FORTY-EIGHT
It was Monday, July seventh, the start of a new week. School was still a long way away and none of us looked forward to starting back up in September. Jason and Cory had two more years at Stallings, I had four. Steve, though, would be separated from us, attending Corona Junior High as a seventh grader. Our walks to and from school wouldn’t be quite the same and we’d be reduced to seeing him only in the afternoons and on weekends instead of at recess and lunch time. But we’d all deal with that at the end of summer. For now we still had each other, brothers and pals.
At nine that morning, after having our breakfast, Jason and I left our house and headed over to Steve’s where we found him and his sister Jackie tossing a tennis ball to Frisbee on their front lawn. Steve, shirtless on this already hot morning, would lob the ball into the ivy patch that separated his yard from Cory’s. Frisbee would then clamber after it, routing through the triangular leaves and vines until he found its hiding spot and then bring it over to Jackie who would do the same. We watched them go back and forth two or three times as we crossed the street and made our way up the drive.
Frisbee was the first to notice us and he gave a bark of greeting before swaggering over, leaving the ball where it had landed in the bed of ivy.
I got down on my knees, receiving him with open arms and was given a good face cleaning in return.
“Hey, Fris, how ya doing, boy?”
“What’s up, guys?” Jason asked as Steve and Jackie made their way toward us.
“Hey,” Steve answered.
“Hi, Jason,” Jackie said. She turned to me and batted her eyelashes, gave a wry smile. “Hi, Ricky.”
I stood, blushing and said, “Hi, Jackie.”
She put her hands on her hips and blinked in surprise. “Hi, Jackie?” she mimicked. “Come here and give me some sugar.” Grabbing me around the shoulders with one arm she pulled me in tight, mashing me to her flat chest.
I had no idea what had gotten into her. I couldn’t tell if she was serious or just having some fun with me. But whatever it was, I liked it. She let me go with a ruffle of my hair. I looked over and both Steve and Jason wore expressions that asked if maybe there was something they should know about.
“What?” I said, shrugging.
“Oh, no, please continue,” Steve told me. “But let me know when you guys are done with your date because there’s something I want to tell you.”
“Shut up, Steve,” Jackie giggled. “I was just messing with him.” But once they had turned their heads, she looked at me and winked, making my heart flutter and my neck burn.
At first I thought that Steve wanted to talk about what had happened the day before in Dead Grove, maybe a way to get back at Mike Wood or at the very least a way to get him to leave us alone. Call a truce or something. If it were up to me, I would have suggested that we call the cops and see if there wasn’t a way to get his ass hauled off to jail.
Just as I had gone over to pick up the tennis ball, Steve said, “Huddle up, guys.” Tossing it back into the ivy for Frisbee, I jogged over to where the other three stood.
“What’s up, Steve?” Jason asked.
He paused a second, one eye closed to keep the sun out, and said to Jason, “Did you happen to call Cory this morning?”
My brother looked down at his feet and shook his head. Last night, while we lay in our beds, Jason and I had talked about what had happened between Mike and Cory and how we should have done something to help him out. Jason had said how he was just about to pick up a tree branch and bash Mike upside his head. I had added that I almost went over there and kicked him in the face. But of course we never would have done those things. It was just the macho talk of two boys, lying safely in their beds at home, hours after the incident. In all truth, none of us would have been any match for a seventeen year-old with a knife.
None of us except for Frisbee. He really had saved the day and probably Cory’s life for that matter.
But as we lay there, talking in the dark, we also wondered aloud if Cory was mad at us for not doing anything. He hadn’t said anything to any of us before he went home. Had he been pissed off at us for not helping him or embarrassed for what had happened?
In the end it came down to one conclusion and one only. As much as we liked Cory, and as good of friends as we were with him, it rested on this: Cory had brought that on himself. On us too. Not that Mike had had any right to take it as far as he did. We would always be there for our friend and help him out in anyway we could but if that episode in Dead Grove hadn’t taught him something, we were afraid nothing would. Cory could have gotten any one of us hurt.
But luckily, none of us had gotten hurt, aside from Cory himself. And anyone who’s been punched in the gut knows that it wounds your pride more than your body.
Jason finally looked up, over to me first, then to Jackie and Steve. “How about you? Have you talked to him yet?”
“No,” Steve sighed.
“You think he’s mad at us?” I asked. “For not helping him.”
We were all silent for a moment and I guessed it had been on Steve’s mind as well.
Jackie said, “What happened? Why is Cory mad at you guys?”
Wanting nothing more than to impress her, I began to spill my guts. “We were coming back from the hospital-“
“Ricky,” Steve said, calmly, shutting me up. He shook his head and I knew not to say another word.
Curious, Jackie was left hanging, wide eyed. “No, come on. Tell me. Please,” she begged.
“Forget it, Jack,” Steve warned. “It’s guy stuff. You don’t need to know.”
She folded her arms over her chest and puffed air through her cheeks. “You never tell me anything.”
“Maybe some other time, okay,” Steve said.
“You always say that. Some other time. I’ll tell you later. Don’t you trust your own sister?” She paused and then brought out the big guns. “Sometimes, I wonder if you even love me, Steve Hanel.
Jason rolled his eyes and put a hand to his mouth to stifle a laugh. Steve, whose ears had gone abashedly pink, closed his eyes and shook his head. “It’s between us guys, Jack. Besides, if you’re going to act like this I won’t let you come along with us today.” He folded his own arms now and turned from his sister, smiled at us and winked.
It seemed as though Steve had already planned out our day. A wave of childish glee washed through me as I wondered what kind of adventure lay ahead. Jackie even stopped pouting once she learned that she would be included in our expedition.
“Well, where are you guys going?” she asked, all traces of hurt gone from her voice.
“This morning,” Steve explained, “mom gave me five bucks for cleaning up the backyard. I didn’t ask for it or anything. She was just happy that the yard looked a lot better than it did before. Anyway, I figured since you guys and Cory helped out, I’d treat everyone to something today.”
We had all pitched in and cleaned up Steve’s backyard to make it more comfortable for Frisbee. And we did it under the pretense that we wouldn’t receive anything for the chore accept piece of mind, knowing that the dog would have a clean place to live. He was worth that. Even looking over at him at that moment, lying on his belly, his teeth trying to work a hole in the tennis ball, his golden eyes holding my gaze, I knew more than ever that he was meant to find us.
Jason asked first, “What is it? What are we doing?”
“Yeah, what do you have planned, Steve?” I followed.
He kept us in suspense for a few seconds and then revealed the surprise. “Well, I don’t know. I thought that maybe you guys might want to go on down to the Plunge today. How does that sound?”
Smiles broke out on each of our faces. The Plunge sounded fan-freakin-tastic. I couldn’t think of a better place right then than at the city pool, cooling off in the waters of public paradise.
“Yesss,” I hissed and Jason nodded. “Great idea, Steve.”
Jackie spoke up once again in an almost sad ton
e, “But I didn’t help you guys clean up the backyard.”
“That’s okay, Jack,” Steve told her. “You can come along anyway.”
“Really? You mean it, Steve?”
“Yup,” he said. “And I’ll even pay for you too. You know why?”
“Why?” she asked.
“Because… I love you.”
She just about melted then as she jumped on Steve, throwing her arms around his neck and hugging him tightly. “Thanks.”
He could put up with the embrace for only so long though and had to gently push her off of him. “Alright, alright,” he said. Then to us, “You think your parents will be cool with you going?”
Jason looked at me and then back to Steve, half smiled, half nodded, and said, “Yeah. Dad’s already gone to work but I’m sure mom will let us.”
“Alright then,” Steve said, “why don’t you guys go get your trunks on. Jackie and I will go see if Cory and Christy want to go too.”
“Christy can come?” Jackie asked excitedly.
“Sure. That way you’ve got someone to hang out with and you’re not chasing us around the pool all day,” Steve told her.
“Whatever,” she said and punched him on the arm. She ran to the sidewalk and headed next door to the Dayborne’s, Frisbee barking at her heels.
“We’ll meet back here in about ten.”
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