Schools Out Page 5

  “Bravo, Lucas!” Genevieve called to him. She shook her head, and her long hair covered her face.

  Lucas shook his head. For a fraction of a moment, he wished he had long hair, too.

  “Hey, man. Look at you,” a voice called out.

  Lucas froze in his place. It was Julio’s voice. His friend was standing in the doorway of the living room and grinning at Lucas. Lucas had not heard Julio arrive. Probably the music had drowned out the sound of the doorbell.

  “I’m not dancing,” Lucas said. “I was just doing some stretching exercises. Dancing is sissy stuff.” He glared at Genevieve. How had she trapped him into doing this, anyhow?

  “Come off it,” said Julio, laughing. “I saw you dancing.”

  “You think I was dancing, but I wasn’t,” Lucas protested again. He wondered if he could ever live it down. He was furious at Genevieve. It was all her fault that Julio thought he was dancing.

  Genevieve had not stopped dancing yet. She moved toward Julio and grabbed his hand. “Come. You dance, too,” she said.

  Lucas smiled. Now she was going to make Julio into a sissy, too, he thought.

  Julio began to move to the music. He didn’t just copy Genevieve the way Lucas had been doing. He moved in a different way, turning around and covering more of the floor.

  “Julio. You don’t need any lessons from me.” Genevieve laughed. “You are a pro.”

  Lucas stood watching in amazement. It was true. Julio was a better dancer than Genevieve.

  “Let me try that,” said Genevieve. She began to copy some of Julio’s movements. “Where did you learn all this?” she asked.

  “My big brothers taught me,” said Julio proudly. “They’re both good dancers.”

  That was news to Lucas. Julio was always telling about how his brother Nelson was on the soccer team at school. And his other brother Ramon was a super basketball player. Julio never talked about dancing.

  “Hey, aren’t we going to play? Don’t you want to shoot baskets or something?” Lucas asked Julio.

  “Later,” said Julio. “Come on. Aren’t you going to dance with us?”

  So that was why, when Mrs. Cott walked into the living room a few minutes later, she saw eighteen-year-old Genevieve Lamont dancing with the two young boys. She was surprised by what she saw. Lucas was surprised, too. He was surprised to be dancing, and he was surprised to be enjoying himself so much.

  8

  AT THE MOVIES

  Two more weeks and summer vacation would be over. Two more weeks and school would start again. How could the whole summer have gone so quickly? Lucas wondered.

  In less than two more weeks, Genevieve would be gone. Lucas decided that he would miss her. It hadn’t been bad having her around all summer. In fact, he wondered how he ever would have had a chance to play with Julio or any of his other friends if Genevieve hadn’t been there to watch and distract the twins. How could he have shot any basketballs if Marcus and Marius were underfoot? It was absolutely impossible to play Monopoly or cards or build a jigsaw puzzle with his two little brothers grabbing at everything. Thank goodness for Genevieve!

  On the next to the last Wednesday of summer vacation, Lucas woke to discover it was raining outside. Sometimes on rainy days this summer, he had gone to play at Julio’s house. Once on a rainy day, Lucas’s mother had taken Lucas and Julio to the science museum. Marcus and Marius had stayed home with Genevieve. Today, however, Julio had gone off somewhere with his brothers, and Mrs. Cott had a bad headache.

  “I’m just not up to any trips today,” she told Lucas when he asked if she would take him to the museum again.

  “I’ll teach you a new card game when the little ones are napping,” Genevieve promised Lucas. She put them in their beds for their afternoon rest. These days, as the twins were nearing their third birthday, it was getting harder and harder to make them take that afternoon nap. Neither Marcus nor Marius wanted to sleep. They kept jumping out of bed and coming to see what Lucas was doing. Lucas wasn’t doing much. He was feeling bored.

  Lucas opened the newspaper to look at the comics. As he turned the pages, he found a big ad.

  “There’s a whole afternoon of cartoons at Movie World today,” he reported to his mother. “It starts at two o’clock. Could I go?”

  “Genevieve could drive you there,” said Mrs. Cott. “Perhaps a short ride in the car would soothe the twins.”

  “I want to see the movies,” shouted Marcus, who had overheard this exchange.

  “Me, too!” shouted Marius, running from the bedroom. He didn’t know what they were talking about but he didn’t want to be left out of anything.

  “You’re too little to watch movies,” said their mother.

  “Genevieve and I could take care of them,” offered Lucas. “They watch TV, so they could sit still at the movies, too,” he suggested.

  “Yes. Yes,” said Marcus, jumping up and down. “Take me to the movies.”

  “I want to go, too,” shouted Marius.

  Mrs. Cott sighed. “All right.” She gave in. “This will be an experiment and it will give me a little peace and quiet this afternoon.”

  “You need a piece of quiet,” Genevieve agreed. “You’ll be good, won’t you?” she asked the twins.

  “Yes,” said Marcus.

  “Me, too,” said Marius.

  At the movie theater, there was a huge number of children and parents. “I guess all the mothers wanted to have a piece of quiet this afternoon,” said Genevieve. It was the second time she had made that mistake between piece and peace. This time, Lucas explained about peace and piece. In a way, those words were twins, like Marcus and Marius. They were the same and yet different.

  Lucas looked around. He saw Cricket Kaufman standing on line to buy a ticket. She was with another girl, whom Lucas didn’t know. He was surprised that Cricket liked cartoons. Lucas recognized many other kids from school. There were several kids who looked as young as his brothers.

  Genevieve bought four tickets, and then they could enter. Inside the theater, the cartoons had not begun yet. The overhead lights were on so they could look for seats. There were so many children that they had to look around for a couple of minutes until they could find four seats together. Genevieve went in first, then Marcus and Marius. Lucas got the seat on the aisle. The twins were so small that their legs didn’t reach the floor but stuck out on their seats instead.

  “You must sit very quietly. Pretend you are watching television at home,” he instructed his brothers. “You look with your eyes and not with your mouth,” he added. He remembered that when he was little, his mother always had said that to him.

  All around them, other children were rattling candy papers and making a lot of noise. Marcus stood up on his seat to see better.

  “You must sit down because no one can see behind you,” said Genevieve.

  “Where is the movie?” asked Marcus, looking around.

  “It will begin very soon now,” said Genevieve.

  Sure enough, the lights dimmed and they were sitting in the darkened theater. Only the red lights above the exits were left on. Loud music began and the screen lit up.

  “It’s the movies!” shouted Marcus.

  All the other children were talking, so it didn’t seem important to remind him about looking with his eyes.

  Once the action began on the screen, the audience quieted down. Lucas alternated watching the cartoons with glances at his brothers. They were both mesmerized by the huge screen in front of them. Marius had his thumb in his mouth. That was one of the ways that he differed from his twin, Lucas realized. Marcus never sucked his thumb, but sometimes when he was sitting quietly, Marius did.

  Lucas reached over and tapped Genevieve on the shoulder. “Jennie, do we have enough money for popcorn?” he asked.

  Genevieve nodded. She reached into her pocket and handed Lucas some money. ‘Til watch the little ones,” she said. “You get the popcorn.”

  There was no one on line for ca
ndy or popcorn now that the cartoons had begun, so Lucas returned quickly holding two containers of popcorn.

  Lucas handed one of the containers of popcorn to Genevieve. He would share his popcorn with Marius, and Marcus could share with Genevieve. He had the better deal, since Marius had his thumb in his mouth. Lucas might not have to share at all.

  The first cartoon ended and the children in the audience whistled and cheered. A second one began. Lucas sat back and enjoyed himself. The popcorn was hot and salty, just the way he liked it.

  Lucas became absorbed in the cartoon. His eyes were on the screen and his hand automatically went from the popcorn container to his mouth. As the second cartoon came to an end, he looked over at the twins sitting between Genevieve and himself. He saw Marius sitting with his eyes glazed with half sleep. Somehow, though, incredibly, Marcus was not sitting on his seat.

  Lucas leaned over to get a better look. Maybe Marcus had changed his seat and was now on the far side of Genevieve.

  “Jennie. Where’s my brother?” hissed Lucas.

  The baby-sitter turned her head from the screen. She noticed the empty seat next to her and let out a gasp. “I don’t know,” she said. Her voice was full of fear.

  Lucas felt sick. It could have been from eating the popcorn too fast, but he didn’t think so.

  How could they have lost Marcus? He was sure Marcus hadn’t walked up or down the aisle. He would have seen him. Lucas looked down on the floor. Even in the half darkness, he could see bits of popcorn and candy wrappers all around. He noticed that there was a narrow space underneath each seat. It was big enough for a little boy or a small adult to crawl under.

  “Maybe he’s under here,” he said to Genevieve. ‘I’ll look for him.”

  Lucas got down on his hands and knees and looked under the seat where Marcus had been sitting. He put out his hand and tried to feel if his brother was underneath. He didn’t feel anything, so he stuck his head under the seat and began to push himself forward, under first one seat and then another. As he went, he called out softly, “Marcus. Marcus, where are you?”

  There were a lot of feet all around Lucas. Someone gave him a little kick in the head, but Lucas kept sliding forward. He had a feeling this was the direction in which the missing twin had gone.

  “What are you doing under my seat?” a boy asked Lucas.

  “I’m looking for my brother,” he whispered.

  “What would he be doing there? You can’t see the movie from down there.”

  Lucas didn’t bother to explain any further. He pushed himself forward and under the next seat. He grabbed hold of the bottom of the seat, and a woman’s voice screamed out. Lucas let go fast. He realized that he had grabbed someone’s leg.

  “Help,” the woman screamed again.

  Lucas moved forward as fast as he could.

  “Help!”

  The action on the screen seemed a lot less interesting to the audience than the action in the theater. Some of the kids began calling out.

  “I think it’s a mouse or a rat,” said the woman.

  “I hate mice!” screamed another woman.

  “Rats are worse,” shouted another voice.

  “Turn on the lights,” another parent called out.

  Lucas kept pushing forward. Marcus had to be here somewhere.

  Then, even though he was on the floor beneath a seat, he could see that the lights had been turned on. Lucas tried to stand up, but he didn’t have enough room. He had to turn the angle of his body so he could slide out the other way. Finally, he reached the aisle.

  Four rows back, where he had grabbed the woman by the leg, an usher was poking about with a broom.

  “Has anyone seen the mouse?” the usher asked.

  “No. But I felt him. He felt as big as a cat,” someone said.

  “He was as big as a dog,” said someone else.

  Lucas knew he was bigger than a cat or a dog, but he didn’t have time to explain to everyone about it. He had to find Marcus. Now that the lights were on, he could look about better. He ran toward the front of the movie theater.

  “Marcus,” he shouted. There was so much commotion in the movie house that he no longer had to whisper and worry about disturbing anyone. “Marcus, where are you?”

  “Lucas,” a familiar voice called out.

  It was Marcus, but Lucas didn’t see him. He looked up and down the aisles.

  “I got the best seat,” called Marcus.

  Lucas looked again. Sure enough, there was Marcus sitting in the very front row.

  Lucas ran over to him. “How did you get here?” he asked. “You weren’t supposed to leave the seat you already had.”

  “I dropped my popcorn,” said Marcus. “Everyone drops popcorn,” said Lucas, remembering all the popcorn he had crawled over during his search for his brother.

  “Mommy always says pick up,” said Marcus.

  It was true. Their mother always made the boys pick up the cookies or raisins or crayons that dropped on the floor at home.

  “In the movies, no one picks up,” said Lucas. “Besides, how did you get here?”

  “I just got here,” said Marcus.

  Lucas guessed he had taken the same route under the seats that he had. Being smaller, it had been a lot easier for Marcus.

  “Come on,” said Lucas. “We’ve got to sit next to Genevieve and Marius.”

  He took his brother by his very sticky hand and led him back toward the row where they had been sitting before.

  Halfway up the aisle, he saw Genevieve coming toward him. “Look,” she called. A huge smile of relief was on her face. “When the lights came on, I told Marius not to leave his seat. And I walked around and I found Marcus.” She held up the twin’s hand she was holding.

  “That’s Marius,” said Lucas. “You found Marius and he wasn’t even lost. I found Marcus.”

  Genevieve looked down and noticed for the first time that Lucas was holding a twin by the hand, too. Then she shrugged her shoulders. “A whole summer,” she said, “and I never can tell them apart. I am so stupid.”

  “You’re not stupid. You’re very smart,” Lucas insisted. “You’ve learned so much English this summer. You know hundreds of new words.” Genevieve smiled at Lucas. “You are a good boy, Lucas. You make me feel better.” Then she turned to Marius. “Why did you get out of your seat?” she asked. “You promised you would stay.”

  “I forgot,” said Marius.

  “Everyone, back in your seats,” the usher called out. By now, the aisles were filled with lots of boys and girls. “There’s no mouse. We’re going to turn the lights off again.”

  Lucas and Genevieve, each holding a twin by the hand, found their seats and sat down again. “You know what?” said Lucas to Genevieve. “We better each hold one of the boys by the hand for the rest of the movies.” The popcorn was all gone, so he didn’t need his hands for holding the container and eating. There were six more cartoons to go, and Lucas didn’t want to risk losing either of his brothers or missing any of the movies, either.

  “No sweat,” said Genevieve. It was an expression she had picked up from Julio.

  That was easy for her to say. She hadn’t crawled on her hands and knees half the length of the movie house looking for Marcus. Lucas’s stomach didn’t bother him anymore, but he was damp with sweat. He kept holding on to Marcus’s hand as he settled back to watch the cartoons.

  The lights went off and the next cartoon started.

  It sure wasn’t easy taking care of the twins, Lucas thought. He had been scared when it seemed that Marcus was lost. It was just the way his mother felt when she saw him sitting up on the roof, Lucas realized. He hadn’t been afraid to go up there, and Marcus hadn’t been afraid sitting alone in the front seat of the auditorium, either. Still, both times, there had been the possibility of danger. He’d have to keep trying not to scare his mother again. He also would have to do a better job of setting a good example for the twins. He was the only big brother they had, a
nd they liked to copy everything that he did.

  Lucas looked over to be sure that Marius was safe in his seat next to Genevieve. Then, reassured that all was well, he sat back in his seat and focused his attention on the screen. He squeezed Marcus’s hand gently. Pretty soon, the twins would be old enough to play real games with him. They were lucky to have him for a brother, he realized. Too bad there was only one of him to go around. After all, he had two of them. He’d just have to work twice as hard at being a good big brother. He knew he could do it.

  9

  AU REVOIR, GENEVIEVE

  Mrs. Cott took Lucas shopping for back-to-school clothes.

  “How could we have gone to all these stores without Genevieve?” she asked Lucas.

  New clothing, especially clothes to wear to school, was not important to Lucas, so he didn’t wonder how they could have managed a shopping trip if they didn’t have Genevieve to watch Marcus and Marius.

  On the other hand, he did wonder how it would feel when she was gone. Two more days and Genevieve would be flying home to France. Four more days and Lucas would be beginning fourth grade.

  “This has been a wonderful summer for me,” said Mrs. Cott to Lucas. “But I think it wasn’t as good as it could have been for you.”

  “It was great,” Lucas protested. “Summer’s the best season of the year. I just wish it lasted longer,” he added.

  “Summer is a wonderful time of year,” said Mrs. Cott. “But I think next summer it will be even better for you. Your father and I have been discussing sending you to sleep-away camp for a few weeks next year. What do you think of that?”

  “Sleep-away camp?” said Lucas with surprise. He thought of all the things he had heard kids at school say about summer camps. It sounded as if it might be loads of fun. In fact, he wished it was next summer already.

  “Will Genevieve come back here next year?” asked Lucas. If he was away at camp, he would miss seeing her.

  “No,” said Mrs. Cott. “Next year, Genevieve wants to spend some time in England.”