Chapter Eight: Hugh and the Caper
It wasn't until two days later that the gang saw Hugh again.
Joshua thought Hugh might be feeling badly about almost crying in front of them and was likely avoiding the gang. So when he saw Ellen in the corner store and she was staring at a just-put-up circus poster and hugging herself he thought about Hugh and telling him about the circus.
"I'd forgotten it was coming!" Ellen said, dancing on one foot and then the other. "I forgot it was coming. Oh, I can hardly wait."
Joshua stood with a dancing-around-Ellen and looked at the bright yellow and red poster. He read the large print. He read the small print. Then he read the little box in the lower right hand corner and he wanted to dance too.
"Look at that," he whispered to Ellen because he was afraid he might shout. "Look at that, will you!"
Ellen looked. "Oh," she said but she was not all that interested. She liked to watch the daredevil motorcyclists ride up the side of a huge barrel but she didn't care that they were going to raffle off one of their motorcycles.
"It's likely an old one," she told Joshua but he was so excited he barely heard her and would not have cared – in fact, he would likely have preferred an old bike, it would carry the excitement of its history.
"I'll tell the gang," Ellen said. "I'll tell Hugh," Joshua said.
Ellen stopped on her way out of the store and Joshua, who was hurrying along behind her, crashed into her.
"Oooomph," they both said. "Who's Hugh?" asked Ellen."You know, the new kid in the neighbourhood. That English boy."
"Why do you want to tell him?" Ellen wanted to know. She had seen the smile he gave Ingrid and the memory of it made her wrinkle her nose.
"I don't know. Maybe he's lonely and would like to come along with us."
Ellen went to the right to find Lucy and Ingrid and Piya and Sam. Joshua started off down the street to the left to tell Bill but then when he got to Orchard Street he turned there and decided to tell Hugh first.
He was worried about having to walk up to the McGregor's old house and ring the bell. He was nervous about doing something new – he'd never called on Hugh before – but mostly he was scared to see the changes in the McGregor's house. He didn't like change. He'd liked Mr. and Mrs. McGregor and their pretty grown-up daughter even if she was "still unmarried and living at home" as Bill said his mother said. He didn't want to see new furniture and another car in the driveway.
But he didn't have to go up to the door. Hugh was sitting on an old tire in the front yard. Mr. McGregor had buried it half way in the ground and painted it white and then drawn his house numbers on it. The 4 and the 2 had worn completely away but you could still see part of the 8. Hugh was straddling it like a horse.
"Hi," Joshua said.
"Hi," Hugh answered.
"Want to go to the circus?" Joshua asked.
"Where and when and 'ow much?" Hugh asked in a funny voice and then laughed, "That's what my mum will say when I ask her. For myself – I'll just say – Yeah,"
Joshua laughed. "Well, for her – the answers are it starts Friday night up at the Park and it costs to get into the tents but you can walk around the midway for free. Sometimes they'll let you take a peek into the tents without paying."
Hugh was pulling a thread in the top of his socks and Joshua wondered if the circus did not appeal to him.
"We could win a motorcycle," he added. "What?" asked Hugh, perking up.
"We could win a bike. The Daredevils are going to raffle off one of their bikes. Boy, would I ever love to have a bike the Daredevils rode." He curled his fists around imaginary handlebars and curved his back toward them.
"My uncle has a motorbike back 'ome," Hugh said, his voice quiet. "He took me out couple o' times. It was grand."
"You can play on it if we win it," Joshua said. "Who's we? Your gang?"
"I guess."
"How's the raffle work?"
Joshua looked at Hugh curiously. He thought everyone knew about raffles. "You buy tickets."
"I know that. I mean, is it for real?"
"Of course," said Joshua who had no idea if it was or not or even what Hugh was talking about.
"Well, that's fine then, isn't it. So all we have to do is weight the odds by buying enough tickets to make sure we win. How much are they?"
"A nickel each. Six for a quarter."
"Aye. And how many are they selling?"
"I – I don't know," Joshua faltered.
"Well, we'll just buy steady then, won't we. How much money have we?" Joshua ran the toe of his sneaker along the edge of the tire.
"I don't really know. I've got two dollars and something."
Hugh made an explosive sound and fell backward off the tire onto the ground. Joshua leaned over in startle and concern. "Are you hurt?" he started to ask and then realized Hugh was laughing.
"You are silly," Hugh said when he could manage to talk. "You'll need hundreds of dollars to win the bike."
Joshua shrugged. He could BUY a bike if he had hundreds of dollars. Winning could take a lot less.
Hugh was strangely quiet for a moment. He lie on the ground, staring at the sky, his fingers tapping on his chest. He seemed to be thinking. Then he scowled and looked toward the house. He seemed to come to a decision.
"Right – we'll just have to get several hundreds of dollars." He sat up and hugged his knees.
"How?" Joshua wanted to know.
"We could always nick it," said Hugh. "That's what my gang would have done, likely." "Nick?" asked Joshua, not sure he had heard correctly.
"Nick. Steal. Lift." Hugh replied calmly.
"Oh," said Joshua, "Uh, no, I don't want to steal it."
"Guess you're afraid, right?" asked Hugh, squinting his eyes. "You're darned tooting I'm afraid. Besides, we'd get caught."
"Not using my methods," Hugh said. He'd heard someone say that in a radio play and it sounded good then and it sounded good now. And he was rather amazed and a bit impressed by a boy who could say straight out he was afraid to do something. "But I guess if you don't want to steal then we can't. I'd need a trained bunch to carry that off. My gang could have done it in a jif." He missed his gang, he did. He wondered what they would say if they could hear him giving them such a reputation. They would have had a right good laugh.
"Right – so we don't nick the money. I'll think of something. I've got an idea," he began to say but then a car turned into the drive and he stood up and put on a sullen look as he headed back toward his house.
A nice looking lady got out of the car. "Is this your friend, then, Hughie?" she asked, smiling back at Joshua.
"Just a kid," Hugh said and slouched into the house. Hugh's mother shrugged at Joshua and followed Hugh.
The next afternoon the entire gang was in the used car lot. It had rained in the night and it always smelled like metal and grass after a rain beside the old railway tracks. So the gang often chose this spot to gather at such a time.
Ingrid was having her hair braided in three plaits instead of two by Lucy to see how it would look. John said it was unbalanced. Joshua and Bill and Sam were trying to figure out how to get money for the raffle tickets on the motorcycle. The carnival opened in three days time. Piya was pulling grass between her toes and letting the flower ends stick to make foot bouquets. Ellen had a sore ear from swimming and was just lying quietly against the side of the old Volkswagen.
"You're blinking hard to find!" Hugh yelled as he suddenly appeared around the weed tangled fence of the junk yard.
"Ooooh," said Ellen, holding her ear. She'd jumped as he hollered.
The gang looked at him and nodded or said hi. Joshua moved over on the running board of the almost rusted away VW so Hugh could sit but he plopped down by Bill's feet and put his face down inside his shirt and rubbed his sweaty forehead with the cloth. Then he came out again and beamed at them.
"The bike's good as ours," he announced and waited happily for the response. He was not disappointed. Only Ellen remained where she was but even she looked interested. Everyone else gathered around with various comments, "How?" "Really?" "Aw, you're kidding," they said. Sam shouted, "Cricket soup!" and punched the air with his fists in his excitement.
"We've kidnapped a dog," Hugh announced. "That little white one in the blue house just around the corner from me. The ransom we get for it will pay for the raffle tickets."
The gang was speechless.
"You kidnapped the Widow Taylor's dog?" Ellen asked into the silence. "You kidnapped Sweetums?"
"If that's the name of the dog, then yes, WE kidnapped it," said Hugh.
"Where is it now?" Joshua asked. Everyone else seemed to have gone numb with shock. "In your garage. In the rabbit cage."
"My garage?" Joshua stared.
"Yes," said Hugh. "The lady next door to us told me where you lived and I went to call on you and tell you about my plan. You weren't there but your mum told me where I ought to be able to find you. Then, when I was leaving, I went along your garage and I saw the cage and all the rest of the junk in there so I guessed you didn't put your car in as well. Then, when I went and got the dog I put him in the cage. He's real quiet. He ate the meat I gave him and just sat down and looked around."
Hugh stopped for breath. The entire gang was still in shock.
"I don't believe you took Mrs. Taylor's dog," Ellen said and put her head back against the car and closed her eyes.
"She could have a seizure," Piya gulped. "She's old."
"I did it for you blokes," Hugh said, starting to realize the gang was not exactly thrilled with his efforts. "And I thought up the wording for the ransom note but someone else has to write it out because I can't write clearly and it has got to look right proper."
He dug a sheet of paper out of his pocket, smoothed it out, and held it for the gang to see. It read, "IF YOU WANT TO SEE YOUR DOG AGAIN PUT $100 IN $2 BILLS IN A PAPER BAG AND LEAVE IT ON YOUR FRONT STOOP WHEN YOU GO TO BED TONIGHT. DO NOT TELL ANYONE AND IF YOU DO AS YOU ARE TOLD YOUR DOG WILL BE BACK TOMORROW MORNING. IF NOT – TOO BAD FOR YOUR DOG.
Piya said, "Oh," and started to cry. Ingrid was chewing furiously on her braids. Lucy jumped up and tore the note out of Hugh's hand and ripped it to pieces. Bill started to bite his nails and did not even care if his mother would notice.
John said, "I don't want a bike THAT bad."
Joshua didn't know what to say. Hugh looked mad and sad both at the same time. Then Ellen said, "You must be pretty mad at your parents for making you move." They all turned to stare at her.
She nodded her head slowly because her ear was now hurting worse than ever. "I know how you feel. When we moved here from just across the city I was so mad at my mom and dad I failed my first spelling test just to show them. And I hid my braces for a week and pretended I'd lost them"
Lucy looked at her twin in astonishment. "You never told ME all this."
"You wouldn't have understood. You didn't mind moving like I did." She closed her eyes again. "Oh, my ear."
Hugh turned away from the gang and rested his arms against the roof of the Volkswagen while he stared across the old railway tracks. Monarch butterflies were like hairbows dancing in the air.
"I'll take Sweetums back," Joshua said to him. "I'll pretend he ran away and I found him."
"It's a girl," Ingrid said around her braids, slowly but distinctly. "Sweetums is a girl."
Hugh gave a huge sigh but did not say anything. Joshua left and Bill went with him.
The rest of the gang continued to sit quietly in the warm smell of grass and metal. Piya stopped crying.