After the Fire (8 page)

Melissa ran her fingers along the smooth inner wood. She was almost finished.“Are the fairies still going to be…whatever you called them?”

“Spriggans? I think so.” Alice sounded distracted. “By the way, what happened to your hand?”

Melissa felt like she had been slammed in the chest.

“You don't mind me asking, do you? I've been kind of wondering.”

“No.” Heat rushed into Melissa's face. She was angry that she had let herself be caught off guard. What version to give Alice? The edited one, with all the bad parts snipped out. The rest was none of her business. “We had a fire. It started in the kitchen. Some oil spilled on me.” Melissa's voice shook. She bit down on her lip.
One, two, three, breathe
.

“Wow,” said Alice. “That must have hurt like crazy.”

Melissa didn't say anything.

“Was, like, the whole kitchen on fire?”

Try the whole trailer
. “Yeah,” said Melissa.

“Wow.”

Alice was gaping at her. Melissa waited for the look of embarrassment or, even worse, pity. But Alice's gaze was open and curious. “You'd be able to write an amazing story about a fire, having actually experienced one.”

“Why would I want to write a story about a fire?” said Melissa tightly. She wished Alice would stop staring at her. “I hate writing.”

“God, that must have hurt,” persisted Alice. “What exactly happened?”

“I don't really want to talk about it.” Melissa could hear the coldness in her voice and changed the subject. “Do you feel like going for a swim?”

“Right now?” said Alice. “Sure.” She stood up and brushed bits of bark off her legs. “It's not like we have to make all the arrows today.”

She picked up a towel that was crumpled in a heap on the floor. She seemed to have forgotten all about Melissa's hand. “And then afterward, there's something I want to show you.”

Ten

“W
e'll take my canoe,” said Alice.

“Where are we going?” said Melissa. She was lying on her stomach on the flat rock, drying off in the hot sun. The swim had been amazing, the water like cool silk. Now she felt like a lizard, unable to move.

“Get your paddle,” said Alice.

Melissa reluctantly sat up. “Where are we going?” she repeated.

“You'll see,” said Alice mysteriously.

Melissa retrieved her paddle and climbed into the bow of Alice's canoe. Alice scrambled into the back and untied the rope. It was much easier to paddle a canoe with two people, Melissa quickly discovered. She was amazed at how fast they skimmed across the still water.

They paddled straight across the lake to the opposite shore. It was very rocky on this side of the lake, and the forest went straight uphill from the edge of the water. There were no lily pads or reeds, just deep green water. Melissa rested her paddle for a moment and stuck her hand in the lake. The water ran in silver lines between her fingers.

“It's along here a little ways,” said Alice. “Just around that point.”

They glided in and out of shade, rapidly approaching the point, which was covered with dead trees. They paddled past it, into the mouth of a narrow bay shaded by the steep forested hillside that circled it. At the end of the bay was a high cliff with an exposed sunny outcropping of rock at the top.

Three ducks, their peace disturbed, splashed across the smooth water and flew into the sky. A dragonfly hovered near the canoe, its wings glistening. Alice let her paddle drag. “This is it. D'you think anyone has ever jumped off that cliff?”

Melissa stared up at the cliff. “No,” she said, though she had a feeling that Alice was going to tell her that she was wrong.

“My brother Austin did. Last summer. He's not afraid to do anything.” Alice dug her paddle into the water. “If we get right up close, there's a place where we can land. There's a trail to the top.”

The girls paddled into the end of the bay until the cliff loomed over their heads. They tied the canoe to a dead tree and scrambled onto the shore. A steep trail zigzagged up between the trees. The ground, carpeted in pine needles, was hot on their bare feet as they climbed. In a few minutes they emerged onto the open rocky outcropping, breathing hard.

The dark narrow bay lay below them, as still as a piece of glass. Alice walked right to the edge of the cliff, but Melissa hung back. Heights had always given her a sick feeling. She remembered once climbing all the way to the top of the ladder on the high diving board at the pool in Huntley and then being embarrassed when everyone had to get off the ladder so she could go back down. The lifeguard had frowned at her and some boys had jeered.

“He jumped right from here,” reported Alice. She looked over her shoulder at Melissa. Her eyes gleamed with excitement. “He said it felt fantastic. He said it didn't hurt at all when he landed.”

“Oh,” said Melissa.

“Are you afraid to stand on the edge?” said Alice.

“Not really,” said Melissa. “I just don't want to, that's all.”

“What about jumping? Would you be afraid to jump?”

“I don't know,” said Melissa. “It's just not my thing.”

Alice peered over the edge one last time and then walked back to Melissa. “This is my plan,” she said.

Melissa felt a tickle of apprehension run up her back.

“We agree to jump. Both of us.”

“I don't want to,” said Melissa quickly.

“I don't mean now. We have to psych ourselves up for this. We'll make a pact. We'll solemnly swear to jump in one week.”

“No,” said Melissa.

“I thought you were in on this,” said Alice.

“In on what?” said Melissa weakly.

“This whole thing. Being part of Dar Wynd. Elfrida is brave. She'd do it.”

You're the one who's pretending to be Elfrida, not me, thought Melissa. Alice's stare made her uncomfortable.

“We need some kind of test of bravery,” Alice persisted. “And it's not like it's even dangerous or anything. Austin's done it tons of times.”

That's not how she had made it sound before, thought Melissa. She had pictured Austin jumping once, that was all. Maybe he had just been lucky. “I'd never be able to do it,” she said.

There was a short silence. Then Alice said frostily, “Okay, I'll do it by myself. And I'll have to think about all this. You coming to Dar Wynd, I mean. It's not going to work if you won't do stuff.”

What kind of stuff? For a second, Melissa pictured Alice climbing in the window of their cabin. Was that the kind of stuff she meant? Melissa felt miserable as she followed Alice back down the trail to the canoe. She scrambled in her mind for a way to repair the rift that had sprung up between them. Alice had said they would jump in one week. Melissa could always pretend to be part of the pact and then at the very end say she had changed her mind.

Melissa sucked in her breath. “Okay, I'll do it,” she said slowly.

Alice spun around, a wide smile lighting up her face. “We'll prick our fingers with the knife when we get back to Dar Wynd. This is going to be great. I'm so glad you came here, Melissa!”

Melissa flushed. No one had ever said anything like that to her before. She felt guilty about deceiving Alice, but it was worth it if she got to keep her for a friend.

“May the gods witness this deed,” whispered Alice. “We take the oath to jump from the High Cliff on the eleventh of August. We seal this pact with the blood cast this day at the stronghold of Dar Wynd.”

Melissa studied the pinprick of deep red blood that sprang up on the tip of her thumb. She glanced up at Alice's pale face, pinched with excitement, and shivered.

Eleven

W
hen Melissa got back to the cabin, there was a note on the table from her mother.

Cody and I have gone to the store. Keeping ice is
a full-time job. NO SWIMMING BY YOURSELF!!!
Love Mom

Melissa got out her sketchbook and pencils and settled herself on the porch
.
She doodled for a few minutes while she decided what to draw. Her mind drifted to the pact that she and Alice had made. It had been dumb, really, pricking their fingers with the knife. The kind of thing little kids did. But Alice had taken it so seriously.

There was no way Melissa was going to jump off that cliff. She knew that about herself. It made her sick just thinking about it. She shrugged away the worrisome thought and started to sketch the dock with the red canoe tied at the end. She was just finishing shading the weathered boards when Cody and Sharlene returned.

“Mail! Can you believe it?” said Sharlene. She handed Melissa an envelope. “I feel like a local. It's from Jill. She sent it General Delivery. It's to all of us. You can open it if you like. And I met Bonnie Hill from the guest ranch. She was picking up her mail. She's coming over for iced tea in a few minutes.”

Sharlene attracts people the way honey attracts bears, thought Melissa. Pretty soon she would be friends with the whole neighborhood. Sharlene disappeared inside the cabin with Cody, who had spilt pop all down his shirt and needed a clean one. Melissa examined the French stamps for a second and then slit open the envelope and took out a folded piece of paper.

“What does she say?” Sharlene called through the open door.

“Mmmm…she's having a great time. She's been to the Louvre and she says I would love the art there. And she went up the Eiffel Tower but she didn't walk. She took the elevator.” Melissa skimmed over the rest quickly. “The life jackets are in the shed, which we already know, and—”

Melissa frowned. She read the next part twice.

Melissa, don't forget to check out the island. There's
a neat tree fort in the middle that my sons built. They
used to play “Marooned on a Desert Island
.”

Sharlene came out carrying a tray of glasses and a jug of iced tea just as a brown pickup truck stopped beside the cabin. Cody trailed at her heels with his thumb in his mouth. Melissa folded the paper and put it back in the envelope. “You can read it yourself,” she said.

Her mind whirled with confusion. Jill's
sons
had built the tree house? So why had Alice said that it was her and Austin? There was no way Jill Templeton would
lie
. So it must have been Alice who had lied. Why?

A short freckled woman wearing jeans and dusty cowboy boots stepped out of the truck, and Melissa pulled her thoughts away from the letter. Sharlene introduced Bonnie Hill, who admired Melissa's drawing and let Cody show her the fish under the dock before everyone settled down in lawn chairs with glasses of iced tea.

Melissa closed her eyes and listened while Sharlene asked Bonnie a million questions about running a guest ranch. No wonder everyone liked Sharlene. She's really
interested
in people, thought Melissa almost grudgingly.

But not us, she reminded herself. She remembered all those years when Sharlene was too busy with her boyfriends, and Melissa had struggled to look out for Cody. She shifted in her chair. The counselor had told her to focus on the times when Sharlene had tried to be a good mother. Melissa had dug into her memory and come up with the time when she was six and had the chicken pox and Sharlene had made special meals and played cards with her. It had been a perfect week and Melissa had actually been sorry when the doctor said she was well enough to go back to school. There were other scattered memories: Sharlene's once-in-a-lifetime effort at baking lumpy green cupcakes that none of the kids would eat for a school St. Patrick's Day party; Sharlene sitting in the front row of the gym at a Christmas concert, taking flash pictures and laughing too loudly. It was the drinking that had messed her mother up, the counselor had explained to Melissa. Her intentions had always been good.

“Melissa?” said Sharlene, and Melissa realized that Bonnie was talking to her. “Pardon,” she said quickly, focusing on Bonnie's smiling face.

“You seem like a very talented artist. I hope you're going to put some of your drawings in the fair.”

Had Sharlene prompted her to say that? Probably. Melissa's pictures were private. Melissa shrugged. She ignored the frown on her mother's face and stood up. “I'm going to go inside. It's too hot out here.”

“That was extremely rude,” said Sharlene. She stood in the doorway of Melissa's bedroom.

Melissa was lying on her stomach on her bed. She had been picking away in her brain at Alice's lie. Why had she said that she and Austin had built the tree house when it wasn't true? Had she lied about other stuff too? Melissa rolled onto her back and studied the ceiling. “What do you mean?”

“You know exactly what I mean. Bonnie was trying to be friendly about your drawing and you didn't even have the decency to answer her.”

“I don't want everyone to keep pestering me about putting my drawings in the fair.” Melissa could hear how weak that sounded. But she didn't have the courage to tell Sharlene what was really bothering her. She didn't exactly understand it herself but it had something to do with hearing her mother laugh and chat with Bonnie, pretending that they were a normal family when they weren't.

What would Bonnie think if she knew what the real Sharlene was like? Melissa flopped back on her stomach and buried her face in her pillow.

“I'd appreciate some help with supper,” said Sharlene tightly. “I got some corn at the store that you can shuck. And after supper you and Cody and I are going fishing.”

Not, would you
like
to go fishing? Not, maybe you have something else you'd rather do. Melissa sighed. The trouble was, there
was
nothing else to do here. The only good thing that had happened so far was Alice and Dar Wynd. And now her feelings about that were mixed up with Alice's lie and jumping off that stupid cliff. Melissa closed her eyes until she heard the angry banging of pots from the other room that told her that Sharlene had left her alone.