The Valley

by Annie Graefnitz

  "What was that about?”

  I looked at Irelynn's inquisitive expression as she continued to stare out the window. "And where'd that wretch go?"

  It wasn't like her to be so caught up in my personal affairs. Not that I ever had a lot to get caught up in, but her concern made me smile. I went to the decoration table and looked around, trying to seem unconcerned.

  "I don't know. But if we don't get this mess sorted out, these people are going to destroy this room and the committee is going to have a fit.” I looked up to see Shawn and Irelynn staring at me. "What?"

  "Aren't you a little curious about what that shrew was up to?" Shawn asked incredulously.

  "Wow," I laughed. "You guys are really worried huh? Thanks for having some confidence in me.”

  In truth, I was really curious about what they were talking about, if she was the one who let the bat out of the bag. But I was more curious about what John said, and I had every intention of finding out what was happening.

  I waited in the usual spot for him after school the next day, but he wasn't waiting for me like he normally did. Irelynn waited with me for a while before having to leave. She was filling in for Juanita at the market, who had a family emergency. The parking lot was empty when I decided he wasn't coming and walked home.

  He wasn't there the next day or the day after that either.

  Finally on Thursday I had to admit to my friends that I was a little concerned. We were gathered at Irelynn's house to work on our English projects. Shawn was finding it very hard to concentrate on the task at hand. He wanted to know what was happening with Will. He wasn't the only one, but I wasn't about to turn into my two persistent friends. If they didn't have the answers they wanted, they would dig annoyingly until they got it.

  "His phone just rings. I've tried twice,” I said when they scolded me for not having the scoop.

  Irelynn did not like my answer. "Twice in four days is not bad, Cam, call again."

  "No, I'm not a stalker. He will call." He had to.

  "Do you think Kelsey got to him?"

  "I don't know. Maybe.” Maybe I didn't know Will like I thought I did. How much can you learn about someone in such a short amount of time? No, I reassured myself. No way.

  Irelynn scoffed. "Pig."

  By Friday morning I was worried. Was he all right? Why hadn't he called or tried to see me? Maybe Shawn was right. It was too soon to tell him and he’d changed his mind. I should have just made up something less bizarre to confess. Ire was right, too. Will knew the truth now and was repulsed. I should have known. I should have trusted my instincts and just stayed away. I knew right away that he was too much, too much for me anyway.

  I tried to ignore him didn’t I? He just seemed to be everywhere that I was. I didn’t have a choice but to fall for him. He could have at least told me though. He could have told me that he couldn’t deal with my…issues. I surmised that he was just another one of those guys that would rather ignore you until you go away than actually say that it’s not working out.

  I felt sick, and Shawn’s constant interrogations throughout the morning were not helping. I just wanted to be alone.

  "I'm going home. I need to watch a movie or something. Get my mind off of all this," I told them at lunch. Their pitying eyes agreed. I grabbed my bag and stood up, but not quickly enough to see Kelsey and her new best friend, Melanie Cross, snaking their way through the cafeteria tables. I had no patience for her antics right now and certainly didn't want a new set of eyes judging me. I dashed from the table, not looking back, just as she reached it.

  "You're such a freak," she called out after me, obviously not intelligent enough to come up with a new insult. I couldn't hear what my friends were saying, but I knew it was good. I jogged down to the attendance office so that I would be convincingly red-faced and sweaty enough to pass as sick.

  The second the fresh October air hit my face I was relieved; happy to be out of the cacophony of high school for at least an afternoon. But leaving the school behind didn't stop the nightmarish images of Kelsey and Will in each other's arms at the ball. Did she really pull it off, and that’s why she came to our table? I saw her shiny red Mustang selfishly parked over two of the limited student parking stalls and I instantly thought of not so gently swiping my key along the back of it as I passed. “Thinking nasty thoughts and actually doing them are what separate good people from deviants,” Dorothy would say.

  I hadn't thought of Dorothy until just then. If she or anyone else saw me leaving the school, the Gestapo would fall in shortly after. I crossed in front of the school and across a small footbridge that entered into a hillside path. Partially hidden by trees, it ran parallel to the field in front of the school. It was our school's poor excuse for a running track. Each year in P.E., we had to run this trail to the end and back for our mile challenge. My knees were thankful this would be my last year doing that. I had more scars from falling on it than I could count.

  The trail was also the site where Irelynn first met her ill-fated first love. Near the end of our freshmen year, Irelynn, Anna, and I decided it was time to take the path home that we had heard about since kindergarten. It was no big deal, but the legendary trail lived up to the hype when the world's largest bear came strolling down the path in front of us. The three of us grabbed each other and froze. One would think that growing up in a town completely surrounded by mountains and wild things, we would have known what to do in that situation. Unfortunately for us, we had opted out of the hunter's safety course offered at the local gun range. Somehow camouflage just didn't match the "I'm not from the valley" look we were going for.

  I vaguely remembered something that might help. Noise. Somewhere I'd heard that in the presence of a bear you are supposed to be loud... and big. Loud and big, I thought. I sucked in a deep breath and let it out. "MMAAAAAAAAA! Get out of here!” I screamed, raising my flailing arms. Anna and Ire slowly turned their heads and glared at me. So did the bear that hadn’t even noticed us until my yodeling alerted her.

  "What are you doing?" Anna mumbled through her gritted teeth.

  I lost any confidence and shrank behind them. "I don't know," I whispered.

  And there we stood, three petrified amigos, staring into the face of doom.

  An engine thundering toward us could have been the sound of angels as far as we knew. Our heads snapped to the right to see a green Jeep barreling through the field toward us franticly honking. Our new bear friend began to sway back and forth, seemingly unsure of what to do. Before she could decide, the Jeep was next to us. Two large boys were in the front. That was Irelynn's first glimpse of Tyson and his older brother.

  "Get in!" Tyson shouted.

  We didn't need any instruction. As soon as the door was open, we were pushing each other in. His brother pounded the gas pedal and shot out of the field. I turned back to see the bear saunter back up the mountain, unconcerned.

  I laughed at the memory and continued down the path. A crackling of leaves stopped me in my tracks. The noise stopped, too. I remembered again why I didn't take this path alone. Was my friend from three years ago back to finish the job? I started walking again and again, the crunching followed. I whipped around and saw something move from the corner of my eye.

  A shadow passed behind the trees and disappeared. An animal? It was too light for a bear and too noisy for a deer, but I didn't want to stick around to find out. I grabbed my keys from my pocket and closed my hand into a fist, leaving a key poking out from in between my fingers. I started walking again, faster this time. The sounds of my own breath and heavy footsteps drowned out any sounds that may have been echoing mine. My muscles loosened as I neared the end of the trail.

  I stole a quick look over my shoulder, but saw nothing. This time the crackling of the brush came from the front of me. I whipped my head around to see a woman dressed in a black jogging suit and earbuds emerging from a smaller side trail. “Agh!” Her sudden appearance startled me and I sucked in a huge gulp of air.
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br />   “I’m sorry,” the woman said, plucking the speakers from her ears. “I didn’t know anyone was around.”

  While trying to recover from choking on my own breath, I saw her unfamiliar and flawless face. Her porcelain skin froze in a thin smile.

  “Oh no, I’m sorry, I shouldn’t even be here.” I didn’t even know why I said that. I wished that I could make up better excuses.

  Her smile widened. “Are you a student?”

  With my luck, the pasty goddess before me was the new P.E. teacher and she’d just busted me.

  “Yes.” Crap!

  “Shouldn’t you be in school?” With her perfectly painted red fingernails, she smoothed her short black hair behind her ears and tilted her head.

  “I-uh.”

  She snickered and returned the earbuds to her ears. “I won’t tell on you.” She winked and looked at me from head to toe, then added. “You should probably get home, though. This is not the place to be wandering alone.” She passed by me and continued on her way.

  The house was very quiet when I arrived, exactly what I needed. Dorothy wouldn’t be home until four o’clock. The rise and fall of my emotions was exhausting; the movie would have to wait until after a nap. That’s how I dealt with any kind of undesirable situation; sleep.

  When I woke up, the light flowing into my window had dulled to a faint orange haze. Surrounded in my warm cocoon, I looked at the clock. Five forty five. I reached to turn the lamp on beside my bed, but something obstructed my reach. A box. I stretched over the box and switched the light on. I rubbed my eyes and grabbed the box. My name was scrawled on the front in my father’s barely legible handwriting. I smiled; I had been worried for nothing. This small box numbed some of the pain.

  I looked closer at the postage; Costa Rica. But something about it seemed off. What was today? October thirtieth. The ink covering the stamp was too smudged to see the date that it was sent. It must’ve been here all this time and I didn’t see it. I felt my face burn with anger, frustration. How could I let someone consume me so much that I would forget about something so important, the only real connection I had to my parents while they were away. I let hurricane Will turn me upside down, making me forget who I was; independent. Me. And now he had moved on to Miss Jiggles.

  “Ugh!” I shouted. He was doing it again – invading my mind. I looked back at the package and debated on whether to open it or not. As much as I really needed the distraction, Irelynn would break my feet if she knew I opened it without her. And that was the last thing I needed. I grabbed my phone and sent her a message. Eagle has landed. Can I proceed? I buried my face back into my pillow and waited for the response. If anything other than a HELL NO came back, I would be surprised. The phone rang. Let the thrashing begin.

  I grabbed the phone. “Don’t even think about it,” she threatened. “I’m on my way.”

  I lay back on my pillow, letting the urge to rip the box to shreds build so much that when she burst into my room moments later, I had put the box all the way across the room buried under a pile of laundry. She looked at me and then around my bed.

  “Where is it?”

  I pointed to the pile of unfolded clothes. She raced over to it and dug through until she found the box. She grabbed it and skipped back to my bed.

  She sat on the bed, grasping the box with both hands. She gave it a quick shake like I usually did, and giggled. Shaking the box was something I did every time before opening the package despite knowing that whatever its contents were, they were most likely fragile. Her reaction was the same every time-a slap on the arm. I smiled at her and tapped her arm lightly. She handed the box over.

  I ran my nail against the paper-covered tape that bound it safely for its long journey until it popped open. Irelynn squealed and propped herself closer to look in. I looked in, expecting to see several little knick-knacks from Costa Rica. Instead, there was a bundle of what looked like grass. Irelynn sat back and wrinkled her nose.

  “Is that grass?” she asked.

  I poked at the mass with my finger and when I didn’t feel any resistance, pushed harder until I felt something. My other fingers spread out and found another object. I quickly pulled both through the tangle. Two small white fabric bags appeared from the mess. Both were cinched at the top with a shiny blue rope. One had the letter I stitched into the side and the other one a C. I put the bag with the I into the hands of my greedy friend who was ready to burst.

  I loosened the top of the bag and turned it upside down. A necklace fell into my palm. I pulled on the thin chain and lifted the necklace for a better look at the pendant attached to it. The strap looked awfully small.

  “This is not going to fit around my neck.”

  Irelynn looked over and laughed. “I don’t think it’s a necklace.”

  I tapped the dangling stone with my finger and it spun slowly at the end of the strap. “Then what is it?”

  Irelynn mirrored my puzzled expression. “I don’t know.”

  “Well, what’d you get?”

  She smiled and held up her hand showcasing a long silver band encircling her middle finger. “Fits perfectly,” she beamed.

  So the friend gets a perfectly normal and fashionable ring, and I get an… I don’t know what. I looked back at my gift, running my fingers over the smooth stone. A ripple in the color startled me. I moved my hand back over it and it rippled again, the tiny red speckles seemed to float atop the dark green ripples. I closed my eyes, obviously I was still waking up and my eyes were watery. I opened my left eye and looked at the watery stone, it was still. Right eye. Still. I blinked my eyes a few more times and before looking again. No movement.

  “What…are you doing?” Irelynn watched, but didn’t see the moving stone.

  I cupped the stone in my hand quickly. “Nothing. Just trying to figure out what this is supposed to be. A bracelet maybe.”

  She flopped onto her stomach, ogling her ring. “It’s just so cool. I’ve never seen silver look like this. It’s got kind of a yellow glow to it.”

  “Yeah,” I said, pointing to the lamp next to her.

  She rolled her eyes. “Not because of the light, dork. It’s just different.”

  I set my rock on the nightstand and lay back on the pillow. I would have to see if Dorothy knew what it was, but later. I didn’t have the energy get up and at least I knew my parents were okay. I really just wanted to know what was happening with Will.

  “What did Kelsey want today?”

  Irelynn remained on her belly, eyeing the ring like a jeweler. “Huh?”

  “Today,” I reminded her. “At lunch.”

  “Oh um…I don’t know. We didn’t listen. Shawn started singing as loud as he could when she came over. People were staring. Her new BFF didn’t want to sit with us after that.”

  The thought of Shawn serenading Kelsey made me laugh. I half wished I could have seen her mortified face.

  Irelynn rolled onto her side.

  “Cami, I know this whole thing with Will being M.I.A is bothering you, but I don’t think you should worry about him anymore. I’m going to give you the same advice you gave me with Tyson.” She cleared her throat and took a serious look. “He’s obviously a dirtball and you should move on.”

  She left me speechless, but she knew what I was thinking.

  “I’m just saying. He’s been absent for almost a week now and he hasn’t even tried to talk to you. I think he may be too much of a coward to say anything to you and I don’t want to see you strung out like I was for so long like I was. Believe me, it’s no way to live.”

  I struggled to find an appropriate response. “I’m not. Do I look strung out? What would make you say that? And besides, you can’t break up with someone if you aren’t even together.”

  She raised her eyebrows. “Oh please. You two never put yourselves on display or anything. But everyone knew.” She leaned toward me. “And so did he.”

  I put my arms over my eyes. “I don’t know Ire. I am so confused.” I
was not ready to admit to Irelynn exactly how much I felt for him and now how completely stupid I felt. “They are all stupid.”

  Finally, it was Saturday. Any other Saturday would have meant that I was free to do whatever I wanted; sleep in until two o’clock, wear my pajamas all day, organize my entire music library, or as I had done more recently, hang out with Will. But that was not happening this particular Saturday, because it was Halloween and there was no more dark, curly-haired blue-eyed god, which meant I would be forced out of bed and over to the Inn to finish decorating right up until the last minute, and then back home to dish out piles of candy to the neighborhood kids.

  I didn’t mind missing the winding down of the fanfare in town while I decorated. I would be the only person left finishing the last details. I would have much rather been there alone anyway, creating a fantasy world of lights and decorations than standing outside in the suddenly chilly weather huddled with hundreds of people watching the same parade floats as the year before.

  I was just waiting for the day to be over with, so I could have Sunday to myself. Everyone would still be buzzing about the ball and I wouldn’t even have to worry about Dorothy. I’d been to brunch twice with her in the last few months. She knew better than to ask more of me. I pulled my blankets around my head, thinking of how I would spend my time tomorrow. I had the whole day to do whatever, and yet I found myself completely at a loss. I didn’t want to do anything. So that would be what I did on Sunday. Absolutely nothing.

  My supposition was correct. At about three o’clock Irelynn and Shawn ditched me at the Inn to go watch the parade. As I walked around the dining hall, I was a little surprised at how little there was for me to do. Despite all the bickering during the last week about color, gaudy candles, and the gruesomeness of life sized skeletons; we’d pulled it off. The years of following Dorothy around while she did this paid off. I was happy with the outcome, but I still had to make sure every last pumpkin was in place.