36

THE END OF THE WORLD
AS I KNEW IT.

Of course. Bitsie’d been listening to Zola too!

Who could blame him for wanting to meet Arnold? It must have been like thinking you’re an orphan all your life and then hearing there’s a man who looks just like you living three streets away. Of course you’d want to find out if you were related. It made perfect sense. But there was an obvious problem.

“You tear off the back of your head,” I said, “and Zola gets in trouble. You run away, and Zola gets in trouble. It’s all the same to me. Why should I take you there?” I was still being tough because Bitsie had put me through too much to just give in to him that easily.

Bitsie didn’t put the knife down, but something about his eyes changed. “If I stay here with only half a head,” he said, “both Zola and I will be miserable. You take me to van Gurp’s and at least one of us will be happy.”

He was right, but that didn’t make it any easier for me.

Who was I going to hurt? My best friend who could also be a big selfish jerk? Or the nicest person I ever knew?

I didn’t have time to decide. The door to the studio opened, and Bitsie and I both dived under the set.

It was Nick. Looking for something.

“I don’t see it here, Kathleen.”

She didn’t answer. Unless you call a big wet sob an answer.

“But that’s all right.” Nick was so nice. His voice was all soft and I’ll-take-care-of-you. “I don’t think you’ll be using your cell phone this weekend.”

More sobs.

“Now, now, now. I know that sounds painful to you at the moment, but it might turn out to be a good thing. You need a break.”

That really set her off.

“I do need a break!” Kathleen started burbling away like a little kid having a tantrum. “It’s not fair! All this stress! The money problems! The puppet problems!”

She had a real big boo-hoo about that and I glared at Bitsie. He just sat there, of course, scraping the latex from the inside of his ear with the utility knife and acting like Kathleen was talking about Big Bird’s lisp or something.

Nick was saying, “I know, I know,” and leading her out the door.

“And if that’s not bad enough,” Kathleen really spat this out, “I get saddled with Dodo’s kid for the whole summer!”

Right then, everything in the world changed for me.

Nick said, “You’re right. That was an awful lot to ask you to do,” and closed the door.

I turned to Bitsie and said, “When’s the first bus to Bousfield?”