Jimmy want to yell like Tarzan.
'That ain't my sister!' Todd said. His voice trembled. 'She weighs too much! She weighs eight pounds!'
'But, God, it's a big kite,' Jimmy said.
Jasmine began to cry with Kyle.
'A baby weighs too much!' Todd said.
The wail of an infant came down from the sky.
Todd bumped against the rod and reel, and the baby flailed in the eagle's claws.
'She's still squirming!' Kyle cried.
The wail came again.
Todd yanked the rod and reel from the ground. As the kite started to pull him forward, he cranked the reel frantically.
Far up, the line snapped and floated toward earth in a squiggle. Kyle and Jasmine screamed. The kite shot northward, and the baby jerked.
Todd made a noise that was part moan, part whimper. He dropped the rod and ran across the field.
The wailing from above continued.
Kyle and Jasmine started to run too, but Jimmy caught them each by an arm. 'There's nothing you can do,' he said.
Todd reached the Potwin road and ran north down the middle of the pavement. Jimmy watched him shrink.
The wailing became weaker, and weaker, and stopped.
The kite vanished behind Clay Hill.
Jasmine kicked Jimmy in the leg. 'I hate you,' she said. 'You put Doll-Baby on your stupid kite.'
'That was a
'Doll-Baby's a real baby,' Jasmine said indignantly.
Jimmy released their arms and picked up his fishing rod. He brushed dirt from the reel. 'I'll find Doll-Baby for you now,' he said.
'Liar.'
He began to reel in the line. 'I said I'll find her. You don't even have to help.' He looked at Kyle. 'And you don't have to feel bad. I'm sure that baby wasn't real.'
'It was crying.'
'It was fake. I saw the men put a tape recorder in its stomach.'
'Oh,' Kyle said.
The broken end of the line reached the tip of the rod, and Jimmy stopped cranking. 'Mom was going to make oatmeal cookies,' he said. 'I bet if you guys went to our house, you could get some. I'll stay here to look for Doll-Baby.'
'I'm not supposed to go home by myself,' Jasmine said.
'Kyle'll go too.'
Kyle tugged Jasmine's arm. 'Come on,' he said. 'Cookies.'
Jasmine allowed herself to be dragged along, but she glared back at Jimmy. 'I still hate you.'
'Big deal,' Jimmy said.
He watched to make sure they crossed the Potwin road safely, and then he looked north. Todd was climbing Clay Hill. As Jimmy watched, Todd fell twice.
Jimmy let the pain of his hurt nose get through and make him cry.
'Serves you right,' he said.
The south wind sang through the catwalk. The whole tower was vibrating with an intensity that Jimmy had never felt before. As he cut the fishing line that held the backpack against the boards, he said, 'Worth the climb, wasn't it?'
He opened the flap. As the sun lit Baby Tina's face, she opened her toothless mouth wide. Her eyes shone. She liked this vibration, this brilliance. She was smiling, maybe for the first time ever. And because no one was watching, and no one would know, Jimmy lifted her from the pack and hugged her. There was mealy yellow stuff on her legs.
Jimmy looked north and saw that Todd had vanished over the crest of Clay Hill. When Todd found the kite, he would be in a big hurry to get home, so he would probably leave the wreck where it was. Jimmy could retrieve Doll-Baby later.
The kite had crashed well beyond the hill, which meant there was no way that Todd could return home in less than thirty minutes. But Jimmy could be there in ten. If Mr. and Mrs. Boyle were back early, he would say that he'd found the baby in the field. And oh, by the way, he had seen Todd climbing Clay Hill.
If the Boyles were on schedule, all the better. Long before Todd showed up, his parents would have found their soiled infant alone in the house. Todd's troubles were just beginning. Jimmy took Baby Tina to the south side of the tank and showed her the place where the words JIMMY BLACKBURN IS A PUSSY had been written. There wasn't even a smudge now.
Baby Tina gurgled, and he decided to do one more thing.
He put her into the backpack so that her head stuck out. He molded the canvas around her body and snugged it with the piece of monofilament that had held it to the catwalk. Then he took his rod and reel line, looped it through the shoulder straps, and tied it.
He released the brake on the Zebco's reverse. A firm grip on the crank would be important.
He kissed Baby Tina's ear and whispered, 'You're an eagle.'
Then he stood and swung her into the sky. He braced the rod on the rail and let Baby Tina fly toward earth as fast as he dared. For this one moment of her life, she would know how it felt to be free.
VICTIM NUMBER FIVE
Blackburn walked into the U.S. Army recruiting office at the strip mall on East Kellogg and brought a blast of cold air with him. Papers on the Recruiter's desk went flying. The Recruiter, a burr-headed man in an olive uniform, left his chair and started picking them up.
'Sorry,' Blackburn said.
The Recruiter grinned. 'That's okay, son. Have a seat and I'll be right with you.'
Blackburn sat in one of the two plastic chairs in front of the desk. His coat billowed and settled like a parachute. He picked up a model cannon from a stack of brochures and pointed it at the Recruiter.
'Boom,' Blackburn said.
The Recruiter settled into the swivel chair on the other side of the desk. He stacked the papers on the desktop and placed a model of a Sherman tank on top of them. He nodded at the cannon in Blackburn's hand. 'That's an authentic reproduction of a Civil War field piece.'
'Union or Rebel?' Blackburn asked.
The Recruiter looked puzzled. 'Either, I reckon.'
