Chapter 6: Dendy Park

Ella and I walked to the lockers from our chemistry class. The locker rooms were so crowded during lunch that it took about a whole minute for me to move ten metres from one end of the room to the opposite end. Someone's body odor forced me to hold my breath while I plowed through the crowd. Ella followed me to my locker. She had news for me.

"Keith, could you do me a favour? If any of my friends ask you where I'll be this lunch, tell 'em I sneaked out with the guys."

"Where are you going?" I asked.

"I told Mark I'd meet him at Dendy Park."

"The teachers might expel you if they find you missing."

"I'll be back before lunch ends, so I won't be missin' any classes."

"How's Mark? Is there anything wrong with him?"

"Nuh... not really... he's fine. I'm pretty lucky to get him 'cos he's really popular. All the girls in this school want him. He's really hot as well! He's such a winner. I only want to date the best men." Ella smiled. "I don't know... he's just so... he treats me like a woman and makes me feel like a woman."

While I spoke with Ella, a small blonde boy walked up to me. It took me a while before I realised it was Eddie.

"Got my onroppers yet, Keith?"

Since I had to talk to Eddie in private I said goodbye to Ella and led the 9-year-old outside to the wide-open quadrangle where no one could hear or see our discussions. I had to protect myself not only from other students but also from the school's surveillance cameras.

"I can't give you any porn," I said.

"Why not!"

"You told Mark that I slept with Lily."

"So what?"

"If I give porn to you, you don't buy porn from Mark, and he loses money. He won't like it if he loses money and he'll tell the police about my sleeping with Lily. When the police start investigating, my dad will probably give evidence against me. I might go to prison."

"Who cares if everyone knows you slept with Lily?"

"I don't want people to think I sleep with little girls."

"Why not? I'd like it if people thought that about me—that I slept with girls."

"Most people think it's bad to sleep with a little girl."

"I didn't know that." Eddie scratched his head and took a deep breath before talking again. "So yer not gonna give me free porno?"

I shook my head.

"I need porno."

"No you don't. Use your lunch money to buy food instead."

"I can't. I already tried, but I can't stop looking at porn. I've collected so much and I can't just throw 'em away. I've got to get new ones." Eddie thought for a moment. "Keith, you said you'd give me porno in return that I don't touch Lily. Since you're not giving me any porno, doesn't that mean I can touch Lily?"

"No, don't do that."

"Why do you care what happens to her?"

"I don't want you to hurt her."

"I just want to have sex with her. Isn't that what you want, Keith? You wanna have sex with her?"

I didn't give a reply.

Eddie stared at me for a few seconds before he told me he needed to leave. "I've got to see if I can find Mark so I can buy more porno from him. Do you know where Mark could be now?"

"Ella told me she was sneaking out of school with Mark this lunch."

"I'll sneak out as well," said Eddie. "I'll look around the parks near here... maybe Dendy Park." He started walking off.

I would normally object to Eddie wandering out of school property but since his being in school placed risk on Lily's well being, I kept quiet and spent the next ten minutes walking around the school by myself. I went to the soccer field where a group of noisy students played a rough game of soccer. Students tend to hang around in groups during lunch. I sat down on the grass and every so often someone who wasn't with anyone would walk by. One person who happened to walk by all by herself was Lily Jenkins. The little girl recognised me sitting at the edge of the soccer field and walked up to me.

"I saw you talking to that scary boy," she said.

"Eddie?"

"What were you talking about?"

"Nothing... just... he was talking about his friends."

Lily sat down on the grass near me. Her black socks had gone down to her shins. Her dress only covered half of her thighs, exposing her pale cream-coloured legs that rubbed against the moist green grass. I could tell she liked the feel of grass on her legs. She lied down on her stomach and started fiddling sunflowers with the fingers.

Lily spoke. "Eddie called me a nerd today because I was reading a book."

"That happened to me, too."

"Really?" Lily looked up at me. "What happened?"

"It was a long time ago. I read a lot of books. Do you know Mark?"

Lily nodded. "Ella's boyfriend."

"He picked on me all the time."

"What did you do?"

I remained silent for a while. Often when I speak I don't think about what I say and regularly put myself in a situation in which I'm forced to reveal something about myself that I don't want to reveal. I didn't want Lily to think I was weak.

"I don't like Mark," said Lily.

"Yeah, Mark is bad," I said. "Eddie's bad as well. Everyone's bad, really."

"Everyone? What about you?"

"I'm not as bad as most people."

"Why does Mark hate you?"

I thought about her question and laughed. "I don't know."

"Why does Ella like him?"

"I don't know."

"You don't know much, don't you?"

I glanced at her face and saw her grinning.

Lily spoke. "I hate boys who think they're so good."

"You do?"

"I also hate boys who always tell me what to do."

"Maybe when you grow up, you'll think different."

Lily kept fiddling with the grass. She ripped a handful of grass from the ground and tried to poke a hole in the dirt. I was about to say more but an old man started walking up to us. I recognized him. He was the school principal.

"Keith, may I have a word with you?" the principal asked. He wore a suit. He was an old man with greying hair and wrinkled skin.

"Am I in trouble? What is this about?"

"Keith, you're aware that surveillance cameras are installed in crowded areas around this school, aren't you?"

"Yeah."

"One of our cameras," said the principal, "caught a student by the name of Ella Jenkins leaving the school without permission. A teacher told me that she last saw Ella talking to you before she left."

"Ella told me she was meeting up with Mark."

"The school surveillance system only caught two people leaving the school during lunch: Ella Jenkins and Eddie Wosnitsuj."

"Eddie was looking for Mark."

"Both Eddie and Ella are missing now," said the principal.

"Have I done something wrong?"

"No, you've done nothing wrong. I just came to tell you. If you find these students please call me straight away." The principal looked at his watch. "I have a meeting now."

"I'm sure those two will turn up soon," I said.

The principal said, "I hope so," before walking away.

"Where's my sister?" Lily asked me.

"She said she went to Dendy Park to see Mark," I said. "Do you want to go look for her with me?"

"I've got a class now," she said.

"Skip it. The teacher won't mind if we tell them we're looking for your sister."

"Isn't school important?"

"It's important, but not that important."

"Okay then."

--

Lily followed me as I walked along the pavement towards Dendy Park, a park about ten blocks away from the school and fairly close to my house. The park was filled with football fields, bicycle paths, lakes, ponds, playgrounds, and many, many trees. Along with all the other kids in the neighbourhood I used to go there all the time when I was little.

As I walked to the park, I had to remind myself to slow down because my legs were much longer than Lily's were and I took much wider steps.

Ten minutes after we had left the school, Lily and I arrived at Dendy Park. It was getting late and hardly anyone was there. A handful of teenagers played soccer on the field but apart from them the park was empty. Unfortunately, the playground was completely deserted. I was hoping Lily could play on the playground with a bunch of neighbourhood children and make some friends in the process. I suspect she didn't make any new friends during her first day at school. I didn't want Lily playing soccer with a bunch of loud teenage boys though. I could tell by the way they spoke that Lily and I would not fit in with these undesirable people.

Lily started running to a duck-filled pond. I kept an eye on her in case she fell in. I hadn't been to the local park in about a year because of the school workload. I turned around for a moment and saw the wishing well. I remembered the wishing well. When I was little everyone threw coins in the well and made a wish. Whenever I looked inside the well I was so scared about falling in, scared of being trapped all the way down in the earth in complete darkness. I was about seven years old when my dad gave me fifty cents to make a wish. He told me to wish for lots of money, but instead I silently wished that I had a sister. I couldn't understand why people threw coins into a well. Why would they do that? How would they get their money back? Even today I barely understood why people threw money away like that.