It was just too much. Faye had gotten out of there fast! She hadn’t even told him she was sorry, so sorry about… everything! She couldn’t even look him in the eye! (God, he had looked terrible! Like he’d been caught in a stampede and was brought back to live by black magic!) She hadn’t even said sorry to the mad mother. (Or had she?) She tried playing back the scene in her head: the mother scolding her, “You think I’m stupid?” No, Faye hadn’t said sorry, she hadn’t said anything. And then (poof!) there was Johnny. The mother had just looked at him, she hadn’t seemed happy, or relieved, not even surprised! What a horrid woman!

How had Johnny looked at Faye? Had there been blame in his eyes? Disgust at this stupid girl? She didn’t know, she hadn’t stayed to find out, she just ran past him, out! Had Pearly called after her? Faye didn’t think so. (Her brother was back, what did she care about anything else?) Faye was definitely never ever returning to that damned shack!

She rode her bike back into town, the sun was still up. She should go home, and have her dinner there. But her parents would ask, hey, what about dinner at Pearly’s, what happened, what’s wrong? And she would have to tell them (they always knew when she tried to lie): Johnny’s back! She had to tell them, didn’t she? And they would be glad, wouldn’t they? Glad for Pearly? Glad, because they too had been sorry about how things had turned out..?

But was Johnny even supposed to be back? If the police deported you over state lines, basically banished you, were you just allowed to come back? Faye didn’t think so. But her parents wouldn’t tell the police, would they? Not again, after how things had turned out last time, right? But you never did know with adults, did you? They had this habit of sticking together, not admitting another adult was wrong about something. Faye should listen to her teachers, they had told her, even if they were being complete stinkers. Rules were rules and laws were laws. That’s the kind of thing adults would tell you when a situation gets tricky.

She rode her bike towards Patty’s home, then realized on her way: Patty was having dinner with her whole family around this time. Faye didn’t want that whole family to know about the mess she had made of things.

But she had to tell someone or her head would explode.

Of course! She had only one friend who knew her way around sticky situations: Claudette!

Claudette’s tall and handsome father always worked late, even though he was a dentist and who’d ever heard of people visiting a dentist at night? By this time Claudette’s mother would be drunk on sherry, and say the most inappropriate things (if she wasn’t already passed out). She was often really funny in that state, but it was also, of course, as Faye’s parents had explained, pretty sad. Whatever troubles Claudette, an only child, had at home, it never seemed to get her down. She was a tough cookie.

Claudette’s father opened the door (it was Sunday, of course!) and smiled a twinkling smile at her (he couldn’t help himself). Behind him the television blared. Faye said, looking up at him, “Hello, Mr. Panagopoulos,” (he clearly had no idea who she was) “can Claudette come out, uhm, to play?” The father hollered for Claudette, and then turned his attention back to Faye, “So you’re one of Ettie’s little friends, are you?” he said in a teasing tone. Then Claudette pushed him roughly aside.

“Hey, Faye, what’s up?”

“Let’s go for a walk, okay?”

“Sure. Get back inside, pop.”

“Bye, Mr. Panagopoulos!”

“So, what’s up?”

“He’s back!” Faye hissed, as they walked up the road, Faye rolling her bicycle along by the hand “Johnny, the lemurian kid, Pearly’s brother, he’s back!”

Then Faye told her everything that had happened that evening: the dinner she and Pearly had planned, the mad mother, Pearly jumping into Johnny’s arms, and she told what she felt and what she thought as it all happened. The complete honesty of her account felt liberating. A weight had lifted from her heart, while Claudette hadn’t even said anything yet, but was only listening. Faye believed she had only ever been this honest before about things that mattered with Patty.

“… so even though I know I should be happy that he’s back, happy for Pearly, happy for Johnny himself, he must be glad to be back with his family, happy that he’s still alive even. I mean, if you’d seen how bad he looked, golly, whatever he’s been through must have nearly killed him! And I am happy, part of me is happy things turned out alright in the end, but another part of me is terrified, terrified of Johnny, what’ll he’ll say to me, what he thinks of me, or even what he’ll do to me! Who knows, right, he might, I don’t know, I kind of ruined his life for a while there… I mean, I still don’t know why the heck he followed me in the first place!”

“Come on!” said Claudette. This was the first thing she had said, except for some hmmms and yesses, to let her know she was still listening. And she had laughed once, when Faye told her how she had run from the house, but Faye had laughed with her so that was all right.

“What?” Faye wanted to know.

“You mean to say you don’t know why he followed you? Why do boys follow girls, Faye?”

Part of Faye was shocked at the suggestion, but another part of her knew she had already drawn that conclusion, she just hadn’t put it into words yet—but the notion had lurked in her head, right beneath the surface of her conscious thoughts.

“But he’s a lemurian!” she said, amazed at her own tone of voice. She didn’t sound even slightly outraged, she sounded almost… desperate?

“You told me he’s only half lemurian,” said Claudette calmly, “which makes him half human. I suppose him falling for a full-blooded lemurian would be acceptable, but not him falling for a human? Or should he only fall in love with other half-bloods? Maybe he should, but I’m afraid that’s not how love works. Love doesn’t care if it’s convenient.”

“Love?!” blurted Faye. She feared that came out a bit deranged. Claudette looked at her, and the look in her eyes then very subtly shifted. Faye felt the blood rushing to her cheeks.

“Holy Mackerel!” hooted Claudette, “I can’t believe I didn’t see it! You’re in love with the boy!”

No! She wasn’t! That was crazy. How could she be? They had stopped walking. Claudette looked at her… was she about to burst out laughing? Faye didn’t know what to say. “That’s crazy,” she said, “I hardly even know him!”

Now Claudette did laugh, but not nastily at Faye, it was more of an I-can’t-believe-what-I’m-hearing kind of laugh. I hardly even know him? Was that the best she could come up with, Faye wondered. Like he was some boy who’d recently moved into the neighborhood. She should have said, how could I? He’s a different species! I don’t fall in love with cats or dogs, do I? Something like that.

“I’m not, really I’m not!” she said fiercely. Did that put an end to her complete honesty with Claudette? She really wasn’t sure. “Don’t be crazy!”

“Well, I sure hope you’re not, Faye, because that would be crazy! Just look at the guy! Not what you’d call a catch, is he? You see yourself marrying a guy like that, have little furry babies?”

“C’mon, stop it.”

Claudette did stop it, giving Faye one hard serious look, before they continued walking.

“But, in all seriousness, you know,” Faye said, trying hard to sound composed, “what do you think I should do?”

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“About what, exactly?”

“About Pearly’s brother, now that he’s back.”

“Well, next time you see him, you tell him sorry about having him deported, and that’s that. He follows you again, for whatever creepy reason, you tell him to stop that, or you’ll tell the cops again. He doesn’t stop, you tell the cops. They’ll probably kick his butt to the North Pole next time. Pretty simple, really. Unless you’re in love with him, that is. Then there’s nothing simple about it.”

“Don’t you worry about that,” Faye said, worrying quite a bit herself. Claudette glanced at her sideways.

“Let’s head back,” Claudette said, “Untouchables is on in a moment.”

Faye joined Claudette and her parents, her mother sober and real clingy with her husband, on the couch, and they watched cops and mobsters shooting at each other on the television. All the intrigue and violence had a weirdly calming effect on Faye’s nerves. She ate lots of biscuits, and Claudette’s mother gave her a cold piece of turkey from the fridge.

Upon arriving home, her parents were waiting for her, and eagerly asked, “How was dinner with Pearly’s mom, dear?”

“Oh, well, they had an unexpected visitor, so they didn’t really have much time for me. I spent the evening at Claudette’s. I am very tired, I’ll be off to bed, goodnight!”

The unexpected visitor bit had been Claudette’s idea, and Faye had rehearsed it countless times on her way home. It went pretty well, she thought.

Next morning she arrived at Patty’s door extra early, so they could take the long way to school and she could tell Patty all about everything.

Patty thought it would all turn out great! Now Johnny could be their friend, like Pearly, and people would start to see there was nothing wrong with lemurian.

“But what do I tell Johnny?” Faye asked, thinking Patty didn’t quite grasp the nature of the pickle she was in.

Patty pushed her glasses up, and said, “Well, you just say you’re sorry, really very sorry, because you are, and tell him you didn’t mean to, because you didn’t. And he’ll say it’s fine, if he’s a nice guy. And if he doesn’t accept your apology, then he’s probably not a very nice guy, and I don’t think we should be friends with him then.”

God, thought Faye, both Claudette and Patty made it sound so simple!

“So, will we be seeing Pearly after school?” Patty asked breezily, as if the whole conundrum that was driving Faye crazy had been solved.

“I don’t know. I told you I just ran out of there, so we didn’t plan anything.”

“I bet she’s overjoyed that her brother’s back!”

They didn’t see Pearly for days. In the meantime Faye imagined what she’d say to Johnny if they happened to meet. “I wasn’t the one who went to the police,” she would say. “I only told my parents, and they also didn’t mean for all this to happen. They didn’t know the police would deport you. They were just being parents, you know, trying to protect their kid.” And she imagined what he’d say to her, with that husky voice she’d heard when he surprised her in front of her house… but she couldn’t imagine what he’d say. He didn’t say anything as she imagined him looking at her with those huge amber eyes. And she vividly remembered seeing him when she had turned around, standing so very close to her, and she saw him standing across the street, half-hidden in the shadows of the alley, and she saw him again, standing in the doorway, Pearly in his arms, looking half dead, looking at her, at Faye, he had looked at her, their eyes had met for a second, before Faye turned hers away. That look he gave her, what did it mean, what had he been thinking?

She thought about him more than she ever had, and it made her feel terrible.

“Look!” said Patty, pointing across the street. Patty, Claudette and Faye were walking down Cumberland Road, having just listened to a song Claudette was mad about three times in a row on the jukebox at Mac’s Diner. Across the road the girls saw him walking, carrying a heavy-looking wooden case: Tuto.

“Tuto!” Patty yelled!

Tuto turned his head, and Patty and Faye hurried over, with Claudette following at her own pace.

“You’re looking pretty jazzy, Tuto, what happened?” Patty asked. His hair had been combed with a side-part (though it was still quite long), he wore a button-up shirt, the sleeves rolled up past his elbows, creased pants an inch too short and cracked leather penny loafers a size too large. He wore no socks.

“Me, I been civilized. Old Mr. Williams did it, I work for him now, catching the rats!” Tuto said happily, smiling at the two girls, looking very pleased with himself.

“Why?” asked Claudette, joining the group.

“What why?” asked Tuto.

“Why do you catch rats?!” Claudette asked incredulously.

Tuto looked at her funnily, and said, “So they don’t bother people no more.”

“Oh,” said Claudette relieved.

“Hey… You think we eat them!”

“No, no, I didn’t…”

“Yes, you did, ha-ha, you Americans you crazy!”

“Well, we don’t go around catching rats, amigo.”

“I tell you secret,” Tuto said conspiringly, now turning his attention back to Patty and Faye, “because you friends with Pearly, I can tell. I no catch rats either! I go to customer. Talk to them and look and the place a bit, get key, and prepare for the job, then I leave, and at night Johnny comes and he catches the rats!”

“And he doesn’t eat them?” asked Claudette.

“No, I don’t think so.”

Boy, these two were sure hitting it off, Faye thought, joking and laughing. She was relieved that Tuto was still as friendly as ever—at least Johnny hadn’t poisoned his mind and told him to steer clear of her. “How has Pearly been?” she asked. It had been four days since ‘The Return’.

“Oh, she good! She been taking care of Johnny, he been real sick for two days, but now he fine again. I am sorry, ladies, but I have appointment,” he said tapping a large swanky watch on his wrist, “Johnny’s been gone almost a month, so we very busy catching the rats.”

“We’ll walk with you,” Claudette said, and picked up his case. “Geez Louise! That thing’s heavy, what in it?”

“The rats.”

Claudette dropped the case. Tuto laughed merrily, “I joke,” he said, and took the case. “Is only half heavy, Johnny’s case was muy heavy! I took lots out, I don’t catch no rats nohow. I take only bags of sawdust and the oatmeal.”

They were on their way to a rat-infested house and the abandoned paper mill next to the house, where Tuto would spread small piles of sawdust mixed with oatmeal, for the catching of rats, somehow—Faye wasn’t really listening, she was thinking hard.

When Patty had rushed over to Tuto on the other side of the street, Faye had naturally followed, but her heart was pounding in her throat. Tuto was Johnny’s friend—now she was going to get it, here was someone to finally tell her the truth about herself, tell he she had nearly ruined a lot of lives with her dumb behavior. She had been very relieved when Tuto had smiled at her.

But now she was thinking: was she going to continue to feel this way, nervous about every corner she turned, hoping she wasn’t going to run into Johnny? Maybe she should stop waiting for it to happen, stop dreading it, and just get it over with. Go and see Johnny, tell him she’s sorry. Do it tonight.

When they arrived at the house, Faye asked Tuto, “So you’ll be working in both the house and this old building?”

“The paper mill, yes. Johnny says the rats probably come from—” Tuto said, and explained further, while Faye could feel Claudette looking at her. She kept looking straight ahead, looking real interested in what Tuto was saying. Had the question been silly, had the tone of her voice given her away?

When they left Tuto to do his job, Faye hoped Claudette wouldn’t start questioning her.

Claudette said, “Don’t you think that missing tooth looks pretty cute on him?”

Faye and Patty screeched, they had thought the same thing! And all three girls screeched.