Rise of the Mudmen Read online

  But, though those topics popped up with predictable frequency, they had moved on. Now was all about business. Each of the girls had decided to make money, and the best way for any fourteen-year-old girl to make money was babysitting. Brittany swore that selling homemade smokes in the girl’s bathroom at school was easier, but everyone else agreed that babysitting was safer. The best way to get babysitting jobs was with flyers, and Jennifer’s dad had brought his printer home from work, so they had a technological leg-up on their competition. Within the group there was no competition, other than bragging rights over who got the most cash or the cushiest job. They all swore to recommend one another if they were double-booked or the job was nearer to any of their houses.

  Kaitlyn really hoped it would work. She desperately needed the money. She was sick of the little black and white TV in her bedroom, and her mother had told her if she could raise half, she’d give her the rest to buy a new one. Her father had offered to pay for the whole thing, which led to an argument, which led to a slammed down phone and Kaitlyn not hearing from her dad for two weeks. Usually she could play the two off one another much better, in which case she would have had a free colour TV by that point, but now the best offer was half a free TV. She would have to take it. Her TV barely even got channel 8 anymore, and if she had to miss much more Growing Pains, she worried that she’d forget what Kirk Cameron looked like entirely.

  Evidently the rest of her gang had similar thoughts as they hung up their flyers.

  “There’s this wicked jacket at Jeans Experts,” Brittany said. “It’s got, like, all these hanging chains. It’s wicked.”

  “I saw that!” shouted Sarah, her eyes wide open, fully immersed in the vision of the jacket in her mind. “That would look real good on you!”

  “Don’t you have a jacket like that already?” Jennifer asked.

  “Yeah, so? What are you gonna buy? Books?” Brittany snorted with a laugh.

  Of the three other girls, Kaitlyn felt the closest to Jennifer. During the summer, she really seemed to mature right alongside her, so she felt that, if she had to branch out of the group, she would at least have someone to take along.

  “I’m saving up for a trip to Toronto!” Jennifer replied. A nice, financially solid decision, Kaitlyn thought. She was about to say so when Jennifer continued. “And if you like the jackets they have here, you wouldn’t believe the stuff they have in Toronto. My daddy gets me a new one every time he goes there on business.”

  Kaitlyn decided to hold off on her compliment for the time being.

  “How much do you have saved already?” Sarah asked Jennifer.

  “Almost two hundred bucks,” Jennifer replied with a smile.

  Kaitlyn was thrown off, but only a bit. That made sense: Jennifer’s family was rich. Her allowance was probably something like $20 a week, and she probably got a briefcase full of cash for her birthday.

  “I’ve only got a little over a hundred,” Brittany said in reply. “The leather jacket I want is, like, almost three hundred, so yeah. Come on, babies! I’m gonna sit on ya!”

  That threw Kaitlyn off entirely. Brittany’s family was no better off than hers. Probably even less. Before she could stop herself, she burst out, “How did you guys get so much?”

  All three girls looked at each other. Brittany stared at Jennifer and raised her eyebrows knowingly. Sarah, doing pretty much anything that Brittany did, followed suit. Jennifer sighed. “We ... have been getting babysitting jobs for a while, Kait. I’ve been doing mine for like a month now. My aunt kinda has me on retainer.”

  “Why do you want a retainer?” Sarah asked.

  Jennifer shook her head and continued. “But yeah—we just didn’t know if you were, you know, ready. But, now we’re gonna help you out, and soon you’ll get the hang of this! You are gonna, like, rule at this anyways, and soon you’ll be rolling in it.”

  “And then you’ll get to visit Kirk whenever you want!” Brittany added with a laugh. The rest of the girls quickly followed, and the conversation soon drifted back to who was hot, who was gross, and what Mr. Leblanc’s problem was with the way they all dressed.

  To herself, Kaitlyn thanked her friends for looking out for her. She knew she would get the hang of babysitting once she got back into it. She wasn’t even disappointed that they had held out on her and secretly got jobs. After all, she had done the same herself.

  She got a few jobs from Ms. Taylor, her next-door neighbour. No sense in telling the others about that job—Ms. Taylor had asked her before she even got a chance to advertise. She was just the nice, responsible fourteen-year-old next door who could probably use a couple bucks. That’s how Ms. Taylor had put it to her, anyway.

  It had been a pretty easy job, too. Just one kid—Patrick—who was well past the diaper stage and, although he was probably the most hyperactive kid she had ever met, Kaitlyn had lived next door for literally his entire life and knew how he worked. For example, she knew that he would do anything for a rocket popsicle. Even the promise of one held considerable weight for him. She always made sure to get her mom to buy a box right before she had to babysit. She would take half the box to the Taylors’ and reap the profits of a simple job.

  But, she hadn’t gotten a call from Ms. Taylor in over two months, and she doubted very much that she would in the near future. The last time she babysat Patrick, there had been issues. Really it was only one issue, and it was hardly her fault at all.

  It was true that she had been on the phone with Corey O’Neil, but it was for homework! She had promised she would call him about an upcoming project and she needed some quiet time to do that. The fact that she had a serious crush on Corey and the phone call lasted over an hour was irrelevant—it was a necessary homework call.

  And yes, she had given Patrick a rocket pop to leave her alone while she did that. Ms. Taylor had never told her to give Patrick popsicles, in fact she had told Kaitlyn numerous times to limit Patrick’s sugary snacks, but the fact that Kaitlyn had done it before with no issues meant that she could do it that time as well.

  She even checked in on him quite a few times—the cord on the Taylors’ phone was really long and could stretch to pretty much anywhere in the downstairs of the house. Each time she checked, he was eating his popsicle. Maybe all the checks happened in the first five minutes, but that wasn’t Kaitlyn’s fault either. Corey had some really important questions to ask, like if she had ever seen the movie C.H.U.D. Since she had never even heard of it, he had to explain the whole plot to her.

  It wasn’t her fault that Patrick liked to run around either. He was just a little kid. That was something that little kids liked to do. And they’re not very careful about it, so she could hardly be blamed for that.

  When she found him, lying unconscious after he ran into the radiator in the Taylors’ kitchen and cracked his head open, Kaitlyn understandably freaked out. After all, she had never seen anything like that before, and hadn’t really been trained in first aid, even though she said she had been. She had meant to, but then just never got around to it.

  At the time, she was actually quite proud of herself when she finally ran over to her own house and got her mom to take the still-unconscious Patrick to the hospital.

  She felt punished enough when Ms. Taylor yelled at her right there in the hospital when she showed up and had all the events explained to her by the doctor. She certainly didn’t have to spread rumours that Kaitlyn was unfit to look after children, and was a selfish, irresponsible, nitwit who couldn’t listen to even the most basic of directions. She assumed that was what Ms. Taylor said about her—she had said it directly to her first.

  For a while, Kaitlyn agreed with her. It was irresponsible; she wasn’t told not to do those things—not to give Patrick a popsicle, not to talk on the phone with boys, not to lie about having first aid training—but she knew better. As lucky as she felt that things hadn’t gone even worse for her that day, she also felt horrible about it. But, that was in the past. Since then she had m
atured into a bright, responsible young woman. One who not only followed the rules, but made them! She just needed to prove that to everyone again. Once she did that, her phone would be ringing off the hook with jobs.

  Just one simple thing to make it clear that she could handle herself and those left in her care.

  She really hoped that printer posters would give her that chance.

  DAY 1 - THE MORNING

  ALEX

  Alex didn’t skip school regularly. In fact, he had never actually gone through with a plan to play hooky. But he had not been looking forward to going that day.

  For the whole week after the initial run-in with Jared, his former bully made a point of passing by the school just when Alex and his friends arrived at the door, somehow catching them off guard each time. When it started, they were evenly matched: Alex had Mark and Jeremy, Jared had his two chuckling gorillas at his back. Then, on Monday, Jeremy came down with something and had to leave school early. The next day, with just Mark, Jared pointed out that Alex was losing friends left and right. It didn’t help Alex that the following day Mark too was missing, likely due to the same flu. Jared came around as always with his two cronies, while Alex hid in the bushes. Finding him alone was just what they wanted. They said as much as they waited around for him while he hid. Alex wondered why they didn’t have better things to do, but pounding on him seemed just as good as any other activity they could be doing, like lighting fires or tormenting cats.

  Last night, after finding out that Mark still wasn’t going to be back, Alex knew he couldn’t face Jared and his friends alone. He decided that he would just skip. He felt bad, pulling such a stunt at his age, but he knew he’d feel worse if he went, so he made a plan.

  He didn’t think it would be so easy.

  It may have been because, while he had worked himself up to outright lie to his father about being sick (using his friends’ illness to his advantage), he actually started to feel ill. He was sweaty and clammy when his father checked on him, though his temperature was the regular 98.6, so it was strange that Dad let him get away with it, without so much as a question. His father had just looked at him for a while, thinking it over.

  The stranger part was the conversation that followed, though it was mostly just his father thinking out loud.

  He wondered if he should stay home from work, which would have been quite problematic for him considering he had just started the job three days earlier. He even debated leaving Mary home with Alex for the day instead of taking her to daycare, but of course that didn’t make sense if he honestly believed that Alex was sick with a flu.

  Alex had the suspicion that his father didn’t believe that at all. He knew that Alex wasn’t sick. And yet, he let him stay home.

  Maybe Alex wasn’t playing his cards so close to his chest and his dad knew that he was having troubles at school with Jared. Or maybe something else was up—his dad seemed tense, though that could have been due to his new job.

  Whatever it was, Alex decided to not question it.

  “Okay,” he said. “Then I guess I’m off.”

  “Have fun! You’ll do great with ...” Alex popped his head around the corner. “What are you doing, again?”

  “Programming, Alex.” He looked at his son’s uncompre-hending face. “At the CBC station?” He sighed. “So nice to see you take an interest in all of our dinner conversations.” He picked up his bag and zipped his coat.

  “No problem,” Alex said, with a phony grin. He looked to Mary, standing in her overly puffy sweater and hat—both of which used to be his. “Bye Mary! Have fun at ... baby school!”

  Mary smiled cheerfully. “Bye Alex,” she said, and waved her hand—lost in the hand-me-down’s sleeve.

  “Remember to call me if you need anything. Anything at all, okay?”

  “I got it, Dad. No problem,” Alex said, as he settled back into his chair.

  “And don’t go outside or anything, okay?”

  “Yup. Got it.”

  “I’m serious, Alex.”

  “Dad,” Alex leaned back out, his most solemn look on his face. “I’m always serious. Now, have fun at work. If you need anything, or if the other programmers pick on you, call me, okay?”

  “Nice to know you have my back.” He bent down and picked up Mary, who was still staring at Alex. “Come on, little Miss. You’re going to be late for daycare!”

  “Bye Alex,” she said, now to her father.

  “No. I’m Daddy. Dad-dy. Daa—never mind. Have a good day, Alex!” he called out.

  Alex was crouched near the TV cabinet, looking through their collection of VHS tapes. “Thanks. You too!” A few seconds later he heard the door open, soon followed by it closing and locking from the outside.

  He crawled away from the TV cabinet to the living room window and watched his dad put his baby sister in her car seat and then cross the lawn to the Wattses’ house. He knocked on the door. The Wattses would be awake though, even though they were retired. They both woke up at six every single morning.

  After two knocks and no answer, his dad gave up and headed back to the car.

  “Changing grocery days, Wattses?” Alex said to himself. “Society as we know it is crumbling.”

  He crawled back to the cabinet to decide on his morning viewing as he heard his dad drive off to face another day at work.

  Alex only half-watched the movie he had chosen. He finally decided on the Disney film The Sword in the Stone, which he had loved since it was re-released when he was twelve. He’d made his dad buy it for him when it had come out just a few months ago. He had already watched it numerous times, although it was widely considered to be a little kids’ movie. It was his comfort-blanket to get his mind off his woes. Plus, who would know?

  About half-way through the movie, he got up to get a drink. Realizing he was the man of the house for the time being, he decided it would be a can of pop. Maybe two. It would be a good day. He also decided to see what snacks were in stock, just in case the mood hit him. As he searched the cupboards, he heard an ambulance in the background. He looked out the window to see which way it was going, but he must have missed it.

  When he looked back to the cupboard—jackpot! A brand-new bag of chips: Hostess Sour Cream and Onion, his favourite. He grabbed it, and one can of pop, saving the second one for later—it’s the adult thing to do—and went back to his movie.

  Soon he heard another siren, louder than the first. He paused the movie, waited for the ambulance to pass by and heard a dog barking. That made him wonder why Shadow hadn’t run around like crazy, making the weird yipping noise she made whenever there was a siren. “Oh no,” he said, standing, letting the remote fall to the floor. He went to the window and saw the dog that was chasing the ambulance down the street.

  Shadow.

  Dammit! His dad must have held the door open while he was leaving and didn’t notice that she had snuck out. Shadow was not allowed outside other than on her leash or on her chain in the backyard. She always came back, but it was a hassle; usually someone would have to corner her to stop her. Shadow thought it was a game.

  “Shadow!” Alex yelled through the window, hoping but doubtful that she would hear him and stop. Her ears must have been better than he thought, because she stopped short and her head snapped back to the window. She stared straight at him—right into his eyes. Alex knew what would happen next. She stood completely still for a moment, then spun around and bolted.

  “Dammit!” he blurted. So much for his father’s request to stay inside. It wouldn’t be that bad, though—he knew exactly where she was headed.

  A ten-minute walk to the woods; another ten to the brook where he was certain his dog would be. Hopefully she wouldn’t be too hard to catch, though he estimated it would take at least another ten just to get hold of her collar. If she was actually playing in the brook it would be easier, but it would also be really cold. He had to get this done quickly—if his dad called and he didn’t answer, he’d be in trouble, eve
n though it was his dad’s fault that he was out.

  A third ambulance sped by, pulling his attention back to the world around him.

  When Alex reached the edge of the woods, a fire truck sped by. That explains the ambulances, I guess. Each time an ambulance passed, he thought of his mother. He worried about his father; his sister. Worried about—

  “No!” he said aloud to himself, planting his feet firmly in the gravel at the edge of the woods to steady himself. “You’re through with all that!” He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, then slowly let it out—something he had learned to do from his school’s councillor when his anxiety went into overdrive. “They’re fine. Everyone’s fine. No reason to think otherwise.”

  He was so preoccupied with his self-assurances that he’d started walking toward the brook again before it sunk in that the fire truck had been going the opposite direction of the ambulances. He had just started wondering about the long string of traffic following behind the fire truck when he saw a black tail slink around the bend ahead of him, urging him back to his task.

  DAVID

  Aunt Carol dropped the kids off at their schools—Nicole at Sydney Academy and David at Park Junior High. David was a year younger than the other kids in Grade 9; he knew Nicole resented him for being skipped ahead a grade when she clearly felt smarter than him. He’d overheard her complaining about it to their mother, who’d had a “serious talk” with Nicole about her “aggression” and “difficult social skills.” He could picture his sister rolling her eyes through the whole thing.

  David, however, had gotten used to the idea almost immediately. For a while he worried that he would face trouble for being a nerd going from elementary to junior high, skipping over the sixth grade. But, he quickly made friends who stuck with him over the two years he had been there.