The Unwanted Winter - Volume One of the Saga of the Twelves (34 page)

“
You don’t think it hurt
me to have to sacrifice our friendship, so I could keep you out of
the kind of trouble that can cripple a person’s life? You don’t
think I haven’t thought about it, man. We’d been friends since
Kindergarten. We had six years of the same classrooms, the same
teachers, the same friends, the same everything. You don’t think it
was hard for me? You used to come over my grandmother’s house for
sleepovers. You don’t think all of that meant something to me. Of
course, it did, dude –.”

“
Hey, hey, alright!”
interrupted Andrew, more than a little guilt in his voice as
well.

Anthony stopped to listen,
a little out of breath from what was likely the longest grouping of
sentences he had strung together the entire day.

“
I get it. I get it. You
don’t have to pound the shit out of me. Fuck, dude!”

Anthony chuckled in spite
of himself. “Dude, I had to, because sometimes you just don’t
listen. Sorry, though, for that and for what happened back in the
fifth grade. I wish it never happened, but I’m glad still we both
survived it, so it is possible for us to be friends
again.”

There was a long
silence.

“
I guess I can live with
that,” the other boy replied in an honest voice, straightforward
just as Anthony had remembered from the past. He began anew. He
wasn’t stupid. “But that’s not why you called is it?”

“
How do you know that?”
Anthony knew his surprised retort would sound higher-pitched over
the phone.

“
Because all this time
you’ve been content to let things lay as they are. You know, you go
your way and I go mine. With all of your casual waves or nods of
your head, you never had any real intention of going beyond that. I
know you just about as well as you know me. You’re always trying to
be unaffected by anything that happens, trying to be bigger than
any given event in your life, so why, suddenly, alter the playing
field? What has suddenly changed?” A short silence ensued. “Am I
right, right?”

No one ever said Andrew
wasn’t intelligent. He might act stupid from time to time, but one
could never second-guess his brainpower.

“
So, tell me, what has
tipped the scales, my long lost friend?”

Anthony laughed at the
melodrama, shaking his head at Andrew’s perceptiveness.
“Well…”

On the other end of the
phone, Drew was laughing uncontrollably, prolonging Anthony
chuckling. “I knew it!” exclaimed the other.

Anthony could almost hear
him pumping his hand through the phone. He laughed a bit more,
then: “Ok, ok, you got me –.”

“
And you didn’t even ‘have
four kids to feed’!” Andrew was laughing louder now, so hard and so
fast Anthony couldn’t make out anything over the phone. Other than
a constant racket, sounding more like a dozen chattering squirrels
than some sixteen-year-old teenage kid.

Why was it always old ass
Total Recall lines with this guy?
thought
Anthony. He waited for a few minutes for the other to calm
down.

“
Dude, you ready for me to
answer your question or what?” asked Anthony finally. The cacophony
of Andrew had lessened.

Slowly, Andrew quieted,
and Anthony tried again, “You ready?”

“
Yeah, man…, go… ahead,”
was his strangled reply as he tried to talk through the levity that
kept bubbling to the surface. “Man…, I hadn’t… laughed like that…
in like years!” Then he almost burst into another round of guffaws,
but was able to contain himself, barely.

Anthony waited a few
moments longer, while Drew got himself somewhat under control.
“Well, it’s really more of a request than an answer to a question,”
ventured Anthony his voice more plaintive than a moment
before.

On the other end of the
phone, Andrew seemed to pause. “What kind of request?” he asked.
His voice was just as tentative as Anthony’s.

One false move and all the
mending they’d managed in their relationship in the last few
minutes would disappear in seconds.

“
Well… I need to kinda
check something out, something a little more unusual than most
things and I wanted someone to go with me. You know, someone to act
kinda like a deterrent.” Anthony nearly swallowed his voice by time
he quit talking, wishing he didn’t come off sounding like a
dork.

“
You want back-up?” asked
Andrew, both surprised and uncertain.

“
Yeah, well, yeah, I guess
that’s the best way to put it,” replied Anthony, wondering if
Andrew was game or not. He pressed on. He couldn’t convince him if
he didn’t try. “You see, there’s this new girl in my sisters’ class
–.”

“
DUDE!” was all Andrew had
to say, interrupting.

Anthony felt embarrassed
instantaneously. “No, man, that’s not what I mean!” Unwarranted
self-consciousness flooded his tone.

“
You
totally had me freakin’, freaked out! Those are
little
girls, bro...,” he trailed
off in order to make his point stick.

“
Eewww,
dude, that’s gross! Jeez, man what kinda guy do you take me for?
Wait! Don’t answer that, ok? So, umm… here’s the deal.
AND,
don’t interrupt,
got it?” pleaded Anthony.

“
Ok, shoot,
man.”

“
Alright, now, as I said,
there is this girl in my sisters’ class. She’s new kid from like
Norway or Finland, someplace far away.”

“
Yeah, ok, a place that’s
all jacked up. Got it.”

“
Yeah,” continued Anthony,
a little annoyed that Andrew couldn’t keep quiet. But, that was
Andrew, so what else could he do. “Anyhow, she says to Mikalah
–.”

“
Is that the younger
one?”

“
Come on, dude!” Now it
was Anthony’s turn to show his exasperation.

“
Ok, ok, sorry. I got it,
be quiet, don’t interrupt.” Andrew promised, while Anthony
smirked.

Yeah right! You couldn’t
stay quiet if your life depending on it!

“
OK, so she says to
Mikalah on her first day at school that she lives on top of the
hill above Milbur Street. You know our street. But, you and I also
know that Milbur doesn’t go up to the summit of the hill. It goes
like just four fifths of the way up, then it dead ends,” explained
Anthony. “You follow?”

“
You want me to talk
now?”

“
Whatever. Forget I asked,
ok?” Damn, Andrew could be an ass when we wanted to act like one.
“So, check this out. So, like today when I scooped up the girls
from their school and we were walking home. Elena, that’s the older
one.” He interposed to stave off any further interruption. “She
tells me this chick, Nixy - I think that’s her name - says she had
a knife on her and she wanted Elena to go somewhere with her. Of
course, this made Elena feel kinda scared, even though she really
didn’t believe the girl was carrying a shank. Right? I mean, what
kinda a third-grader brings a knife to school? Well, at least,
that’s what Elena figured and I agreed with her.”

“
A
pretty messed up one if you ask me. I mean shit, I brought booze
and that was
bad
enough, but this… this is like coercion or some sort of
terrorist threat and shit, dude,” answered Andrew much more serious
than he was before.

Anthony frowned in
surprise.
Wow, Andrew’s been paying
attention in English class.
“I know,
right, but she also told Elena, she wanted her to help ‘slay’ a
pigeon. I think that’s the way Elena said she put it.” Concern was
beginning to creep into Anthony voice.

Worry that Andrew echoed.
“She wanted Elena to go and help her kill a bird?” His voice almost
cracked, the concept so outrageous, it seemed to have transported
him back to the onset of puberty.

“
Yeah, man, that’s what
got me weirded out over this little chick,” admitted
Anthony.

“
So what do you want to
do?”

Anthony almost sighed with
relief. After all of this time, after all the bad blood between
them, Andrew was still down when he needed him most.

“
I wanna walk up to the
top of the hill and see where this little freak-a-zoid lives.
Maybe, see if I can’t get her parents to like get her to chill. You
know what I mean?” Finally, the plan was out and in plain view. He
had been thinking about it for over an hour. It was a huge load off
his chest just to get it expressed properly. Explaining it to
someone other than himself made him feel he like was no longer
alone.

“
You wanna do this now,
right?”

“
Hell yeah, I’m out on the
sidewalk, in front of my house, right now, ready to go,” replied
Anthony steadfast. He was resolved to get this done and over with.
“I don’t want the situation to escalate any more than it has
already. I mean what’s next, is the stupid girl going to come to
school strapped or something?”

“
Alright, bro, I’ll be
there in five minutes.”

“
Cool.”

Anthony heard the phone
“click”. He pressed the “end” button on his cell. He pocketed it,
glancing around to see it was a few shades darker than it had been
when he’d initiated the call. He peered up, knowing the drop in
luminance had little to do with the sun dipping below the horizon.
No, the clouds overhead appeared blacker, obese with moisture. He
guessed at any second, rain would begin to fall and the storm would
start in earnest.

He walked a few paces up
the street and leaned against the retaining wall, keeping his front
yard from falling into the street, content to wait for Andrew while
standing up.

He had just rested his
backside and lower back onto the rock and mortar structure fully
when the wind abruptly strengthened from a constant breeze to a
stiff blast. He turned his head against it. It subsided for a
second, then kicked up anew. The sheer force of it made his ears
pop, the pressure had changed so suddenly. He lowered his head
against the raging push of air. His left hand covered his eyes. He
watched larger twigs, even branches rip away from the trees farther
down the hill. He saw them bound uphill, hitting trashcans and
parked cars, fences and any other obstructions barring their way -
all of debris tumbled toward the end of the street.

This one is going to be a
big time FUBAR of a storm
, he thought as
he heard a number of items crash and fall throughout the
neighborhood. In his mind’s eye, he could make out lawn chairs,
top-heavy potted plants, clotheslines, and patio canopies all
toppling, tossed or shredded under the onslaught of the
wind.

He glanced up the street
instead of down, because to look down it, he would’ve taken the
full blast of wind in his face. A cat ran, from one side of the
street toward the other, almost reached the middle of the street,
when the wind seemed to grab a hold of it. To his amazement, the
feline was tossed six feet further up the hill before it came back
to earth, the wind dying. He thought instantly, the poor animal
would be hurt, but, to his delight, it landed easily. It streaked
off, the same way it had intended to go from the get go, scampering
under some porch to safety and out of sight.

Damn, that was
weird!

This, of course, led him
to think of his own cat, back at his grandmother’s house, the male
tabby he had named Garfield. The cat everyone said looked like an
old man with a beer belly. In spite of what he allowed others to
believe, secretly he agreed with them. He
was
a fat-assed cat. There was no
other nice way of putting it. And yet, just as well, he was a good
pet. He had tons of personality and many ridiculous quirks capable
of keeping any master interested, if not in love with him. He was a
good hunter too, though he looked Babe Ruth after an ambush on a
buffet dinner. And, he was fastidious about his surroundings. He
would never lie atop anything dirty or overly odorous or of unusual
texture. This was even more funny when juxtaposed with his own
personal hygiene, which, when measured against other felines, was
atrocious. He was clearly the dirtiest and most sloppy cat the
Anthony had ever seen. His fur was often matted and ungroomed, and,
from many days of neglect, was often stained. If he’d only take the
time to lick the dirt free from his own fur, he wouldn’t have half
the issues with cleanliness. Rather, Garfield was content to be
himself, energetic when needed, lackadaisical as prescribed, but,
above all else, a real good –
filthy
- pet to have. Anthony was
about to laugh silently.

Instead, he was nearly
scared out of his skin.

“
HEY, ANT!” said a voice,
so close to his ear and so loud, even the growing storm could drown
it out. Anthony froze like a deer in the headlights.

However, when the
terrifying sound evolved into a hand, grasping him firmly on the
shoulder, Anthony exploded in revulsion. He twisted as far as he
possibly could from the horrible creature latching onto him. If it
hadn’t been for a familiar face before his, he might’ve struck out
with the most violent intentions he could muster. Yet, there was no
need to defend himself. He recognized the person before him, though
he had grown and aged in the last seven years.