CHAPTER 10
Geddy
“Home at last!” she crooned, stepping dramatically
through the front door to her own house back in Winoka. They had
waited out the next crescent moon up at the farm, and it was a good
week into December. So many things seemed so long ago. She almost
felt newly born again—her human limbs weren’t as weak or clumsy as
they had been after her first morph, now over two months ago.
“Hey, where’s the sullen teenager we’ve grown to
love?” her mother teased softly.
“I’ve eaten her, because I’m starved. When’s
dinner?”
“As soon as your father can get it on the
table.”
Jonathan started for the kitchen. Jennifer went to
the office computer to check emails. There were over a hundred for
her.
They missed me! she thought with a warm
glow, recognizing several of her school friends’ addresses. She
settled in for a comfortable hour of writing back.
It didn’t take long for her good mood to evaporate.
What on earth would she tell these guys? That she could summon an
owl by slapping her wing on dirt? That skin camouflage was best
mastered first thing in the morning, when she was freshest? They
wanted details on her “hospital stay,” but Jennifer had never been
to a hospital as a patient—only to see her mother at work.
She discussed the problem with her mother, who
looked thoughtful. “Tell them you’re glad to be back, the food
sucked, and the doctor was really cute but talks too much.”
“Doesn’t sound like a lot to say.”
“Honey, that’s all they want to know.”
“Hmm. Maybe. But isn’t this lying?”
Elizabeth kept an even expression. “You are
glad to be back; you said it yourself. The food does suck at
the hospital—I can vouch for that. And there’s this cute new
surgical intern there who likes to flirt over head traumas—”
“All right, all right, it’s all true, just
please don’t say anymore.”
Returning to school the next day brought two bits
of good news to Jennifer: First, the animal shapes were gone. There
were no more Canada geese drifting through the school hallways, or
horses galloping through the gymnasium. Her eyes let her see
everyone as their normal self.
The second bit of good news was that her mother had
been right: Vague statements were enough for her friends. Eddie and
Skip had warm greetings for her, accepted her fumbling explanations
without a blink, then instantly dived back into the complicated
morasses of their own lives. They had missed Jennifer, but her
peers were just as self-absorbed as she was. Probably just as well,
she thought.
She wondered if she would have noticed that sort of
thing before that first crescent moon.
Susan also seemed ready to be friends again.
Jennifer knew this when Susan announced, “Okay, so, I’m ready to be
friends again.”
“Huh?” They were in study hall, ten minutes before
the bell would ring and free them. Jennifer had been half-asleep,
shading in sketches of the pigs and sheep she hoped she’d never see
again. Suddenly, she came to full attention. “Hey, did you just say
we’re friends again?”
“Yeah, I guess. Just don’t blow me off again . . .
and try to stay off the drugs, okay?”
“Hilarious. Your future is in comedy.”
“I mean it, Jenny. Just—keep it together,
okay?”
Jennifer ignored the nickname. “You don’t react
well to change,” she observed, not unkindly.
Susan wiped her eyes. “I just want things back to
normal.”
Jennifer looked at her friend sadly. Things had
changed, and Susan’s clinging to the past was only part of what
bothered her. She realized with a start that in some ways she felt
closer to Catherine, a high school junior who thrilled at every new
lizard she called, than to Susan, who hadn’t really changed since
they were six.
Later, on the school’s front steps, Skip bounded up
to them with his usual alarming energy, flirted outrageously, and
had her and Susan talked into a trip to the local fudge shop when
Eddie wandered up.
“Fudge run, Eddie? C’mon, I’m buying. How ’bout a
half pound of peanut butter marble chip marshmallow swirl?”
“Ugh, have another ingredient!” Susan spat.
“Well, he wasn’t offering it to you,” Eddie
said. He turned back to Skip. “I’m ready for that mission!”
“Well, come on, ladies—you, too, Susan. If we don’t
get there quick, those rat bastards from the basketball team will
have hogged it all.”
“You just call them that because they lose, lose,
lose. They need Jennifer on their team,” Susan suggested. It was an
obvious ploy at flattery, which Jennifer didn’t mind at all.
They trooped down the steps, and Jennifer blushed
when Skip threw his arm around her waist. Since he was flirting
with Susan and tormenting Eddie at the same time, she decided it
was just a friendly gesture and made no move to throw him
off.
Besides, it was nice. And he smelled great.
A squeal of brakes interrupted her internal musing,
and she looked up in time to see Eddie’s father pull up beside the
curb in the familiar brown pickup. He leaned over and bawled
through the open window, “Ed! Shake a leg, boy. Training!”
They all stopped and stared at the stern face,
which was redder and bulgier than ever. When Mr. Blacktooth caught
sight of Jennifer, and then Skip’s arm around her waist, his head
quietly shifted from red to purple, and his cheeks looked like they
might burst.
Uh-oh, Jennifer thought wryly, I’ve
tainted Skip.
“Aw, geez, Dad, we were just gonna make for
the—”
“Edward James Blacktooth! NOW!”
“Bye.” With that sullen word, Eddie broke away from
their little group, trotted to the car, and climbed in without
looking back. As the car roared off, Skip spoke first. “Yeouch!
Wonder what ‘training’ means?”
Susan sniffed. “Probably some anal-retentive
lawn-mowing exercise. Mr. Blacktooth freaks out over everything.
You know him, he’s a total jerk. If my father acted like that, I’d
ditch and go to my grandparents’.”
“My father gets upset sometimes,” Skip offered
quietly. “But he knows not to push me too far. Not since Mom . .
.”
Jennifer, who caught Skip’s discomfort at the
mention of family again, brought them back on track. “Come on,
guys. The fudge won’t come to us.”
More subdued now, the three of them left the school
grounds. Skip’s arm slipped from Jennifer’s waist. But before she
could feel bad about that, she felt his fingers poke at her palm.
She grasped his hand back.
The new kid had been there for her in Mr.
Blacktooth’s truck. And outside Mr. Pool’s office. And drawing
sketches in her room. And now, he was there for her more than
anyone else was. Even Eddie. It made her happy, and also a little
sad somehow.
“You should come over for dinner sometime with me and my dad.” It was the next day. Jennifer and Skip were coming out of Ms. Graf’s class after a deadening slide show on the anatomy of crabs, lobsters, and scorpions.
“Huh?”
“Dinner. You know. What you eat at night.”
“Yeah, I know dinner. I mean, why?”
“Because if you wait long enough after lunch, you
get hungry. You wanna come over tonight or what?” To Jennifer, he
appeared nervous and annoyed.
“Is this, like, a date?”
“I dunno. I guess.” Skip was sweating, his cocky
expression replaced by something Jennifer had never seen before in
him—fear. “You don’t have to come to our house, if you don’t want.
We could all go out somewhere, like the food court at the
mall.”
“Your dad wants to meet me at the mall?” Part of
Jennifer knew it was cruel to do this to Skip, but she had to admit
she was enjoying it. She just had to be careful he wouldn’t
withdraw the offer completely—she did want to go.
“I’ve told him about you, and he wants to meet you.
He’s still a bit weird about me dating, since my mom . . . um . .
.”
“Sure, I’ll go.” Jennifer was embarrassed at the
mention of Skip’s late mother. She hadn’t meant to press him that
far. “The mall sounds fine. I need to check with my parents when I
get home. I’ll call you tonight.”
Both Mother and Father approved and, in fact,
seemed relieved at her request.
“It’s good to see you going out with friends
again,” Jonathan explained. “Do you want one of us to go with you?
I wouldn’t mind meeting this boy—”
“This is going to be stressful enough,” Jennifer
interrupted. “Another parent there would kill me.”
“I’m just not sure you should do this alone—”
Fortunately, she had a backup plan already in
place. “Susan’s already agreed to go with me. Just drop us off at
the mall entrance, and pick us up two hours later. No muss, no
fuss. Okay?”
It worked out passably well, Jennifer thought later
on after she had gotten back home. Susan and she were dutifully
impressed by Skip’s dad. He had the same greenish blue eyes and
chocolate hair, he dressed in the casual clothes of a man who made
his living in construction, and his eyes seemed always wrinkled at
the corners in a friendly laugh.
“Mr. Wilson?!” He chuckled when Jennifer addressed
him this way.
“My, what a polite young woman you are, Ms. Scales!
Very well, Mr. Wilson will do.”
Over take-out sushi, they discussed school, soccer,
the upcoming Christmas holiday, and even a bit of Skip’s mom.
According to Skip and his father, she would take her son around the
world—western Africa, Australia, and South America—as part of her
studies in native cultures.
Suddenly, the conversation turned to Jennifer’s own
travels, and the one tense moment of the evening.
“Skip tells me you’re away from school a lot, and
that you’re going through a tough time.” His greenish blue eyes
lost some of their sparkle. “I know something about what you’re
going through. I expect it isn’t easy for your family.”
She wasn’t sure how to respond to this. Her blood
was turning cold. What if Skip’s mom, just like Susan’s, had died
after a long illness? She would never be able to explain to either
of them the truth—not after faking the sort of sickness that had
hurt them so deeply.
Seeing everyone stare at her made her realize she
should answer. She chose her words carefully. “It’s pretty hard.
I’ll be gone a lot this winter and spring. Skip and Susan have been
very understanding. I’m lucky to have them as friends.”
Susan reached out next to her and grabbed her hand.
They exchanged soft smiles, but Jennifer felt even worse than she
had before. She decided then and there: I’ll tell them both the
truth. Soon.
She just needed a bit more time to get used to the
truth herself.
Weeks went by, and Jennifer supposed she was adjusting. Both her strange dreams and the animal visions were gone, and she supposed that had to count for something. She felt she could settle into school a bit, even though it still seemed pointless. The routine of classes and friends was still comforting, for however long it lasted.
Certainly her freakishness had its advantages, even
in human form. One mid-December morning she jumped from the ground
halfway up the icy trellis to her bedroom window without wings. And
the school bullies certainly walked more softly around her. Word of
her recurring sickness did not seem to overshadow word of Bob
Jarkmand’s pasting at her hands months ago. Skip called her “my
bodacious bodyguard,” which was as exasperating as it was
endearing.
Christmas morning, she was in the shape of a girl,
and even better, she was in the shape of a girl with an alarmingly
high stack of presents. Both of her parents and Grandpa Crawford
were there—Joseph insisted that he never celebrated the holiday,
and would watch the farm for them while they were in Winoka—and
they had all been very generous in this most trying of years.
She placed another sweater—this one a gorgeous riot
of blue, gold, and green—on her new clothing pile, half-listening
to a conversation between the other three. Most of her attention
was on the next gift, the size of a shoebox with gold foil wrapping
and bow, as her father filled her grandfather in on some
development at work.
“—last week’s city council meeting, where we were
trying to get approval of a site plan—”
She shook the box. It rattled satisfactorily.
“—ran into Otto Saltin, of all people! I didn’t
even know he lived anywhere near here. He happened to have business
before the council on the same night. Anyway, we steered clear of
each other—”
She smelled it and grinned. The Godiva truffle box!
And larger than ever this year, she noticed as she clawed the paper
off in a single stroke.
“—company’s been doing business in town for at
least the last couple of years. I’ll have to—Hey, not before
breakfast, miss!”
“Aw, Dad,” she whined. The golden box
glittered invitingly. “Just one?”
“Just one would become just eight.” Her father
softened a bit. “After breakfast, go crazy. Have a truffle
party.”
“Thanks. And thanks for all the great gifts, you
guys. It’s—” . . . been a tough year, she thought. Been
great to have my space while I figure things out. Been even better
to have us all together for the holidays. Going to be best of all
to sneak a truffle out of the box when no one’s looking. “—er,
it’s really great.”
“You’re not done yet,” Jonathan said. He rose and
ambled upstairs. A minute later he came back down and handed her a
small box with holes punched all over. It fit into her hand neatly.
The logo for Daniel’s Pets (the D was a curled up cat and the P was
a dog sitting up on its hind legs) marked the sides, top, and
bottom.
“What is it?” She gently tilted the box.
Something skittered inside. “It’s too small to be a puppy, unless
you got me one of those irritating, yappy, small ones—”
“Ugh. No. I’d eat one of those before I’d have it
in our house,” he said with a shudder. “No, it’s something more,
ah, suitable to your nature. Some dragons like to have . . . well,
they like to have companions.”
Phoebe chose that moment to push her muzzle into
Jennifer’s lap. The dog got one whiff of the box, raised her
enormous ears, and began to growl through her muzzle.
Jennifer flicked her on the snout. “Don’t get
jealous, Phoebe! It doesn’t become you.” The dog whimpered softly
and jogged out of the room.
Lifting the top flap, Jennifer peered inside the
box.
A small, delicate lizard gazed back up at her. It
was a joyful, vivid green and sported a red streak down its back.
Its eyes were tiny pools of fathomless black. The corners of its
mouth were ticked upward in a permanent, silly grin.
“Huh! It’s . . . um . . . it’s . . .”
“It’s a gecko. And let me tell you, that’s no
ordinary lizard. He practically leapt into my pocket while your
mother and I were browsing the pet store. We had to convince the
manager we weren’t trying to shoplift him.”
The gecko smoothly scurried up to the edge of the
box, clung to the open flap, and licked its own eye with a
lightning-fast, spoon-shaped tongue.
“He’s adorable! What’s his name?”
“You can decide that after you agree to handle his
care or feeding. Or hers. Or whatever.” Her mother’s tone suggested
not everyone had left the pet store happy.
“The cashier said it’s a he,” Jonathan offered
enthusiastically.
“Yes, I’m sure it’s a he! I just know it!”
Her mother smiled vaguely. “Fabulous. A telepathic
lizard. The next time you and he commune, make sure you both
understand that neither your father nor I are responsible for him.
There are some books in our room, and a tank, and supplies. You
move it all to your room and set it up. Assuming you want to
keep him.”
“You bet! Oh, thanks, he’s great, Geddy’s just
great! I can’t wait to—”
“Geddy?” Her mother snickered. “Geddy the
gecko?”
“You said I could name it, and that’s the name I
like,” Jennifer said with a sniff. She didn’t know why she had
chosen that one. It just seemed to fit.
Geddy licked his other eye.
“Those books tell you all sorts of neat things,”
Jonathan offered. “For example, smaller geckos live for about
fifteen or twenty years—the shop owner said he didn’t know how old
this one was, but figured he couldn’t be more than a couple years.
They shed their skin every six weeks or so in warmer weather and
eat it. Also, if a predator catches one, it can detach its own
tail! Also—”
“I’ll read the books, Dad. Promise.” She lifted
Geddy off the box flap with a finger and held him up to her eyes.
“I thought geckos made noise. Isn’t that how they get their
name—gek-ko, gek-ko?”
In response, Geddy licked one eye, then the other,
then the first one again.
“He hasn’t made a peep since we got him.”
“Huh. I guess Geddy’s a freak, just like me.” But
Jennifer said this with a smile. “Aren’t youuu, my widdle
Geddy-gecko-poo? We’re two widdle peas in a pod!”
Phoebe whined from a distance. Elizabeth looked
ready to retch. But Jonathan and Crawford smiled.
“I used to have a little fella just like that one,”
Crawford said. “You’ll be surprised what a gecko can do for a
dragon.”
“Can it clean her room?” Elizabeth asked. She and
her father-in-law exchanged looks, but Jennifer didn’t notice. All
she could do was titter as Geddy slunk across her hand and arm, up
her ticklish neck, and through a mane of sliver and gold hair to
perch upon her head.