1. The Statue of Liberty
Summer break was over. Martin and I had spent the summer at Clear Creek Ranch with Louise. Julian was in Scotland and sent a letter once a week. George was busy but called Louise every second day to check on us. April’s whereabouts were somewhat unclear. In hindsight, I suspect she was in rehab. I did not know where Robert was and didn’t care. As long as he was not with me. Louise enjoyed the ranch and the fact that we were taken off her hands most of the day.
High up on our horses, we enjoyed the creeks, the woods and the wildlife. The Black Swirl did not make a return. Chubby and his cronies, imaginary numbers and spelling rules were far away.
Martin and I followed Rick everywhere. His wife, Kimberly, eyed us and showered Rick with criticism for getting too involved with us. Apparently, with little to no effect on Rick. We loved helping him with the horses, the repairs, the mending, the unloading of hay and other chores. Where he went, we went. He patiently showed us how to handle the horse tack and always had extra tools for us so that we could assist him. He assigned me Trooper, my savior, as my horse for the summer and let Martin always have his favorite, Dakota, a brown mare.
Between horse riding, swimming in the pools down at the waterfalls, helping Rick and three deliciously unhealthy meals a day, I read The Feynman Lectures and A Brief History of Time but I didn’t do any math except keeping the scores at the parlor games in the food hall in the evenings. The primes and their capricious behavior percolated on the backburners of my ever-busy brain. Martin burrowed through Edith Wharton’s and Henry James’s complete works and could not stop talking about the conundrums of upper class turn-of-the-century women. I couldn’t bring myself to enjoy those but I read them anyway to please him.
It was a perfect summer.
When the driver came to pick us up, a sense of foreboding descended upon me. Martin and I were both going back to White Haven. We had aligned our courses. George accepted our friendship. Julian was on his way back from Scotland. Louise was in good health and decent spirits. There were no signs, no black raven crossing our path, no lightning or black cats. And yet.
I told Martin about my premonition.
“What is it about?”
“I don’t know. It’s not specific.”
“You mean something bad is going to happen?”
“That’s how it feels like.”
In our first LAYOS meeting after the summer break, Bridget announced we would go on a trip to Manhattan and see the Immigration Museum on Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty. For some scheduling reason, we would have to go the following week and she asked us to get permission from our parents as soon as possible so that all arrangements could be made in time. After this summer’s excitement, we were not enthusiastic about this trip, but, ten days later, we were on the Amtrak with Rachel and Jeremy and three new LAYOS kids.
The sense of foreboding became stronger.
We arrived at Penn Station and took the subway to Battery Park where we had to wait in line for boarding the ferry.
“Well, well, well, look what’ve got here,” an unpleasant familiar voice said behind us. We all turned around and saw Chubby and his cronies in the line parallel to ours.
“Long time, no see,” he said and smiled. He had shot up at least six inches and looked meaner than ever.
Bridget moved forward to us and asked,
“Are these the boys who bullied you?”
We nodded. She walked over to them.
“What is your name?”
“I’m Dennis Snyder. From the Snyders.” As if everyone in town had to know his family.
“Listen, Dennis, you leave Martin and Nick alone. Or you’ll get into serious trouble.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Chubby said and stuck his tongue out the second Bridget turned her back to him.
“Now we know what your premonition was about,” Martin said.
“Maybe. Possibly.”
We boarded the ferry and a backward glance told us that Chubby and his gang hadn’t made it. They had to wait for the next ferry. We relaxed a little and tried to enjoy the view of Manhattan in the September sun.
“Who are these guys?” Jeremy asked us.
“The reason why we are in the LAYOS program.”
“What did they do to you?” Rachel asked.
“They beat Martin up. On top of the teasing, the hazing, the harassment.”
“Had to spend some time in the hospital,” Martin said in a coarse voice.
Rachel gasped. “In hospital?”
“We’re not much in terms of anti-bullying force but if you want, we can stick together,” Jeremy offered.
“I’m in,” Rachel said.
“Thanks,” I said. Martin nodded.
We walked around the Statue of Liberty and climbed the stairs to the platform. Jeremy and Rachel stayed with us and Bridget always kept an eye on us. When we came back down to board the ferry to Ellis Island, we anxiously scanned the crowd for Chubby. He wasn’t on it.
We made our way through the museum. Martin and I were excited to see the exhibits. We started to spin stories about Anatole Wozniak, the man who had won over Janet after she rejected George even though she was bearing his child. We imagined how Anatole’s grandfather had waited to be processed in the Great Hall and wondered how they treated Polish immigrants in the year 1914. Not too friendly was our guess.
When Bridget insisted again that we all stay together, our history spark died and we trotted behind her with our heads down. On the second floor, Martin had to pee and wanted to sneak to the bathroom because he was embarrassed to let the others know about his bodily needs.
“But this is how they get to us, Mart! This is how the evil guys always get their victims,” I whispered to him. “Think of Jurassic Park.”
“You mean the fat guy?”
“Yes, he does one stupid thing after the other and the dilophosaurus kills him.”
“I know. I don’t want to act stupid.”
“Listen everybody,” Bridget spoke up. “Pee pee break for everyone. There’s a bathroom right around the corner.”
Martin and I smirked. We all walked into the hallway and took turns visiting the restrooms. I had just dried my hands when an alarm tone started shrieking from the speakers in the ceilings.