In Todd We Trust Page 14

  With that in mind, I’d decided not to talk to anybody while I was at the pool, especially not Charity, who I’d artfully avoided all day. (Okay, maybe not “artfully.” In art class she’d come up to ask what time to pick me up tonight, and I’d swallowed an entire bottle of red tempera paint, getting myself sent to the nurse’s office. But I just really didn’t want to think about the dance, for some reason.)

  I got dressed in one of the locker room stalls, which took awhile because there were about a jillion kids from different schools crammed in with us. When I came out into the pool room, I saw our team crowded around Coach Tomlin’s office door. I joined them right as he came out of the office and blew his whistle.

  “Okay, WAVES, I’ve got a special announcement, so listen up.” At that moment there was a rumble of thunder so loud, we all jumped a little. Except Tomlin himself, who scowled at the ceiling like he was personally offended. “As I was saying, I’ve decided to reinstate Mr. Loving as a team member, and I expect you to welcome him accordingly. Thank me.”

  WHAAAAAAT?!

  I did not thank him along with everyone else. I don’t even think I remembered to breathe. It was one of those horrifying moments when the room spins and everything around you sounds real far away. The only thing I could think of was that if I died, Max would get the Toddlians for sure. And I couldn’t let that happen.

  I shook my head and managed a breath. Everyone was staring toward the bleachers, and I turned to see Max swagger down to us like he was some kind of hero. He strutted over and stood next to the coach, aping his crossed arms.

  Was Coach Tomlin insane? What about Max trying to incinerate us all?

  “Mr. Loving stopped by my office today and cleared up the little matter of a certain pool fire,” the coach said. “I’m now convinced it was merely an accident, blown out of proportion by Madame Dauphinee’s delicate composition. We’ll say no more about it. Am I understood?”

  “YES, SIR!” the others yelled. I was too steamed to even mouth the words.

  While I was stretching my arms behind my head, Max came up and almost yanked one out of the socket. “It’s so nice to see ya, loser,” he whispered, snapping the elastic strap on my goggles. He still had my right arm pinned behind my back, and I stomped on his foot with everything I had.

  “Ow!” he yelped as he let go. “You’re gonna pay for that, dork!”

  Charity broke away from the girls and confronted Max. “Leave him alone, Loving!”

  Max snorted. “Oh, how sweet. Here she comes to defend her wimpy-butt boyfriend.”

  Charity ignored him and touched my sore arm. “You okay, Todd? Are we still on for tonight?”

  Gulp.

  Max’s unibrow lowered menacingly, and he barged in between Charity and me. “Better swim fast, Little Butty.” He poked my chest. “Better swim for your life.”

  I planned on it. Max had made my world a living nightmare since Day One of middle school, and I was going to make him eat my wake just like he had at tryouts. After all, what did I have to lose? If he ended up killing me, at least I’d go out with a bang.

  I slunk away from Charity, ignoring her confused stare. Max and I ended up in lanes next to each other for the boys’ freestyle, and for once I was glad. As I stood on the blocks, all the swirling frustration, fear, anger, and humiliation I’d been feeling gelled into pure adrenaline. I bent over, gripped the edge of the platform, and shut my eyes. For one moment I let myself feel the crushing grip of Max’s fist around my throat. That was all the fuel I needed.

  When the gun went off for the fifty-meter freestyle, I sprang like a cheetah into my dive. I didn’t look anywhere but ahead when I surfaced, and I only breathed twice the first lap; I was a machine focused on one goal. Stroke, stroke, stroke … I sliced through the pool until I got to the wall. A super-tight kick turn, and I shot like a missile under the water. This time when I breathed I glanced at the lane on my right. Max still hadn’t reached the turn.

  I went into warp speed, summoning every ounce of strength I possessed, kicking like a maniac, until I reached out and touched the wall.

  I popped up and saw that Max was still way down his lane. My muscles burned and I was exhausted, but the exhilaration of beating Max publicly was sweet indeed. When I looked around, I saw I hadn’t just beaten him, I’d beaten everybody!

  That’s when I heard the cheers. The WAVES were going wild, and when I saw the clock, I understood why. 26:51! Whoa.

  Charity ran up as soon as I was out of the water and gave me a hug. Somehow I didn’t mind it. I even hugged her back.

  Coach Tomlin was clearly impressed. He draped a towel around my shoulders and asked, “You think you can hustle like that three more times?”

  “Yessir,” I panted. And I did. Powered by a strange feeling I’d never felt before—call it a winning mentality or whatever you want—I won the one-hundred meter and the two-hundred meter! And I helped the WAVES nail the relay. It was turning out to be a day of miracles.

  At the end of the meet Coach Tomlin put the first-place medal around my neck and actually smiled at me. The crowd chanted, “BUTROCHE! BUTROCHE!” for what felt like five minutes. My cheeks hurt from grinning so hard; I’d never experienced anything quite like it.

  After a lot of handshaking and attaboys from other swimmers and coaches, I rushed to the locker room to change. But Charity spotted me and left the group she was with to come over to me. For a minute she just smiled and shook her head in silence. Finally she said, “Todd Butroche, you are absolutely amazing. To swim like that after what Max did to your arm …” My shoulder was hurting pretty bad by that point, but I was too stoked to give it much thought. “I was a little weirded out when you didn’t talk to me all day. But now I realize you were just psyching yourself up to compete. Tonight, I am going to be so proud to walk into that dance with the best swimmer in the district.”

  The dance. That was one problem my victory here wasn’t going to solve. But how bad could it be? I liked Charity, right? “Um, I gotta go.”

  “Sure.” She grabbed my hand and gave it a quick squeeze. “But be sure to wear your medal later.” With that she was off to go “get ready.”

  Once I was changed, a few more kids stopped me to check out my medal, which was super sweet, with a guy swimming inside a gold ring. But I was already making my way out the door. There was no time to waste; my other big responsibility needed me!

  Before I could get out, though, Coach Tomlin pulled me aside. “You made me proud out there today, son. This morning you wanted to throw in the towel, but you dug down deep and found your inner strength. Not only did you not quit, but you performed like a champ.”

  I was itching to get changed and get out of there, but Coach Tomlin’s words were like a sticky honey, molding me to the spot. Was I dreaming?

  His normally stony face melted into a grin. “I knew I was right to put you through the wringer, Butroche. Some kids would have cracked under the pressure, but not you. You always had the potential to go the distance. And now I think you’ve got the heart to take you there as well.” He thumped me on the back, sending my sore shoulder into a spasm of pain.

  I winced and said, “Thank you, sir!” I could not believe how good that made me feel. I felt something that I hadn’t felt lately, especially in the last couple of days: proud to be Todd Butroche.

  But I’d be even prouder once I rescued the Toddlians.

  CHAPTER 19

  Of course Max had to show up and try to ruin my moment before I could even make it to my locker. He grabbed my medal and pulled the ribbon taut, chafing my neck. “Gonna take this home to show your little buggy friends?”

  I reached out to take the medal, but he grabbed me by the wrist. “Oh, yes, I know you sent me home with an empty sock … again. But it’s only a matter of time, Buttrock. You can’t hide them forever.”

  Max’s threats just reinforced that I needed to get home as fast as I could. I ignored him and grabbed my clothes.

  “And then
the little bug-people will be mine!” Max was saying. Then, right there in front everybody, he leaned his head back and cackled, “MUA HA HA HA!”

  Seriously?

  I yanked my medal away from him and shoved him mid-laugh. He taunted me while I threw on my clothes, saying he was going to pour salt on my “little friends” and see if they melted like slugs; cover them alive in molten chocolate and sell them as candied ants; tie them individually to firecrackers …

  I ignored him and scurried outside. A huge storm must have come through—there were leaves, branches, and trash strewn all over the streets. It was still raining a little, though it looked like the worst had passed. Max trailed me all the way home, making threats. “You think you’re hot stuff now that you’ve won a medal? Big deal. The only reason you swim fast is because you’re so tiny—just like your little buggy buddies that I’m going to run over with my brother’s Camero …”

  One advantage of being tiny is that you can outrun overgrown man-children. I ran my buns off, and while at first I just barely managed to stay a few yards ahead of Max, by the time we got to my street I had a lead of a few houses. He ranted all the way to my house, but I couldn’t understand what he was saying. By then, he was red and panting. When I reached my front door, the rain had stopped. I turned and watched Max stagger up to the driveway, gasping for air. He shook his fist at me, and I answered with a shrug before I went inside.

  I sprinted into Daisy’s room and nearly tripped over something on her cluttered floor. I started to kick it out of the way when I realized what it was. The shoebox!

  My heart sank. It was empty.

  “Hey, guys, are you in here somewhere?” I listened for a minute, but when I didn’t hear anything I went after Daisy. “Daisy! Where are you?” I called, looking in the bathroom and my room. Mom was in the kitchen putting biscuits in the oven. “Have you seen Daisy?” I asked her.

  “What’s she done now?” was Mom’s weary response. “I just finished changing her wet clothes and put Brainy Baby on for her in the living room. Hey! What’s that medal about?”

  I didn’t take time to answer. She didn’t know there’d been a swim meet because I hadn’t bothered to tell her, since I hadn’t planned on being at it.

  Daisy was in the living room, making some kind of sculpture out of remotes and old VHS tapes while Brainy Baby sang about molecular structures in the background. Her creation looked surprisingly like a ship. Weird.

  I decided not to yell at her, since that never did any good. Kneeling down beside her, I asked, “Daisy, have you seen the Toddlians? They’re a bunch of people about this big.” She wouldn’t look at me, just kept repositioning remotes and sucking on her Binky with that infuriating “nom nom nom.”

  I resorted to bribery. “Look, Daisy,” I coaxed, taking off the medal and dangling it in front of her. “You can wear Toddy’s necklace if you’ll show me where you put the little people.”

  She grabbed the medal with her free hand, studied it for half a second, and then hurled it across the living room. This was going nowhere. I picked up the medal and ran back to the kitchen. “Mom, did you see Daisy playing with a shoebox today?”

  Mom stopped punching numbers on the microwave and stared at the ceiling. “Noooo, but she did somehow get out in the rain and was playing with a little paper boat by the end of the driveway while I was doing dishes a while ago. I must’ve left the door unlocked when I went out to get the mail. Almost gave me a heart attack. She could’ve …”

  A little paper boat. Could it be the Toddlians? Had they somehow gotten onto Daisy’s toy and been taken for a sail in the gutter?

  I didn’t have time to think it all out. I barreled out the door and down the driveway, ignoring Max, who was kicked back on our porch swing. I heard the swing hit the brick as he jumped off, but my eyes were focused on the swirling, raging gutters.

  Sure enough, there was a miniature cardboard boat in the gutter near the drive. It was tiny—too tiny to be Daisy’s toy—and it was floating away from me. My heart raced as I ran toward it. The Toddlians made this. If they’d wanted to take a boat ride, why hadn’t they just asked for my help? Why would they leave without telling me? I ran after the boat. No way was that cardboard going to keep its shape once it got really wet. Oh, no …

  Lewis’s heartbroken face from the day before flashed through my mind, and it hit me. They had tried to tell me. But I hadn’t been listening, and the sick feeling in my gut told me I’d missed something major.

  Max was breathing down my neck by this time, blathering on, blowtorch, dismembering, blah blah blah, but I didn’t really comprehend what he was saying. I chased after the Toddlians as they sped toward the drain, Max on my heels.

  It looked like the cardboard boat was already beginning to absorb water and buckle. And now the drain was only a few yards away; the Toddlians had finally seen it. They were screaming their tiny lungs out. “GREEEAAAT TOOODD!”

  I wouldn’t fail them this time!

  “Wait a minute, Buttrock,” Max wheezed behind me, “they’re on that boat, aren’t they? That’s why you want it so badly …”

  I didn’t answer, lunging for the boat right before it reached the drain and had it in my grasp. The Toddlians cheered. “I got you!” I shouted.

  Max’s combat boot pressed onto my forearm, pinning me to the ground. My hand opened under the pressure, and the Toddlians floated out.

  “No you don’t,” he said. Max sat on my back, then leaned over and flicked the boat toward the drain. “Bon voyage, buggy people!” he cried with sick glee.

  I watched in horror as the boat was sucked into a vortex of whirling water right in front of the drain. The Toddlians screamed, and I fought with everything in me to push Max off my back, but I couldn’t budge him. In the end I watched helplessly as my people were shot out of the whirlpool and disappeared down the drain, crying, “GREEEAAAT TOOOOODD!”

  CHAPTER 20

  PERSEPHONE

  AAAUUUGGGHHH!” we hollered as we tumbled through the air, water sloshin’ us from every direction. How none of us fell out is more than I can figger; we grabbed onto the sides of our ship as best we could, but they done got mighty soggy ’n’ slippery. Still, when we finally hit the bottom of that big black hole, somehow we’d all managed to make it. Kersploosh! went the ark into a ginormous river, and the current pulled us along helter-skelter through the darkness. We’d landed in a chamber that was black as a midnight with no moon. I could tell it was a chamber on account of the way our screams bounced around.

  Speakin’ of bouncin’ around, that’s jest what we’d been doin’ since we made the terrible mistake of letting Daisy plop us in that little river outside her house. I hadn’t been out of Todd’s yard since the time I wrangled a squirrel. I’d plumb forgot how wild and wooly the big world was. We were no match for it.

  And The Exodus 2.0, refurbished though it was, weren’t no match whatsoever for the powerful current that drew us downriver like a cowboy reelin’ in a tied calf. Herman realized that as soon as he tried to steer us down the little river. His cardboard rudder had snapped off in his hand, and he’d ordered us to “abandon ship!”

  Well, that would’ve been suicide, and I convinced everybody to hang tight to whatever they could cling to. What we shoulda hung tight to was our faith in Todd. He actually appeared, jest like Lewis had said he would, and tried to save our sorry carcasses! Lew had been right all along, but the rest of us were in such a goldurn hurry to make somethin’ happen … and look where it had landed us.

  “Where are we?” little Milly whimpered as we whirled like a rank bull through the dark, echoing place.

  “I ain’t sure,” I said, patting her wet head, “but don’t you worry none. Persephone’s right here.”

  The boat suddenly quit spinnin’, and I raised my voice above the caterwaulin’. “I know it’s a sight too late to be sayin’ this, but we were wrong to doubt Todd. I’m sure sorry I ever …”

  “No time for apologies now,”
Herman panted. “We must find out how to appease His Greatness and make this swirling stop.” He went all white and declared, “Since this entire scheme was my idea, I volunteer to sacrifice myself, as a figurative Jonah, to the angry waves.”

  None of us had any idea what he was yammerin’ about, but when he made like he was gonna fling himself over the side of the boat, I lassoed him, then lashed him to the ark’s steerin’ wheel, which hadn’t been any more use than the rudder. “What kinda fool stunt was that?” I hissed. “Yer the only one of us thet knows anything about this blamed boat, and you ain’t sacrificin’ nothin’!”

  Just then the current started its crazy do-si-do again, and I looked at Herman. Thet was it! “Nobody move!” I yelled to the people who were crashin’ into each other and rollin’ all over the place. One by one I lashed them to each other and the deck, thankful I’d at least had the sense to bring a whole spool of floss.

  Once everyone was anchored to the deck, I tied Lewis and myself to the broken rudder. He was bellyachin’ and boohooin’ about how he should’ve tried harder to convince us thet this whole exodus was wrong. “We should have trusted him,” he wailed. “Great Todd would never have let such a thing happen to us.”

  Thet set everybody else bawlin’ again and sayin’, “We’re sorry, O Great One! Please save us!” and such.

  “STOP IT!” I ordered. “We ain’t got time for thet now! All our strength needs to be focused on gettin’ outta this place alive!”

  “But where are we?” Milly cried again.

  Herman’s shuddery voice rose above the crash of the waves and the yowling and flapping of the skeered bugs beneath us. “My friends, I fear we have entered the Underworld of the Greek myths Lucy told us about. I fear we are riding Charon’s boat upon the River Styx … en route to Hades itself!”