Poisonous: A Novel (36 page)

“Kids are resilient,” Max said. “We were talking to your neighbor, Mrs. Baker.”

Immediately, Jenny’s demeanor changed. She went from friendly to suspicious in a blink.

Max said, “She claims that Tommy has a history of sleepwalking. Not just in the house, but that he gets outside.”

“Yes, but he’s stopped. The doctor said once he went through puberty it would likely stop on its own, and it did.”

“According to Mrs. Baker, she saw him just last month walking across her front yard at midnight.”

“She can’t see anything with her old eyes. I set an alarm every night just in case, and Tommy is
fine.
He hasn’t walked in his sleep in
years.
The last time he was fifteen and the alarm went off and I found him in the backyard before he even left our property. Got him back to bed and he didn’t remember anything.”

“You’re certain,” Max pushed. Jenny was lying. Max saw it in her stance and her tone. She was overly defensive, but why would she lie?

Because she knows Tommy was out the night Ivy was murdered.

“How dare you. Get out of my house. You’ve already turned a bad situation worse, stirring up everything about Ivy and my husband’s bitch wife.”

“Jenny, I only want to find the truth.”

“The truth? Paula’s truth? That my son killed her daughter? Is that why you befriended Tommy? Has this all been a trick? Because you think we’re all stupid? You used him!”

“You must know that’s not true,” Max said. “Please listen—”

“Out. Get out. Do not come here again. I forbid you from talking to my son. Stay out of our lives!”

*   *   *

Tommy stood in the doorway, frozen. He heard his mom shout, and muted the movie. Listened. His mom was talking about his sleepwalking. Then she started yelling at Max. He couldn’t hear what Max said, but his mom was really mad. Had he done something wrong again?

He closed the door and sat back on the couch, staring at the silent television. Fiona the princess was singing and about to make a bird blow up. Tommy didn’t like that part and always closed his eyes.

He turned the TV off.

His head hurt.

He sometimes woke up in places he didn’t go to sleep in. It’s why his mom wouldn’t let him sleep in the tree house, even if Austin was there to sleep over the door.

Last month he’d woken up, and his feet had been cold and wet. He thought he peed in his bed like he sometimes did when he was little but only his feet were wet. And the bottom of his pajamas. Like if he’d walked through wet grass.

The door slammed and his mom started banging pots and pans in the kitchen. She was really mad about something, and Tommy worried that it was Max. He ran to the window and looked out. Max was getting into a car with Mr. Kane, Emma’s dad. Mr. Kane was really scary-looking, but Emma was really nice and said that her dad was nice, too. Tommy didn’t want to judge a book by its cover. Like when people thought he was stupid or scary because he didn’t think as fast as everyone else.

His mother got quiet, so Tommy went out to talk to her. Sometimes she didn’t tell him everything, and he didn’t really want to know what happened. He just wanted to know that everything was going to be okay. He didn’t want his mother to cry anymore.

He stopped before he entered the kitchen.

His mother was making dinner and talking on her cell phone.

“Ginger, I don’t know what to do!”

Aunt Ginger. His mom’s older sister. She lived in Colorado Springs, Colorado. They had to take a plane to visit her, which was scary and fun. They went every summer for two weeks. He liked Aunt Ginger, but didn’t like all her rules. They didn’t make sense to Tommy. Like, she wouldn’t let him touch the DVD player because it was only for grown-ups. But she let Amanda touch it and Amanda was two whole years younger than him.

“I just need to leave. To start over. What was I thinking, that Bill would actually be a real father? That he would regret his choices? I should have moved seven years ago when he moved that bitch
two miles
from us.”

Move? His mom wanted to move? He didn’t want to move. He didn’t want to go anywhere. He liked his school and his teachers and Austin and …

His mom said to his aunt, “You’re right. It’s best to do it now. Amanda and Tommy will adjust, they’re such good kids.”

Tommy went to his room and climbed under the covers even though he had all his clothes on. He didn’t want to move. He didn’t want to leave his friends and family and tree house.

Nothing would ever be normal again.

Chapter Twenty-eight

The best thing about parents who didn’t give a shit what you did was that they never questioned the obvious.

After dinner, Austin had told his mom that he was going to spend the night over at Jason’s house. He picked Jason, first because the asshole would cover for him, and second because his mother admired Jason’s mother, a rich bitch just like her—with even more money and even snootier friends than his mom. She’d been pushing for Austin to hang out with the “right people,” and Jason Dunlap was “the right people.”

If she only knew that Jason was the biggest drug dealer under the age of sixteen, she’d flip. Or maybe not. Because she wouldn’t want to offend potentially fancy friends or anything.

Lucky for him, his mom had forgotten all about how Austin was already supposedly grounded for letting “that unscrupulous reporter” put words in his mouth.

Truth was, Max had toned down everything Austin had said. He’d wanted to go on camera, and she said it would be best just to show him and Tommy in the background. Austin watched the show, thought it was pretty good, though he thought it would have been better if Max put his interview up. He didn’t realize until later that his mom had gone off the deep end.

The anger in Austin had been growing all day, and especially after he’d talked to Tommy during PE. Tommy was so sad, and it hurt. It wasn’t fair. His mom had said if Tommy came within one hundred feet of Austin, Tommy was going to jail. Austin told her she was a stuck-up bitch and he hated her. She sent him to his room. He kicked his door closed and cracked the wood frame.

When his stepdad came home late that afternoon, it was like his mom was a whole different person. Over dinner, Bill was trying to calm her down about Tommy, so she turned on the waterworks. Claimed she was scared, didn’t feel safe. Then Bella saw her crying and she started crying. That’s when Austin took his little sister from the dinner table and they played with her Barbie house until she calmed down. Bella was like Tommy that way—easy to distract.

But his anger had not gone anywhere. Austin would not let his mom tell him what to do and who he could talk to and hang out with. He hoped Bill would grow a pair and tell his mom that she was wrong, but instead he just did this weird, there-there, pat-pat thing and didn’t say anything more. And when Austin’s mom was going to say no about the sleepover, Bill told her it would be good for him to be with friends.

“And it’ll give us a chance to talk this through, Paula, sweetheart. I’ll take Bella to my mom’s house, and it’ll just be you and me tonight.”

She got all sappy and agreed.

Austin packed a change of clothes in his backpack and sent Jason a text message. Jason responded almost immediately.

I’ll cover for you, but you owe me one, Lake.

That was fucked, but Austin would deal with Jason when he had to.

Tonight, he had to make sure Tommy was okay.

He rode his bike up to Tommy’s house, but parked it on the opposite side of the house behind the bushes so no one could see it. He went around through the back and up into Tommy’s tree house, then sent Tommy a message.

I’m in your tree house. We need to talk. It’s okay. Your dad is talking to my mom and trying to stop her from being a bitch.

Tommy didn’t respond, and Austin thought he might not have his phone with him. Tommy would sometimes leave it charging in his bedroom after school. Jenny had made him paranoid about always having a charged phone, so much so that he plugged it in whenever he was home and carried an extra charger to use at school.

Austin waited. Fifteen minutes later, Tommy climbed into the tree house.

“My mom didn’t want me coming out here.”

“Did you tell her I was here?”

Tommy shook his head. “No, but it’s like lying.”

“You just didn’t say anything.”

“You can’t stay.”

“Why not? My mom thinks I’m at Jason’s house.”

“Jason Dunlap? I don’t like him. He’s mean to me. He’s mean to you, too.”

“He’s a prick, but he’ll cover for me. We have an understanding.”

“Max Revere came over this afternoon and said something that made Mom cry.”

“What?”

“I don’t know why she was crying, but Max said Mrs. Baker told her that I walked in my sleep. And now Mom is talking to my aunt Ginger about moving to Colorado Springs. I don’t wanna move to Colorado Springs.”

Austin fumed. That old bat. Why didn’t she mind her own business? “You don’t sleepwalk anymore.” Not exactly true.

“That’s what Mom said, but maybe Mrs. Baker is right.”

“And?”

“And Mom got really mad. She told Max to leave and never come back. She told her never to talk to me again.” Tommy frowned. “I like Max. She’s nice and real smart and doesn’t talk to me like I don’t understand. And when I don’t understand, she explains things to me and doesn’t sigh like I’m stupid. I don’t like Emma’s dad. He’s scary.”

“He’s not scary.”

“I’ve had some weird dreams, Austin. Maybe I’m sleepwalking and don’t know it.”

Austin was more than a little familiar with Tommy’s sleepwalking. When Tommy used to stay over at his house, Austin put a bell over his door so he’d hear if Tommy got up. Before that, the first time it happened, his mom had freaked out because she’d found Tommy asleep in Bella’s rocking chair when Bella was still in a crib. Tommy told her that he heard Bella crying and thought she wouldn’t be scared if her big brother was sleeping in the same room. No one else had heard Bella cry, but Austin believed Tommy. He also knew Tommy had vivid dreams.

After that, Paula wouldn’t let Tommy sleep over for months but once she calmed down about it Austin made sure that he woke up if Tommy got up. Austin read everything he could on sleepwalking. Most of the time, he just followed Tommy and usually Tommy went back to bed after doing something—once he made everyone’s school lunches. Another night he walked out of the house, stood at the corner for ten minutes, then went back to the house. Once he left the house and it was raining—Tommy woke up in a panic and if Austin hadn’t been there, he didn’t know what would have happened. Tommy might have been locked up, even though he was just scared because he didn’t know where he was.

But Jenny had told Austin that Tommy had grown out of the habit. Jenny was weird, really smart in some ways and stupid in others. She let Tommy go to and from school by himself, but wouldn’t let him get his driver’s license, even though Austin had been studying with him and knew he’d be able to pass the test. Tommy sometimes got confused about events—especially in the past. The more time that passed, the more confused he got. But he remembered what he read. Not like a photographic memory, but when he wanted to remember, he studied. Sometimes it was annoying—like when he refused to go biking unless Austin wore a helmet because that was the law. Or when the signal was broken but the sign said
DON’T WALK
so Tommy walked six blocks out of his way just to cross the street at a crosswalk.

“Have you been sleepwalking lately?” Austin asked.

“I don’t know. A few months ago—it was right before my birthday, I remember that because we were planning our trip to the Exploratorium, remember that?”

“Yeah.” They went, and Austin was grounded for two weeks because he wasn’t supposed to be with Tommy unsupervised. Austin didn’t care because it was one of the best days ever.

“That was the most fun I had all summer,” Tommy said, grinning. “I love going on the ferry. Maybe we can do it again. Oh, and also Dad said he’d take us to a baseball game again. That was my second best day ever, remember? And the Giants won and Dad bought us hats and I ate three hot dogs. Do you still have your hat? I have mine.”

Austin wanted to hit something. Bill Wallace had no intention of taking them to a baseball game. Bill used to be pretty cool, but Austin’s mom had rubbed off on him. Shouldn’t Bill know better than to make promises to Tommy that he had no intention of keeping?

The day he and Tommy had gone to the Exploratorium, Tommy’s birthday, Paula had made a huge scene when they got back on the ferry. She’d actually called the police and was waiting for them at the dock in Larkspur. Tommy cried when Paula yelled at him. That was the day Austin knew he had to prove Tommy hadn’t killed Ivy. Apparently just because the police said Tommy didn’t do it didn’t mean anything to his mom.

But Paula didn’t know about the sleepwalking. Jenny had told Bill that Tommy wasn’t doing it anymore. Austin didn’t know why she lied, but that was fine by Austin, he wasn’t going to say anything.

“Tommy, are you saying the last time you walked in your sleep was in June?”

“I opened the back door and the alarm went off. It scared me.” He bit his lip. “And Mom was talking about it to Max and then to Aunt Ginger. I didn’t want to listen.”

“Are you sure you didn’t eavesdrop?”

Tommy always eavesdropped. He didn’t really mean to most of the time, but he heard everything. It’s why he knew Paula thought he’d killed Ivy—not that she was trying to keep it a secret.

“Mom was really mad. And crying. A crying mad. It was different. She looked scared. Why would she be scared? I haven’t seen her so mad in a long time. I came here, to my tree house, because I don’t like seeing my mom like that. She looked like that when Dad left to marry your mom. And when she told Max to leave and never come back. And I thought maybe I have been sleepwalking and no one told me. My feet were wet last month.”

Austin didn’t hear the last part. He could barely breathe.

“Is Max leaving? She’s not leaving, is she? She promised she’d help. What did she say?”