The Daring Escape of Beatrice and Peabody by Kimberly Newton Fusco Read Free Book Online

Bee.’ She moves it slowly past my eyes, waving her hand so the light bounces off.
    I know it is from Arthur. I do not mention I can see plain as day it is foil from a stick of gum. I bet even Peabody can tell. Nobody who’s serious about things gives a girl a gum-foil ring. Bobby would give her the real thing. Of that I am sure.
    I take a hot dog off the grill and throw it to Peabody.
    ‘You can’t do that,’ says Pauline. ‘Ellis will kill us.’
    ‘He’s not here, remember?’ I pull three onions from the box and cut off their papery skins. While I am doing this I find reasons to give Pauline many disapproving looks. She is too busy frying up hot dogs to notice. Arthur comes by on his way to the john and tips his cowboy hat at Pauline. She giggles. I roll my eyes.
    ‘Isn’t it a beautiful day, Bee?’ she asks after he is past. ‘I just love days like this, with the sun all shining and everything so happy.’
    I look at Peabody. He is lying beside me inside the hotdog cart. I fold my arms across my chest. ‘I didn’t notice.’
    She looks at me a minute, then sighs and turns back to the grill.
    ‘I haven’t had a boyfriend ever, Bee. Can’t you just be happy for me?’
    Before I even have a chance to unfold my arms, Arthur is right beside us asking Pauline if she could help him with the merry-go-round. She looks at me and I keep my arms crossed and won’t take my eyes off the onions.
    ‘Oh, Bee,’ she says.
    I look at Peabody. He is watching Pauline. Already she is untying her apron. I do not know what has gotten into her.

23
    Arthur is a tidal wave washing over us, pulling Pauline out to sea and leaving me and Peabody all alone on the shore.
    ‘I have to help Arthur again tomorrow,’ Pauline is saying that night as she rushes around her side of our hauling truck, slipping a new dress over her head. ‘Ellis wants to put him in charge of the stay-put show he wants to set up in Poughkeepsie, so I have to teach him everything that goes on here.’
    I curl up on my bedroll with Peabody against me. ‘But what about Bobby?’ I whisper. ‘He likes you very much.’
    ‘The pig man? He doesn’t like me like that, Bee.’
    I look at her. ‘How can you not know he likes you so much?’
    ‘I like Arthur, Bee.’
    ‘But he’s rotten. It’s like he’s bewitched you, Pauline, and what about me? I know you would never go out all the time and leave me if you were thinking right. Why aren’t you thinking right?’
    Pauline stops putting on her dress-up shoes from Woolworths and comes over and tries to squeeze me, but I turn away. When she loosens her hold, I rush out of the truck and Peabody follows right behind.

24
    The next morning I am tucked tight in my bedroll when someone bangs on our hauling truck. Pauline jumps up. Peabody growls. I cover my face.
    ‘Bee?’
    It is Bobby.
    ‘What’s he doing here?’ whispers Pauline, pulling the covers close to her chin.
    ‘He’s been teaching me to run.’
    ‘Run? Why?’
    ‘If you were here more, you’d know that, Pauline.’ My legs are still wobbly from yesterday, but I get up and climb into my overalls. Peabody pushes his nose out the curtain.
    ‘You think I’m doing this for my health?’ Bobby asks when I get the curtain open. He is leaning against the truck with his pocket watch and his ready, set, go and his rules about starting slow and ending fast.
    ‘I’m not running any more.’
    ‘Why not?’
    I look back at Pauline, who is turned to us, listening.
    ‘Because I hate it.’
    Bobby spits off to the side. ‘How’s quitting going tokeep those boys from stealing your dog? Or worse?’
    Peabody tilts his head and looks at me.
    ‘I’m terrible at it.’
    ‘Well, I have some things I need to show you. Running in the woods, jumping over stone walls and logs, running uphill and down, all this will make you fast. You’ll get better, I promise. You’re not a quitter, are you?’
    Maybe I am. ‘I have to get ready to open the hot dog