Halfskin

Halfskin

A Novel

Tony Bertauski

Copyright © 2012 by Tony Bertauski

All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.

This book is a work of fiction. The use of real people or real locations is used fictitiously. Any resemblance of characters to real persons is purely coincidental.

DeadPixel Publications

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Writing is a lonely endeavor. Thanks to those that make it less so. And graciously volunteer to read the messy parts. You make this happen.

Lilly Burns, Dar Theriault, Jessica Collins, Frances Prema Werle-Smith, Noni Langford, and Russell Stare.

And, as always, Heather.

God deals everyone tragedy.

Some more than others.

1

"Look what I got."

Alex pulled a utility knife out of his pants like an eight-year old magician. He slid the lever. Parker reached for it.

"No, you don't,” Alex said.

"Where'd you get that?"

"Your dad's garage."

Nix stepped back. He wasn't scared of the blade—it was just a knife—it was the look on Alex's face, the way he bit his tongue, like there were ideas bouncing in his head. Eight-year olds shouldn’t look like that.

Parker's dad was on the far side of the pool with the rest of the adults, drinking out of fancy glasses and laughing super loud. Fifteen minutes ago they were sitting around singing
Happy Birthday
to Parker. The kids ate cake. The adults did, too. Then the clown showed up and the adults went to the far side with tall bottles. There was a hot tub over there. The kids followed the clown.

The guy told corny jokes and tied balloons, said he could make any animal on the North American continent as long as it looked like a wiener dog. He smelled like exhaust fumes. Parker, Alex and Nix ditched the clown when the adults popped the tall bottles.

"Don't worry." Alex slid the blade back and shoved it in his pants. "It's just a stupid knife. No one will know."

"What if my dad finds out? He'll know you were in his tools."

"You want your present or not?"

Parker held a box at his side. It was a paintball gun. Aunt Maggy bought it for him. It was cheap and crappy. But it was a gun. And it was strapped into the box with plastic ties a rat couldn’t chew through. Parker's mom and dad smiled when he opened it, made sure he said thank you to Aunt Maggy and let him show it off to everyone but he knew that paintball gun was going back to the store. They told Aunt Maggy not to buy him one. They warned her. Aunt Maggy never listened.

"Let's just get scissors," Parker said.

"Dude, it's not a freaking laser beam. Go get a little wiener balloon with Freaky the Clown if you're scared. Nix and me will cut this loose and have our own little war. Right, Nix?"

Nix never shot a gun. He carved a bar of soap with a Swiss Army knife and shot an arrow at a bale of straw, but he never pulled a trigger. Unless squirt guns count.
They don’t.

Parker looked across the pool. Not one adult was looking. Once those bottles got popped, they could do anything they wanted.

"What're you doing?" Jennifer stepped up.

"Nothing," Parker said. "This is a boys' meeting. Go away."

Parker walked quickly around a hedge of azaleas and ducked behind a sweet-smelling gardenia. He laid the box on a bed of leaves. The gun was ready to be cut loose. Ready to lock and load. Alex unveiled the knife. As the razor grew, so did the grin.

New and sharp and pointy.

"Here." Parker held up his hand. “Give it.”

"I'll do it."

"It's my present, I'll do it."

"Yeah, I went and got it so I'll do it."

Nix looked through a gap in the bushes. He shook the blond hair from his eyes. He was the only boy at the party with hair that long. His sister didn't have time to cut it. That’s what she told people. No one argued. When your family had gone through all the things Nix and Cali Richards had been through, you cut some slack. Long hair on a boy, no big deal.

One of the adults in the hot tub said something really, really funny. They were goofing on the clown. Nix's sister wasn’t near the hot tub, she was with some of the moms holding her baby like she was made of glass.

Cali cut her hair super short after she had Avery, said she wanted to remember the day this little angel came into the world. Cutting her hair seemed stupid to Nix, but then everyone said motherhood made her skin glow and the short hair showed it off, like having a baby somehow lit her up all Christmassy. People said she was beautiful—his friends said she was hot.

He couldn’t see it. She was his sister.

"Nix, get down here," Alex sort of whispered. "We need you to hold this."

Nix dropped on his knees. Alex was sawing at the plastic bands and Parker was complaining that he was scratching the barrel. Alex pushed his red hair back. If Parker had some muscles, the box wouldn't move around so much and he wouldn't scratch the gun, now would he?

Parker was on one end of the box, Nix on the other. Alex gripped the knife like he was going to stab the gun. A drop of sweat rolled off the end of his nose. He'd gone through at least half of the bands when the gun began to wiggle. Just a few more and it would come loose. Parker's eyes were wide. He let go with one hand, ready to pounce. He'd been friends with Alex long enough to know you had to be ready.

"Don't let go, dummy," Alex whined.

"It's my gun, I'll do what I want."

Nix pressed down on Parker's corner to help out. He didn't want Alex to get the gun, either. It wasn't fair. Besides, Alex was a jerkoff.

A glass broke near the hot tub.

The adults began laughing.

Alex hunched over and sawed another band.
Plink!
It shot into the grass. Parker's right hand hovered over the gun. Alex told him to get back, he couldn't see. Parker told him to shut up and let him have the knife but Alex told him to shove it up his ass.

An adult shouted about cleaning up the glass and to keep the kids away. Everyone needed to be wearing shoes. Nix wasn't wearing shoes. His sister would come looking for him. He was the only one that had to wear a helmet when he was skateboarding; the only one that still wore a helmet on a bike. She wouldn't give on that. Safety. Safety.

SAFETY.

He tried to sit up straight, just to make sure Cali was still showing off Avery and he wouldn't have to—

SHHHPT.

Nix felt a pinch.

Alex dropped the knife.

He held his hand to his chest. Fear froze on Parker's face. What would happen when his dad found out he was cutting open the paintball gun with a stolen utility knife they used to LOP OFF NIX'S FINGER!

Nix was afraid to move.

"Is it bleeding?" Alex asked.

It hurt at first, when the knife sliced through his finger, but now it was numb. He was afraid if he moved it, the pain would come back. 

"Come on, let me see it. I don't even think I got you or there'd be blood all over the place."

Something warm seeped between his fingers. It wasn't red and sticky.

It was gray.

"What is that?" Parker asked.

"Looks like snot." Alex reached out.

Nix turned away. He cradled his hand like he was holding his niece. He knew what the gray stuff was, he just wasn't supposed to tell anyone. But then no one ever told him what to say if he cut himself and his friends saw the stuff coming out. He had to say something. You don't bleed snot and just put a band-aid on it without explaining.

Jennifer was standing just out of sight. "I'm going to get my mom."

Parker caught her by the ankle. She could've broken free, if she wanted. All she had to do was scream and a mom would come running. But Parker had tears in his eyes. Even Alex was sitting still, his lips forming a perfect O.

"Please, please, please... don't tell. Don't tell, I'll promise you anything. Anything, just don't tell."

"Nix cut himself," Jennifer said too loudly. "How is no one going to find out?"

"Please, but... don't... not yet." His lips fluttered. "I'll give you my old iPod, I promise. I don't need it anymore, you can have it, I swear. Just don't tell."

Jennifer put her hands on her hips. "But he's hurt."             

"No, I'm not."

They all looked.

Parker crawled back over, hope smeared on his face. Eyes wide, mouth open. If he could wish for anything in the world, it would be for this whole thing to go away. He'd give up the stupid gun, if that's what it took.

"Let me see," he said.

Nix pulled his hand away and peeked down like he was looking at a secret. Gray stuff was all over his shirt. It shimmered like metal shavings beneath a rotating magnet. He'd seen that before, at the doctor's office. Once a month, his sister took him to some special doctor where they'd poke his finger and look at the stuff under some special magnifier before drawing a sample from his arm. No matter how many times they poked him, it only hurt for a second.

This was the first time he'd been cut open outside the doctor's office.

And it wasn't too bad.

He held his hand out like a plate. Alex and Parker leaned over like he was unveiling a dead bunny. The blade sliced over his knuckle. It was down to the bone. But there was no white tissue gleaming through the gap. It was just a shimmery mass of gray that gyrated between flaps of skin.

"What the hell is that?" Alex asked.

Nix stood up. His sister was sitting in the shade with a blanket over Avery's head. She was probably breastfeeding. She wasn't going anywhere for a few minutes.

"You promise not tell?" Nix asked. They nodded, just like eight-year-olds. "You swear? Because this is a big time secret. I'm not supposed to tell anyone about this, ever."

"Swear, dude. Swear." Alex held up the Scout's Honor. Parker imitated him. Neither one of them were scouts.

Nix took one more look at his sister. She was far away, not even looking.

He looked at Alex. Looked at Parker.

"Robots."

There was a long pause. "Uhhh, what?" Alex muttered.

"These are robots." Nix dipped his finger in the wound and held up the gray spot.

"I don't know what that means," Parker said.

"I know," Alex said. "It means he's a dope. I oughta punch you in the face, Nix."

Parker didn't take his eyes off the finger. "Why isn't your blood red?"

"Because that's probably a fake finger." Alex reached for it and Nix yanked back. "See, told you. I seen one of those fake fingers at some store next to fake dog crap and fake puke. Come on, Parker. Let's get the gun and shoot him—"

"He means biomites," Jennifer said.

"Dude." Alex's face began to glow. "You got biomites?"

Nix didn't know if this was such a good idea.

"You're not supposed to get biomites until you’re 12."

"Actually, it's 15," Jennifer said. "And it's illegal to seed a minor, you know." She crossed her arms and smirked.

"Unless you're in an accident," Nix said. "Unless it's an emergency."

"Nope." She seemed less confident.

"What, you going to tell on him?" Alex said. "Go and tell the biomite police, you tattletale. Go on, see if they care. Nix got mangled in a car accident and they put the mites in him." Alex nodded at him. "Right?"

Nix nodded. That was the truth. Everyone in town knew that.

Jennifer stomped off.

"What's it like, dude?" Alex leaned forward. "Is it like superpowers or something? Can you grab hot coals or punch holes in walls?"

"No." Nix stroked the wound that had nearly sealed. "It feels normal, I guess."

"Oh, man. I can't wait to get biomites." Alex flopped on his butt, staring. "My old man got them to boost the cartilage in his knee and it made him like twice as strong."

"My mom," Parker added, "got them to fix her eyes. They changed colors."

"And made her tits bigger," Alex added.

"Shut up."

"You shut up."

Nix was tempted to put his finger in his mouth. He'd done it before, it tasted like aluminum. Actually, he just wanted to hide it. He wasn't supposed to tell. He didn't like the attention. It wasn't like he wanted to be seeded. It didn't make him special. He didn't feel any different than before so he didn't see the big deal. He was just like everyone else. He just had more artificiality, his sister said. Besides, when they turned 15, everyone gets seeded to immunize or correct vision or fix learning disabilities or whatever. And when they were adults, they could fix wrinkles and stuff.

"What's going on over here?" One of the moms came around the bushes. "You boys teasing Jennifer?"

Parker sat on the gun. Alex stared. Nix stared.

Guilty.

"He's got biomites." Jennifer pointed. "And he's a minor."

The mom chuckled. "Well, there's always exceptions. Are you all right, honey?"

Nix turned away with his hand tightly against his chest.

"Let me see. If you cut yourself, we need to get some help. Let me see what you did." She knelt down. The veins snaked blue over the tendons on the back of her hands. Her palms smelled clean. He remembered his mom's were that way. "It's all right."

Nix looked through the bushes, across the pool. The adults were up and walking. The broken glass was picked up. The dads were mostly there. The moms weren't. Neither was Cali.

"Daisy?" The moms were coming around the corner. "Is everything all right?"

"I think Nix hurt himself."

Parker was scooting back into the bushes, using the gun like a disc, hoping to disappear. Nix thought about pointing to the half-loose paintball gun and the utility knife in Alex's pants.