Summer's Desire (2 page)

As if he could make those kinds of
promises! Seth snorted. He had a shitty enough life on his own; he didn't need
to take on someone else's problems as well.
No matter how vulnerable that
someone else looked.
He clenched his fists in frustration.

Finally, the social worker left, and
Seth forced his legs back to the front of the house. There was no reason for
him to go to the girl's room, now that she was alone, and study her from up
close; no reason for him wanting to confirm if her hair was really as blond as
it seemed from a few feet away and if her eyes were dark blue or brown or maybe
even black. No reason at all.

Instead, he went back to his worm
digging; he needed to prepare his bait for tomorrow when he would go fishing at
the pond.

As engrossed as he was in his task, Seth
still knew the exact moment when she stepped on the veranda behind him. She
moved like a ghost—there had been no sound betraying her arrival—yet still he
felt her presence as if a magnet had materialized out of thin air and was pulling
him in.

He turned his head and held her gaze
until she blushed and looked down, then he calmly went back to gathering worms.
He knew she was watching him, coming a bit closer, but not too close, and he discovered
that he liked feeling her eyes on him.

* * *

That night, Seth jack-knifed awake at
the sound of her first scream, his blood momentarily frozen in his veins by the
horror and pain carried by that cry. With his next breath—and before making a
conscious decision to move—he was already on his feet and sprinting toward her
room.

He tore through his door, then hers; a moment
later he was beside her bed. She was thrashing in her sleep, her legs
hopelessly entangled with the bed covers, and horrible sounds were escaping her
lips, as if she was being tortured. Under the moon's glow, her cheeks were silvery
with the sheen of tears.

With a jerky motion, Seth switched on
the lamp on her nightstand. Kneeling down on the edge of her mattress, he tried
to gently shake her awake. "Wake up, Sunny! It's just a bad dream. Come on,
Sunny, wake up!"

Her eyes flew open, colliding with his
own—
her eyes... they're brown, with green flecks
, a part of his mind registered
distantly—and they were filled with such endless sorrow that he felt something
twist painfully inside his own chest. Their gazes stayed locked to each other
for a frozen instant, and both boy and girl, looking into the other's eyes, saw
straight into their soul and recognized this soul as a kindred spirit.

"You're safe here," the boy heard
himself promise, and the girl's body gave a mighty jolt at the solemnly spoken
words. Suddenly she launched herself at him, nearly toppling him over, and embraced
him tightly, burrowing into his chest. Slowly, the boy's arms rose around the
girl, drawing her even closer, and holding her felt right.

After some time they lay down on the bed,
still intertwined with each other. Soon, the girl drifted off. The boy stayed
awake longer, guarding her sleep. That night no further night terrors claimed
the girl, and for the first time in six months, she knew peace.

* * *

When Seth went on his fishing trip the
next day, it instantly became obvious to him that he had acquired a tiny
shadow.

The tiny shadow was wearing a yellow
sundress today, and her hair had been arranged by Grandma in a high ponytail,
fastened with a big red bow. Seth's heart beat a little faster at the sight of
her bathed in the morning sunlight, but he was careful not to be caught
watching her.

She was hugging to her the same stuffed bear
from yesterday, and her eyes were fixed on Seth, her awestruck expression (when
she thought that he wasn't looking) revealing clearly that she considered him
the Master of the Universe. Seth secretly approved of her good judgment. All
the same, he knew that it wouldn't do at all for her to know about his thoughts.
So he made sure to throw her a few annoyed glances over his shoulder... but
secretly used this opportunity to confirm that she was still safely following
him.

And follow him she did, always a few
paces behind (she was too shy to come any nearer) but nevertheless sticking to
him like glue. Seth furtively adjusted his longer stride to hers so that the
distance between them wouldn't increase.

At the pond, Summer took advantage of
Seth's apparent immersion in his fishing to gradually glide a bit closer to him.
At this Seth, who wasn't actually immersed in his fishing at all, gave her a
few exasperated looks but didn't say anything.

By lunchtime she was sitting right next
to him, her left side snuggled into his right side, and she gratefully accepted
the half of his sandwich Seth told her he didn't want to eat. "It's with peanut
butter, I don't like it," he grumbled, lying without compunction.

* * *

That night, Summer's second one in her
new home, Seth once again roused with her terrible screams ringing in his ears
and making his heart sting.

Once more he went to her, lightly shook
her awake, let her cling to him and cry on him. Afterward he lay down with her
still held in his arms, and there she slept peacefully until morning.

* * *

The third night, Seth had just gone up
to bed when his door opened and Summer trailed in, wearing her billowy white
nightgown and dragging her big teddy behind her on the floor. Stopping next to
his bed, she looked at him shyly. He silently met and held her gaze, and
something flared in his eyes for a brief moment.

Then, just as silently, Seth raised his
blanket in invitation. Immediately, she slipped in and plastered her small body
against his side. A moment later, the blanket's warm weight engulfed her and
his arms wrapped around her, securing her to him.

The teddy bear lay forgotten on the
floor.

There were no more nightmares for
Summer. Not that night, and not any of the following hundreds of nights that
she spent sleeping innocently in her protector's safe embrace.

Chapter 2

Two weeks later they were at the park,
Seth on a stone gathering expedition and Summer following a few paces behind him
as usual. Abruptly, she found her way blocked by three big boys.

"Ooh, lookie what we have here!"
one of them jeered. "It's the freak who can't speak!" All three burst
into mocking guffaws.

Biting her lip, Summer tried to go
around the first kid, but the other two closed ranks and just like that she was
surrounded on all sides.

"The freak hasn't got no tongue,
but at least it's got
preeetty
hair," one boy taunted, reaching for
her locks.

She ducked his hand and became aware of
the scald of hot tears on her cheeks. The boy reached for her again—but this
time he found himself forcefully shoved away. Like a ghost, Seth had
materialized in front of Summer and pushed back her bully. His body was
shielding her. She looked up at him in gratitude... and froze.

Seth was vibrating with rage, his eyes blazing
pure menace. He was a bit younger than the other boys, not quite as tall as
them, but in that moment he seemed so strong and dangerous that she felt certain
he could tear the others to shreds.

"Don't you come near my girl!"
he snarled at the bullies. "Don't talk to her! And sure as hell don't try
to touch her!"

"Yeah?" The ringleader scoffed.
"What if I wanna touch her? Who's gonna stop me,
loooser
?" And
once more his grubby hand rose toward Summer.

Yet it never came even close to reaching
her, for Seth swiftly pushed her to the side. With one ruthless punch, he sent her
tormentor flying with a trail of blood gushing from his nose. The other two immediately
tried to jump him, but he dodged them nimbly.

To Summer's awed eyes, Seth seemed to
have transformed himself into a whirlwind of destruction: moving with
astonishing speed, he danced around his opponents, avoiding their hits but
landing all of his own powerful blows. Less than a minute later, he was the
only one still standing.

In truth, Seth had taken a couple of
glancing hits too, but they were no big deal; he was used to much worse. And it
was worth it: the bullies had been reduced to a pitiful heap lying bleeding on
the ground.

He gave them his most ferocious glare. "You
asked who was gonna stop you, you stupid assholes?
Me—
that's who! And know
this: you only got off easy this once. Next time you think to mess around, it'll
go much worse for you."

Then, without deigning the boys with a
second glance, he spun around—toward Summer. Furtively, he wiped the blood from
his knuckles on his dark pants.

He reached Summer in three long strides
and crouched down beside her. She was still sitting on the soft earth where she
had landed when he pushed her away, and she was staring at him out of huge,
shocked eyes.

Seth raised a gentle hand to her cheek. "Sunny,
you're alright?" The next words left him in a rush: "I never meant to
hurt you, I just needed to get you away from those jerks. I didn't want you in
the middle of the fight." His voice turned whisper soft. "You're hurt
anywhere?"

She shook her head.

"Okay, that's good." He
exhaled in relief. Then, hesitatingly: "You're mad with me for
fighting?"

She shook her head again. By causing the
downfall of the bullies who had so frightened her, Seth had in fact achieved
near godlike status in her eyes.

"And you're not scared of me?"
He held his breath in wait for her answer.

Once more she shook her head,
forcefully, and her gaze told him clearly how stupid she thought his question
was. How could she ever be afraid of her best friend and protector? She already
loved him more than anything else in the world.

His shoulders relaxed as the last of the
tension left him. "That's good to know then."

He took her hand and helped her up,
dusted her off, then continued on his way. But this time he kept her hand in
his, and from then on Summer always walked beside him, and not behind.

It was the only logical solution, Seth assured
himself. How was he to make sure that she was safe if she wasn't right next to
him where he could see her? He gave her hand a quick squeeze, she squeezed back,
and he had to fake a cough to hide his grin.

* * *

A few more weeks passed, and Seth and
Summer became inseparable. Apart from Seth unfortunately having to attend
school and Summer being still too young to accompany him (which was a great
source of vexation for them both), wherever one of them went during the day, the
other was sure to follow. At night they slept together in his—now their—big
bed, holding each other's nightmares at bay.

As time went by, Seth began to talk to Summer
more often. Little by little he opened up to her, sharing with her his thoughts
and dreams. And even though she never spoke back in words, her expressive eyes
told him everything he needed to know from her.

Time continued to pass, and by the time
winter arrived, Summer had been living in the Lewis household for almost five
months. A few days later it was Seth's eighth birthday. Grandma baked him a big
chocolate cake, and he and Summer ate until they felt sick.

That night in bed, before they fell asleep,
Seth grudgingly confessed that it had been his first time eating birthday cake.
At Summer's inquiring gaze, he explained, "I'm staying with Grams now
because Mom has taken off, which she does from time to time, and when she goes
off she doesn't take me with her. Wouldn't want a kid cramping her style."
Summer reached for his hand and clasped it tightly.

"Still, I've mostly lived with Mom,
and she isn't... she's not a
good
mom." His voice rang with bitterness.
"She's not the kind of mom who bakes birthday cakes. Hell... I mean
heck"—he corrected with a glance at Summer—"most of the time when I'm
with her, I'm lucky to get any food at all. She doesn't even let Grams help out,
says she doesn't want 'an old biddy's interference'. But she sure doesn't mind
her mom's interference when she wants to take off and has to leave her kid
somewhere, the two-faced bi... I mean witch."

He became aware that Summer's eyes were
glistening with dampness.

"No, Sunny, please don't cry!"
He tenderly wiped away her tears. "I don't want you to be sad. Especially
not today. Today, you and Grams have given me the best birthday ever!"

But that wasn't true
, thought Summer.
She hadn't known beforehand that it would be Seth's birthday—he hadn't warned
her at all—so she didn't have a present prepared for him. How, then, could it
be his best birthday when his best friend hadn't given him anything?

Struck by a sudden idea, she hesitated.
Her Mummy and Daddy had always praised her singing, told her it was her
greatest gift. She inhaled deeply, wavered for another instant, then decided.
She wanted to give her greatest gift to Seth.
Gathering her courage, she started to sing softly
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