Savvy

The kids explain that they stowed away on the bus, but it went in the wrong direction. Lill decides that they should stop for the night at a motel. There, the children will call their parents, tell them they’re safe, and tell them they’ll arrive in Salina in the morning.

They drive across Lincoln, Nebraska, and stop at a Sleepy 10 motel, where Lester checks in using Lill’s cash. He stays on the bus while the rest head upstairs to their rooms. Lill still wants the kids to call home, but Mibs realizes this mustn’t happen. She forms a plan.

Mibs wants Lester and Lill to be off the hook when the kids finally reappear in public. If they call their parents now, rescuers will arrive, and the two adults will be in deep trouble. Instead, she wants to pretend that the parents have been informed so that when they arrive in Salina, Lester and Lill can leave without getting arrested. Mibs conspires with Bobbi: They’ll pretend to call their folks, but it’ll be Bobbi on the other end, performing her excellent imitation of her mother. Mibs informs Fish about the plan.

In front of Lill, Bobbi pretends to call her mother, but she’s actually talking to Fish across the hall in the boys’ room. Bobbi does a good job of it and finally hands the phone to Mibs, saying her mom will want to talk to Lill next. Bobbi leaves to “check on the boys” (206), while Mibs pretends to talk to Miss Rosemary. Bobbi crosses the hall and takes the phone from Fish. Mibs hands the phone to Lill.

In her mother’s voice, Bobbi harangues Lill, who promises to keep the kids safe and deliver them to Salina the next day. She cradles the phone and says it was easier than expected, that she admires Miss Rosemary for being a “good, strong woman” (208), and that Rosemary will call the Beaumonts to inform them of the Mibs’s whereabouts.

Bobbi and the boys visit Lill’s room. They look guilty, but Lill is so relieved about the call that she doesn’t notice.

Lill asks if anyone wants to go with her to the Mega Mega Mart across the street to buy some food supplies. None of the kids volunteer, so she departs alone. They try the TV and see the alert about their disappearance still blazing across the screen. They unplug the TV, but Mibs feels miserable. Bobbi looks at her, and her angel tattoo says, “It will be all right” (214).

Lill returns in an hour with bags of packaged food, toiletries, games, duct tape, t-shirts, underwear, and swimsuits for the motel pool. She gathers the duct tape and a fresh necktie to replace Lester’s stained one and departs to visit him on the bus.

Everyone changes into swimsuits. Mibs’s is too big, and she feels bashful in it. Bobbi, who fits beautifully into her bikini, helps Mibs adjust her suit straps until it fits better. The girls go downstairs to the humid pool room, where Will is already swimming and Fish stares determinedly at the mass of water, resisting his urge to turn it into a storm front. Bobbi enters the pool, and her tattoo complains that it’s cold. Will grabs Mibs and pulls her in with a splash; when she surfaces, he plants a quick kiss on her lips. Fish promptly shoots a funnel of water at Will’s head. Will splashes back; Fish jumps in, and they have a friendly water fight that Fish dominates.

Bobbi and Mibs sit on the shallow-end steps and watch the boys try to drown each other. In the water, Bobbi’s tattoo sounds muffled. Bobbi says Will likes Mibs; Mibs blushes. Bobbi asks if she likes Will back; Mibs’s blush deepens, and she says she’s unsure. Bobbi smiles and tells Mibs to take her time.

Bobbi adds that when Rocket’s at church, she feels “all tingly,” and she says that he’d be fun to kiss. Defensively, Mibs asks whether Bobbi is in a hurry about Rocket. Bobbi tells her to read her mind, but the angel tattoo is silent. Mibs asks, “Is it hard to be the preacher’s daughter?” (225) Bobbi is surprised by the question. Mibs adds that it must be lonely, having to be perfect all the time when she’d rather mess up like other kids.

Bobbi thinks Mibs is reading her mind again, but Mibs says she only hears people through their tattoos, and Bobbi’s tattoo is quiet. Bobbi says it’s a temporary tat. She stands, and they see that most of it has peeled off in the water. Bobbi asks if Mibs ever feels that her life is a strange dream and that she’s someone else entirely.

Back in the boys’ room, they find Samson asleep under a table, surrounded by all the pillows. Bobbi takes one bed in the girls' room, and Mibs shares a bed with Lill. As Lill drifts off, she says that sometimes bad things lead to good things. Mibs ponders this, the trouble the group is in, Bobbi’s friendship, and Will’s kiss. She struggles to sleep.

Mibs recalls the funeral for her Grandma Dollop. A lot of psychic relatives attended, and when the last “amen” was uttered, everyone’s sorrow burst forth in their savvies. Lightning struck nearby, bees swarmed, flowers bloomed, and sprinklers sprayed crazily. Grandpa cried, and the ground shook, knocking over headstones, breaking some of Grandma’s sound jars, and spilling their music and speeches in a sound spectacle.

In the morning, the boys wake the girls with plates of waffles from downstairs. Everyone eats. Will and Fish engage in a brief belching contest, and Mibs notices that Will seems very relaxed. She asks if anyone recognized the boys downstairs; Will assures her that none did.

Lill tries to turn on the TV, but everyone jumps up, yelling, “Don’t!” A lot of food gets spilled, and it takes many towels to clean it up. Lester appears, dressed in fresh clothes and the new tie from Lill—she adjusts it for him and touches him fondly—and he announces that it’s time to leave.

As they depart, Mibs hears Rhonda and Carlene arguing about Lester’s new girlfriend: Carlene is miffed, and Rhonda feels triumphant. Mibs wonders why Lester’s tattoos always transmit their thoughts and not his. She decides their thoughts are his own: He’s adopted their bad view of him. She realizes that maybe everyone’s thoughts contain the hectoring voices of others.

On the bus, Mibs tries to hear Lester’s original voice. She notices only that when Lill talks to him or smiles at him, Lester’s tattoos become silent.

The bus arrives at the village of Wymore just as its church lets out. Lill tells Lester to bring the pink Bibles to the preacher’s wife, who’s more likely to accept them. She kisses Lester on the cheek, and he beams and stands taller.

Not long after, Lester returns with a smile, leans over, and plants a full kiss on Lill’s lips. She throws her arms around him and kisses him back while the kids look away awkwardly. Lester announces that the local women’s guild has ordered three extra boxes of Bibles. Lill claps merrily. The extra order makes up for the failed delivery at Bee. Will and Fish help Lester tote Bible boxes to the church, holding them high to hide their faces in case anyone’s seen the news alert about them.

The boys return with powdered donuts. Fish looks angry; clouds form above the village. Will sits close to Mibs and explains that Lester still must make one more stop along the way to give some money to a woman. Impulsively, Mibs takes Will’s face in her hands and, heart thumping, says, “I like you, Will […] I may even like you like you. But I’m just not ready to be kissing you yet, all right?” (247)

She lets go, and Will looks at her slyly. He borrows her birthday pen, and a moment later, she hears a voice in her head: “I can wait. I can wait. I can wait” (249). She looks at Will; he’s holding his hand up, palm toward her. On the palm is a drawing of a sun.

The bus drives south into Kansas. A siren sounds; the kids duck, and Lester pulls over, but it’s just a squad car on its way somewhere else. Fish walks forward and stares tensely ahead. He senses water; Lester says it’s the nearby Tuttle Creek Lake. Mibs, remembering Fish’s birthday hurricane, goes to him and reminds him that he’s got his savvy scumbled and he’ll be all right. Fish nods stiffly.

Lester announces that they’re almost at the woman’s house. He’ll pay her, and they’ll head straight for Salina. The woman’s name is Carlene. Startled, Mibs cries, “Not Carlene!” She quickly explains that she’s seen the name on Lester’s arm. Lester says that Carlene’s brother owns the Bible company and that he got his job through her. Carlene and Rhonda’s voices ring out again in Mibs’s head. They’re on a roll, insulting Lester’s character like a chorus.

Holding her ears, Mibs shouts, “Stop it!” Lester slams on the brakes and stops the bus. Mibs blurts out that Carlene abandoned Lester’s dog for chewing on her red shoes. She adds, “She’s a bad one, that Carlene” (255). Lester doesn’t understand how Mibs knows this, but he admits she’s right. He can’t shake Carlene, though: He feels he owes her for his job.

Lill gently convinces Mibs and Fish to go sit down. Mibs realizes that she must never let other people’s abusive opinions infect her own thoughts. Lester tells Lill that he only needs to pay what he owes for the Bibles and then he’s free to be with her. With a big smile, she replies, “Of course.” Lester says, “Then I am a happy man” (257).