Luke Reynolds - The Looney Experiment

BLINK

The Looney Experiment

Copyright 2015 by Luke Reynolds

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ePub Edition July 2015: ISBN 978-0-310-74605-8

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Cover design: Brand Navigation

Interior design: Denise Froehlich

15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 /DCI/ 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

DEDICATION

To Robert Looney, for faith
To John Robinson, for hope
To Jennifer Reynolds, for love

CONTENTS

Atticus, we really dont have all day. Would you please move a little faster? Mrs. Kathan looks at me and rubs her belly. Its a big belly. The kind of belly a marble would roll right off if placed anywhere on it. Even if the marble didnt roll off, the baby inside would probably kick it off.

Atticus! Can you hear me?

Yes, Mrs. Kathan. Yes, I mean, I can, um, yes... The words feel like wet sand in my mouth.

Get up and give your speech, Atticus. Now. Mrs. Kathans chair squeaks as she leans back. I know shes not trying to be mean, and all through the winter and spring shes told us that having a baby in your belly makes you more emotional than normal. Okay. Fine. But Im already terrified, and listening to someone more emotional tell me to hurry up isnt helping any.

I dont know why I cant speak in class. All I know is that when I try to get whats in my head to come out for other people to hear, it doesnt work.

It never works.

I pretend to shuffle my papers some more. I put my index cards with their big ROBERT FROST lettering into my red folder. Then I unclip the red folder from my three-ring binder. Then I take the index cards back out, clip my red folder back into my binder, flip my binder closed, and

Atticus! Get up there now, or youre getting an F on the poet report and your mom will get another call from me. We have seven more students who need to give their reports today and Iah, oohI am not going to put up with this hemming and hawing garbage again. Do you hear me? Mrs. Kathan leans way to the left in her chair, grabs her belly-with-the-baby-inside, and shimmies around. Her face stretches out like shes about to blow painful bubbles.

I stand up and start walking toward the podium.

Danny, Audrey, everyone. Theyre all there. Watching me. Waiting for what they know and I know and everybody knows is going to happen. So I have no choice. It starts banging on the doors of my head and I decide to just let it in, let it take over.

My Imagination.

Robert Frost, the poet himself, suddenly opens the door to our English classroom and strolls in, like weve all been waiting for him anyway, and like he had promised me he was going to come. Looking at me, his eyes wrinkle up, and then he shoots me this wise look. Beneath his silver hair, his face rises up like a wave about to crash. Then his voice booms like the room is too small for it. Atticus, my friend! I heard about this report you were giving on me, and I wanted to be here as well! You are a delightful young man, and Im sure youll teach even me about myself!

And I look at Robert Frost and reply, with a smile and a laugh, Hi, Robert! Nice to see you again! Im psyched you could make it in for my speech. This is Mrs. Kathan, my Eng lish teacher... And then Mrs. Kathan blushes like Christmas. Shes feeling so bad about the way she just talked to me. Even the baby inside her belly is thinking, Jeez, Mom, give the kid a break, will you?!

Then Robert Frost kind of glides over to me like hes on roller skates, and he throws his arm around me. He winks at me and says, The floor is yours, Son. Just like that, he calls me Son and nods his head like we know something secret between the two of us and were about to let the whole world in on it.

Together, Robert Frost and I walk up to the podium, where we recite some of his poetry back and forth, each of us saying a stanza. Just as soon as one of us stops reciting, the other one picks up like were having a baseball catchjust tossing these lines of poetry back and forth, and it all feels so good, and we keep catching the lines and neither of us is afraid of dropping the ball. Because we dont, and we cant.

I sense her eyes, so I glance toward the room after I toss the lines back to Robert Frost, and Im right: Audrey Higgins is looking at me like Atticus, you are amazing, incredible, so confident and brave and smart and poetic and

And I am not afraid.

And my voice is like thunder.

Like thunder!

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood. The lines of Robert Frost leap from my mouth.

The Thundering Atticus!

The Brave Atticus!

The Bold Atticus!

Not the Terrified

ATTICUS! You open your mouth, and you speak. Thats it. Im going to treat you like my five-year-old son; Im going to count to ten, and if you dont start your report before I get to ten, you can sit down and you will get an F. Then Margaret is up. Mrs. Kathan looks at me with eyes like the points of nails.

I tell my Imagination to shut up. I stand in front of the podium and open my mouth. Two roads... I clear my throat. I mean, two roads, I try to force the wet sand out of my voice.

But my voice refuses.

Two roads diverged in a

Fatticus, I cant hear you! Can you please speak up! Danny Wills cups his hands together as he launches the words toward me.

Danny, Ill be the one to tell Atticus what to do, all right? You just sit there until I tell you to speak! And what did you call him? Mrs. Kathan has swiveled around in her rolling chair to face Danny at the back of the class. He wears a smirk and a baseball cap. We werent allowed to wear hats in school until Dannys mom got herself elected to the school board, and now students can wear any kind of hat they want in school.

The smirk grows like bacteria across Dannys face, threatening to take over all the skin that remains.

I called him Atticus, Mrs. Kathan. Isnt that his name? Danny tips back in his chair, and the bacteria finally does it. Bam! It surrounds his face, and the skin is gone and the smirk is wild, free.

I let it happen again with my Imagination. I cant help it. (And maybe I dont want to.)

Robert Frost goes over to Danny and pulls the chair backward so that Danny falls and smacks his head on the floor. Then Robert Frost says, Whoops. Did I do that? Robert Frost looks up at me and gives me another nod, another wink, then a thumbs-up with his right hand for good measure, and I let my head lean backward and laugh so loud it hurts. It hurts so much but I cant stop laughing because Robert Frost is laughing too, and it doesnt help you stop laughing when youre trying to stop laughing but probably the best poet of all time just keeps on laughing like hes inviting you to laugh because you know its all going to be completely

Fine! Danny, Put... your... chair... down... now! Mrs. Kathan grabs her belly as if the baby is going to pop out right here in the middle of fourth period.

Meanwhile, I snap out of my Imagination and catch Audreys eyes. The girl is the Fourth of July, my birthday, and Christmas all put together. I have loved Audrey Higgins for as long as I can remember, and shes been nice to meyou know, helping me pick up my binders after Danny knocks them down in the hallway or smiling at me to let me know that she knows that YES, I EXIST!