Zoey and the Zombies (A Mondamin Court Adventure)

Chapter Two: Scene 3

Fourteen-year-old Ethan Hillcrest spied around the corner. He sighted down the block with his toy gun. "All clear," he called over his shoulder.

His sisters, Ruth and Esther, were around back playing with their dolls. Ethan wasn't going to play with them. Heck, he hadn't planned on playing like a little kid either, except that Mom had ordered him out of the house, and he had nothing else to do. So, Ethan hid behind the trunk of the tree, pretending to be any Army man like his dad, and continued his look out.

He scanned the back of the Mondamin U. Inspecting the houses from right to left, Jack's house was on the corner. He was a former cop. Occasionally Jack would sit on his porch and tell Ethan stories about the old days when he worked the beat.

Next to Jack lived Justin and Danielle Smith. Justin was a cop and one of the coolest adults Ethan had met, next to his dad. Danielle ran a daycare, and Ruth and Esther loved it when they got to go play with the babies. Ethan didn't care about babies, but often went along anyway.

To the left of the Smiths was an older couple. Ethan couldn't remember their names. His mom called out and greeted them whenever she saw them out on the street, which was rarely. She admonished the kids to respect their elders, and Ethan did; he always spoke politely to them and laughed at the man's jokes, even though they weren't funny.

This was the good side of the street. This was friendly territory.

Next door to Ethan's house was the lesbian couple. Neither Mom nor Dad liked them much. They muttered about sin and worried that their influence might lead Ethan or his sisters into sin. Ethan knew there were a couple girls at school who identified as lesbians. He wasn't sure what the big deal was.

Kitty-corner across from the lesbians was Lydia Scott, public enemy number one. She ran a yoga studio down on University. Yoga, his mom said, was an evil foreign cult. Ethan understood it to be a form of exercise; in fact, they had done it in PE. At school. He didn't tell his mom that. She had already threatened to pull him out of public school and to homeschool him more than once. He didn't want to leave his friends, so he kept his mouth shut.

He spied a redhead coming out of Lydia's house. There was Mondamin's newest public enemy.

Ethan remembered Devon vaguely. The adults had always said stuff, usually in a whisper, about the boy. But Ethan had kind of liked him. Not that they had much in common, being more than six years apart. What Ethan recalled was that Devon was nice to kids and took the time to include them in his games if possible. Few high school kids did that with elementary or junior high kids.

But this was too much. Devon was wearing yellow tights, a red skirt, and a yellow, girlie top.

"I don't know how she can put up with this," Mom had muttered at his father after she came home from the meeting last night. "The shame of it."

"If I had ever worn women's clothes," his father had said, "my dad would have beat me within an inch of my life. Same goes for Ethan."

Ethan had started as he eavesdropped from his bedroom, but of course they didn't know he was listening. Besides, he'd never had any inclination to try on women's clothes anyway.

Ethan continued to spy on Devon, slowly pulling back to keep the tree between him and his subject. Devon had two books in his hands, and he stopped in front of an oversized box.

It was the Itty Bitty Library they had built three years ago. It had been a school project for Devon. It was a miniature dollhouse with Plexiglas walls on one side. Inside was one shelf with a dozen books or so. Neighbors were encouraged to borrow books for free and to place new books in if they felt like it.

Mom hadn't approved. There was no telling what sort of books someone might put in there. Nobody was monitoring the quality or morality of the selection. That might be okay for adults, but there were kids on the block.

It was one of the few times his mom was in the minority. The Smiths valued education, or so they said, and requested the library be built on their property even. The whole block supported the project—the Smiths, Jack, even Rick from down the block.

The library was the one other thing that Ethan liked about Devon. Mom wanted to check and monitor every piece of reading material that came in their house, make sure it taught proper Christian values. That was okay for Ruth and Esther, but he was fourteen, almost an adult. Surely he could decide what to read for himself?

Justin and Danielle read thrillers, and when they were done, they went in the box. Jack had once left a survivalist manual in the box; that book was now hidden in the playhouse out back, one of Ethan's prized possessions.

Devon was all about science fiction and fantasy. Ethan had to credit Devon, and the Itty Bitty Library, for most of his cultural knowledge. He would swipe books out of the Itty Bitty Library and stash them in the playhouse. While all the other kids got to watch the latest movies or played the latest video games, Ethan would read books.

Devon stopped at the Itty Bitty Library and opened the door. He put the two books he was carrying inside and then stared at the shelves thoughtfully for a few minutes. He closed the door without taking anything and headed back toward his house.

Ethan pressed his back against the tree trunk. "Drop has been made, repeat, drop has been made," he muttered into his shoulder, as though talking into a radio. He glanced at their front window. Mom was nowhere to be seen. He glanced down the street again. Devon was already on the porch, heading back inside.

Ethan stuck the toy gun down the front of his jeans and crossed the street. He opened the door of the library and inspected the new books. He knew the contents of the library well enough to not waste time on the other books.

The first book's cover had a woman with a butterfly on her shoulder. He read enough of the back cover to realize it had to do with a boy who wanted to be a girl, and he shoved it back in. He wiped his hands on his jeans quickly, fearing he might catch whatever it was that made Devon act the way he did.

The second book was a goldmine; Ethan could tell it at a glance. It had a woman on the cover too, but she was wearing goggles, a sure sign of something steampunk. No one at school even knew what steampunk was, but Devon and, by osmosis, Ethan, were obsessed with it. Reading the back cover, this novel was not only steampunk . . . it had zombies.

A cop car pulled up, and Ethan started. It's a free library. That's the point, he reminded himself. Besides, it was only Justin coming home from work.

He turned the cover toward his chest and wrapped his arms around the book. He didn't know if Justin talked to his parents about him using the library, and he definitely didn't want even the title of this book getting back to them.

"Guarding the neighborhood, are we?" Justin joked with a nod toward Ethan's waist.

Ethan looked down at the toy gun and blushed. He didn't want to be caught playing. He was too old for that. But what else could he do? His mom ordered him to stay outside and watch his sisters. "Sir, yes, sir," he said.