CHAPTER NINE
SURPRISES

"He's going to kill me," I said to Karen a couple of days later.

"Stop worrying about it," she told me, whittling the bark off a thin young tree branch. She paused for a second to admire the creamy greenish-white wood underneath, before going back to it.

"It's easy for you to say," I muttered.

She looked at me. "You get used to oppression," she said, matter-of-factly.

I frowned. "What do you mean?"

"I mean," she said, sitting down beside me, "that when people start picking on you, you learn to adapt. You find other friends, or if you can't find friends, you find other things to do to fill the time." I watched as her little knife cast shaving after shaving away into the grass. "Besides," she smiled, "I think what you did was neat. He had it coming, and you didn't really hurt him any, just embarrassed him." She giggled. "Wish I could have seen that."

"What kinds of things do you do to fill the time?" I asked.

Karen dropped her paws idly and sighed. "Oh, lots of things," she said. "I make up imaginary friends, I write stories, play in the forest, follow the--" She broke off.

"Follow who?"

"No one," she said.

"Who?"

She blinked a couple of times, and then finally said, "The soap operas. My mom likes them, so she sometimes asks me to watch after school and tell her what happens."

I smiled and nodded. I knew she had started to say something she hadn't meant to, and was covering up with a little white lie. I decided I'd never get her to trust me if I pressed her, so I pretended to accept what she said. "So you think I should follow the soap operas, is that it?" I joked.

Karen laughed. "No," she said. "You just asked me what I do. It's up to you to decide how to spend your time. Of course... now that we're both friends, it's not like we have to worry about not having friends..."

I nodded. I stopped and thought about that for a moment. This was okay for the summer, but what about when school started again? Could Karen and I really be friends then? I'd never make any friends if people thought of me only as the friend of a girl, and then, the least popular girl in Pemrick! I was disgusted with myself. But the truth was, I didn't honestly know if she and I could be friends once school started. But I decided to keep that to myself. At least for now.

Karen handed me the stick she'd been working on and started whittling another. "That's our first arrow," she told me.

"Arrow?"

"Arrow. For cowboys and Indians." She flicked her paw and more shavings flew from our second arrow, in the making.

By day's end, we had fifteen arrows and two long bows, complete with string Karen had brought. At first I had just tied the string around the ends of mine, but Karen shook her head and showed me how to tie a knot in the string at both ends and slip the string into the grooves she'd cut at the tips. The string held the bow tightly and bent the wood even more. I was impressed that a girl would know so much about the forest. We hid our archery set in a hollow tree and set off for our homes for supper.

Karen's family seemed to eat earlier than mine, since my Dad took so much longer to get home than hers did, so I still had a little time kicking around just to myself. I wandered home slowly, thinking about how I was going to keep Karen as a friend in the fall, and not really paying attention, when suddenly I felt a tug and I stumbled sideways behind a hedge.

Bruno.

Dressed, this time, with a cool look on his face. My heart jumped into my throat and I panicked, smashing at his hand where he held my shirt.

"Take it easy," he snarled, "I'm not gonna hurt you." And then, just like that, he let go of my shirt. I was so stunned, I didn't even take the opportunity to run away. "I'm sorry I had to grab you," he went on, "but I figured you'd just run away if I didn't."

I just stood there, trembling.

"I'm not going to hurt you," he repeated. "I just want to know one thing."

I found my voice. "What," I croaked.

"Why did you come back?"

I didn't catch what he meant right away. "Huh?"

"With my clothes: why did you come back? You could have left me there till I tried to sneak home or till someone came looking for me. Why didn't you?"

I swallowed. "I couldn't do that," I said. "Not even to you."

His eyes narrowed, piercing me, as if scanning for the truth. I said, "I thought about your mom waiting for you, and how I'd feel if someone did it to me... I was waiting for you at the edge of the woods with your clothes."

"You were?" His eyebrows shot up.

I nodded. "I just... I didn't want to get you in trouble, really. I just wanted to get back at you."

Bruno sighed. "Yeah, well... I guess I had some of that coming. But after what you did the other day behind the school, I ought to pound you," he said. I flinched, and he added, "I won't, though. We're even now."

I told him, "I never got to tell you that day. The whole thing was Teddy's idea."

Bruno's head spun and he blinked at me. "You're lying," he challenged.

"No," I said. "He called me over to have lunch with him and his guys, and he told me I should get revenge on you for picking on me. He even thought up how."

"But he told me he caught you doing it!!" Bruno cried.

"I know," I said. "He's a liar, Bruno. He used both of us. He just wanted to see you beat me up."

Bruno's mouth hung open. He was utterly stunned. Then he smacked his fist into his paw. "You're dead meat, Teddy," he snarled.

I took a risk... "How come you didn't come after me to beat me up after that day?" I posed.

Bruno glared at me for a second, and then pulled his lips tight, glancing down at his feet. "The principal called my dad and told him I was picking on another kid... You," he said, his eyes darting up to meet mine. "When I got home, my dad said if he heard about me picking on you or anyone else again, I'd be sorry. So... you were off the hook."

I considered that for a moment. "You're not still mad at me, are you?"

"I ought to be," he decided, "but I'm not." Bruno looked around, as if looking for something to say, trying to spin things out. Like he didn't want me to leave. "You wanna go someplace?" he asked me.

I shrugged. I was still wary of him, but having Bruno treat me in a friendly way, even in an off-hand freindly way, was too much like gold to just pass up. "Sure," I said. "Where?"

Bruno shrugged. "I dunno. Someplace we can sit down for a while."

I looked around. We were beside someone's yard; there didn't seem to be anyplace handy.

Bruno looked around. "Look," he said, "can you keep a secret?"

"Yeah, sure..."

"You swear?"

"Yeah. Yeah, I swear."

"We could go to my lagoon," he said. "I mean, you already found it. You know where it is."

"Not exactly... but yeah."

He fixed a stern gaze on me. "You didn't tell anyone where it was, did you?"

I remembered that I had actually told Karen everything that had happened, but I had never told her where exactly I had found Bruno, so I wasn't lying when I shook my head.

"Okay, then," Bruno nodded. "Come on."

Bruno led me a ragged course through the brush, pushing aside creepers and tree branches, stepping through cold, slimey mud and the carpet of pine needles and dead leaves, all the while telling me how he and his brother had found the place, years before. Finally we arrived at the spot I had found him that day, the small, crystal pool bordered by a grassy bank and surrounded by trees, barely open to the sky above.

Bruno smiled, proudly, as if he had made the place himself with his bare hands. "Me and my brother, we called it The Lagoon," he told me. "No one else in the whole world knows this place is here. Just me and him, and now you."

I suddenly realized what a great honor Bruno was doing me. This wasn't just some place to him; this was his place. As private, in its way, as his own bedroom. Maybe more so, because it was a secret. And here he was making me a part of it. "Wow," I said in appreciation.

"Isn't it great?" He stood before me. "Raise your hand."

I blinked. "Come on, raise your hand," he said, demonstrating. I raised my paw like him, and stared back as he locked eyes with me. "Do you solemnly swear never to reveal the location of this place to anyone, not even your mother and father, even under torture, till the day you die?"

"I do," I nodded. For good measure, I crossed my heart.

Bruno stuck out his hand, forcefully, suddenly. I jerked back, startled, and then realized he expected me to shake on it. I took his hand and shook it. It was probably the first time Bruno had ever touched me without it being painful, or at least scary.

Bruno sat down in the grass by the water and motioned for me to do the same. "My real name's Jim," he told me. "Everyone started calling me Bruno a couple years ago. I hated it at first, but now I don't mind. I even kind of like it better than Jim."

"You want me to call you Bruno then?"

"It's up to you," he said. "But yeah, kind of."

"Okay. I'm Izly," I said.

"Yeah, I know," he told me. "That your real name?"

"Yeah. Well, it's short for it. It's really Islington."

"Which do you want me to call you?" he asked, plucking a dandelion.

"Either's okay. Izly's shorter. Or even 'Iz'; I get that once in a while."

"Iz it is," he joked. I made sure I laughed.

There was a long pause while we just sat there, listening to the water trickle out of the pool and down a little stream nearby. I looked at him for a moment. He didn't seem as mean-looking as I always thought of him. His fur was all brownish-orange, and his hair, under his cap, was a little lighter. He had dark brown eyes like chocolate and his face wasn't ugly at all, I thought. He looked sort of like a hero, somehow. If he stopped being a bully, I thought maybe I could even like him. "Hey, Bruno," I said, "why did you start picking on me?"

Bruno slowly looked up from the pool and studied my face out of the corners of his eyes for a moment. He gave a slow, massive shrug of his shoulders. It seemed a very weary, tired sort of gesture. "I dunno," he mumbled. "You bumped into me that time, and I was just in a bad mood. Then I saw you in the school yard, and..." He frowned. "And Teddy Whitetip said I should remind you that you better not shove Bruno Basso around." Bruno snarled, as if Teddy were right there with us.

"Teddy's a real jerk," I said.

"He's supposed to be my friend," Bruno told me.

"I don't think he's your friend if he keeps getting you to hurt people, getting you in trouble." It was a daring thing to say, but Bruno nodded, looking off into the trees.

"He's not my friend," he sighed, "I guess. Not really at all." He looked at me. "I don't have many friends," he told me. "To be honest, I guess I don't have any."

I nodded. "Well, I guess I don't either." I almost said, 'Except Karen McTree,' but I decided that probably wouldn't have been a good idea.

"Yeah, but that's 'cause you're new here," he said. "I've lived here all my life, and still nobody likes me..." He cast a thoughtful look at the water. He turned back slowly to me, eyes narrowed... "You wanna go swimming?" he asked.

"Well, sure, I like swimming," I said, which was true enough, "but I don't have a bathing suit with me..."

"I never use one here. It's hidden. You're the only one who ever found it."

I swallowed. "What, you mean, naked?"

"Sure," he said, and scowled. "You're not chicken, are you?"

I hurriedly spat, "No!"

"Well, then...?" He rose to his feet. Reluctantly, I stood too. "You promise not to steal my clothes again, and I promise not to steal yours. Okay?"

I nodded, "Uh, yeah, okay."

This time Burno crossed his heart. Then, in a gesture of good faith, he started undressing first. Slowly, shyly, I took off my shirt. Bruno was all in the fur, hanging his stuff on the same tree I'd snitched them from, while I stood there in my jeans. "Come on, sissy," he sneered, strutting past me and diving like a pro headfirst into the pond. The water accepted him with a mighty splash. Swallowing my pride, I pulled my legs and tail free of my jeans and hung my clothes on the branch by Bruno's. Then I spun and hurried into the cover of the water as fast as my feet would take me.

When I rose to the surface again, Bruno was grinning at me, his hair and fur plastered down by the wet. I pushed my hair out of my eyes and grinned back. "It's nice," I told him.

"Yeah, it's excellent. Excellent for water wars!!" he yelled, and began cascading me with water, thunderous splashes raining down on me! Laughing hysterically, I fought back, retreating, until he had me up against the wall of the pool.

"I give," I yelled, "I give!"

Bruno ceaased fire. He flexed his muscles in triumph. "King of the Sea," he beamed.

"Do you still come here with your brother?" I asked.

Bruno shook his head. "He's fifteen now. He doesn't hang around with me anymore. I'm too little, he says," Bruno sneered, at his absent brother.

"How old are you?"

"Eleven," he replied.

"Really? I'm just ten."

"Yeah, well," Bruno growled, settling onto his back in the water, and floating like a duck, "I got held back a year in school."

"You failed?"

"Held back," he corrected, icily.

This wasn't news to me. I knew he had just repeated grade four. But I pretended I hadn't known. "How come?" I inquired.

"I got sick for a while last year. Pretty bad, a couple of months. Around Christmas. I missed a lot of work; for a while I couldn't even manage the stuff they sent home to me. So, at the end of the year, they decided I should take it again. It was too much to cover over the summer." He floated around, eyes on the sky.

Stupidly I blurted, "Then it wasn't that you nearly killed some kid--"

Bruno's eyes were on my like hot brands. His scowl was whithereing. "No," he said simply. "I didn't rip anybody's ears off or break anyone's neck or any of that stuff. I got into a fight over a basketball game just before I got sick. I got sent home with a note, but that's all. That's the weekend I got sick. When I came back in the spring, all I heard was how I got suspended for beating up some kid. And the story just got worse as time went on."

"I'm sorry," I said.

Bruno sighed. "It's not your fault, I guess. You're new here. There's no way you could know. But the rest of them... They all know the truth. They just wanted to make a monster of me."

I couldn't believe I was feeling sorry for him. A couple of hours before, I was sure he was plotting to kill me. Now I was standing here nude with him in his private hideout, listening to him tell me the truth behind it all.

"Suddenly I was the biggest kid in class," he said softly. "They made fun of me. Said I was stupid. I dunno, maybe I am. Kids called me 'Bruno' because it sounded tough... They started picking fights with me and pretty soon everyone thought I was just a big mean freak. And, so, why disappoint them?"

I sank up to my chin in the water. It was a starnge thing to realize that Bruno wasn't the merciless meathead I'd taken him for all these weeks.

Bruno looked at me. "Guess I should say I'm sorry," he told me.

"No need," I told him.

"Well, I am, just the same."

I smiled. "Thanks." I shifted a bit self-consciously in the water. "Next time you feel like pounding me, let's talk it out instead."

Bruno laughed. "Deal.."

"And maybe," I said, "maybe the same for Teddy."

Bruno blinked. "After all the trouble he caused us? Don't you think he deserves a good punching?"

"Maybe," I said. "But I think you deserve better than to be thought of as the guy who got mad and gave it to him."

Bruno was quiet and thought about it. "Maybe it would be just enough to let him know I know he was to blame, and he should count his lucky stars he's not seeing stars."

I laughed. "That, and your dad won't get upset."

"Oh, yeah!" Bruno said, remembering his father's warning. "That's a good point."

"Staying out of trouble usually is," I smiled.

Bruno smiled back at me. "You're okay," he said.

"Thanks. So are you."

Our fingertips started looking like prunes so Bruno and I pulled ourselves out of the water to dry our fur in the strong sunlight coming through from between some of the trees. When it started getting late we dressed again and headed home to the apartment building, for the first time together. It was strange to think that instead of dodging Bruno all the way home I was walking along with him instead! But that was the strange sort of day it had been.