Pun Detectives and the Case of the Kidnapped Kitten! (Part 19)

A lot of things happened after that. A new week rolled around, and Sheldon wasn’t at school for a couple days. When he finally came back, it was like nothing had ever happened. He was the same front-row, straight-A student he’d always been. I didn’t know what had ended up happening between him and Wendesley, but I guessed they had sorted it out themselves. Which wasn’t to say they were all buddy-buddy or anything. If anything, they probably hated each other’s guts. I didn’t doubt that.

Speaking of Wednesley, when me and Lily went to check on the karate club, he was practically a different person. His back had completely lost that painful-looking curl it had before, and his eyes shone crystal clear through his glasses. He was hugging Teabone like he’d never let her go again. He looked me and Lily right in the eye when he thanked us, told us that he’d always appreciate it and that he’d never forget what we’d done. I wasn’t used to praise like that, and so it made me feel a little bashful, like I had swallowed a handful of feathers and they were fluttering around inside my stomach or something. But at the same time, it felt nice.

I hadn’t told them the truth: that Monty was behind it all. I thought long and hard about it, but ultimately I decided that it was best to keep up the charade that Sheldon and Monty started, the lie that Sheldon was acting alone.

Why did I do this?

For one, I figured that telling Wednesley and Tuesday that the one they’d put all their trust in up till now had gone behind their backs in the worst way possible would only drive the karate club apart, not help them come together and turn themselves into a real club, and so probably it was for the best that they didn’t know.

And for another, Monty had asked me not to. As he lay there on that dark night, sprawled on the floor, half loopy from Lily’s fearsome punch, his voice limped through big, gulping sobs that were like scoops of sound: “Don’t tell them,” he said. “You can tell anyone. Tell the whole world what I did if you want. Just not them. Please. Don’t let Wednesley and Tuesday find out what a bastard I am. Please. Please. Please.” He just kept saying it over and over again, sob after sob, with tears that overflowed but that couldn’t wash away the stains. He wasn’t asking. He was begging. There was no way I could deny a request like that. Not even if I wanted to.

And so I didn’t tell Wednesley and Tuesday. And for their part, they never seemed to suspect a thing, even when Monty stopped showing up at karate club, and then stopped coming to school altogether. Nobody knew where he went, or what happened to him. I tried to find out, but not even the teachers had any clue.

Still, Wednesley and Tuesday were dedicated to making sure karate became a permanent, official club, just like Monty had been. They were dead set on carrying on his dream. It was up to them now. I hoped they succeeded.

I had to wonder though: just how unaware had Tuesday been, really? I didn’t think she was Monty’s co-conspirator or anything like that. If she did know Monty was behind it all, Monty sure didn’t know that she knew. I truly believed that. But somehow I couldn’t shake the feeling that what Tuesday really meant to say when she called me to the club room that night, what she had really wanted to tell me, was the truth, that Monty had been the culprit from the start, and that maybe she just couldn’t do it. I never found out of course. The only way I could have was if I had asked her. And there was no way for me to do that because I couldn’t risk betraying Monty’s wish.

And so I was left to wonder.

#

One morning not too long after, I woke up bright and early.

Or rather, dark and early. It was 3 a.m. and I couldn’t sleep. I couldn’t stop thinking about the incident with Monty. I tossed and turned in bed for another hour or so, watching the shadows drawn by the moon slide across the wall like ghosts, and then finally decided to head to school. It was early as hell, but I didn’t care. For once, I’d beat Lily to HQ, I thought. Even she wouldn’t be there before the sun was up. Nobody was that prompt.

But I was wrong. When I got to HQ, cold all the way through and shivering the stiffness off, the old, busted light was already leaking a butterfly flicker through the crack in the door. I opened the door and stepped inside. Lily was already there. She was sitting at the cardboard box desk, sipping tea from a china cup. There were two wrapped popsicles on the desk. Breakfast, I guessed.

Our eyes met for a second that felt much, much longer than that, and right then I felt like I was standing on the edge of something indescribable like it was a big cliff with crags rolling down it like dollops of sweat, and at the bottom was something I couldn’t see or hear or feel yet, but if I closed my eyes and held my breath and jumped then maybe something amazing would happen, and maybe I had better because it was something that might never happen again in all the world. At least you never knew if it would.

I was probably still half asleep thinking such crazy thoughts. Just as I was thinking that, Lily did something that, god knows why, made it all seem not so crazy after all. She picked up one of the popsicles and held it out to me, and for maybe the first time in my whole life, I felt like I knew what I was gonna say before I said it.

This time, cold as I was, I didn’t refuse.

The end of Pun Detectives and the Case of the Kidnapped Kitten!
To be continued in Pun Detectives and the Case of the Missing Music!