Silt, Denver Cereal Volume 8 (39 page)

Jill laughed and drove out of the parking
lot.

~~~~~~~~

Monday afternoon—2:05 p.m.

“
I like this area of the
park,” Noelle pointed to a quiet grove of the trees. “No one ever
comes over here anymore. I mean, the running path is over there and
the fields, but no one can see you here.”

“
Is that safe?” Bestat
Beher, Teddy’s stepmother, asked. She pulled her Mercedes sedan
next to the running path. She was a stunning woman with
almond-shaped, rust-colored eyes, long, jet-black hair, and golden
skin.

“
I don’t know why not,”
Noelle gave her a bright smile. “I mean, if there’s trouble, there
are people around, you know. Plus, I thought it would be good to
have some privacy.”

Bestat looked at the girl for a moment
before asking, “Why?”

“
I saw you.” Noelle gave
Bestat such an innocent smile that the woman scowled.

“
When?”

“
When we were in Brighton
and everything was turning for the worse,” Noelle said. “You fought
the demon.”

“
And you know this?”
Bestat asked. “How?”

“
I see things how they
actually are,” Noelle said. “Like your baby. She’s like you even
though she has Mr. Zack’s eyes.”

Bestat sat very still.

“
No one will ever believe
me,” Noelle said. “You can stand there and I’ll still be able to
paint you as you are.”

“
Have you always had
this . . . capacity?” Bestat asked.

“
Dad thinks Nuala, the
lady who had me, took drugs when I was inside her,” Noelle said.
“Well, we know she did because I was high when I came out,
but . . . maybe she was like this too. Maybe she
just didn’t understand it. Anyway, I’ve always been like this.
Mike, my teacher, he says I have ‘the sight,’ whatever that
means.”

“
Do you see anyone else?”
Bestat asked.

“
I know that Mrs. Alex is
a fairy; I can see her wings. Her husband has a blue fairy that
follows him around,” Noelle said. “I don’t think he trusts his
fairy very much; I don’t trust her either.”

“
Fairies always have their
own agenda,” Bestat said.

“
But not Mrs. Alex,”
Noelle said.

“
No, Mrs. Alex is very
special,” Bestat said. “What about Teddy or my Zackary?”

Bestat’s voice seemed to purr when she said
her lover’s name.

“
Your Zack is a dragon
rider. But
my
Teddy?” Noelle mimicked Bestat’s words and Bestat smiled. “He
has a kind of glow about him. Mike says it’s his shining armor, but
I don’t know.”

Bestat nodded.

“
Sandy?”

“
Sandy?” Noelle nodded.
“That’s easy. She has the warm glow of an earth mother or
something. Just watch when everyone’s around her. They kind of
melt. Tanesha’s wonder woman. Everybody can see her cape. Heather
is a connector, like a bridge or a highway. And Jill is the happy
elf meddling in everyone’s life.”

“
I think you’re right,”
Bestat said.

“
Will you still model for
me?” Noelle asked. “No one will ever, ever, ever believe it’s you.
They will just think it’s me being my silly self.”

“
Delphie and Jacob will
know,” Bestat said.

“
Yeah, but they know
everything anyway,” Noelle said.

“
How about this?” Bestat
asked. “You will do one of me here. I will commission Michael to do
another of my family. At that time, you will agree to paint me as a
woman.”

“
I’ll do it,” Noelle said.
“I’m just learning though. I’m not like Mike or anything. I’m just
a kid.”

Bestat put her hand on Noelle’s leg.

“
We all start somewhere,”
Bestat said.

“
You can just be
invisible,” Noelle said. “So no one will see you in the park. But
I’ll still see you, right? You can do that, right?”

Bestat gave her a slight nod.

“
Will you have another
baby?” Noelle asked.

Bestat gave her a sly look and Noelle
giggled.

“
Can I ask you something?”
Noelle turned to look at her directly.

Bestat nodded.

“
Do you see the future?”
Noelle asked.

“
I see the river of life,”
Bestat said. “Why?”

“
Will Teddy and
I . . .?” Noelle’s forehead wrinkled and she looked
like a very little girl.

“
You don’t need me to
answer that question,” Bestat said. “He is your knight.”

Noelle beamed.

“
Shall we?” Bestat
asked.

Noelle got out of the passenger seat.
Looking out across the grove of trees, she saw one of Charlie’s
basketball teammates. She sneered. The boy didn’t appear to see
her, so she went to the trunk of the car.

“
What is it?” Bestat asked
and opened the trunk.

“
One of those boys who’ve
been hurting girls,” Noelle said.

Bestat cast her eyes in the boy’s
direction.

“
Let’s not let him spoil
our fun,” Bestat said.

Noelle beamed. She grabbed her portable
easel and paint supplies.

“
Over here!” Noelle
yelled. She ran into the grove of trees.

Bestat’s eyes followed the boy until he was
gone. She made a mental note and followed Noelle into the
grove.

~~~~~~~~

Monday afternoon—2:25 p.m.

“
We know what we wants to
do.” The leader stood in the middle of the circle. “We jus’ can’t
today.”

Their leader had a joint hanging out of his
mouth. His eyes were glassy and his pupils large. He paced back and
forth in the middle of the circle of boys in the East High School
parking lot.

“
Why?” the boy Noelle had
seen asked.

“‘
Cuz On-Line’s sister
ain’t here,” Sergeant Aziz’s brother said. “She left before
lunch.”

“
I thought you liked that
girl,” the boy Noelle had seen said to the captain of the
basketball team.

“
Dis is more important,”
the captain of the basketball team said. “Somebody’s been talking
to the po-lice. Dat somebody’s sister is gonna pay.”

“
So we agree,” the boy in
the middle of the circle said. “We get this tomorrow?”

“
He has another sister,”
said the boy Noelle had seen. “She’s just over there.”

He pointed to the park.

“
Who she with?” the boy in
the center of the circle asked.

“
I didn’t see nobody,” the
boy Noelle had seen said. “I went back to check. She set out her
art crap and started painting. No one was with her. She’s in that
hidden place in those trees over there.”

The boy Noelle had seen realized everyone
was looking at him. He stood a little taller.

“
I say we hit that,” the
boy said. “She’s younger and fresher.”

“
Good thinking,” the
leader in the center of the circle said. “You know how much I love
how the virgins scream.”

“
We gonna kill this
bitch,” another boy said. “Teach On-Line a lesson.”

“
We mess her up, have our
fun, then kill her,” the boy in the center of the circle said.
“On-Line won’t fuck with us anymore.”

“
Where she at?” one of the
boys asked.

The boy Noelle had seen pointed toward the
park. The boy in the middle of the circle gave him a nod of
appreciation, lit his joint, and then headed into the park. The
boys followed in his drifting smoke. A couple boys passed around
joints laced with meth like they always did before these events.
The boys were hopping with excitement. Sergeant Aziz’s brother
didn’t follow them. He stood staring at his car.

“
You better get your ass
over here,” the leader said.

“
Yo Momma’s next,” the boy
next to him pushed Sergeant Aziz’s brother.

The boy nodded and made a move to follow. In
his pocket, he texted his brother one word:

“
Help!”

Hitting send, he said a silent prayer that
this would be over today.

The boys started across Seventeenth Avenue
and Sergeant Aziz’s brother ran to catch up.

Chapter Two Hundred and
Forty-Six
In the park

Monday afternoon—2:45 p.m.

Wanda was on her own because Tink was still
suspended from school and Sissy was pursuing her dream. She’d
crossed the street to the Tattered Cover at lunch so she wouldn’t
have to eat alone. While she missed her friends, she’d spent most
of her life in the silence of her secret. She was used to being
alone. She finished her last class and followed the line of kids
out the front door of the school. Standing on the top step, she
looked for her mom’s car. As usual, Mom was late.

Looking out, she noticed a group of boys
moving from the parking lot to the park. Just then, a senior boy
walked into her. They jostled and his papers went everywhere. She
helped him pick them up while they laughed. The boy patted her
shoulder and went to the bike racks. When she looked for her mom
again, she realized that the pack of boys were the same ones who’d
hurt Tink and threatened Sissy.

A flush of rage shot through Wanda. She took
off running toward the boys.

When Wanda was Wade, she’d competed in boy’s
track in elementary school and junior high. Wanda was really fast.
She just missed catching the boys at the light on Seventeenth
Avenue. With her eyes on the boys, she waited until all the cars
had passed and raced across the street.

Closing the distance, she saw her best
friend from elementary school running up ahead. Of course, he was
too cool to be her friend now. Even though he didn’t acknowledge
her presence most days, she still thought of him as her friend. The
last time he’d even looked at her was when she’d given him cream
for the burn on his neck left by the belt. He didn’t have to tell
her he’d tried to hang himself; she just knew. She’d just set the
cream on his desk and gone back to her desk in the front of the
class. The next day, his neck looked a lot better.

Was he one of the boys who’d hurt Tink?
Unsure of what to do, she slowed.

“
Whatchu doing, freak?” A
boy jumped out from behind some bushes.

“
What are
you
doing?” Wanda’s
voice was indignant.

The boy circled her like a dog stalking
prey.

“
I have to go,” Wanda
said.

“
You ain’t going nowhere,”
the boy said.

Before she could move, the boy hit her in
the face.

Wanda screamed and fell to all fours. In her
mind, she went through everything Mr. Colin had told her. She was
going to fight these jerks. She was strong.

Mr. Colin hadn’t told her it would hurt so
much or that she would be so scared.

When she looked up, she saw that a circle of
boys had closed around her. Before she knew it, they were kicking
her. She covered her head.

“
Frankie!” she
screamed.

Up ahead, Sergeant Aziz’s brother skidded to
a stop.

“
Frankie!”

No one called him that anymore. Most people
called him by his middle name, Brutus, or Brut for short.

“
Help me!” Wanda
screamed.

Only one person called him Frankie.

Unable to stop himself, Frankie spun in
place and ran back to where five boys were beating up Wanda. His
rage and shame flushed through him. He threw himself at the group.
He yanked one boy away from Wanda while kicking another in the
rear. He was so angry that he didn’t feel it when they hit him
back. He punched a boy in the face and kicked another boy hard in
the nuts. He vented his rage with each point of contact.

Frankie didn’t fight fair. He didn’t even
try to protect himself.

He just wanted to save Wanda.

He fought with all his might. And then,
something weird happened.

“
It’s okay, son, I got
this,” a man’s voice said.

He looked up and saw Wanda’s father. The
boys who’d attacked Wanda were running in all directions.

“
It’s okay, Frankie.”
Wanda’s dad held out his arms and hugged Frankie tight. Frankie
felt like crying his eyes out, but the man let go.

A boy crept toward Wanda

“
Get the fuck away from my
daughter,” Wanda’s dad bent down and picked up a clod of dirt. He
threw it at the boy. The boy ran away. “Good to see you,
son.”

“
We have to go,” Wanda
said.

Wanda’s dad helped her up. Her dress was
torn and her face was bruised. She was holding her ribs like they
hurt. Her left leg beginning to swell. Frankie took off his hoodie
and gave it to her. She put it on over her ripped dress.

“
You okay?” Wanda’s dad
asked.

“
We have to help!” Wanda
wiped the tears and blood from her face with the back of her
hand.

“
They goin’ to get some
girl.” Frankie gestured in the direction of where the pack of boys
had gone. “On-Line’s sister.”

“
I need to get Wanda to
the hospital,” her dad said.

“
No, Dad,” Wanda said.
“Listen to me. We have to help!”

Her dad looked at her. His eyebrows
scrunched together like he was thinking about something.