True Talents(46)

“Missed, granny,” Flinch said as Walden spun halfway around in his attempt to smash what wasn’t there.

Torchie headed for the woods. Oh man, if he ran, we were doomed. Any sign of weakness and the mob would rush us. I was about to call after him when he returned, clutching a thick stick. He stepped next to Flinch, holding the stick at both ends. I could see a glowing spot in the center on the side nearest Flinch. I had no idea what he planned to do with a burning stick. He turned to his right and nodded to Cheater.

“What’s he doing?” I whispered to Lucky.

Lucky shrugged.

Walden looked over his shoulder. His buddies were all hanging back. “Come on,” he urged. “Let’s kick some butt.”

None of them moved.

Cheater stepped next to Torchie. He threw up his hands like a karate master. I thought he was going to chop the stick, splitting it with his hand. But he didn’t do that. Instead, he paused, glanced at Trash, then at Torchie, and pointed up in the air over Torchie’s head. Trash smiled and nodded.

Torchie raised the stick, holding it high over his head, still grasping it with one hand at each end.

Cheater crouched, then leaped. Trash grunted again, pushing Cheater higher in the air. As Cheater flew up, he shouted, “Hiyaaaa!” and snapped out a kick. The stick split with a sharp crack, breaking right where Torchie had burned it. As the pieces twirled through the air, two of the kids in the mob ran away.

Trash leaped forward, slashing out with the edge of his right hand. He hit one of the pieces as it fell. The piece flew like it had been blasted from a cannon. It shot across the street in a high arc, sailing over the cars that were parked along the other side of the road.

The night fell dead quiet as everyone watched. Nobody moved or breathed until the stick crashed through the front window of a house across the street. The sound of breaking glass is one of the few things on earth that can send any kid scurrying.

The Edgies took off.

Walden was right there with them. He didn’t even stop to grab his jacket.

Between the performance we’d put on and the fear of getting blamed for the window, I guess they’d decided it was a good idea to leave the scene. So did we. As the porch light went on in the house across the street, we raced to the woods and headed into the pipe.

“We were awesome,” Flinch said. “What a team.”

“That was so cool,” Torchie said. “I knew Cheater would figure out what I was thinking about chopping the stick. But I never would have thought up the kick part. That was so great.”

“Yeah, nice move with the stick,” Lucky said. “You, too, Trash.”

“Nice and stupid,” Trash said. “I almost broke my hand when I hit it. But it was worth it to see their faces.”

“Yeah,” I said. “I don’t think we’re going to get any more trouble from Edgies.”

We pushed aside the manhole cover and climbed up to the school yard. I never thought I’d view it as a safe harbor. At the moment, I was glad to be back.

Between our victory over the Edgies and our smashing success at pinball, we were one happy crowd as we went toward the back wall.

“Me first,” Cheater said, rushing to the ladder.

“Sssshhhh,” I warned. “Someone will hear us.”

“Who cares?” Torchie asked. “We’re the champs.”

“Champs!” Lucky shouted.

“Alters forever!” I yelled.

We all rushed at the ladder and started wrestling, getting wet and white and half frozen in the remaining snow. We ended up in a laughing, hitting tangle, with nobody trying seriously to go back up to Lucky’s room. Finally, we all collapsed on the ground.

“We’d better get back inside,” I said when I’d caught my breath.

“Winners first,” Flinch said, pointing to Trash.

Trash shook his head. “No, that’s okay. You take the lead, my man.”

Flinch smiled, got up from the ground, shoved his trophy under his belt, and grabbed the ladder. He was more than halfway up the side of the building when he froze. An instant later, I froze, too, as I saw a head pop out from Lucky’s window high above us.

“Look what we have here,” Bloodbath said, his grin gleaming in the moonlight like a dagger of ice.


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A DECLARATION OF WAR

The most awful part for me, standing on the ground, was watching Flinch as he tried to scramble down the ladder. I knew he must have seen what was going to happen before it happened. But there was nothing he could do. He was too far up.

“Have a nice trip,” Bloodbath called. He leaned back and lifted his foot.

A loud snap shot through the winter silence. My stomach lurched as I realized Bloodbath had broken the stick that held the ladder in the window. Unlike when Cheater had broken the branch, this wasn’t a harmless trick. The ropes, stretched tight a moment before, turned limp and useless. Flinch fell. The fall seemed to take forever, but for that whole dreadful stretch of nightmare time, I couldn’t move. In my mind, I tried frantically to think of some way to help, to catch Flinch or break his fall. In front of my eyes, he tumbled away from the wall, his hands out in front of him like someone trying to hold off a monster. But the monster was the Earth. And nothing he did could hold it off.