The breathless seconds stretched on.
The killing look faded from Bud’s eyes.
He took his forearm away from Riley’s neck, leaning back on his haunches. The guy’s hands were shaking.
“Don’t ever do anything like that again.” The statement was no more than a hoarse whisper.
Then he got up and walked into the marina office, leaving Riley lying on the ground, lungs squeaking for air, wickedly sharp stones cutting his back.
For several minutes, he lay there, tears blurring his vision, wheezing as he looked into the blue sky and hoped no one drove in the lot.
“That son of a bitch is crazy!” Riley rasped the words when he finally recovered his breath. He rolled slowly to his knees, fully expecting Bud to come back out of the office, help him up and apologize.
He didn’t.
Riley sat in the middle of the parking lot for a few minutes, thankful that no one drove in. Then he dragged himself to his feet and walked away from the marina. No way in hell was he sticking around here with a crazy man. This was the kind of thing that showed up on the news. Everybody was always so sorry that they didn’t see how insane some dude was—“he was such a quiet neighbor,” “taught Sunday school,” “everybody liked him”—in time to stop him from killing some kid. So sorry.
Lot of good that did the dead kid.
Well, he wasn’t going to end up a feature on 20/20.
He headed out of the parking lot and started down the road.
Chapter 8
Riley walked blindly for some time, following the old road that hugged the lake. He trudged on, feeling the sting of the scrapes on his back as he started to sweat. For a long time he was fueled by anger. Then he just felt incredibly sad. How had his life gotten so screwed? Why couldn’t people just let things be the way they were? He still couldn’t understand how, after being married forever, his parents could just split. They were old, for God’s sake! Why bother?
Here he was, stuck in Bumpkinville just because his parents had “grown apart.” What the hell did that mean? His mom and dad never yelled at each other the way some of his friends’ parents did. Skyler’s mom even tried to run his dad over with her minivan, and they were still married. What made his mom and dad think things were so bad?
God, he missed his friends. He and Brady and Zach had planned on going to Space Camp and on a backpacking trip in Colorado this summer. That got blown out of the water with Mom’s big announcement. Apparently, divorce had dried up all of the money, too. Grandpa said he’d pay. But Mom was acting totally stupid about it and said no.
Riley looked around and saw no sign of another human being. Most of the traffic stayed on the new road; only the people belonging to the lake cottages and the mailman used this one. Occasionally he passed a gravel drive with a mailbox at the end. But the houses were too far back in the woods to see from the road. Since he didn’t know the area all that well, he didn’t have a destination in mind. He just had to get away—away from that asshole at the marina, away from his mother. Not permanently, that would bring way too much heat on his head. The sheriff had made that clear. But Riley didn’t think even the sheriff thought Bud beating the crap out of him was part of the bargain. Maybe, once this whole thing came out in the open, the sheriff would arrest Bud. A grown man can’t just go around beating up kids.
If Bud hadn’t interrupted his phone call this morning, Grandpa would already have been on his way down here to get things straightened out. As it was, Grandpa didn’t know just how bad things really were. Man, when he found out, Bud was going to get his.
A narrow path appeared on the left side of the road, cutting through the woods toward the lake. Riley took it. Not far from the road, the trail cut sharply to the left again, heading down into a ravine. It was steep enough that his shoes skidded through the dirt if he tried to go too slow. In a few places, old tree roots cut across, making a series of natural steps, but mostly it was smooth and straight down. By the time the path leveled out, he was trotting just to keep his feet under him.
Even though he had to keep swatting the flying insects that wanted to swarm and bite, Riley thought it was really cool down here. He could almost believe he was miles from civilization, where he could hike for hours and not come across anything but wild animals and ancient trees. Soon he heard the sound of moving water, which seemed amplified by the woods around him. The wide creek came into view, tumbling over a ledge of limestone in its bed. He took his shoes off and tied the laces together, then hung them over his shoulder. As he waded in, he imagined this would be a good way to keep tracking dogs off his trail. Maybe he would just disappear, then his parents would be sorry.
He walked against the current, watching the way the water rolled around his shins. Soon the sound of rushing water intensified and Riley found himself at the foot of the dam’s spillway. The water was just a little deeper here, where it pooled before moving on down the creek. He stood still for a moment, watching the tiny fish nibble at the hairs on his legs, feeling calm inside for the first time in months.
After he tossed his shoes to the dry bank, he let himself fall backward with his arms spread. The cold water eased the sting of his scrapes. He floated there, in the knee-deep water, watching the sun wink through the fluttering leaves overhead.
“There’s a water moccasin nest over there.”
Riley’s arms flailed as he folded at the waist and his feet sought solid ground. His gaze shot in the direction of the voice and he saw a blond-haired girl with knobby knees pointing at a spot not twenty feet from him. He spit out the mouthful of water he’d just sucked in. “What?”
“Water moccasins. Cottonmouths. Snakes. They’re poisonous.”
Every nerve in Riley’s body snapped to attention. His mouth went dry and his heart jumped in his chest. Standing slowly, he curled his toes in order to make less of a target for any snake that happened to be swimming by. It took all of his willpower not to run screaming out of the stream.
He managed to stay put. “How do you know?” There, that sounded pretty calm.
She tilted her head to the side. “Everybody knows that water moccasins are poisonous.”
“No.” Girls always had to make everything so complicated—just to show off. “How do you know there’s a nest? I don’t see anything.”
“My brother told me.”
“Oh, and he’s a snake expert. Did you ever think he said it just to scare you?”
“Nope.” She wrinkled up her nose.
“No, he’s not an expert? Or no, he didn’t do it to scare you?”
She blew out a frustrated-sounding breath. “Just get out of the water and I’ll show you.”
He started to say he’d get out of the water when he was good and ready, but the slim chance that there actually were poisonous snakes in here with him kept his lips sealed. Stepping very carefully, he climbed up onto the bank beside her. Now, if there were snakes, they were at least separated from him by the width of the stream.
She bent down and picked up a rock, then looked at him. “Ready?”
He nodded, the water from his hair running in his eyes.
With amazing accuracy coming from a girl, the rock sailed from her hand and landed in the water just short of the far bank, about twenty feet downstream. Immediately the water began to ripple, then it looked like it was boiling.
“Jesus Christ!” Riley couldn’t keep the fright out of his voice any longer. “How many are there?”
The girl shrugged. “Dunno. A bunch.”
Riley watched the water slowly settle back into stillness with rapt revulsion. “Why doesn’t somebody just kill ’em?”
She turned an astonished gaze in his direction. “Du-uh! They’re on the state’s endangered list.”
“Why would anybody want to keep poisonous snakes around? Seems like extinct would be just about perfect.”
“Well,” she said, squaring her shoulders, “what if we got rid of everything that annoyed us? Kill all of the mosquito
es and the bats go hungry. Kill all of the bats and the mosquitoes take over. Mosquitoes take over and people get more diseases. Everything is connected, everything counts. Besides, if we thought that way there wouldn’t be any teenage boys left around.”
He shot her a nasty look. “Very funny.”
Her cheeks started to turn pink and she lowered her gaze.
He said, “I’m Riley. You’re the first kid I’ve met since I’ve been here. Don’t you have kids in this town?”
She giggled, then swallowed it back down. “Of course we have kids… I mean, I don’t have kids… myself.” She shifted her weight and looked off somewhere across the creek. “The town does… a whole schoolful. We don’t get out until next Tuesday.”
“Then what are you doing here at nine-thirty in the morning?”
“I’m sick.”
“Yeah, right.”
“Really. I can’t go to school because I have conjunctivitis—pink eye. So it counts as being sick, but I feel fine. My eye just itches. I can go back tomorrow, after I’ve been on the medicine a full day.”
“Let me see.”
“What?”
“Your eye. Let me see your eye.”
“It’s gross.”
“Yeah, that’s why I want to see it.” He didn’t know why it suddenly seemed important to make her feel less self-conscious.
His quip worked. She giggled and looked at him, straight on for the first time.
Brown. Her eyes were brown. He saw it right before her gaze skittered away again. “That’s not so bad.”
“I had to pick the crust off to get it open this morning.”
“Cool.”
For a few seconds, neither of them said anything more. Riley was wracking his brain, trying to find something to talk about—anything. It was just good to be with another kid. “What do you do out here? Besides stir up snakes?”
“I like to come out here and read. I’ve got a really cool place set up over here. Wanna see?” She started away from the creek even before he answered.
Riley realized he would have followed her just about anywhere in order to have at least one friend around here. When they made the crook in the path, he saw a clearing in the undergrowth. There was a huge rock ledge sticking out of the side of a hill, making a little roof over the spot where he saw a blanket spread on the ground. There were several books on the blanket.
“Whoa! This could be, like, a Swiss Family Robinson kind of place. I mean, this is way cool.”
She sat on the blanket. He took a walk around, studying.
“Your parents just let you hang out here all alone?” he finally asked. “Seems kinda dangerous for a girl—with the snakes and all.” He gestured toward the creek.
“Hey, I wasn’t the one splashing around in the water, just asking to be bitten.” When he couldn’t produce a good comeback for that one, she went on. “My mom’s at work. She thinks I go to the library. Which makes me think she doesn’t pay a whole lot of attention,” she added, as if it just occurred to her. “I mean, I buy all of my books. She complains about it all of the time. She thinks I should be spending my allowance on clothes and stuff.”
“What about your dad?”
“He doesn’t live with us. Spends all of his ‘family time’ working with my brother on his basketball skills. He wouldn’t notice if I disappeared off the face of the earth.”
“Maybe he could give my mom some lessons. I could use a whole lot less of her nose in my business.” He plucked a yellow wildflower and sat down on the far corner of the blanket.
She shrugged. “So what are you doing out here? I heard you were in trouble and had to work at the marina.”
He jerked his gaze from the flower he was fiddling with. “How’d you know?”
“My mom told me. She said it served your grandpa Boudreau right—he always seems to know everybody else’s business. Now everybody knows yours.”
Riley suddenly felt sick. “Like… the whole town knows?”
She nodded. “Uh-huh.”
“Well, it’s not like anyone around here matters. I’m going back to Chicago. It’s no big deal.”
“I wish I could get out of this town.” Her words were no more than a weightless sigh.
Riley looked at her stack of books. “Got anything other than girly stuff there?”
She pulled out a thick one. “Harry Potter. Have you read it?”
He scoffed. “A kid’s book.”
“Actually, it’s very well done. A lot of adults like reading it.” She pushed it across the blanket, closer to him. “You can read it if you want.”
“Nah. Too babyish.”
She pulled another one from her stack. “How about Lord of the Rings?”
“Why do you drag all of these heavy books out here? You can’t read them all at once.”
“I couldn’t decide what I wanted to read today, so I brought a bunch.”
“Well, I guess I could read Lord of the Rings, just so you don’t have to haul it back. I’ll be sure and get it back to you before I leave for Chicago.” He didn’t really plan on reading it, he just needed a place to be until quitting time. She might not like him hanging around unless he read her book.
“Don’t worry about it. It’s a paperback—I have the hard-cover at home. Besides, I’ve already read it twice.”
“Twice?” He eyed the thick novel. He couldn’t imagine actually reading that many pages just for fun once, let alone twice.
“You might as well get started if you’re going to stick around.” She picked up another book, laid on her back and opened it.
Riley just sat there for a while.
She didn’t shoo him off or nag him to pick up the book. Maybe he wouldn’t be forced to read. He stretched out on his back and watched the leaves flutter overhead in the breeze.
After a while he started to ask the girl her name, but the second he opened his mouth she said, “Shhh.”
He laid there for a bit longer. Boredom inched closer. It was going to be hours and hours before he could go home.
He picked up the book to look at the picture on the cover. It was dark and gloomy—hopeless, just the way he felt.
Then he flipped to the back cover and read the teaser. Sounded weird. A place called Middle-earth, wizards, a Dark Lord, Elves and Hobbits.
He opened it to the first page. It began with nonsensical things, like Bilbo Baggins’s “eleventy-first birthday” party and his favorite cousin, Frodo, who was in his “tweens.” They lived at a place called “Bag End.”
It all seemed rather silly, but Riley turned the page and read on—just to see if it ever made sense.
Some time later, he was startled when the girl spoke.
“I’d better go,” she said. “Maybe I’ll see you around.”
Riley blinked and worked to clear his mind of Hobbiton, Frodo and Bilbo, and Gandalf, the wizard. “What? What time is it?”
“Two-thirty.”
“No way.” It seemed he’d just started reading. Somehow he’d been transported from this place in the woods to another world, where the impossible was commonplace and the day had slipped away.
“Yep. I need to be home before my brother gets home from school.” She gathered up her books and put them into a canvas tote. “I always leave the blanket here. Just fold it up and shove it in the plastic bag way back under the rock overhang.” She pointed to a little cleft in the limestone.
She was setting out on the path before he called out to her. “Hey! What’s your name?”
She stopped and half turned back to him. “Mickey.”
“No shit?” It came out before he thought.
Luckily, she laughed. “No shit.” Then she disappeared into the woods.
The phone was ringing when Lily came through the kitchen door. It was too early for Riley to be calling to be picked up, so her mind automatically jumped to disastrous conclusions. With an indrawn breath she picked up the receiver.
“Lily, I want to know what kind of nons
ense is going on down there.” Her ex-father-in-law was in his usual boss-ofthe-universe form.
She released her breath. “Hello to you, too, Bill.”
“Riley called this morning. He was very upset.”
“This morning? What time?”
“I don’t know. Morning. Before lunch. That’s not the point. Apparently he’s being mistreated on this job of his. He says you won’t let him quit. Now, I know a boy needs to learn to work. But really, Lily, he’s only thirteen. And don’t you think he has enough to deal with right now? How much more do you want to heap on him?”
There was plenty implied in that statement. In Bill’s eyes, Lily was the source of all of their family problems. Lily wanted a divorce. Lily said Peter had a drinking problem. Lily took Riley away from his home, friends and loving grandparents. Riley’s complaint fit right in with Bill’s view of the Holt world.
She concentrated on keeping her voice even when she said, “I won’t let him quit, huh? Did he tell you why he’s working at the marina?”
“I assume the same reason any kid works: His mother made him.”
“It happens to be ordered by the county sheriff. Riley sank Mr. Willit’s boat.”
“And Willit pressed charges! Why, I ought to call him right now; I can buy him ten damn boats. He knows that. He had no business involv—”
“Bill! Stop! Riley sank his boat—”
“A boyish prank. Nothing to get the law involved in. I’ll take care of the repairs.”
“And I suppose you consider what happened at school a ‘boyish prank,’ too.”
Bill plowed right on past logic and pressed his point. “Maybe I should drive down in the morning and get this all straightened out. There’s no need for Riley to go through this. It’s summer. He should be enjoying himself. He’s only a boy.”
Lily gritted her teeth to keep the explosion of words from bursting forth. “I swear, if you come down here now…” She forced herself to stop and take a breath. “Please. Don’t come down. I know it’s rough on Riley, but I’ve got a handle on the situation. I’m keeping tabs on what’s going on at the marina. He’s only been working there for two days. It’s going to take a little adjusting on his part. Right now all he’s seeing is that it’s punishment. I promise, I won’t let him be truly mistreated.” It galled her to admit it, but she’d accused Clay of mistreatment just this morning. Riley’s expectation to be pulled from the fire was the only thing that kept her from calling the sheriff and asking for an alternate arrangement.
The Road Home Page 12