44 Book Five (11 page)

We walked over to the Halloween section.

“Maybe I can find a costume here,” he said.

“Isn’t it a little early for this?”

“Where’s your inner child, Abby Craig? It’s never too early for Halloween.”

He suddenly picked up a skull with a candle on top.

“Alas, poor Yorick!”
he began in a deep, booming voice.
“I knew him, Horatio: a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy: he hath borne me on his back a thousand times; and now, how abhorred in my imagination it is! My gorge rims at it.”

A few people turned and began staring. David continued.

“Here hung those lips that I have kissed I know not how oft. Where be your gibes now? your gambols? your songs? your flashes of merriment, that were wont to set the table on a roar? Not one now, to mock your own grinning? quite chap-fallen? Now get you to my lady's chamber, and tell her, let her paint an inch thick, to this favour she must come; make her laugh at that.”

When he had finished, some of the people listening started clapping.

David set the skull down and took a bow.

Sometimes I forgot how good he was. He was always acting funny, but when he turned it on he had real presence. It made me wonder if the director knew anything about acting.

“You’ve got a real gift, David Norton,” I said. “Maybe you could put on a one-man show for your mom.”

“That’s so nice of you to say, Abby Craig.”

“No, I mean it.”

“I’ll give it some serious mulling over,” he said excitedly. “It might be fun.”

We walked back over to the shoes.

“Look!” he said, holding up a pair of plastic snakeskin cowboy boots. “Giddy up, anyone?”

I didn’t have to see colors to know that they were the ugliest cowboy boots this side of Texas.

“What’s Mama Norton gonna think when she sees you wearing those?” I said.

“That she did a good job raising me,” he said, laughing. “Because her son is one fierce
mutha
.”

CHAPTER 26

I was about a mile into my run when I saw him walking out from the trees at the edge of the park. I was glad to see him, but a little nervous. I didn’t know what to say, or if he knew.

I took a deep breath, threw down my water bottle, and headed over to meet him.

There was something about the way he was walking toward me that reminded me of when we were kids, back in fourth grade. I flashed back on our science project and how we were talking about it as we walked to his house. 

We had chosen volcanoes as our topic and we had to give a presentation to the class. I had my backpack filled with color markers and books and I was holding one of those giant white poster boards. Jesse pushed his bike alongside me, and we talked about Mt. Vesuvius.

“What’s that for?” Jesse said, looking at the blank board in my hands.

He was shorter than I was back then and I used to like looking down at him.

“Duh,” I said. “It’s for our volcano project. I think you should draw it, being that you’re the artist and will get us a good grade.”

His green eyes sparkled in the sun.

“No way,” he said, tugging on his cap. “We’re not drawing it. We’re blowing it up! We should build a volcano and I’ll rig it so lava flows out the top as we give our speech. It’ll be so cool.”

“You know how to do that?”

“Of course. I’ve been building volcanoes with my dad since I was little.”

I smiled at the memory as I watched him. I was surprised to see him at all. I hadn’t called and was trying to figure out how to explain about Ty, how to say it right.

“Jesse,” I said, pushing down the guilt. “I’m glad you’re here.”

“Hey, stranger,” he said.

We found an empty bench and I closed my eyes, the sun warm on my face, giving me strength. When I opened them, Jesse was staring at me.

“It’s okay, Craigers,” he said. “Stop freaking out. I’m okay. Anyway, believe it or not, I’m not here about your love life.”

I laughed nervously.

“I love you too, Jesse,” I said.

“I know you do,” he said. “We’ll always have that. Nothing takes love away. But I’m glad you have him too.”

A tear slid down my cheek.

“What’s up then?” I asked, my voice cracking.

He paused, fumbling for the right words as my heart hammered in my chest.

“What is it, Jesse? Tell me.”

“Something is happening around you again,” he said. “I don’t really know what it is, just that the energy around you is different. Darker. Something is coming up, seeping in from the sides. It’s like when you were in the lake and the black water surrounded you.”

I sat back and tried to calm down, thinking what it might be.

“You don’t know what it’s about? No idea at all?”

“No. Just that sometimes it blocks my view of you. It’s been getting worse lately.”

I took a breath. Then another.

“The last time you told me something like this I was kidnapped,” I said, trying to push away those terrible memories that haunted me long after the fact. “Is that what’s going to happen? Is this about Jack Martin? Is he back here in Bend?”

“I don’t know. I’m sorry, I wish I could see more. I was just glad to have found you now. It’s important that you know. You need to be prepared.”

I nodded, my eyes darting back and forth at the people walking by.

I sighed and he put his arm around me and I fell back into him, scared.

“I’m tired of it,” I said. “I’m tired of being in that lake. It feels like no matter how much I try to climb out of it, it sucks me back in, one way or another.”

“I know,” he said. “But you’re not alone. I have your back. I won’t let anything happen to you like that again. Not ever. I won’t.”

I nodded, staring at the people around us, searching.

Looking for Jack Martin.

CHAPTER 27

Ty and I met out in front of Amber’s house for the party. I brought a red pepper dip and a few baguettes. The other guides were already there when we walked in, along with the front office staff and a few other people from the company that I didn’t know that well.

Small paper lanterns and lights were strung across the front yard. The Ramones played in the background.

It was fun. We told stories and drank beer. As twilight fell it brought along cool air. There were still some warm days ahead but summer, as a long block of time and as a state of mind, felt like it was over.

We took our drinks and sat down on the sofa. I looked around. It was a small, older house with arches in the doorways and molding around all the windows. It had a lot of character.
“So what color are the walls?” I asked Ty.

All I could see was that they were dark.

“Well, it’s like a lot of grape stomping went on in here. All sorts of purples and reds. It’s cool.”

I closed my eyes and tried to remember purple. My high school soccer jersey was purple.

Hey,” Ty said. “Isn’t that your friend from the bar out there?”

I got up and looked outside. Someone was standing in the street, looking at the house.

“What’s she doing here?” I said.

It was hard to see her face, but it was Paloma, dressed in a flowing skirt that whipped around her in the breeze. She just stood there, staring.

“I’m going to see what she wants,” I said. “I’ll be right back.”

She must have been looking for me, but I couldn’t figure out how she knew where I was. 

“All right, but don’t be long. I’ll just be here missing you.”

I walked through a cloud of cigarette smoke and passed a group of people talking loudly on the front porch.

“Hey, Pal o’ mine,” I said. “What are you doing here?”

She didn’t say anything. She just nodded slowly and then held out her arms.

“Hey, what’s wrong?”

“Look,” she said, her voice cracking. Black mascara streaked down her face. “Look at what he’s doing to me!”

I peered down at her arms in horror. I couldn’t be seeing it right. It must have been the moonlight or my mind playing tricks.

“Oh, my God,” I said.

On the inside of both arms, thick veins were bulging out of her skin from her wrists up to her elbows. And they were moving, creeping up and down, pushing up, like tiny snakes inside her. Whatever it was looked alive, using her arteries as passage ways and crawling through her body.

“It started an hour ago,” she said. “He’s in me, Abby! Help me! Please, help me.”

“Come inside,” I sputtered, not able to take my eyes off the moving veins. “Paloma. We’ll get you some help. Don’t worry.”

“Help me! He’s in here with me. He’s in me, Abby!”

I could feel the heat radiating off her body. I reached out and touched her forehead. She was on fire, a torrent of sweat pouring off her face. She started coughing, slapping at her forearms.

“Paloma,” I said. “Come inside. It’ll be all right.”

But looking at her arms I had a hard time imagining exactly how it would be all right.

“No!” she screamed, her voice echoing up and down the street. She started backing away, her crazed eyes darting back and forth.

I followed her. I could hear footsteps behind me. Ty caught up to me.

“You okay?” he said.

“Paloma’s sick,” I said. “She needs help!”

She screamed once more and then took off, sprinting down the dark street.

Down toward the river.

CHAPTER 28

We ran after her, following her down streets and alleyways. But we couldn’t keep up. She was too fast and we eventually lost sight of her.

“Where’d she go? Do you see anything?”

“No,” Ty said. “Let’s go check the river.”

The river bank was made up mostly of brush on our side and was hard to walk through. There was a park across the way. I stared at the dark black water sliding by, listening for any clues.

“Paloma!” I shouted.

“Ty, you should have seen her arms. She’s really sick. We need to find her.”

“It’s too hard to walk over here,” he said. “I’m going to cross the bridge and see if I can see anything from over there. You have your phone?”

“Yeah,” I said.

He squeezed my arm before taking off toward the footbridge.

I kept looking and calling her name, slowly making my way downriver through the thick brush. I heard voices coming from the park. It didn’t take Ty long to get over. I waved at him.

My phone buzzed a moment later.

“I see her, Abby,” he said. “She’s just around the bend, a little bit farther down from where you are. Keep going. She’s standing in the water.”

“What’s she doing?” I said, picking up my speed.

“She’s just standing there. She’s just standing in the water, looking up at the sky. It’s like she’s praying or something.”

I suddenly realized we weren’t too far from the spillway.

The spillway was the sight of numerous accidents. There were plenty of warning signs posted in the water, but every year a few people, usually in inner tubes or small rafts, got sucked into the waterfall. Once in a while, someone even drowned.

“She’s not far from you now,” Ty said. “Can you see her?”

I spotted her a second later.

“Paloma! Get out of the water!”

She was still close to shore, her face and torso illuminated in the moonlight. But as I got closer, she suddenly dove into the river and swam out toward the center.

“Paloma!” I yelled, but it was no use. She just kept swimming downriver.

I looked over toward Ty and noticed that a small group of people were now watching.

“Paloma!”

“Don’t do it!” I heard someone shout from across the way.

I glanced over and saw Ty taking off his shirt and shoes.

“No!” I shouted but he was already in the water, swimming hard toward her.

I stood there paralyzed, almost too afraid to watch.

He was closing the gap but they were heading into the section where the current picked up speed.

I finally got my legs to work and stumbled farther down the shore.

“This can’t be happening,” I said out loud.

A moment later he reached her, grabbing her around the waist with one arm. For a few awful seconds, the current swept them downstream, but Ty kicked furiously at the water and slowly started making progress.

If he could just reach that boulder in the middle of the river. The water flowed fast on either side of it, but if he could make it to that rock, they would be rescued. They would be all right.

I could hear a siren in the distance above the sound of my pounding heart. 

If he could just make it a few more yards to that boulder, he’d be okay.

A few more strokes, Ty.Just a few more.

But he never got any closer to the boulder.

Instead, he turned and started heading for shore. Paloma didn’t seem to be helping, just floating there lifelessly.

Ty started losing ground. The spillway was getting closer. They weren’t going to make it.

No, Ty. No.

I screamed.

My vision blurred behind the tears. I couldn’t see them anymore. First Jesse. And now Ty.
Why, God? Why!

But the next thing I saw was Ty backstroking his way through a calmer stretch of the river. Near the far shore. Two men jumped into the water and began dragging them out onto the grass.

The siren was closer now. I ran back up to the footbridge and over to the other side. I pushed my way through the small crowd that was now surrounding them.

Ty was coughing and sputtering, trying to catch his breath. I squeezed him long and hard, his chest heaving, water dripping down my hair and face.

“Are you okay?” I said after a while.

He nodded and blinked.

“I’m gonna check on Paloma,” I said.

The paramedics had arrived and were asking her questions. Her eyes were open but she didn’t answer them. Then she turned and looked at me.

“Abby,” she said, her eyes wide and terrified. She pulled on my hand. “What happened? Why am I all wet? Where am I?”

I put my hand on her forehead again. But she was cool now. Cold even.