“Were you doing it intentionally?”
“Wow.” Lauren shook her head, grinning. “Not all of us are from the Koi family, just so you know.”
James bit his lip harder, and Lauren, sensing something was wrong, changed the subject. “Talked to my boss about the collar thing, but I don’t think I was convincing enough.” She straightened her crooked tie. “You haven’t been here in a while, huh? Wanna get some coffee?”
“I don’t drink coffee.”
“Hot chocolate?”
“I don’t like sweets.”
Lauren pursed her lips and dropped her grin. It was a rare occurrence to witness her serious side. “Is this about your sister?” She leaned against the wall next to him. “I’m sorry you have to deal with that. It must be tough, but we can only hope—”
“Can someone stop talking about Nina for once?” His hands tensed, and he had to pinch his arm again to relax them. There was never a right time to lose his temper. Never. He knew this, yet he still spoke without control.
“My shift.” The ocean in her eyes flattened. Waveless. “It’s starting.” She tapped her watch and was gone.
James glanced at his paper one last time. Without a thought, he crumpled it with stiff fingers and tossed it into the nearest trash bin. The sky mocked him with that same shade of gray.
For a moment he understood why Benji tried to leave Wishville. It’d be relaxing to be away from it all—to be removed from reality. Books were temporary, but leaving town was permanent.
Don’t be stupid. He walked slowly to the hospital. I miss my book.
CHAPTER 5
mayor
When James was absent from school the next morning, Mr. Trenton’s eyes shot to Benji, as if he might somehow know the answer. He only shrugged, so class began.
“Remember, the essay is due next Wednesday.” Mr. Trenton paced in front of his desk, hands behind his back. “Don’t procrastinate; it shows.” He planted his feet, eyes locked on Jett.
Jett tucked his chin to his neck and frowned. “Why me?” He tried to maintain the angry act, but it didn’t last long. Soon he broke a grin, and the class filled with laughter. Color struck the room in a flash of lightning, filling the class with a temporary rainbow. But when Benji’s gaze landed on Audrey, she wasn’t smiling with the rest of them.
No matter how many times she checked, the desk behind her was empty.
“I’ll give you the next twenty minutes to work on your outlines.” Mr. Trenton sat, then spun in his wheeled chair, grabbing a novel from his desk in the process. The class applauded him to encourage his silliness, and it worked, because he did a few extra bonus spins.
“Whoa, a bit dizzy now.”
This time, Audrey faced the front and giggled. She tossed a few wisps of hair behind her shoulders and out of her eyes.
Sam nudged Benji in the side, and he hopped in his seat, eyes wide. “Seriously, Sam,” he said, “that’s really annoying.”
“You think I care?” She leaned over the aisle and lowered her voice. “Does it have to do with Nina?”
Benji didn’t have time to answer. The relaxed mood of the classroom was interrupted by a sudden swing of the door.
“Greetings!” The voice blasted through the room, and Benji recognized it instantly.
Kids whispered and raised brows at each other, shocked by Mayor Perkins’ appearance. It wasn’t often that he paid a visit to the schools.
“Good morning, Mayor Perkins.” Audrey straightened her back. “What brings you here today?” Benji couldn’t stop staring at Audrey’s smile, but that wasn’t what intrigued him the most. There was something special about her voice. It was smooth and warm, and whenever she spoke, goosebumps filled his arms.
“What a brat,” Sam muttered.
“Polite as always, I see.” Mayor Perkins smiled at Audrey before turning to Mr. Trenton. “If I may, I’d like to steal one of your students. Rest assured, I have the proper permission to do so.”
“Of course, sir.” Mr. Trenton smiled. “What for?”
The whispers faded.
“I’m afraid that’s none of your concern.” The mayor gave Mr. Trenton a pat on the shoulder, and the teacher faced his desk with a new dullness in his eyes.
The room was silent. Benji was sure that time must’ve stopped. He watched Audrey scribble a few words onto her teal composition notebook.
“Benji Marino.”
Audrey set her pen down and glanced at Benji. His eyes widened, and he peeled his face away. Why did she look at me?
A sudden blow struck his side, and he shot out of his seat. He stared blankly in front of him for a moment, frozen. Sam burst into laughter, pleased with herself, and the rest of the class joined with hints of rose in their cheeks.
“Benji,” Mayor Perkins said, a grin running past his face. “Would you mind coming with me?”
It was at that moment when his world crashed. Mayor Perkins had found out about his escape plan! Now he was dragging him out of school to talk to him, to lay out some kind of punishment. He’d have to think of a lie to cover it up, and fast.
But how could he know? Benji slowly craned his head to the left, staring right into Sam’s eyes. He got caught in them, and he could tell she was equally as clueless. Surely it couldn’t have been James . . .
“Benji?” Mayor Perkins stood at the door now, waiting.
“Sorry.” He grabbed his backpack and followed the mayor out of the room, shooting a final glance at Sam and Chloe before the door shut for good.
Mayor Perkins walked a few feet ahead of him, and Benji kept his distance. The more time he had to think about a cover-up to his escape, the better. But soon the mayor stopped in the middle of the hall, and his voice softened.
“I assume you know where I’m taking you?”
Benji froze. “You’re . . . taking me somewhere?”
* * *
Benji was soon to discover that his little field trip had nothing to do with his plan to leave.
As they entered the hospital, Mrs. Koi encased Benji in a hug tight enough to choke. “Oh, I’m so glad you’re here. Nina’s been throwing a fit to see you.” She pulled herself away, wiping her eyes with a dry finger. “Follow me.”
Benji hoped Mayor Perkins would offer some kind of explanation, but the man was already making himself comfortable in the lobby’s lounge.
He trailed behind Mrs. Koi, searching for a sign of James as they navigated the narrow hallways. He didn’t see him until they entered a stuffy hospital room. James and Mr. Koi sat on a firm sofa in the corner, James reading a book while his father immersed himself in a newspaper. They looked at Mrs. Koi in unison, not a single expression on their faces. However, the person to catch Benji’s attention was neither of them.
To the left of the room was Nina. He couldn’t tell if her skin had always been that shade, or if the sun deprivation from sleeping all day had finally hit her. Either way, her normally caramel-tone had lightened to that of a roasted cashew. She was awake, leaned against a tower of pillows. Her hair wasn’t in braids for once. Her scratchy locks formed a second pillow around her head.
She smiled, still yet to look at Benji. “Dad?”
He peeled himself from James’s side as though it were second-nature, abandoning his newspaper. “Yes, sweetie?” Benji tried to make eye contact with James, but he remained hidden behind his book as if trapped inside it.
“Can I talk to Benji now?” Nina asked.
Mr. Koi nodded softly. “Of course.”
She waited. The room was cold.
“I mean, alone?”
By the time Mr. and Mrs. Koi had figured out what Nina was trying to say, James was already halfway to the door with his book.
Mrs. Koi turned to her husband. “Are you sure that’s a good idea?”
Mr. Koi walked around her and
gave Benji a quick pat on the back. “Call if anything goes wrong, okay?”
And like that, the family disappeared into the hall. He took his backpack off, setting it on a chair leaned against the wall. He approached Nina’s bedside, waiting.
He stared at Nina, and she stared back. Her eyes yielded that same void, deep enough to suck anyone into them. Two miniature black holes.
“Benji.” She sat straighter in the hospital bed and gulped. “I’m sorry.” Her eyes drooped so much that Benji tried to think of a way to stop her from crying. But she didn’t.
“I wanted to say goodbye.”
At first it didn’t make sense, but after repeating the sentence a few times in his head, the news sunk in. Benji stepped closer to the bed. The air reeked of that bitter hospital smell. Toothpaste and alcohol. “Goodbye?”
“My health has never been good, you know that.” Nina stared through the crack between the tightly drawn curtains. “It’s going to fail soon.”
“Fail?”
“I’ll be gone by six in the morning.”
Benji’s hands went stiff, but he controlled his breathing. “Is that what the doctor told you?”
She shook her head. “I know.”
Benji’s stomach churned, but he forced the feeling away and smiled. “You’ll be fine. You don’t know that.” For some reason, it was painful.
“I know about you, too.” She blinked. “I know how you tried to leave Wishville that day.”
Benji gulped. “James told you?”
“Why would he?”
She was right. Unless there was some kind of benefit involved, James would never speak a word of it.
“I wanted to say sorry.” She reached under a pillow next to her, searching for something. “There’s nothing I can do to help.”
“What—what are you—”
“Do you want to know?” Her smile disappeared.
Benji’s arms turned to boards. “Know what?”
She stared at him blankly, as if he might be joking. “When you’ll die.”
His breathing stuttered. He took a few steps back, recalling the strange events in order.
“It’s been bothering me lately,” she said. “How people are unable to prepare for their passing.”
Benji collapsed onto a stiff chair against the wall. “I don’t know.” He stared at the ground and shut his eyes. “Please, I really don’t know.”
“You don’t need to decide now.” Pulling her arm out from under the pillow, she held a red envelope toward him with a frail arm. “Open it when you’re ready.”
His eyes twinkled naturally, and he stood, heading toward it. Something about red was oddly attractive. His hands trembled as he reached for the envelope.
“Why so nervous?” Nina tilted her head as he took it. “It’s a good opportunity. You can make reasonable plans.”
“Reasonable?”
Nina bit her lip.
But then Benji remembered that he was in a hospital room, and that Nina had been taken to visit a psychologist. He remembered seeing how worried Mr. and Mrs. Koi were over Nina. He remembered that she was ill. Benji took one last breath before straightening his back and strengthening his voice. “Nina, you can’t tell the future, and you’re not gonna die.” He smiled and glanced at the clock. “When you’re feeling better, I’ll visit you.”
She stared at her lap, her face buried behind her hair. “Okay.”
Benji lifted the envelope, and a ghostly chill passed through him. Goosebumps filled his arms as he slipped on his backpack, trying to forget. He smiled at her one last time and left the room without turning back.
* * *
The town square was the only place in town where the smell of clam and coffee was pungent enough that the air no longer reeked of saltwater and seagulls.
Every time Benji went to the square he’d experience a little knot of excitement because something had changed. Maybe it was a new mat in front of the bookstore, or a few unfamiliar flowers peeking through the window of Ms. Camille’s shop. Even the little things made Benji’s heart flutter.
“I hope Rebecca doesn’t mind me taking you here on the way home.” Mayor Perkins led Benji toward the coffee shop with that same enchanting smile of his. “When we were younger, your dad and I would sometimes have coffee together. She was always against it.” He held the door open for Benji and followed in after him. “You see, our parents didn’t let us have coffee, so we’d go all out when we could. Sea salt caramel mocha with two shots of espresso. Just about the most caffeinated drink you can get in town.”
Benji smiled. “Yeah?”
The room filled with light as customers set eyes on the mayor. The only person to notice the short kid next to him was Lauren.
She leaned over the counter. “Got yourself a new babysitter, I see.” There was a blob of white goop in her hair.
“Uh—Lauren—”
“I know, I know.” She rolled her eyes and pointed a thumb to a guy in the corner, dressed in a matching uniform. “All Ricky’s fault. Didn’t know how a whipped cream pump worked.”
Ricky looked up from the milk steamer. “Hey!”
The mayor appeared behind Benji, and Lauren straightened her posture. “Good evening, Mayor Perkins.” She smiled with as little evil as she could handle. “What can I get for you today?”
“Two sea salt caramel mochas.” He grinned at Benji. “Double shots of espresso.”
Lauren wrote a few notes on a paper pad. “Trying to shorten the kid down, I see.”
Benji tried not to laugh, but he couldn’t help it.
“Gotta give him a sense of freedom.” He shook Benji by the shoulder until his brain was fried. “Am I right?”
Seaside Cafe was known for the warm interior atmosphere, unlike Chowdies, where practically everything was white. The cafe was painted in dark oranges and reds, had black molding around the windows, and was filled with wooden tables crafted in a variety of styles out of different types of woods.
They sat in the corner by the window. The table was made of old mahogany with a smooth matte finish. Benji ran his hand along the wood as he watched the ocean dance outside the window. The waves were everywhere, and Benji was sick of it.
“We’d sit here in this very seat.” Mayor Perkins smiled widely. “Ah, I remember those days.”
There was a question that had been on his mind for a while. A question he’d never dare ask Rebecca. But as he sat with Mayor Perkins, admiring the atmosphere, the timing felt right. “My dad,” Benji said. “Why would he choose to do the experiment? Why not someone else? Someone without a family?”
“No one fully understands it.” Mayor Perkins tapped his fingers on the table. “But I guess you could say he had the right nature for it. He was always trying new things. Taking risks, no matter the consequences. Probably the most creative kid in school. And look where it got him.” He shut his eyes. “Got him killed.”
Lauren slipped the drinks in front of them, lightening the tone. “Enjoy your sugar bombs.”
“No need to tell me how many grams are in this thing.” Mayor Perkins lifted the cup as a sign of thanks.
“No need to worry.” Lauren winked. “Only 97.”
She left, leaving a look of disgust across the mayor’s face. But that wasn’t enough to stop him from drinking it. He took a sip, set the cup down, and stared at the ceiling with sparkling eyes. “Brings back memories.”
Benji couldn’t keep his mind from throbbing. “Why didn’t you stop him?”
The mayor took another sip. “Hmm?”
“My dad.”
“Oh, right.” He set the cup down, a smile emerging across his face. “Scott was the most stubborn person I knew. When he told me he wanted to leave town, I knew there was nothing I could do to change his mind. Plus, we needed to find out if leaving town really was
dangerous, or if people were simply choosing not to return. When Scott came up with a way to test it, I was both excited and terrified. I was scared of losing my best friend, but there was nothing we could do to convince him out of it. He was the most stubborn guy I knew. Even as kids the three of us were always trying to keep him out of trouble.”
Benji was about to take his first sip, but he set the cup down with a slam. “Three of you?” Benji knew Rebecca was childhood friends with Scott and Mayor Perkins. That they were a trio—that’s what his mom had always said.
“She didn’t tell you, huh?” He leaned over the table, as if it’d somehow keep other people in the room from hearing. “I’m not sure if you’ve ever heard of Oliver.”
Benji shook his head.
“Oliver Stricket?”
Benji repeated the name a few times before it struck him. Oliver Stricket! The man up on the hill, Stricket! Yes, he’d heard of him. After Scott left town, Stricket moved to an abandoned house on Eudora Hill, only leaving every other Sunday night for his stop at the convenience store in the square. No one knew where his money came from. No one dared to speak to him.
“Stricket was . . . your friend?”
“Gosh, I forgot how sweet this was.” Mayor Perkins took another sip. “Have you tried it yet?”
Benji raised the cup to his lips. The salt of the caramel was not strong enough to combat against the strong taste of chocolate. Then there was the coffee. This thing was strong. He could feel it buzz right to his brain. A full cup of this and he’d be jumping off the walls.
The two of them looked at each other, set their cups on the table, and laughed. Bend-over-all-the-way kind of laughs. There was no more conversation about Scott. No mentions of Stricket. But the questions never left Benji’s mind.
CHAPTER 6
coffee
It wasn’t until the evening of the following day when Benji heard the news. Rebecca slid a bowl from Chowdies in front of him, but he continued tapping the table in anticipation. Normally Fridays were filled with excitement for that final bell to ring. But today, he had dreaded going home. The entire school day had been a waiting game.
Leaving Wishville Page 5