that did not happen, and after Arnold counted three and heard nothing but his heart playing his eardrums, he swallowed hard and said softly, “What?”
“I said I’m sorry for all that stuff we did to you,” the giant said.
Gus, that was his name. Gus Benedict. Arnold stared at him, speechless. Since his mind was blank, the same devil that had got hold of his tongue in the Value-Mart parking lot this morning took over again and said smoothly, “Oh, that’s all right, Gus. Now that you know, though, maybe we’ll invite you to join us sometime. After we’ve checked you out, you understand.”
Gus’s eyes widened. The irises were light brown. “That’d be great,” he said in a small voice. “But I don’t know if my dad would let me.”
Arnold’s face shaped itself into an unfamiliar sneer. “You need your daddy’s permission? That information will go into the file we’ve got on you. And Matt and Jared too, of course.”
Gus’s head bobbed up and down, and he turned and rushed off to tell Matt and Jared this incredible piece of news. When Arnold turned back to the table, he found that James had moved as far away as it was possible to move without falling off the bench bolted to the cafeteria table, and Greg was scrunched up so close to him their knees were touching, leaving only Jason to munch away obliviously to Arnold’s left.
What have I done? Arnold wondered, his mind dazed. How long can I keep up this bluff, before they figure out I’m lying and pound me?
* * * *
The afternoon dragged on and on. As usual, gym was the worst. Arnold had hoped he’d left dodge ball behind forever when he started high school in Chincoteague, but to his utter horror the gym teacher Mr. Lynch was crazy about the game.
“Go out there and play like a man, little girl,” the big, hairy, red-faced man had sneered at him when he tried to get out of it. Everyone else seemed to be having fun, but Arnold dreaded the stinging smash of the red rubber playground ball against his bare arms and legs that stuck out so vulnerably from the required gym uniform of blue and gold Chincoteague High T-shirt and shorts, and all through the last half of ninth grade and into the first half of tenth he had seen all his old fears confirmed.
The only way to avoid the pain was to deliberately toss the ball to someone, anyone, on the opposing side, so that he would be out that way instead and could go sit on the sidelines. But whenever he did this the jeers from both sides and from Mr. Lynch himself were deafening. So usually he tried to compromise, to tough out the pain for a while as Matt and company, who always seemed to be on the other team, purposely aimed at him, but no matter how long he let it go before finally tossing the ball in surrender, the taunting was never any less harsh.
“Hey Gross-fart, you sissy, my little sister throws harder than you!”
“Whatsa matter, Gross-fart, saved all your energy to come out your butt?”
“Kikes can’t play even baby sports worth a damn!”
But it wasn’t like that this time. As usual, Matt, Jared, and Gus were on the other side. But they never shot the ball his way. Instead they slammed the ball into every other kid on Arnold’s side, except Hailee and Darla. The ball bounced Arnold’s way and he caught it.
Okay, time to get this over with. He lobbed it gently at Matt, the taunts already ringing in his mind. But instead of reaching out to grab the ball out of the air, Matt turned and let it catch him on the arm. He deliberately got himself out! Why? There was no time to think, however, because Gus had grabbed the ball and lobbed it lazily over to Arnold, who caught it without thinking. Now only Jared was left on the other side! It had to be a trap. Even if I win the game for my side, they’ll pound me afterwards.
Arnold started a slow overhand toss, but a volcano suddenly exploded inside him. After all, he was fighting for Princess Hailee and her lady-in-waiting, Mistress Darla! So he whacked the ball as hard as he could with his right hand, so hard that his palm stung as if he’d been hit in the usual way. Instead of ducking, Jared raised his right arm to protect his face. He was out! The game was over, and Arnold had won it!
“Hey, way to go, Arnold!” Darla said, touching him shyly on the shoulder. On the sidelines, Kayleigh began to clap and was joined by a few of the other kids from their side who had been knocked out of the game. Even Hailee smiled.
Arnold shook his head, expecting to wake up any second. But the dream continued down in the locker room, where he changed back into his plaid shirt and brown corduroy pants without suffering so much as a wedgie.
Dazed, he shuffled out of the locker room and over to his school locker, expecting at the very least to find a threatening note inside it. “We know you were lying about what you said. Watch your butt, Jewboy!” But no. The final bell of the day rang and the halls were suddenly full of laughing, shouting kids. Arnold pushed his way through them. No one pushed him back.
The library was the same as before, with Miss Fredericks and Mr. Lynch in their usual places at the n-readers. Her head was resting on his shoulder, which seemed somehow… wrong, to Arnold.
“Hello,” said Gloria.
“Hello, Gloria,” Arnold said, looking her right in the eye as he shook her hand.
“Well, this is quite a change!” Gloria laughed. “You were afraid of your own shadow before.”
“Yes. But not now.” He shut his right eye slowly and deliberately. “Not now that I know who you are.”
Gloria’s green eyes widened. She glanced at the comatose teachers, then out at the rapidly emptying hallway, and moved to ease the door shut.
“It’s not such a secret, dear,” she said in a half-whisper. “I mean, you’re not the only one I’ve helped over the dimensional divide. Your dad and Alison came with you to Gingo Teag, remember.”
If it’s not such a secret, how come she’s whispering? It must be too dangerous to discuss the Resistance at all in this world. Which means I have to get over to Gingo Teag to talk to her openly. He nodded slowly. “I understand. I’d like to go there now.”
“Well, of course, Arnold! Jo will be delighted to see you. School ends half an hour later there, but by the time you get through the Gray Zone the bell should’ve already gone off. I told her you’d be back in school today and she said she’d tell her Mum to set an extra place at tea just in case you did come to pay a visit. So it’s all set!”
How am I supposed to know what she means by all those code words? Arnold wondered as he followed Gloria back behind the counter and to the door in the back wall that opened into the Gray Zone corridor. Maybe “tea” means some kind of poisonous stuff I can kill High Ones with!
Arnold was so excited by the thought that he’d soon get a chance to fight the High Ones himself that he barely paid attention to the inside-out transition between dimensions, and as he hurried along the Gray Zone hallway he didn’t notice the slick, oily patch on the tile floor until he was slipping on it, landing hard on his butt.
“Ow!” He tried to get up but slipped again, hitting his head on the floor hard enough that everything got funny and faraway, like that time he told Matt to get his own lunch money and Matt gave him a black eye.
He sat up and shook his head, trying to make the world stop turning around him. But it only seemed to spin harder, like in those tri-vids they saw in history class about the centrifuges NASA used before the Arrival to train astronauts for the primitive rockets they used back then.
The walls, floor, and ceiling dissolved into gray mist, then to a background of diamond-hard stars against a black night through which Arnold tumbled helplessly. Unlike that family trip to Mars they’d taken when he was in fourth grade, back before Mom got sick, there was no reassuring solidity of a spaceship around him, and no sign of the Sun or any planets nearby. He was falling through interstellar space!
I’m not an idiot, I know what that means. They’ll never find me! Other kids might learn to write down the numbers symbolizing the vastness of the universe,