Take Your Turn, Teddy Read online

  When Teddy opened the box, he shuffled through and pulled out a navy cotton one. He held it up for his mother to see.

  “Even this one?”

  Teddy couldn’t ask her about his father, but he could make nods to him naturally in moments like this.

  The navy shirt had big, orange Hawaiian flowers on the front. The yellow-pink sunset design in the background was fading. Teddy knew his father put that t-shirt in the dryer time and time again, even though his mother told him it would make the graphic crack.

  Teddy’s mother looked at him. She lowered her head as she tried to determine her own feelings about the shirt, about a relic of Teddy’s father.

  Before she could say anything, Mr. Abraham snapped them both out of it.

  “Ali can run home and get her bathing suit. A t-shirt might get heavy anyway. Teddy, maybe some old shorts would do better.”

  Teddy’s mother folded the shirt and put it back in the box. “Good idea. Go ahead and go change, Teddy.”

  Teddy headed up the stairs, but before he made it to his room, he heard his mother say through sniffles, “Things are still pretty raw with us. I mean, there are reminders of Arthur everywhere. And it’s not like I can dump it all out or set it on fire like a teen girl getting revenge. Those things mean something to Teddy too.”

  “Just not the same thing,” Mr. Abraham answered. “I can’t imagine. When we lost Lynn, figuring out what stayed and what went was hard. I could finally let something go, and then Ali would lose it.”

  Teddy hung in the inside of his doorframe and continued to listen.

  “Your father called me, Lila. He asked that I check in on you from time to time. Do you think Arthur knows you’re here?”

  Teddy’s mother exhaled, “I don’t know. I mean, I try not to think of that. I just want things to be better. I don’t want to be afraid. You know?”

  Mr. Abraham said, “I do, Lila. Promise me you’ll put some more ice on your face. There’s still some swelling.”

  Teddy waited for his mother to go into detail about the way his father hit her, pinned her to the paneled wall, and struck her while her only son screamed for him to stop.

  But his mother moved right past it.

  “Can I ask you something, Mr. Abraham?”

  “John.”

  “Okay, John. With Ali’s mother, Lynn, when did Ali seem to get better? When did she begin to move on? I know it hasn’t been long, but... I... just have to know.”

  Teddy wondered when things would begin to feel normal as well.

  Mr. Abraham’s tone got heavier, as though he were in pain. He hesitated, and then he said, “I’m not sure she ever really did.”

  Teddy hung his head, feeling defeated, before stepping into his room, closing the door, and leaving the muffled voices on the other side.

  12

  When Teddy came down the stairs in an old t-shirt from summer baseball camp and basketball shorts, he saw Ali standing in the living room with her back turned to him. She had cut-off denim shorts pulled over a one-piece neon green bathing suit. Her blonde hair nearly reached the waistband of her shorts.

  Mr. Abraham, or John to his mother, was gone.

  Ali turned when she heard Teddy coming down the stairs.

  “Geez, slowpoke. I thought I was going to have to go by myself.”

  Teddy couldn’t help but smile at how fast Ali was getting comfortable with him. She talked to him in a way that felt like they had known each other for years rather than a few hours.

  Ali grabbed Teddy’s hand and said, “Well, come on.”

  They ran through the hall, past the basement door, and out the back door. As Ali pulled Teddy along through his backyard, Teddy ran past the scary tree without even noticing it. For the first time since the move, Teddy was outside without staring up at its claw-like limbs.

  Ali yanked his arm toward her as they went down a mostly covered path by leaves and overgrown trees. It scared Teddy how easy it might be to get lost in there.

  But he was with Ali, and she knew the way.

  Ali’s neon green bathing suit was like a traffic cone amidst the dirt brown and forest green colors. When they came up to the creek, Teddy had difficulty hiding his disgust. The water wasn’t like that of the pool he and Pete used to go to. It was so muddied, and Teddy didn’t like how it left everything underneath hidden.

  The ground slanted steeply just before the creek. It was as if the pond tilted the earth as part of a cruel trick to make kids, like him and Ali, slide right into the jaws of whatever lurked in the murky water.

  Ali shimmied off her shorts. Teddy wasn’t sure why, but he felt himself blush. He stood back and watched her throw her pants aside and run into the pond. As the dirt shifted below, pockets of foggy dust rose to the surface.

  Ali was already giggling and tossing the water around, just like her father said she would.

  Ali turned to find Teddy still not in the water and gave him a look of impatience. “What? Do you think it’s going to bite? Get in!”

  He did think it would bite. What scared Teddy most was he didn’t know what it was.

  “You be Richard, and I’ll be Nixon. I won’t let you step over the drop-off,” Ali shouted to Teddy.

  The drop-off. Teddy already feared the pond before even remembering the drop-off. The part where Ali stood now was only the parlor of the house of terror. Other levels of scare were still waiting for him.

  “Nixon! Nixon!”

  Despite being afraid of the pond, he caught himself laughing at the absurdity of Ali. Was he supposed to know what she meant? She sure thought so.

  Teddy smiled and said, “I don’t know how to play this game.”

  Ali swam closer to Teddy. “Sure you do. You get in, close your eyes. And I’ll swim around calling Nixon after you say Richard. Then, with your eyes closed, you have to come find me.”

  Laughing, the fear of the pond subsided, at least for the moment. Teddy stepped in toward Ali. The legs of his old summer camp shorts ballooned around him, and Mr. Abraham was right. His t-shirt was heavy as the weight of the water clung to the cotton. He stripped it off, wadded it into a ball, and threw it to the pond’s side.

  “My friend Pete and I always called that game Marco Polo.”

  Ali nodded. “Everyone does. But this way, the game is just ours.”

  Teddy thought of the shadow. They played and made up games together too. The shadow was his friend, and he was supposed to visit him. Teddy decided he would go to the basement right when he got home and apologize. But for now, he wanted to play with Ali. Then Teddy realized he had more than one friend here now. That realization expunged any of the fear he felt at the pond.

  Teddy stepped further into the pond. The water was cool, but with the sun on his back, it felt a lot more balanced than the chills he got at the house.

  Without any further thinking, Teddy closed his eyes and said, “Richard!”

  He heard a small splash in the water before Ali answered, “Nixon!”

  Teddy turned and stepped forward. Small, sharp rocks lay at the bottom of the pond. But he kept moving forward.

  “Richard!”

  Ali giggled, and Teddy could hear she was closer. “Nixon!”

  He stepped just a few feet closer with his hands out and grazed Ali’s shoulder before she could swim away.

  Teddy opened his eyes. “What? I got you already?”

  “It’s not polite to make the guests lose.”

  Is that why he always beat the shadow at games? Was Teddy the guest in its home, so it let him win? Teddy felt a pang of guilt and maybe a hint of anger.

  We’re friends, Teddy.

  Teddy turned and looked in the trees. He saw nothing but green leaves and a few scraggly trees, but most were tall and well.

  Ali giggled and splashed Teddy.

  Teddy returned his attention to his new friend and splashed her
back as they swam further into the creek. As Teddy tried to keep up with Ali, he understood his mother’s questioning of his strength as a swimmer. He resolved he would spend the summer getting better at it.

  The water moved quicker around them, but they could still touch the bottom with their feet flat.

  Teddy felt something nick the bottom of his feet. He called to Ali, “Ouch. The rocks are kinda sharp at the bottom.”

  “Don’t worry. You get used to it.”

  Teddy half-expected Ali to close her eyes and move into the next round of the game, but instead, she lay back. Her blonde hair floated just beneath the water’s surface. It broke up the impurities as it spread around her head, and she closed her eyes.

  Teddy thought Ali looked like a princess from a book his mother had read him growing up. It was Sleeping Beauty.

  Ali peeked open one of her eyes, and Teddy jumped, feeling embarrassed.

  “Well, what are you staring at me for? Lay back.”

  Teddy did as she said, and his bright, white tummy shot up at the sun. He could see why Ali liked doing this. He felt weightless.

  “Daddy said you and your mom aren’t from around here. I mean, there’s no way you could be. I would’ve met you by now. I know everybody.”

  She said it in a way that sounded proud.

  “Daddy always tells me to hush when I talk to everybody everywhere we go, but I just like being friendly. Daddy says it’s a small-town thing. I don’t know what that means, but I think I like seeing how different everybody is.”

  “You talk a lot more than my friend Pete back home.”

  Teddy bit his lip, hearing how rude that may have sounded, but Ali just laughed. He laughed too.

  “My mouth runs a mile a minute, or that’s what my daddy says.”

  Teddy smiled. “I don’t mind. It’s pretty quiet at the house.”

  It’s quiet in the basement.

  Teddy shook his head. Was that his thought? He didn’t think the shadow could reach him out here. Teddy figured he was having thoughts or hearing things out of guilt for leaving the shadow at home, waiting on him. He made a mental note to stop by the basement before he went to his room when he got home.

  Ali raised one hand to her forehead to block the sun from her eyes and turned slightly toward Teddy.

  “What do you think of the house? Daddy has been helping the Starlings with it since I was born. Daddy says Mr. Starling is your grandpa.”

  Teddy nodded. “Yeah. I’ve only been here once or twice, but I was really little. I don’t remember it much. My grandma and grandpa moved to Florida a long time ago. I always liked going to their house in the summer. We got to go to the beach. But we haven’t been in a few years. They mostly just mail me birthday cards and gifts.”

  “I’ve never been to the beach, but this is nice too. Isn’t it?” Ali asked. Though she wasn’t looking at Teddy anymore. With her eyes wide open, she looked straight above her, and Teddy did too. The treetops seemed to weave together, only allowing sunlight in focused spots.

  “Have you ever seen anything like it?”

  Teddy had, and his thoughts just spilled out. “I used to have this babysitter, Amber. When she came over, she would bring all kinds of cool things for me. One time, she brought this yellow tube. It had a lens on the end of it. She told me to look through it like I was a pirate eyeing an island ahead. Only, on the other side were all these colors and patterns. When I turned the end, it would move into different patterns. This kind of looks like that.”

  “Amber sounds nice.”

  The weight returned to Teddy, but only his throat as he said, “Yeah, she was, until—”

  Teddy waited for Ali to ask questions, but she didn’t push him. Teddy was thankful for that. She lay in the water and shared the silence with him.

  Teddy shook away the thought of Amber and his dad and asked Ali, “Did you know the family before us? The ones my grandpa kicked out?”

  Ali kicked her feet to the bottom of the creek and stood. “They weren’t kicked out. But we’re not supposed to talk about the Warrens.”

  The smile Ali had worn all day seemed to drop and sink to the bottom of the creek. “Daddy made me promise.”

  Teddy kept wondering if one of the Warrens was the shadow’s past friend, the one who made it want to keep its relationship with Teddy a secret.

  “I’ve been to the basement a few times.”

  But not today.

  “Right, I’ll come today. I promise.”

  Ali turned her head. “What?”

  Teddy straightened himself up too. He had to get his guilt under control.

  “Nothing. Nothing. What I was saying was, when I went to the basement, there was a bunch of stuff, some of it almost brand new.”

  Teddy decided not to tell Ali about the Polaroid. He didn’t want to give it up if Ali wanted it, especially if it belonged to one of the Warrens she knew.

  “Like what?”

  “Well, there was a doll. A freaky looking, and talking, doll. Its foot said, ‘Jackie.’”

  “Jackie’s doll is still there?”

  Ali’s hands flew over her mouth as if the words were pouring out uncontrollably.

  “No more, Teddy. You’ll get us into trouble.”

  She’s keeping secrets.

  Teddy nodded in agreement, assuming his guilt became talking suspicion.

  Ali tried to change the subject. “What else was down there?”

  It was Teddy’s turn to keep a secret.

  “Nothing.”

  13

  Teddy had spent the day with Ali. He was sure to check on the shadow before their next activity, playing in the cornfield. But, when Teddy went to see the shadow late that afternoon, it was quiet and firm, and it made a request that he had always thought was against the rules.

  Bring her.

  “To you? No, Shadow. You said we had to keep our friendship a secret. I don’t want you to have to go away.”

  Bring her to me.

  The shadow’s gold eyes felt like a burning spotlight to Teddy. He wondered if this was what his mom’s friends from the Oakhaven newspaper meant when they said, “the hot seat.”

  She knows.

  Teddy was confused. He lowered himself to the cold basement floor. When he shivered, the shadow reached out and placed its hand on him.

  Teddy ground his teeth and shot back.

  “Ow!”

  The shadow had never burnt him before. Teddy examined the top of his wrist. The skin was a little red, but the burn wasn’t too severe.

  He looked at the shadow with his eyes wide in surprise.

  “You hurt me.”

  Sorry. I saw you were cold.

  Teddy unbunched the sleeves of his t-shirt and pulled them down on both sides.

  “You think Ali knows about you?”

  The shadow’s whisper hissed back at Teddy.

  She’s heard you speak to me. She knew the last family.

  “The Warrens?”

  Teddy thought if he said the family’s name, maybe the shadow would tell him about his last friend.

  Don’t you want me to be warm, Teddy? Don’t you want to be my friend?

  Teddy was finally adjusting to the house in Indiana, and he wouldn’t have done that without the shadow. Even with Ali, Teddy still spent time alone. And without the shadow, that alone time would make him feel bad and make him feel more afraid of the house. He needed the shadow.

  “Of course.”

  Then we have to be sure she won’t tell.

  Teddy didn’t like it. He was afraid of scaring Ali off once she heard the shadow’s voice or saw its golden eyes. He was used to the shadow’s features now, but they used to scare him too.

  Still, with a sense of a need to please his friend, Teddy agreed.

  “We’re going to play in the cornfield behind the house. Can I bring he
r after that?”

  The shadow’s hand fell to the concrete floor and flattened back to a two-dimensional figure. Its eyes gently closed.

  “Okay. I can do that.”

  Teddy went up the stairs, and the shadow tiptoed into his thoughts.

  Be careful, Teddy.

  Teddy nodded and went out the basement door, shutting the darkness behind him.

  14

  “Are you sure we won’t get lost?”

  Ali laughed. “You worry too much. I’ve gone in a hundred times. It’s not too big. We can still hear each other.”

  Ali was right. On his way into Indiana, Teddy saw far larger cornfields than the one behind his house. It was more like a large patch of corn rather than an entire field. Still, he was afraid.

  Before Teddy could argue with Ali, she stepped from the yard and backed into the cornfield. She stared Teddy down with a mischievous smile that said, “Come and get me.”

  The sun barely peeked above the tall green plants. It would be dark soon. The new house made him fear the dark in a way he never had before. And as he imagined the cornfield’s openness, the likelihood of getting separated seemed to expand—another one of the house’s tricks, like the slamming doors.

  Teddy stood on the cornfield’s edge, trapped on a bridge between two worlds of terror. He couldn’t see Ali anymore. Maybe she’d known the field well enough to go that far, but Teddy didn’t like it—no matter how small the field was. His mouth felt dry as the cornfield sucked up each of his breaths. His stomach churned, and Teddy could taste its after-effects as they teased his tongue.

  He threw the baseball into his father’s mitt, forgetting he was tossing the ball to himself while waiting for Ali.

  When he thought of just turning back to the house and telling Ali later that he got lost and found his way out himself, she called, “You go first! Find me, Teddy. Yell Richard!”

  Richard Nixon. It had become their own special game, just like tic-tac-toe or the Polaroid pictures with the shadow.

  “Yell Richard!”

  She must’ve been closer than he thought. Teddy cupped his hands around his mouth and again realized he had yet to set down the ball and the baseball mitt. He slid it off his hand and patted the glove before he tossed it and the ball into the yard behind him. He felt more exposed without the mitt, like he was shedding the last bit of familiarity before stepping into the unknown.