Clockwiser (15 page)

“I know. It’s really a slow death poison, so I don’t recommend eating it too often. But it just tastes too good.”

“How much did your card have to pay for this?”

“About twelve dollars.”

Willie almost dropped his burger.

“I know, cheap right? That’s one of the reason’s it’s so popular.”

“That’s two weeks wages!”

Oh.

“Well, there’s been a lot of inflation in the last hundred and fifty years. It’s not that much now.”

“Hey, Casey!”

I turned at my name and saw Kelly and Tyson. They’d gotten together around the same time Nate and I did. I waved them over. Tyson sauntered with his athletic strut, his dark fingers woven through Kelly’s pale ones.

“Hey, guys,” I said. I went to introduce Willie and paused. He was staring at their clasped hands, one black, one white.

“Willie,” I said, making his gaze shift to my eyes. I’d have to explain the whole inter-racial-relationship-equality thing later. “These are my friends, Kelly and Tyson.”

“This is Willie. Uh, a cousin.” I didn’t want it to look like I’d moved on from Nate. “He’s just visiting.”

“Pleased to meet you,” Willie said.

Kelly sat beside me. “Terrible about Lucinda, huh?”

“What do you mean?” I said.

She tucked her blond hair behind one ear. “About Josh dumping her like that.”

Willie narrowed his eyes.

I patted his hand and explained. “Lucinda and her boyfriend broke up.”

“That’s dreadful,” Willie said. “Has her reputation been ruined?”

Tyson had taken the seat beside him and slapped him on the back. “You’re funny, man.”

Kelly shot Willie an annoyed looked. “I feel so bad for her.”

“He wasn’t right for her,” I said. “She’ll find someone better.”

“Like you did,” Willie said, looking at me. “When you broke off your engagement with Robert Willingsworth.”

My mouth dropped in horror.

“What?” Kelly said.

For some unfathomable reason, Willie felt like he needed to explain. “He was definitely wrong for her. He was wrong for any woman from the north.”

Shut up, Willie.
What was with the sudden bout of verbal diarrhea?

I faked a laugh. “Willie’s such a kidder.”

Tyson looked at me. “A cousin?”

“
Distant
cousin. Anyway, I think she’s over Josh already. She’s working today and Willie and I popped in to say ‘Hi’. She seemed fine.”

I offered Kelly my fries and Tyson the rest of my burger, since I’d suddenly lost my appetite. They accepted.

“Hey,” Tyson said. “Did you hear about the shooting?”

I shook my head. “I’ve been too busy to follow the news.”

“Some guy, only one block from my house, shot dead. They think it was a drug deal gone bad.”

“Just acting,” Willie said, his concerned look back in full force. “Right, Cassandra?”

“Cassandra?” Kelly said.

I glanced apologetically at Tyson and Kelly.

“No, this time it’s real, Willie. We have a high crime rate here, compared... to where you’re from.”

“How’s your brother?” Kelly asked. “I couldn’t believe it when I heard he’d been shot at.”

“Timothy was
shot
at?” Willie said. “Was he in battle?”

“He interrupted a bank robbery in progress.” I gave Willie a stern look.
Stop asking me questions here.
Later, sure, but not in front of my friends.

“How is that cop that took the bullet?” Tyson asked, finishing up the milkshake I’d also pushed his way.

“Last I heard she was recovering well. Some major bruising, but nothing life threatening. Thank goodness she was wearing a vest.” Tim and I and our parents had gone to visit her at the hospital. The media had gotten wind of it somehow and it made the back pages of the local paper.

Tyson stood, and Kelly followed suit. “Say ‘Hi’ to Nate for us,” she said. “We’ll have to go out together sometime. Nice to meet you, Willie.”

Wow. That was exhausting. I was ready to dump Willie off at Nate’s and go home, but I couldn’t leave him alone there. We had to wait until Nate got off work.

Willie finished up the last of his meal, slurping the bottom of his milkshake with his straw.

“What’d you think?” I asked as he clung to me on our way down the escalator.

One side of his mouth lifted in a grin. “I think your future is a fascinating and frightening place.”

Chapter Nineteen

TIM

I had blisters the size of walnuts on the back of each ankle. Turns out thirty-five pounds is a lot heavier than you’d think, and walking in the humidity of summer, not the most pleasant experience. My clothes were drenched with sweat and I could’ve chugged back a gallon of water if they’d given it to me. I shook my near empty canteen and moaned.

That was the great thing about playing
War of the Universe
. You just got to sit there in the comfort of your own home, and the worst thing that happened was your thumbs or your butt grew numb. It was too bad the train couldn’t take us all the way into Virginia, but there was talk of the Confederates sabotaging bridges. Sneaky Confederates.

Perfectly acceptable strategy in W of U.

Bummer for us soldiers.

We’d met up with other regiments along the way, and our numbers were getting totally impressive. In the thousands. I was surprised by how many of the guys looked like they should still be in school. I supposed I looked no different. It was hard to feed and water so many, so suddenly. I wasn’t the only one to complain, especially on day two of our wilderness hike across the rolling hills in the northern tip of Virginia.

We followed General John Pope now. He had a flat face with thin hair that came to his earlobes and a full shaggy beard on his chin. The lucky dog got to ride a horse and was off scouting out our next campsite and plotting our next move.

We all collapsed to the ground when we reached the newly positioned Union flag. The wind blew at just the right speed, flapping it wide, a thirty-four star version that was apparently only a year old.

I lay my head on my knapsack and stared at the clouds rolling across the sky. Instead of the teddy bears and bunnies my mind used to see when I was a kid, the clouds took the shape of steam engine trains and musket rifles. Mine rested against my chest, and I stroked the barrel with my hand. I still couldn’t believe I was here experiencing this. Despite my aching limbs, I was excited.

“Are you smiling?” Joseph said. “You must share your secret to the blissful life.”

“I have no secret, young grasshopper,” I said. “Except to grasp each day as a new adventure.”

“Forgive me for saying so,” he countered, “but you say the oddest things.”

“As do you.”

I breathed deeply of the alfalfa, happy I didn’t have an allergy to that particular plant. The breeze dried the sweat off my face.

A bugle blew and that was our sign to get to work.

“I thought that was your job,” I said to Joseph.

He shifted his shoulders back in an attempt to look taller. “I’m not the only bugle player.”

A low groan traveled amongst the troops as the men pulled themselves off the ground and began to set up camp.

Joseph was my tent mate. We each carried half a white tent canvas that buttoned together at the top. We set them up in rows, thousands of small, pointy white tents like sharks teeth.

Joseph sat around the fire we’d built and polished his bugle. “This is my weapon.”

“It’s a beauty,” I said, relieved that this frail boy wasn’t going to be thrust in the front of the line.

“Different musical combinations mean different military actions,” Joseph explained. “Men in the midst of battle can’t hear the shouts of the commander near the back. The bugle cry tells them when to press on and when to retreat.”

Of course I’d already been instructed in the different bugle commands, but I allowed the boy to feel like the authority in his field.

Henry and James shared the tent beside us and joined us around the fire as dusk fell. The worst part of this whole thing so far was the food. Exceptionally disgusting. The ration varied. A bit of dried beef. Sometimes beans, and this revolting patty that was supposed to be the vegetable portion of our meal. It was supplemented with a few rock hard crackers. I waved mine in front of the guys.

“Seriously?” I said. “This is what they fed you?”

Henry shot me a strange look, and I realized I’d slipped into past tense. “I mean, this is what they feed us?”

“Sheet-iron crackers,” James quipped. “Taste like wood, but they last forever.”

“Let’s try boiling them,” Henry said, pouring water from his canteen into his tin dipper. It did make them softer, but no tastier. When Joseph cooked up the coffee substitute, something truly horrendous made from charred green peas, I almost deserted, there and then. Gross.

James feigned a gag. “If not death by musket, then death by army rations. We’re doomed either way, men.”

Down the row we could hear one of the men playing one of those kazoo things I’d found in my haversack.

“Guy’s got talent,” I said. “You better watch out, Joseph. You could lose your job in the military band.”

The flames grew brighter as the night grew darker. Yawns echoed around the camp and one by one the orange spots that dotted the field went dark, until all the men slipped into their little white tents.

Henry was the first around our fire to bid us good night. We heard his low murmur through the thin canvas. “
Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil...”

Chapter Twenty

CASEY

The next day was Saturday, which meant Nate had the day off and could help with Willie duty.

“He was pretty freaked out last night,” Nate said when he called me. “What were you thinking?”

“What do you mean? He wanted me to teach him about the future.”

“So you took him to
the mall
? Haven’t you heard of baby steps?”

“You didn’t give me a
to-do
list before you left.”

I sighed. We sounded like an old married couple. “What’re you going to do with him today?”

“I’ll introduce him to the world of television and electronic games. Should keep him amused for the rest of the day and out of trouble.”

I wished I could join them. The mood around my house was dark, and I had the feeling Mom and Dad were preparing for the worst.

“We need to get him back,” I said, very aware of the pronoun “
we
.”

“I know,” he said.

I swallowed and pressed on. “Dad’s home this morning, but he has to work later. He wants me to stay home, so my mom won’t be left alone again.”

“Don’t worry, we’ll be fine.”

I spent the morning cleaning the kitchen and vacuuming and dusting the rest of the house. Mom had let the place go since Tim’s disappearance. Dad was in his home office talking to someone from the local news station. They wanted to make a public appeal.

In the afternoon I tended to the pile of papers on Mom’s desk, scanning what needed to be scanned, entering numbers in her accounting program, filing everything else.

I was getting antsy about staying away from Willie for too long. I never knew when the next trip would hit, and I had to be touching him when it did if I was going to get him home.

I peeked into Dad’s office. He was slumped over his computer, his broad shoulders folding in and making him seem smaller than usual. I’d grown used to him being gone when he’d left, and it took awhile to get used to him being around all the time again when he moved back in.

“How’s it going?” I said.

He sighed and ran a hand over his head. “Well, I’m organizing a poster blitz. I’ve put an ad in the paper, and they’re running a story on the six o’clock news. Someone out there knows something.”

I nodded and swallowed hard.

“You’ll ask your friends to help with the blitz?”

“Of course.”

When I left the house the next morning to catch the bus to Nate’s, I was surprised to hear the lawn mower going in the front yard. That was Tim’s job and I knew Dad had already left for work.

My heart jumped a bit when I saw who it was.

“Chase?”

I waved my arms so he’d notice me over the noise.

He grinned and turned the mower off.

“Hey, Casey.”

“What are you doing?”

He glanced at the mower and then back to me. “I think they call this mowing the lawn.”

“Yeah, but why? Did my dad hire you?”

“No. I was mowing our lawn, and I could see that yours needed it, too. I know your brother’s...not around, and this was probably his job right?”