Playing with Matches by Brian Katcher

Author:Brian Katcher
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9780375848827
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Published: 2008-07-08T04:00:00+00:00

20

LEON TO THE RESCUE

We often make offers when we never intend to follow through. How many times have we said, If there’s anything I can do for you, just ask? A couple of weeks earlier, when I’d told Amy she could call me if she ever wanted to talk, I never really expected her to take me up on that.

It was the Saturday before the dance. Jimmy and Johnny were grounded; Rob was out hurling pizza dough at his part-time job; and Samantha was off visiting her boyfriend. Melody was at Tony’s softball game. I’d politely declined when she’d invited me.

Of course, that meant I’d sentenced myself to a quiet evening with my parents. Dad and I relaxed on our living room couch, watching a rented movie. Dad had picked it out, so it featured a lot of car chases and explosions (though not near as many as a Bart Axelrod feature). Mom sat nearby, working on her unending scrapbook.

The semimilitary movie made Dad remember his years serving Uncle Sam and he was well into another story.

“So then the DI—that’s drill instructor—gets right in my face and calls me a worthless piece of”—Dad glanced over at my mom—“poop. Then he made me do fifty push-ups.”

“That’ll teach you to sneeze in formation,” I replied. I’d heard the story a dozen times. Though my father never had anything good to say about his time in the air force, he sure talked about it a lot. Maybe after twenty years of pushing pencils in an office, he looked back on his military time as the wild and crazy days.

I wondered if I’d ever have any wild and crazy days, or if someday I’d be boring my son with stories of Pioneer Lanes and nights at the lock and dam.

The phone rang and my mom answered it. “Yes, he’s here; hold on.” She passed the cordless phone to me.

I pressed the receiver to my ear and was shocked to hear someone noisily blowing their nose.

“Johnny?” I asked.

I heard a hiccup on the other end, then a voice.

“Leon, this is Amy.”

I sprinted to my room so fast I almost stepped in the bowl of popcorn. Amy? Calling me?

“Um, hi.” I attempted to straighten my hair in the reflection of my computer monitor until I remembered she couldn’t see me.

“I wasn’t sure if this was your number. Do you have any idea how many Sanderses there are in the phone book?”

“Uh…” How should I respond? Laugh? Try to make small talk?

“So…,” said Amy after a pause. “What are you up to?” Her voice was flat, like she was talking just to talk.

“Just watching a movie with my folks.” On Saturday night. Real cool, Leon.

“Oh.” There was more silence. What did she want? Amy wasn’t the type of girl who had to chat with classmates on the weekend for something to do.

“Leon,” she eventually said hoarsely. “Can we talk? Do you have time?”

I pulled up my desk chair. “Of course. What’s on your mind?”

“No, I mean, can you come over for a little bit? I understand if you’re busy.

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