A Dark Road (9 page)

Chapter 18

McKay

No
chemist in the world could have asked for better working conditions. It was sunny, but not too sunny, with no wind and of course, no humidity. I had to take advantage, perfect methamphetamine advantage.

I got up early and
removed the hose from the washer to connect it to the basin sink in the basement. I wondered if Hadley Grayson’s house had an old-time basement like mine.

No.
Stop that. Bad McKay. Bad.

Not only did I open the windows,
but I took the screens out and put in the window fans. Dog was all about being outside, but since he ran off with Hadley the other night (not that I can’t blame him), I found some rope from behind the house and tied him to the side where the mailbox used to be.

The work was quick even
though I didn’t have any music. It’s one more reason to hate Hadley Grayson. Because I’ve got to be extra careful now, I don’t want to listen with the speakers blared up. If someone came knocking and I didn’t hear it, I’d be screwed. So I listen to the drips instead and the hissing of the burner. I guess though it’s kind of better, I can hear Dog barking and whistling and whining when squirrels jump by. I know he wants to go after them, but I can’t risk him running off when I’m synthesizing, so I make a promise to make it up to him later.

I’m waiting for a batch to crystallize
so I can break it up and sell it. To multitask, I’m scrubbing out one of the barrels outside. But I get stupid and forget why I had to be careful in the first place. I see a glimmer of shoulder-length brown hair, and perfect hands on top of a perfect head. I want to run but she does it before I get the chance.

Chapter 19

Hadley

It was close to midnight when I noticed Simon still wasn’t home. Luckily for him, Mom and Dad had gone to bed early after having two whole glasses of wine each after their big workout. If either of them woke up and noticed the Bull was still gone almost an hour after our curfew was up, there would be hell to pay. I groaned and stuck my head back into my book, thinking back to the few times I had run interference for Simon when he went a little crazy with his friends. They weren’t exactly hardened criminals, but the occasional incident of skinny dipping with girls home from college or underage drinking did not go unnoticed by me as it did by my parents. I did what I could, but if Simon did get in trouble, I told myself it wasn’t my fault, that I was only taking advantage of the situation. He was the one who was screwing up.

Still, I felt obligated and guilt
y for not helping my brother cover up his crime.

But he was respons
ible for his own mistakes. Anyway, he had only been here for a week, what kind of trouble could he possibly get into?

I closed my book and beat the hardback into my forehead.

I left the house no more quiet than usual. My parents snored on, the first week in the new house having got the better of them as well, I imagined. The sound of the rain gently doing its pitter-patter dance from the broken gutters and pine trees gave me the creeps at first, and I found myself shivering even though it wasn’t particularly cold. For a minute I questioned whether or not I should be going back inside but then resolved to continue, to at least see if my curiosity had a worthy subject.

I trailed up the dirt road
, which was less dirt and more mud at this point. But with the rain boots it still wasn’t too bad. The only really bad aspect was the humidity had brought on a shaded fog that made it more difficult to see, so even though I had a powerful flashlight, it wasn’t doing much good. I would just wait on the porch for Simon to stumble on home. I had my phone with me and began texting him, first threats and then inquiries about his general location. Even when there was no response I didn’t worry. On more than one occasion, Simon had lost, broken, or had his phone stolen during one of his many misadventures, although more likely, he just forgot to charge the thing.

As I wait
ed, I lolled my head against the pillar that supported the porch roof. Being out here at night made me think of James and our first meeting. I remembered what he said about his Dad and about being out here so frequently when he couldn’t sleep. What if he was out here again tonight? I shivered with the prospect of him being so close, though I wasn’t entirely sure why.

I
jumped from the porch and wandered aimlessly to the driveway. No sign of Simon. I walked back up and peeked down the road. If nothing else I could stretch my legs and kill a little time. Maybe I could just walk a few steps and back. If Simon wasn’t back by then, I’d circle around and turn another away.

I turned and stumbled back around to
the front of the house, but as I did my boot became caught just enough so that I hesitated and slipped. And though I did manage to stop myself before falling on my hands and knees. I dropped my flashlight, though. And watched it tumble out of my hands.

I groaned and pulled the hood of my coat tighter. “What am I doing?”

“Trying to break your flashlight?” A soft voice called from the overgrown weeds. Though I couldn’t make it out very well, something hand shaped reached out and grasped the flashlight before snaking it back into the dark.

I screamed at the abrupt movement, instantly thinking about haunted scarecrows and Simon’s damn zombies. But when the
adorably soaking face of James McKay stepped out from the fields, I quickly realized my stupidity.

He handed
me back my flashlight and I was reminded of what I had seen earlier: the alien-like creature walking around the broken house…a distorted head staring at me with a mutated face. I shivered and clutched the flashlight close.

“Did I scare you?
”

Did he scare me
?
He had no idea. I hadn’t expected to see him out here in weather like this, but the instinct to cover for Simon was all too natural. I should have practiced what I would say when I saw him again because now I was speechless, I had nothing to offer for conversation, nothing witty or charming to redeem my ungraceful behavior.

“Were you getting your carpet cleaned or something today?”

Brilliant, Hadley. Positively brilliant.

I
f that weren’t enough, his small smile dropped, giving way to a frown that made my insides feel hollowed out like a crab without a shell.

“No, why would you ask me that?”

Was he angry with me? What did I say this time to piss him off? “I thought I saw some people working on your house—” Though now that he was questioning me, I couldn’t be entirely sure of what I had seen. There had been someone walking around outside of James’ house in weird plastic overalls with something like a gas mask over their head. At the time it had scared me enough to go running back home like a little kid, but it could have just as easily been someone doing yard work or a beekeeper.

“I
, um—” he rubbed the back of his neck. I watched the water dripping off the edge of his matted hair so he wouldn’t think I was staring so directly at him. “We’re having our house ext-terminated.”

I sighed.
A perfectly reasonably explanation.

“You won’t go telling everyone at school I have b
-bugs will you?” His smiled flashed, but there was still a certain nervousness there that didn’t seem right.

I hit the brim of the flashlight
, trying to prompt it to work again. “Your secret is safe with me.”

James stepped forward and reached for the light again, it
s beam only came in breached waves when I swore and hit it against my leg.

He stretched
out his hand, waiting for me to give it to him.

“Oh
, but you see, if I swear loudly enough and call it some names, then it will start to work.”

James smiled
, though I think he was trying not to. “I see.”

“Yeah, it works every time.”

I handed the flashlight to him anyway. “Sounds like a reliable theory to me.”

In one fluid motion he took the cap off and peered inside. How he could see anything at all was beyond me. I could barely see the handsome boy in front of me and
I had to let my eyes adjust to see the hands directly in front of my face.

“I can fix this.”
He turned and started walking back into the field. I looked back at my house with the cozy porch light barely visible in the fog and wondered if I was crazy.

“Are you coming or what?” I saw his hand reaching out for me from the cornstalks
, and before I could think of anything else, I took it. Amazingly, his hand wasn’t damp or cold, or even clammy like I had pictured it might be. It was just right, like Goldilocks set the temperature herself. He pulled me along as I stumbled over roots and broken stalks. The wet rocks made my feet slip, but they could have been dead bodies for all I knew; the only color was the damning red sky, the rest was a mystery.

He led me to a small clearing. I saw the shapes of the
camp ground first. The tent and boulders leading to make out a shape of something circular, a camp fire on colder nights maybe. Then there was a lantern glowing from the side of the tent, it suggested a large, gangling shadow. I shivered when I remembered what Simon had said. If I tried to get out of here without a flashlight I wouldn’t have a chance. Would anyone hear me scream?

Just when
I thought my throbbing heart would break my ribcage, he left me at the base of the clearing. I was beginning to feel stupid when he knelt beside the tent and did something with the lantern I couldn’t see. The light became brighter and I could see the neon blue and green of the tent door slide open to reveal the pasty shadows from inside.

“This is going to take a minute
,” he said, staring at me. I felt like a small bunny rabbit with a large fox. He suddenly seemed so much bigger than me, frightening even with the shadows cast on him.

“I c-can’t stay in the house with the fumes and everything
.” I heard the clinking as he reached for something inside. James took out a small toolbox and pulled himself inside the tent.

“You can come inside. I-
if you want.” He opened the box and took out what I thought was a screwdriver. “I won’t hurt you,” he added for good measure.

“I knew that
.” I wrapped my arms around myself and bounced on dancing feet. Without moving, a cold sweat had formed on my forehead. I hated the in-between of the seasons like this. Hated the undefined.

But
as I walked a little closer and watched his hands, they did something with the coils inside the flashlight. The batteries were already pushed to the side on a dry blanket. I climbed inside as gracefully as I could manage, only then did I hear the soft snoring of Dog in the corner. The only other indication of his presence was the movement of the bundle of blankets he was under moving with his breathing.

“Dog!” I whispered
. “How wonderful to see, well, maybe not see, but smell and hear you again.” I patted the bundle of moving blankets and saw the curled tail struggle to emerge from underneath. From the corner of my eye I saw James smile just until the dimple was showing and then it disappeared.

Moving
the blankets from around his head I flinched as Dog blinked away goop from his eyes. Still, he looked happy as he stretched and reached his tongue out to kiss me.

“He’s in a good mood
.”

James exchanged the screwdriver for a tiny pair of pliers and ran them against the plate where the batteries were
supposed to be. “I didn’t expect to see him after he went into hibernation.”

“Hibernation?”

I watched how his brows crinkled as he concentrated on the delicate work of recoiling the flashlight’s insides.

“He hates this weather. It makes his arthritis act up.”

I tried to prevent my shameless staring, but it was an intense thing, watching James McKay fix my flashlight. I wanted to ask him questions as we went along but got the distinct sense that he didn’t want to be disturbed. His actions were deliberate yet subtle, almost like a machine on autopilot. He reached into the toolbox for a pencil eraser at one point, followed by a paper clip. Each act only increased my fascination. Finally, I had to make myself look the other way and focus on something else.

“Why are you sleeping out here?”

“I already explained that.” He closed his toolbox and replaced the cap of the flashlight.

“I mean why are you
outside
? Why don’t you stay with a relative or something?”

He shrugged. “Dog and I like it better out here.”

I rolled my eyes. “You’re a crazy person.”

He handed me back my flashlight and I watc
hed it light up the tent with a small explosion of artificial light. Now I could see the fine details of James’ face, the perfect proportions of his large eyes and the mess of honey-colored hair on top of his head; the narrow chin that offset the dirty stubble there.

“Thanks.” I swallowed hard
. “How’d you do that so easily?”

“I like to fix stuff
.”

I wanted to laugh
. “Just a boy, his dog, and his toolbox out in no-man’s land?”

His eyes rol
led. “Something like that, yeah. What are you doing out here, anyway?”

“Running interference
.”

“What?”

“Never mind.”

He nodded
. “You should let me walk you home.” His voice had changed. I got the feeling there was something he wasn’t telling me. I didn’t want to probe deeper, though, and risk spoiling what was almost a normal conversation. Instead, I bid Dog farewell with a scratch behind the ears and followed James back out to the field. The rain had stopped now, leaving a dusky smell over the land that wasn’t entirely unpleasant, but heavy and thick in the air.

James walked me right up
to the edge of my driveway. I was surprised that I felt myself stalling, wanting to think of something else to say that would keep him with me for a few minutes more. The Bull still wasn’t there and I didn’t want to go back into the house alone.

“Well
, James McKay, saver-of-flashlights and damsels in distress: you officially have at least one friend. One that doesn’t have a tail, anyway.”

He smiled one of those smiles that I was quickly beginning to understand was rare.
“Don’t talk like that, you’ll make Dog jealous.”

I wanted to smile back but I looked at the
empty driveway again and back at my watch. Now it was close to one o’clock. Simon knew better than to stay out this late without at least texting me for clean-up duty.