“No!” Harper said fiercely. “That’s not the way to become heroes.”
“Heroes? Who wants to be a hero?” Roddy asked.
“Look, we have to stay in this school for a whole year, and it can be heaven or hell,” Harper said. “Which do you want?”
Frank started to walk away from the idiotic turn the conversation had taken, but Kyle’s words held him back.
“I’m listening,” Kyle said. “What do you have in mind to do?”
“Nothing,” Harper said. “I don’t plan to do anything. It’s just that I want to be a writer, and I like to play, What if? It’s my favorite game.”
“You mean besides trying on ladies’ hose?” Burgess said.
Harper looked Burgess up and down. “Want to try a pair?”
Kyle interrupted them. “Okay, I’ll bite. What would make us heroes?”
“It was just something I was thinking about for a story, that’s all. I was thinking what I’d do if the bomber struck here.”
“Push the lot of them into an elevator shaft then throw a stick of dynamite after them?” Taddy said, and everyone looked at him, surprised at the violence in his voice.
“Just the opposite,” Harper said. “I’d rescue them. I’d be the calm one while they were running around in terror. I’d direct them toward the exits, and I’d take over while the teachers and students were going crazy. Then later I’d be modest when I was talking to reporters.” At this he demonstrated, with his head down, then looking up shyly. “Shucks, ma’am, ’tweren’t nothin’.”
They were all laughing at Harper, and Kyle said, “Nice idea. We’ll lead them out the exits and make a stand for Calburn.”
“And what if the doors of the classrooms are locked?” Taddy asked.
“And who would rescue the naked girls in the gym?” Rodney asked.
“What about the little kids downstairs?” Burgess asked. “I’d like to get them out.”
“And me,” Frank said. “I’d help with the little kids, too.” Then when they all looked at him, he shrugged. “I like kids. Better than adults, anyway.”
“What about you, Taddy? Who would you like to save?” Kyle asked, and Taddy grinned.
“I’d save the football players. They’d be . . . ” He thought for a moment. “They’d be locked inside the gym, and smoke would be pouring into the room. They’d be coughing and sure they were going to die, then I’d . . . I’d break open a window and lower a rope down the side of the wall and help them climb up.”
His story was so vivid that the others laughed, but Harper was serious. “What do you break the window with, and where do you get the rope? And if they get out of the place one at a time, do the others die of smoke inhalation?”
For a while they were all silent, glancing down the road, waiting for the bus, and the discussion seemed to be over, but Harper wouldn’t let it die. He turned to Kyle. “What would you do?”
“Catch the bastard that did it,” Kyle said instantly, as though he’d been thinking about it. “I’d put on my cape and fly into the smoke and catch the criminal.”
“But what if the bad guy was long gone?” Harper asked.
“I’d walk toward the bomb and take it out even if I had to throw my body over it.”
When Kyle saw the others staring at him, he gave a half smile and said, “So sue me, I want to be a hero. I’d like to be the opposite of my old man.”
“And that’s how it started,” Burgess said. “It was just a story we made up to entertain ourselves during the long wait for the bus.”
“But then it really happened,” Bailey said.
“Yes. Harper planted the bomb in the school, and between you and me, I think he’d done it before. Several bombs had gone off around the area during that summer, and I think Harper planted them all. In Wells Creek, there were actually a half dozen of them placed around the school, but during the confusion Harper managed to sneak around and remove most of them before the cops found them. They weren’t real anyway, just smoke.
“Anyway, by the time they went off, our fantasy had been talked about so much among us that we knew exactly what our jobs were. And Harper had done his homework; everything we needed for the rescue was right where it needed to be. And when the reporters came, even our speeches of humility had been rehearsed.
“But what hadn’t been rehearsed was Kyle’s wrath.