Free Uchenna's Apples by Diane Duane Page B

out. There was no one in the yard that she could see. But the light over the back door’s not all that great, there could be anybody in one of those shadows—
    She stopped herself: there was no point in thinking that way—it was just going to make her more nervous. She looked left and right, saw nothing. Somebody behind the Office, then?
    Very quietly she beckoned Emer to follow her around the back, into the space between the Office and the wall at the back of the property. At the corner of the temporary building she stopped, peered around the corner: then glanced behind her, shook her head at Emer. Nothing—
    Silently they moved together around the back of the Office. Uchenna was surprised to see that almost none of the light from the TV was making it out through the opaque plastic curtain—they had to feel their way along the back of the building. About halfway along, Emer suddenly reached out and patted Uchenna’s arm.
    Uchenna looked back at her again. Emer silently pointed up a couple of times into the branches of the tree.
    They both held still for a few moments. Then Uchenna heard what Emer had heard: the rustling. And after that, something went BANG! Into the roof of the Office. It rolled down the roof and fell down onto the sparse behind-building grass at Uchenna’s feet. She stooped, picked it up.
    It was an apple.
    Uchenna handed it back to Emer. Emer looked at the apple, looked up into the tree. From this angle, their view of the branches of the tree was blocked. Uchenna pointed at the end of the Office, gestured that they should go around the far wall and turn the next corner.
    Emer nodded. Absolutely silently they made their way down to the next corner. Above them, in the tree, the rustling seemed to get louder. Uchenna looked cautiously around the next corner, saw nothing at ground level. But above them, at the twelve-foot level, she could see the top of the wall, and just above the wall, something dark: a shape that moved. It was hard to see clearly what it was: the tree was cutting off all the light that came from the house side. But Uchenna and Emer had been outside long enough now for their eyes to start getting used to the darkness. And overhead, in the sky on the far side of the wall, there was a half moon: not incredibly bright, this close to the city, but light enough to brighten the sky a little and make anything above the wall show up as a silhouette. Looking at it hard, Uchenna thought she saw —
    Emer leaned in very close, so her whisper would be almost noiseless. “It’s a leg.”
    Uchenna nodded. Somebody had one foot and leg on the top of the wall: the rest of the person was hidden by the upper branches as they leaned into the leaves and branches of the tree. Sizes were hard to work out in the dark, but Uchenna was getting angry. What are they doing, using the tree to get down and sneak into my yard? Why? Are they after my little cheap TV or something? Or the barbecue, Dad said somebody over Emer’s side of town had their barbecue stolen last week —
    Emer patted Uchenna on the arm again. Uchenna glanced back at her. Emer didn’t say a word: just tossed the apple she was holding, then flicked a glance toward the tree.
    Uchenna grinned and stepped back to let Emer pass her.
    Emer slipped by, staying close to the building, looking up into the tree. More rustling was coming from up there, and bark and some leaves came pattering down. Looking up into the dark of the branches, Emer moved very slowly and carefully forward toward the far corner of the Office. For a few moments she held still. Then she reared back with both hands together, almost over her shoulder, one foot up off the ground as she leaned. A second later she fired the apple up into the dark branches.
    “Aaah!” said a voice in the tree, in what sounded like shock and pain. There followed a scrabbling noise, a ripping sound like leaves being pulled off a branch, a couple of loud bumps: then a crash of something falling