to the looming fortress.
“Yep, that’s the cell house.”
Scout looks around like he’s expecting snipers on the rooftops. “And you just walk out here like this?”
“Unless we run.”
Scout doesn’t smile. He’s all business now. “When I meet the con man and the thief, what do I say? I mean, do I shake hands?”
“Don’t shake his stump. I don’t think it’s polite to shake a stump.”
Scout’s eyes dart all around as he leans in to whisper, “Do I need a weapon?”
“Uh-huh, they issue machine guns right at the door,” I tell him.
“Right, Moose,” he says, but even his sarcasm is watered down as we perch on the doorstep of the warden’s twenty-two-room mansion, which stands directly opposite the cell house. Even after living here for six months, the cell house still gives me the creeps. It’s the bars and the sounds I sometimes hear. Hollers, curse words, and metal cups clanking against the bars. The cons aren’t supposed to talk, much less yell, but sometimes all heck breaks loose. That’s when it gets scary. Still, when we face Piper’s house, it feels like we’re on some fancy street in San Francisco.
On Alcatraz, heaven is across from hell.
Scout girds himself up. He stuffs his right hand in his pocket, as if he really does have a weapon in there. He’s ready to draw as I press the doorbell, but it’s only Piper’s pregnant mom who answers.
Mrs. Williams has a round face, eyes the color of worn denim with dark shadows underneath, and the same full lips as Piper. Her pregnant stomach sticks up hard and round like a basketball under her sweater. I try not to look at her belly. It’s difficult not to think about how it got that way.
“Mrs. Williams, this is my friend Scout McIlvey. He goes to school with us.”
“Why, Scout.” Mrs. Williams shakes Scout’s hand. “What a nice surprise.”
A little smile lights up Scout’s eyes.
“Piper, honey, come on down, sweetheart,” Mrs. Williams calls up the grand staircase. Above her head hangs a spectacular chandelier, with a dozen glistening prisms. A ragtime record spins on the gramophone.
Piper’s living room is bigger than our whole apartment. It’s twice as long, twice as wide, and twice as tall too.
By the piano a man dressed in khaki pants, a white button-down shirt, and a narrow black tie holds a feather duster. His hair is short, yellow and tightly curled, and he’s wearing the kind of tortoiseshell spectacles that college professors and good spellers wear.
“Buddy Boy, this is Scout McIlvey.” Mrs. Williams is just as warm with Buddy as she is with Scout. I’m not sure where Piper got her raspy edge, but it doesn’t seem to be from Mrs. Williams.
Buddy Boy glides across the carpet and offers his hand to Scout, whose eyes dart in my direction. Scout sucks in a big breath and shakes Buddy Boy’s hand with his own trembling one. It’s easier to be sure of myself with Scout here getting nervous for me. I stick out my hand and Buddy Boy shakes it hard and slow. His eyes, magnified behind his glasses, are sharp and gray like stones under water. He smiles at me, then smiles again as if he has a whole lot of smiles and he wants to make sure I see every one.
Piper appears at the top of the grand staircase, her hair pulled back in a ponytail with a large green ribbon.
“Scout.” Piper half skips down the steps. “What are you doing here?”
“I’m glad we finally get to meet,” Buddy Boy says in a low tone. I glance over at him thinking he’s talking to Scout, but he’s not.
“Yes, sir,” I say, hoping Scout doesn’t hear this. I don’t know if you’re supposed to call a convict sir, and I don’t want Scout to see me acting dumb around the cons. I’m the one who’s supposed to know what I’m doing.
“Come to think of it, I believe I’ve met your mother, Scout… Mabel McIlvey?” Mrs. Williams asks.
“Yes, ma’am.” Scout moves near Piper and Mrs. Williams.
“She’s in the choir at St. Mark’s, isn’t she?”
“I’ve heard lots of good things about you
“Thanks, Mr… um… Boy.” I edge toward Scout and Piper and Mrs. Williams.
“I thought so, yes, a beautiful voice. Clear as a bell. You give her my best, you hear?” Mrs. Williams has a polite smile on her tired face. “All right, you kids. I’ve got a million things to do this afternoon. You go on into the kitchen, help yourselves to the brownies, and tell Willy I said you could have more than one. He’s stingy with those brownies,” Mrs. Williams tells Buddy.
“He’s superstitious, Mrs. W. Can’t have the wrong number of brownies left.”
“What nonsense. Talk some sense into him, Buddy, will you?” Mrs. Williams smiles at Buddy, as comfortable with him as if he were her cousin. She walks back into the hall.
Buddy catches my eye. He heads toward the piano with a little jig to his step. He has three toothpicks in his mouth and he’s chomping down on all of them.
“Hey, Moose, sweet pea.” He turns to wave at me and my invisible sister Natalie with a warm smile.
Natalie isn’t here. And how’s he know my dad calls her sweet pea anyway? Slowly, it dawns on me, he’s doing an imitation of my dad. It’s pretty good too.
“My dad, right?” I ask.
Buddy smiles, pleased with himself. He clearly enjoys the spotlight.
“Piper?” I call after her. She and Scout are already on their way to the kitchen. “Did you see that? Buddy did a good imitation of my dad.”
“Yeah, I’ve seen it. He can do everyone. He’s
We both look back at Buddy Boy, who has followed Piper’s mom to the front door, where he is patiently listening to her instructions on cleaning the balustrade. The smile, the toothpicks, the wave, everything that reminded me of my father has vanished. Buddy sees us looking at him. He winks, just the way my dad would wink.
Scout and Piper are walking with their heads close together. “So wait… what am I supposed to call him?”
“Willy One Arm.”
“I call him Willy One Arm?”
“Well, it’s better than Mr. Willy One Arm, isn’t it?” Piper is almost through the dining room.
The kitchen is larger than I remember and there’s a brand-new electric icebox-the kind that doesn’t need ice-and a shiny stove that looks like the pictures in the Sears, Roebuck catalog.
A short wiry man dressed in the same clothes as Buddy Boy stands in the back of the kitchen rolling out dough with his one good arm. The other sleeve hangs down flat and empty.
“Willy One Arm… Scout and Moose. Scout and Moose… this is Willy One Arm.” Piper introduces us with a proud little smile on her face, like she’s showing off a really great baseball card collection.
Willy One Arm waves his one good arm, then shakes his stump, which makes the empty sleeve jiggle in the air, but it’s the pocket of his shirt that has my attention. There’s something moving inside it. Something alive!
“He does sleeve tricks. Want to see?” Piper asks.
Willy One Arm’s shoulder begins to move in a circular motion, pivoting his sleeve around with it. He gets it going pretty fast, before he catches his empty sleeve with his one hand and slows it to a stop.
“Wow,” Scout says. “That was good.”
My eyes are focused on his pocket. What’s he got in there?
Willy One Arm gives a little bow. He sticks his good hand inside his shirt pocket and takes out a mouse the size of a half-smoked cigar. The mouse is a smoky brown color with dirty bitten-up ears and a twitchy pink nose. Willy One Arm brings the mouse close to his face, as if he’s telling her a secret. “Molly, this here is Moose and Scout,” Willy says.
Piper moves her hand toward Molly, but Molly dives back inside Willy One Arm’s pocket with only her raw, hairless tail showing. Willy One Arm coaxes her out again and begins scratching her head with one yellowing fingernail. Molly clearly loves this.
“How’d you get a mouse?” I ask.
“Found you in the yard, didn’t I?” Willy One Arm’s squeaky voice tells the mouse. Willy One Arm lets Molly climb on his shoulder, then he lifts the wax paper off of a plate of brownies and offers us each one.
“Mom said we could have two, Willy.”
Willy One Arm’s mouth begins to twitch. “Monday ain’t a good day for fifteen,” he mutters in a raspy, rodentlike squeak. He takes a butter knife and cuts three brownies in half. “There,” he says. I watch him with the knife. I can’t believe they let convicts have knives. It’s only a butter knife, but still.
Scout takes two brownies. He’s standing a good distance from Willy One Arm with his nervous foot tapping. As I reach for mine, Willy mutters to Molly, “No nuts for Moose.”
I get a chill like something awful is crawling down my back. My voice falters. “How do you know I don’t like nuts?”
“Piper told us,” Willy One Arm replies.
“You did?” I ask her.
Piper rolls her eyes. “God, Moose. Of course. How else would he know?”
Scout is looking at his brownie like he’s dying to take a bite, only he isn’t quite sure it’s safe. He gives me a sheepish smile.
“That’s poison. It’s a poison brownie. You better give it to me,” I whisper, snatching the brownie right out of his hand.
Scout laughs, grabs it back, and takes a bite.
“He’s cute when he eats,” Piper declares, her eyes on Scout. “He’s cute when he isn’t eating too.”
“Gee thanks, doll,” Scout says, a little grin on his face.
Piper takes a step toward him. “
“I don’t know any secrets. But if I find out any you’ll be the first doll I’ll tell.” Scout turns to me. “C’mon, let’s find that Jimmy guy and play ball.”
I can hear Piper laugh as we thunder down the switchback.
