
The little kids were laughing on, oblivious, as Niko went red around the ears.
“I’m glad Niko has Scout training,” I said loudly. “If he didn’t, I’d have died on the bus. He pulled me out of there. I’m glad he’s a Scout.”
“No one cares what you think, Geraldine,” Brayden snarled.
