Raising Rufus Part 4

When he got to the house, he could see through the window in the kitchen door that sneaking in would not be an option. His mom was rummaging in the fridge-no doubt looking for bread and jelly and apples-while his dad worked on a bowl of cereal at the table.

Martin tried to think of a plan. Maybe if he went around to the front door, he could slip in without being noticed...? But wait. What about the food? Maybe he could just dump it in the woods.

His dad got up from the table and leaned out into the hall. Martin could hear him loud and clear as he called up the stairs.

"Martin! Let's go, buddy!"

He exchanged a few mumbled words with Mrs. Tinker, then hollered again.

"Martin!" He gave a shrill whistle, his patience clearly running out.

Deciding he'd be better off just to plunge in and hope for the best, Martin popped in the back door. His parents stared at him.

"Hi," he said, trying to be casual. "I, um...I went out early."

Dad seemed ready to deliver a few sharp words, but Mom spoke first. "You're going to be late. Go get dressed. Hurry."

Figuring the best way to end this conversation was to get upstairs as fast as possible, Martin dumped his armload of food onto the table and scooted into the hall.

"Why did you take those?" Mrs. Tinker said.

"I had a sandwich," Martin called back as he raced up the stairs.

Before he escaped to his room, he heard his mom mutter, "A lettuce, cheese, and jelly sandwich?"

Mr. Tinker gave a m.u.f.fled groan.

- In cla.s.s, Martin was so busy wondering and worrying about his new little friend that he could hardly pay attention at all. When Ms. Olerud called on him with a question about the Gettysburg Address, he blurted out "Stonewall Jackson," and the whole cla.s.s cracked up.

"Martin," Ms. Olerud said. "You of all people, daydreaming. I'm shocked."

Normally he would have turned scarlet with embarra.s.sment, but this time he didn't really care; he was too eager to get out of there and get home.

He wasn't entirely sure why he was so fascinated by that little deformed lizard. Maybe it was the way it had imprinted on him, and now he was feeling a bit...well, motherly. Or maybe he was also getting a bit of sneaky satisfaction from the whole thing, since he wasn't allowed to keep pets.

When Martin was six, he had begged his parents for a hamster. When they finally got him one, he became very attached to the little guy, who he named Orville. One day, while he was playing with Orville in the yard, a hawk swooped down and carried him away, never to be seen again. Martin was so distraught that he barely spoke for a whole week. Finally, his parents had to take him to a therapist to help bring him out of his gloomy state. So after that they made a firm rule: no more pets.

Martin could kind of see their point. But that was a long time ago, and besides, he wasn't really thinking of the lizard as a pet. At least, not yet.

- After cla.s.s, Martin was in such a rush to get going that he forgot to scope out the schoolyard before leaving the building. Sure enough, when he got halfway across the yard, Donald and his two pals appeared right behind him.

"Hey, Tinkles, have you seen my shnorkus?" Donald said.

"Your what?"

"Maybe it's in here," Tyler said as he yanked off Martin's backpack.

"Yeah, let me see," said Donald, grabbing the pack. He dug into it and pulled the books out one by one, tossing them on the ground. "Hmm, that's not it.... Nope, not there..."

Martin gritted his teeth. "Grimes..."

"Wait, there? No..." Donald turned the pack upside down and emptied it out completely. "Guess not. Let me know if you see it, okay, Tinks?"

Donald and his friends strutted off, snickering and snorting. Martin stood there like he always did after Donald's torments, feeling like an idiot. At least it wasn't a wrestle, and he was grateful for that.

As he knelt down to gather his books, he was surprised when somebody picked one up and handed it to him. At first he thought Donald was back for round two, but when he looked to see who it was, he saw Audrey.

"Thanks," he mumbled. He had no clue what else to say, so he just finished picking up the books and dropped them in his pack. Audrey kept staring at him, calmly unwrapping a stick of gum and popping it into her mouth. Then she pulled another stick from the pack and held it up.

"Juicy Fruit?"

"No thanks."

"Guaranteed unchewed," she said as Martin hoisted the bag over his shoulder. He stood there for a moment, trying to think of something nice to say, but nothing came to mind in his present grumpy, embarra.s.sed state. Besides, she was wearing a really bright green beret, and it distracted him. So, with a pitifully small and totally forced smile, he mumbled, "See ya," and headed for the gate.

Maybe he should have tried harder to be friendly, but he just couldn't understand why anybody would go out of their way to talk to him. What did she want? Anyway, he had urgent business to attend to and couldn't stop to chat.

Martin speed-walked to the library, where he found himself eighth in line to use a computer. Not wanting to wait, he headed into the stacks instead and checked out A Field Guide to Reptiles. His mom offered him another ride home, but he didn't want to wait for that, either, so he trotted back to the house on foot and, without bothering to stop off inside, went straight to the barn. And when he threw open the door, what he saw made his heart sink.

Tumbled bricks. Empty pen. No lizard.

"Oh, no!" he groaned as he stepped in to survey the situation. Why hadn't he been more careful building the wall? That lizard could be anywhere now!

Or could it? There was no way he knew for a creature that size to get out of the barn.

As he got set to start searching, he noticed something odd next to the workbench. He had put one of his bug-collection display cases on the floor when the lizard was on the tabletop the night before-and there was the case, right where he'd left it: empty! Every cricket, beetle, and b.u.t.terfly in the case had disappeared, and the mounting pins were all bent, loose, or scattered around the floor.

"What the...?"

Just as he picked up the display to a.s.sess the damage...

Squeak!

He turned around and saw his little friend, gazing up at him from the floor.

"You!"

Squeak!

"You are a very bad lizard. Bad! Those were my bugs."

Squeak!

"You have crossed the line, my friend. Just for that...just for that..." Martin tried to think of a fitting punishment, but nothing came to mind. The lizard was bobbing back and forth, obviously happy to see his "mom," and somehow punishment didn't seem like the way to go. "Okay, I'll let it slide this time. But don't let it happen again!"

He gently brought the lizard up to the tabletop, then opened the reptile book and took a deep breath, ready to get to work. But the critter made a lunge straight at another bug display, and Martin had to s.n.a.t.c.h it away.

"Hey! What did I just tell you?"

The lizard made a great big fuss, dancing and squeaking up a storm.

"Okay, I get it! Don't be such a brat."

He got up and grabbed his bug net. "I'll be back in ten minutes. Don't go anywhere."

He darted out of the barn and headed for the woods, but stopped short when he thought of something. This guy has such a big appet.i.te...I could spend the rest of my days chasing bugs. Maybe there's an easier way...?

He turned right around and ran up to the house, where he retrieved a half-empty package of baloney from the fridge. His hunch turned out to be a good one: when he took the leftover lunch meat back to the barn, the lizard wasted no time digging in. It ripped and chomped and gobbled the stuff like a hungry hyena feeding on a zebra carca.s.s.

Martin watched the whole thing with wide eyes. "Wow. You can really put it away, huh."

While the lizard worked on the baloney, Martin combed through the reptile book. There was some pretty interesting stuff in there, all right, but none of the lizards looked anything like this one. Mainly it was those deformed legs. The front ones were really tiny, and although the back ones were plenty big and strong, the feet looked like a bird's-three toes in front, one in back. There was one exotic lizard in the book that could run on its hind legs, but it didn't look at all like Martin's friend. Maybe being frozen in that egg for all that time had somehow mutated its genes, he thought.

As he leafed through the book, he kept talking to the lizard, as though somehow it might suddenly speak up and explain what was going on. "How come you don't look like any of these?" "Nah, you're way too big to be that one." "If you drop that baloney on the floor, I'm throwing it away."

But of course, he was talking to a reptile, and the reptile seemed perfectly happy to feast on the meat, wander around on the workbench, and completely ignore everything Martin said.

Still, Martin was thoroughly captivated by the little creature, and he couldn't help but smile as he watched it explore the tabletop like a curious kitten.

The blissful mood was instantly wrecked when his mom opened the door and stepped in.

"Martin, your room is a mess. You were supposed to pick it up."

Martin jumped to his feet, doing his best to block her view of the creature. "Oh, um...I forgot. Sorry."

"I need you to do it before dinner."

"Okay."

He was doing all kinds of twisty contortions to keep his frisky friend hidden, and his mom gave him an odd look. He smiled innocently, and that seemed to do the trick; she headed back out the door. But before she was gone...

Squeak.

The sound stopped her in her tracks, and she turned around to see the lizard trying to take a bite out of the reptile book.

"What in the world is that?"

"What?"

She gave him a withering look.

"Oh, this? It's, um...a lizard."

"I can see what it is. What's it doing in here?"

"I found him in the woods. His egg, I mean. He hatched."

"Martin, you know you're not supposed to bring wild animals in here."

"Actually, he's very tame."

"You know the rule: you can use the barn for your hobbies, but no pets, period."

The lizard was about to rip a page from a perfectly good library book, so Martin picked the little guy up, which it didn't seem to mind at all. But when his mom leaned in for a closer look, it hissed at her, backing her off.

"What's wrong with it? It looks deformed."

"He could be a mutant."

"Well, put it down, for gosh sakes. It could have all kinds of germs." She picked up the cardboard box from the floor. "Put it in here."

Martin didn't care for the direction this was taking, but he did what she said and gently put the lizard in the box. He felt a gray cloud descending over him as his mom let out a sigh and studied his face. Her voice was sympathetic but firm as she said exactly what he didn't want to hear.

"Honey, you'll have to let it go."

"Mom-"

"No, no buts. A rule is a rule."

"He can't survive out there alone. He depends on me."

"See? You're too attached to it already."

Martin felt he was older and wiser now, and could handle the emotional trials of having, or even losing, a pet. But he didn't sound very convincing as he made his case. "Really, I'm not. He's just a lizard. I know I can take care of him."

"Sweetheart, you can't keep an animal here. Especially a sick one that you found in the woods. He'll have to go. Period."

Martin stood there silently. An empty feeling started just below his rib cage and spread all the way out to his fingers and toes.

"Right now. Roger that?"

He managed the tiniest of nods.

She gave him a little smile and ruffled his hair. "Fifteen minutes, then come up and do your room. I'm thinking there could be a nice surprise at dessert time."

She headed out, but stopped in the doorway with a puzzled look on her face. "There are lizards in Wisconsin?"

Martin gave a tiny nod; there were, though he wasn't too sure about this part of the state.

Still pondering it, she went out and headed back toward the house.

He looked down sadly at his beady-eyed little companion, dreading the next-and last-episode in their short acquaintance.

- Martin carried the box a good distance into the woods, to a spot he never visited on his hikes. He knew the odds for the lizard weren't good out there, and he would just as soon not know how the story ended. A clean break would be best for all concerned.

He came upon a clearing with a small pond and decided it would be as good a place as any.

"How about here? You like this?"