The Secret

Old Man Harris fell heavily when the tall boy pushed him down. Cans of soup from the small bag he'd been carrying bounced and rolled away. A loaf of bread became a soccer ball for one pair of boys. The others laughed and gathered around the old man, closing in on him. They elbowed each other, and one or two of them poked at him with their feet. Just as they began to howl, Tom DuPaul stepped in.

"Stop that!" he yelled. "Leave him alone! What do you think you're doing?"

Tom glared at the boys as he helped Mr. Harris up and led him out of the circle. The tall one glared back. It didn't matter to Tom-he wasn't afraid of anyone.

"Come on, Mr. Harris," said Tom as he picked up the battered loaf of bread and two dented cans. A few steps away sat a cantaloupe that had somehow escaped, unharmed. "Let's get you to your car."

"Thank you, son," said the old man.

Tom's sister, Lucy, saw it all from across the street. She'd been walking from the library on her way to meet her best friend, Karen, at Woolworth's, but now she was glued to the sidewalk. She stood there in her ratty sneakers, crumpled shorts, and faded shirt, her jaw hanging open down to her skinny little chest. Late summer dust clung to her face and legs, and one lonely fly meandered above her head. She couldn't believe what she'd seen, and as if coming out of a trance she shook her head, turned suddenly, and roared into Woolworth's.

Lucy found Karen in the men's underwear section, picking out socks for her brother, Billy. He'd been at tennis camp all summer, as she always reminded everyone, but he was coming home tonight. She adored him, almost as much as Lucy adored Tom. But Tom wasn't a local hero like Billy, Karen always said. Now Lucy finally had something heroic about Tom to tell.

"Karen!" she yelled. "You'll never guess what I just saw!"

"What do you think of these socks?" Karen asked, seemingly uninterested in what Lucy had just seen. Maybe she hadn't heard, but Lucy wasn't quite sure, even though they were best friends.

Lucy's family had only been in town since Memorial Day weekend. "You'll have time to make friends before the new school year starts," their dad had said, but he was being optimistic. Lucy had never been good at making friends. After three months, Karen was her one and only.

Lucy was in awe of Karen. She was beautiful, Lucy thought, with her long, black, curly hair that was always neat, held back with a leather hair band or a simple ribbon. It was never windblown or frazzled like Lucy's always seemed to be, even in pigtails. Karen's clothes always looked new, and everything matched. Lucy mostly had old hand-me-downs from Tom. Karen walked and moved as if she were on a stage. She never hesitated or questioned what she did. She just did what she wanted, and it always looked right. Lucy shuffled her feet wherever she went, and often stumbled if she didn't look where she was going. She was never sure what she should do to make other people like her.

Lucy thought herself lucky to have Karen as a friend, but she secretly worried about it. She was sure that Karen was the most popular girl at school. She often told Lucy about her other friends, and said Lucy would like them, too. But they lived "kinda' far," out in the country, so she hadn't met them yet. She was anxious about starting school next week.

"Um, they're nice," said Lucy of the pink and yellow argyle socks Karen was holding up.

Karen made a funny face, and decided on another pair. After she'd paid for them, the two girls walked out into the bright sunshine, blinded after the cool darkness of Woolworth's. As they crossed the street, Karen hooked her arm into Lucy's.

"What were you going to tell me?" she asked.

"My brother was finally a hero," Lucy said. Just then, the tall one saw them and whistled.

"Oh! That's the one..." Lucy started, but Karen squealed and ran away from her.

"Billy!" she cried as she threw herself into his arms. "You're home early!"

Lucy felt her whole face and body sag. He's Karen's brother? She couldn't believe it. This is the adored Billy?

"Lucy! Come here!" Karen called.

Lucy shuffled closer to the sidewalk, looking around to see if Tom was anywhere. The other boys didn't look at her, but they almost never did, anyway. She noticed, though, that they didn't even look at Karen, and she always had their attention.

"C'mon, Lucy!" Karen said as she grabbed Lucy's arm and dragged her up onto the sidewalk. "This is my brother, Billy Mann. Billy, this is my friend, Lucy DuPaul."

Lucy noticed-Karen didn't say "best" friend.

"Hi," Billy said as he put out his hand, but Lucy hesitated.

"Lucy's kinda' shy," said Karen. "Of course, I always tell her what a hero you are." She looked at her friend strangely and snorted in disgust. "Lucy!"

Lucy touched Billy's hand as briefly as she could, and hoped Tom wasn't anywhere seeing this. The other boys kicked at the cracks on the sidewalk.

"See ya' Billy," some of them said as they turned to walk away.

"Catch you later," he answered and waved. Lucy thought she saw a mean look in his eyes.

"Oh, Billy," Karen said. "I'm so glad you're home! I missed you so much!"

"I had a great time at camp, Kar," said Billy. "You should have seen me! I was awesome!"

"I'm sure you were the best one there," said Karen, looking a little disappointed. It was something Lucy had never seen on her friend's face before, but she understood it. Hadn't Billy heard her say she'd missed him? Hadn't he missed her at all?

"Look, I bought you a present," Karen offered.

"Hey, cool!" answered Billy. He ripped open the bad and looked inside. "Oh."

Lucy's dad says a poker face is good when you're in tight situations. This one was closing in fast, so she tried on a poker face. She pretended to be Mona Lisa with that little smile, raised eyebrows, and perfect calm. Mona Lisa in raggedy pigtails-the image almost made her laugh, but she hiccupped instead. Karen looked at her as if just remembering she was there.

"Lucy," said Karen, putting a bright smile back on her face. "Let's go to our house and listen to some of Billy's camp stories. You're coming for dinner anyway, aren't you?"

Lucy swallowed the Mona Lisa smile and said, "Uh, Mom wants me home for dinner tonight. We've got company coming."

"Oh. Well, come over now for a little while, anyway."

"Um, I can't," said Lucy. "I'm, uh, supposed to get home to clean my room and then I have to pick vegetables and help get dinner ready and...." Lucy knew it was getting worse the more she went on, but she couldn't stop herself. She wasn't good at lying, and Billy made her nervous. Was he smirking at her?

"Oh," said Karen icily.

"C'mon, Kar," said Billy. "Suzy Homemaker isn't coming. Let's go on."

Lucy forgot about Mona Lisa. She was mad now. Suzy Homemaker?

"Hey, since it's just the two of us, let's go get some ice cream," he continued, and Karen glanced at Lucy to see her reaction. Lucy's face was red and hot, and she couldn't control the tears of embarrassment that sprang to her eyes. She covered her cheeks with her hands.

Karen giggled, took Billy's arm, and smiled up at him. They turned away and off they went. Lucy's mouth fell open for a second time that afternoon, just as Billy looked back and stuck his tongue out at her.

"Karen?" she called, but Karen didn't turn around.

"Karen!" Lucy called a little louder. Karen looked up at Billy again, and together they laughed. But they didn't turn around.

"Karen," Lucy whispered as they turned the corner.

Suddenly a cold breeze blew past. Lucy shivered and felt feverish. She noticed her teeth were chattering, and she touched her forehead. It was burning up, and she was covered in goose bumps. She wondered how long she'd been standing there. The shadows had become long, and looking around she saw that some of the cars had their parking lights on already. She moved out of the shadows and headed home.

The house looked empty, but there was a light on in the back. Lucy ran inside.

"Mom!" she called." I'm home!"

"Well, welcome home, honey!" her mom called back. "Sweetheart, will you come help me in the kitchen?"

"In a minute," Lucy answered. "I'll be right down." Lucy ran upstairs and washed the dust and dried tears off her face, re-braided her pigtails, and put on an old flannel shirt and faded jeans.

"Hi there, sweetie," said her mom as Lucy waked into the kitchen. "Peel these potatoes, won't you?"

"I was at the library," Lucy offered a story about where she'd been, just in case her mom had wondered. "I forgot my watch."

"Oh, that's alright," said her mom. "I do it all the time."

Lucy imagined telling her mom about the afternoon, but then thought better of it. Lucy thought her mom wasn't all there. She never seemed to understand the deeper meaning of things, even if Lucy had her full attention. Her parents were like a family of two, leaving Tom and Lucy alone to be there for each other.

Tom knew this, too, and he took care of Lucy and looked out for her. In return, Lucy looked up to him. She knew her parents would spend the evening watching TV together, leaving the two of them alone on the front porch where they often spent the end of the day. She decided to wait until then to say anything.

******

It was always quiet at night on this side of town. A sense of timelessness hung about the air. Everything was still, but lightning in the west and the further drop in temperature told them a storm was coming. Tom and Lucy had been sitting on the porch swing, watching fireflies and eating strawberries. The smell of old honeysuckle and roses came from somewhere and mixed with the citronella candle they'd set on the porch railing. Finally, Lucy got up the courage to speak.

"I saw what you did today," she said.

"Yeah?" asked Tom.

"You helped Old Man Har-"

"Mr. Harris," corrected Tom.

"Mr. Harris."

"Mm-hmm...?"

"Did you know the boy who pushed him down is Billy Mann?"

"I figured it out. He's the only one I hadn't seen before."

"I don't like him, Tom, but he's Karen's brother. What am I going to do?"

"What do you mean?"

"I saw him push Mr. Harris down, but Karen didn't. She thinks he's great, a hero, Mr. Wonderful. But then she was mean to me this afternoon when I wouldn't go to their house and listen to him tell camp stories."

Lucy started to cry as she told the story to Tom. Tom reached into his pocket for his handkerchief. He handed it to Lucy and said, "Let them be."

She wiped her eyes and gave Tom a funny look.

He continued, "Don't try to change them, and don't let them change you."

"But she adores Billy, and he's a pig!"

"Lucy..."

"I'm sorry, Tom. I know I shouldn't call people names, but you know what I mean. She's my only friend here, and now she's being mean to me. I thought she was my friend, but I know they were talking bad about me when they left this afternoon."

"For your own sake, Lucy, let them be."

Lucy didn't understand, but she knew Tom was different from others. That's one reason she admired him so much. She always knew she could trust him. She didn't understand, but maybe he was right about this, too.

The wind picked up, throwing shadows from the candle all over the ceiling. They finished their strawberries and got out of the swing just as the first big drops began to splatter the porch steps.

Lucy went up to her room and sat on her bed listening to the storm. She wondered how she could be the same to Karen, and not be her friend. The more she thought, the more she realized what Tom meant. She could never tell Karen about Tom's heroic actions. No matter what else happened, if Karen heard about it from Lucy now, it would never be a story about Tom. It would be something bad about Billy. The wedge was between them, and there was nothing she could do about it.

"I have a secret," she whispered. Lucy stood and looked at herself in the mirror. She wondered if this was part of growing up. She wasn't sure she liked it, but she wasn't sure she didn't.

She thought about Tom, and compared him with Billy. Tom was confident, brave, and kind. It never bothered him that he didn't hang out with a group of friends. Maybe Lucy could become more like him. Certainly, Karen was like Billy in some ways. He didn't always listen to her, and Karen didn't always listen to Lucy.

The storm outside was raging now, with trees blowing wild shadows around Lucy's room. Another storm raged in her mind, but just as her room was safe from the storm outside, she knew she was surrounded by the safety of her family, even if her parents didn't quite get it. She had Tom, and a secret, and a goal. Maybe that was enough.