“Geesh, Ozzie, you scared me! Go back,” Puck whispered loudly, pointing him home. “You can’t be with me right now.”
Ozzie dropped his ball and danced around Puck’s feet, waiting for him to throw it. His tongue lolled out the side of his mouth as he panted.
Puck sighed and snatched up the ball, and threw it hard, toward the house. When Ozzie took off after it, Puck ran the other way, hoping the pooch would give up and stay home.
But Ozzie wasn’t that easily deterred. A short minute later, he was right behind Puck again, loping easily through the woods. Puck had to slow down—maybe his arm still hurt a bit after all—and maybe it was good that Ozzie was with him.
He was lonely with GrayMan being gone so long. And he was worried about him, too.
As he walked, Puck thought about the man that had saved him from the mean boys. Sometimes GrayMan was grumpy and acted like he didn’t like him. But sometimes he acted like he did like him. If he could just do something to help out, then maybe GrayMan would like him all the time. Maybe if Mama Dee did come back, GrayMan wouldn’t make him go home.
He didn’t want to go home to her. She was mean to him and Jenny. Puck knew Mama Dee didn’t ever like him—she told him so. She would get mad and say, ‘If I didn’t need this check, I’d throw you outta here.’ And then she’d make him act like he couldn’t talk at all, or think, when the man in the suit came to visit every few months.
Grunt. That’s what Mama Dee said to do, no matter what the man asked him.
It made his face hot to act like that when the man was there. It wasn’t nice to not answer the right way when talked to. Even he knew that.
It was stupid to act stupid.
Mama Dee said if the man knew he wasn’t stupid, he couldn’t stay there anymore. He’d have to go to school and everything. She made him hide his Xbox and his drone on the days the man was coming.
Uh oh, he thought. I think I forgot to hide my Xbox.
Well, hopefully the man wouldn’t come.
Puck didn’t want to go to school anyway, but he wouldn’t mind it at all if he didn’t have to stay with Mama Dee anymore… as long as he could keep Jenny and Mama Dee could still get her check. If she didn’t get her check, she got really mad.
Puck hadn’t been to school in a long time. He could barely remember school, but sometimes he had a nightmare of other boys taunting him in a school setting. The dreams scared him because they seemed like real life.
But Mama Dee said it wasn’t real.
The kids in his dreams made fun of him. Just like the mean boys who chased him up that tree. He didn’t like mean people. He was nice to everyone. It wasn’t fair that not everyone was nice back to him.
Mama Dee was even meaner to Jenny. Jenny didn’t like her one little bit.
A loud buzzing filled Puck’s ears and he stopped again. Ozzie stopped beside him. He looked up into the tall trees and found what he was looking for.
And much more.
His face lit up. Now there were two bee nests! He was going to bring back lots of food!
One nest was in the hollowed-out knothole in the tall tree. He’d sat down in the woods many times to watch the little workers their honey. It was really fun to watch. The stuff looked like tiny yellowish-orange bags. He’d imagined they had packed their things and were moving out—running away even.
Maybe they had a Mama Dee Bee that was mean to them, too. He giggled at that. A Mama Dee-Bee… and maybe they were going somewhere to live with a new Mama Bee. One that was nice to them and let them eat as much as they wanted, anytime their belly growled. One that didn’t make them work hard outside all day long.
One that let him have friends and go places and carry a gun—oh wait.
He was getting confused. He forgot he was thinking of the bees… not himself.
He sighed and looked at the new nest. It was strange looking and didn’t look like a normal nest at all. It was a big bubble of bees all stuck together, hanging on a branch on the next tree over from the hive in the knothole. The bee-bubble moved as though it were breathing. It looked like the bees were doing ‘the wave,’ like he saw people do at a football game on television sometimes.
He wished he could go to a real football game.
Why are so many bees out of the knothole? he wondered. Probably wasn’t room in there for all those bees… maybe they were waiting their turn to get in.
He secured the bag that he was carrying through a belt loop and grabbed the base of the tree before looking at Ozzie. “Ozzie, stay,” he said, not remembering Ozzie couldn’t climb trees.
Slowly, he climbed, trying not to put too much weight on his arm.
It was really hurting now…
Graysie leaned back, looking up in amazement. “Puck! What are you doing?” she screamed. “Get down from there!”
She had seen Ozzie run out and get his ball that weirdly flew in from the woods, grab it and run back into the trees. She’d followed him, knowing he was following Puck.
Puck was so startled by her scream that he nearly fell. “Graysie! Go back. I can do this all by myself!” he yelled angrily. “I’m mad at you!”
“Whatever, Puck, come down. You’re going to get hurt and then we’ll both be in trouble. I was supposed to be watching you!”
“I don’t need you to watch me. I’m not a baby!” he yelled down, his face growing red.
Graysie waved her hands up in the air. “No, I mean… look out for you. Not watch you. I know you’re not a baby. Come down. There’s bees up there!”
“No! I’m getting us food.” He hung on with one arm, looking all the world like a big blonde monkey, and reached into his bag, pulling out a glass Mason jar.
Graysie ran her hands over her face. “Puck, what are you doing?”
Ozzie looked up at Graysie, then Puck, and whined, pacing a circle around the tree.
“This is how Pooh does it,” he said, determined to prove her wrong.
“That’s a story! You don’t gather honey like that. I’m telling you. Please listen to me!” she begged.
“No! You’re not the boss of me!” he yelled, getting angrier.
There was no stopping him. Graysie could see that. And she knew it was her butt that was going to be in trouble for this. She pulled Ozzie back by his collar. “Come on, Ozzie. This might be bad.”
She grimaced and covered her eyes, peeking through her fingers, as Puck stuck the jar into the hole. She let out her breath. A few bees came out, buzzing around, but so far, no army came after him.
Until it did.
“Puck, here they come! Get down! Quick!”
Puck dropped the jar and it fell to the ground, as he tried to cover his face with one hand. An army of bees filed out and flew crazily around him. “Run, Graysie! Run, Ozzie!”
27
“It’s Olivia,” Edith blurted out. She crossed her arms. “There was a terrible accident. So, you can mark twins off that list. There’s not a matching set anymore. And Mei went home… the other way. Alone. I have no idea where she lives.”
Trunk narrowed his eyes at her. “Are you lying again, Grandma?”