“Still dreaming about going back, huh?” his father said.
Kai was tightlipped.
“Well, dream on, sonny boy, because it ain’t gonna happen,” the Alien Frog Beast gloated. ÜWhat the hell would that Ethan guy want with you? You ain’t his kid. That’s over. Wake up and smell the bacon.”
Kai fought the temptation to ball his hands into fists and hit him with all his might. Birth father or no birth father.
“Get up,” Pat said.
“Why?” Kai asked.
“Why the hell do you think?” Pat snapped. “I need you out front to help sell. You see how crowded it is out there?”
“I guess people must really love those cheap knockoffs,” Kai said.
Pat’s eyes narrowed menacingly. “Well, ain’t you one observant little punk.”
“You’re doing this just to give Buzzy Frank as much grief as you can, aren’t you?” Kai asked. “I mean, it’s not even about the money. Buzzy forced you to pay all the rent up front, and you’re so pissed off, you’ll do anything to get back at him. I’m surprised you didn’t just firebomb his store.”
“Why? So he can collect insurance?” Pat asked. “Overstate the damages and then make a mint on the fire sale? I’m not doing that guy any favors.”
Kai resisted the urge to laugh. Only his father could look at torching someone’s store as doing that person a favor.
“Did it ever occur to you that not everybody is totally dishonest?” Kai asked. “That not everybody goes around looking for every possible opportunity to scam the rest of the world.”
Pat grinned, revealing his cruddy little yellow teeth. “Hell, yes, sonny boy, if everybody was a scammer, there’d be no one left to scam. Thank the lord there are more of them than there are of me.” But the grin turned hard. “Now, you gonna help sell or not?”
The stale air in the back room grew still. Kai suddenly realized that he’d come to a turning point. He didn’t know how or why it was happening at this very moment, but it was.
“Not,” he answered.
The Alien Frog Beast Chief Hockaloogie stared at him for a long time, as if he too understood what this meant. Then he held out his hand. “The keys.”
Kai reached into his pocket and pulled out his key ring. He removed the store key and tossed it in the air. His father caught it. Good riddance, Kai thought. He never wanted to set foot in this store again.
But his father reached out again. “And the apartment key.”
This time Kai hesitated. As if the meaning of his father’s words wasn’t completely obvious, Pat decided to spell it out for him. “This is the end, sonny boy I’ve had all the crap from you I’m gonna take. You don’t want to play on my team, fine. You go find another team. And that means another place to live.”
“Before I give you the key,” Kai said, “there are some things I’d like to get first.”
Pat’s hand closed into a fist. “Make it fast.”
Five
For once Kai did as his father said. Almost as if he didn’t want to take the time to think too much about it for fear that he’d change his mind. He walked to the house with the basement apartment he and his father and Sean had recently moved into. On the way, he passed the Driftwood Motel. The office was dark and the no vacancy sign was on. Kai went a few more blocks, let himself into the apartment, got his things, and headed back to T-licious.
By now it was late and Sun Haven had grown quiet. The stores had gone dark and the sidewalks were lit only by the orbs of streetlights. The lights were still on in T-licious, but the store was empty and the door was locked. Sean and the Alien Frog Beast must have been in the back, counting the night’s take. Kai thought of knocking, then changed his mind. He slid the apartment key through the mail slot and turned away.
He was free. Finally. Each step down the dark sidewalk felt light, as if he were walking on air. It felt good, but edgy and unsettling, too. For the first time in his life he was completely alone in the world. No one was concerned with his whereabouts, or his safety, or his health. From now on it was all on him, and him alone.
He thought briefly about going to the Driftwood and asking Curtis if he could stay there for the night, but he remembered the office was closed and the no vacancy sign meant the motel was full. Instead he headed for the L. Baiter & Son funeral home and around to the parking lot in the back. Bean was his best shot at a place to stay that night. But when Kai got to the back of the funeral home, he stopped. In the moonlight he saw a second car parked next to Bean’s hearse. It was a black Mercedes-Benz station wagon with California license plates. The same one Kai had seen parked in Spazzy’s driveway, the one belonging to Spazzy’s older sister. Kai looked up at Bean’s apartment on the second floor. The windows were dark.
Kai felt a smile creep across his lips. So that was Bean’s non-life-threatening plan. Way to go, dude.
On the other hand, it meant finding another place to stay. Kai walked back down the driveway to Main Street. There was one other possibility. He went down the block and looked up at the apartment over Tuck’s Hardware where Jade lived. Dull orange light flickered against the white curtains—inside a candle was burning. He crossed the street, went in the door next to the hardware store, and up the stairs.
The door to Jade’s apartment was wooden and green. A crystal hung from a nail at eye level, as if containing some magic protective spell. Kai could hear soft music coming from inside. He touched the bell for an instant.
Murmurs joined the soft music inside the apartment. Jade’s voice. Then another voice. Deeper. Male. Kai stepped back from the doorway and a few steps down the stairs, then waited.
“Who is it?” Jade asked from inside.
“Kai. It’s nothing. Sorry to bother you. I’m going.”
“No, wait.”
Kai heard the sound of a bolt sliding open, then the doorknob turned. Jade stuck her head out. She gave him a soft, concerned look. Her black silk robe caught the dim hall light. “Did you need something?”
“No.”
Jade gave him a confused look.
“I made a mistake,” Kai said.
Jade’s eyes darted back into the apartment. Then she looked at Kai again. “Not necessarily.”
Kai couldn’t help smiling a little. “It’s not that. I’m looking for a place to stay tonight.”
Jade pursed her lips. “Oh, I’m sorry, Kai.”
“I know,” Kai said. “Me too. You wouldn’t have an old blanket, would you?”
Jade smiled. “You bet. Give me a sec.”
Kai waited on the stairs. He caught snippets of conversation from inside the apartment. Whoever the guy was, he didn’t sound happy. From the tone of Jade’s answers it sounded like she was telling him to chill.
It took longer than Kai expected for Jade to return to the door, and when she did, he saw why. She had a gray blanket for him, but also a large bottle of water and a white plastic grocery bag knotted at the top. “Hope you like ham and cheese,” she said, handing it all to him.
“My favorite,” said Kai.
“When I was younger, before I had a place of my own, I spent some of the best nights of my life on the beach.”
“Thanks,” Kai said.
He went back out to the sidewalk and started toward the beach. The moon was a sliver and the stars were out. Kai felt the slight, moist onshore breeze against his face as the ocean-cooled air flooded over the sun-scorched land like a salve. He crossed the boardwalk and for a moment thought about sleeping under it, but then rejected that idea. He wanted to be under the stars.
He walked along the sand toward the Driftwood. There was no sense sleeping in front of the boardwalk where the police or some early riser might disturb him in the morning. This being Sun Haven, there was a law—not always enforced, but a law nonetheless—against sleeping on the beach.
The sand back near the dunes was the driest, and still held some of the warmth from the day’s sunlight. Kai spread Jade’s blanket, then lay down and ro
lled, making a cocoon for himself. Down the beach the ocean’s dark waters lapped quietly at the shore. For once Kai was glad there was no surf roaring in his ears. He wiggled a bit to make a comfortable impression in the sand, then lay quietly, gazing up at the stars. A satellite traveled slowly across the sky, growing bright, then dim before disappearing. Shuffled lightly by the breeze, the dune grass made the slightest scratching sounds. Kai felt his eyes grow heavy. He was alone, but not uncomfortable. Not as long as he was on a beach near the ocean.
Six
“Whoa, look what washed up during the night,” someone said.
Kai opened his eyes. In the dull gray light of the predawn he found Curtis standing over him, holding a familiar square-shaped bottle by the neck. Kai shivered and sat up in his sandy bed. He brushed some grains from his face and pulled Jade’s blanket up over his shoulders.
“Sleep well?” Curtis asked.
“Gets a little cold toward morning,” Kai said.
Curtis held the bottle out. “Take a hit of this. It’ll warm you right up.”
Kai accepted the bottle and took a gulp. The whisky burned from the back of his throat all the way down to his stomach, but Kai wasn’t sure it made the rest of him actually feel any warmer. He handed the bottle back. “I thought you usually mixed a little coffee into your Jack Daniel’s in the morning.”
“Is it morning already?” Curtis looked around and pretended to be surprised. “Son of a gun.”
“Guess that means you’ve been up all night, huh?” Kai asked with a yawn.
“Yup.” Curtis eased himself down on the sand beside Kai and took a swig of JD. “The harsh light of financial reality has descended upon my feeble domicile, leaving me no chance of respite.”
“In English, old man.”
“Taxes, grom. Hotel occupancy taxes, sales taxes, real estate taxes, corporate taxes, income taxes. The funds the government must exact from our sorry hides in order to finance such crucial endeavors as invading oil-rich Middle Eastern countries, building space stations, and developing ever more potent weapons of mass destruction. I am proud to admit that I have failed to see the purpose in contributing my allotted share of capital to such insidious activities. Thus I have been judged negligent in my duties as a citizen of this great, but misguided country. In other words … I’ve been a bit lax … about paying the tax.”
“How much do you owe?” Kai asked.
“Hard to know for sure, grom, what with back taxes, interest, and penalties. But I would imagine I am on the wrong side of high five figures, maybe even six.”
Kai let out a low whistle. At least seventy thousand dollars. Maybe as much as ninety thousand dollars. Possibly even more than a hundred thousand. “What can you do?”
Curtis shrugged and took another hit of JD. “Guess I could hole up in one of my upstairs rooms with a box of shotgun shells and shoot it out. Trouble is, it don’t seem fair that anyone should get hurt because of my personal politics and financial irresponsibility. Otherwise I guess I’ll just have to sell the place, pay what I owe, and paddle off into the sunset.”
“No other possibilities?” Kai asked.
Curtis shook his head. “None that come to mind. Although I do have a date to meet with a scaly creature called a tax attorney, which, I have been told, is one of the lower forms of human life, but, like a leech, has been known to be effective in alleviating certain afflictions common to mankind.”
While it was often difficult to figure out precisely what Curtis was saying, especially early in the morning, when not all of one’s brain cells were actively engaged, it seemed to Kai that this meant that the tax attorney might help the old surfer find a way out of this mess.
They sat together on the sand. This morning the clouds were narrow stripes of pink across the light turquoise blue predawn. As the sun approached from the other side of the horizon the stripes began to glow neon pink. Once again the water was glassy except for the spots here and there where it boiled with bluefish feeding at the surface and seagulls squawking as they picked off hapless prey.
“Amazing, ain’t it?” Curtis said. “We’re sittin’ here taking in this calm mellow beauty of the early morning. The stillness of it. The quiet. The colors. The peacefulness. Unless you happen to be one of those bait fish. Right now for them it’s utter mayhem. Chaos. Life and death. No time to stop and smell the roses or whatever it is that bait fish smell. Even on this most beautiful of mornings, it’s kill or be killed. Eat or be eaten. Behold, grom, the deceptive beauty and utter viciousness of mother nature. Nothing is spared. As the philosopher once said, ‘Time is a great teacher. Unfortunately she kills all of her students.”’
They heard a car and looked down the beach. The yellow Hummer was parked on the far edge of the boardwalk and Buzzy and Lucas were standing beside it, gazing unhappily at the water.
“All bow to the king and crown prince,” Curtis whispered.
Buzzy and Lucas climbed back into the Hummer. The doors slammed and they drove away.
“You think he had anything to do with it?” Kai asked.
“My tax problems?” Curtis shook his head. “No. This is one mess I got myself into with no outside help, grom. Buzzy Frank is blameless, at least as far as this one’s concerned.”
“What happened between you two, anyway?” asked Kai.
“Now there’s a question,” Curtis replied. He took another hit of Jack Daniel’s and shivered as it went down. “I’ve thought a lot about it myself, and I suppose it comes down to human nature. Down to what is, versus what isn’t, but craves to be. Take basic board skills and natural ability. I had ’em, grom. Was born with ’em. Took ’em for granted. Surfed for fun and hardly ever practiced anything. Buzzy on the other hand never had it. Had to work for it. And I mean work hard. I’d see someone do something new on a wave, and on the next wave I’d do it too. Buzzy would have to practice it over and over again. Day after day. Week after week. You can see how that might make him a little bit resentful.”
Kai nodded. “And why he might push Lucas so hard.”
“Oh, yeah. For Buzzy everything is work. Everything is discipline. He got used to it. He got good at it. He’s reaped the rewards of hard work. Now he’s about as rich and powerful as they come around here. Me, I never cared for work. Never cared for discipline. Just took each day as it came and tried to find something of value in it.”
“Which way do you think is better?” Kai asked.
Curtis raised his eyebrows in surprise. “Neither. There’s no better. No worse. It’s just life. It may look like Buzzy Frank’s got everything a man could want, but if that was the case then why’s he still working so hard to get more?”
“Because maybe he’s wrong,” Kai said. “Maybe he just thinks this is what he wants, but it really isn’t.”
“Could be” Curtis said. “Or maybe he’s right. Maybe this is exactly what he needs, and if he doesn’t get it then he’s really a miserable son of a bitch.”
“Seems pretty miserable already,” Kai said.
“That may be his lot in life. To be rich, powerful, and miserable. He wouldn’t be the first.”
“And what’s your lot in life?” Kai asked.
“To be poor, powerless, and miserable.” Curtis grinned, then took another gulp of JD. “And drunk. At least, most of the time.”
“Can’t people change?”
“I don’t know,” Curtis answered. “I’ve been waitin’ all my life for the answer to that one. I’m still waitin’ to find out.”
Thirty yards offshore a bluefish leaped clear out of the water, then splashed back down.
“So tell me, grom, what brings you to lay your weary head down on the cool sands of Sun Haven beach?”
“I can’t take my father’s scams anymore,” Kai said.
“Over at the T-shirt shop?”
“Only now it’s the discount surfwear and T-shirt shop,” Kai corrected him, “where he’s selling cheap knockoffs of all the name brands.”
�
�No kidding?” Curtis said. “Seems to me that would be a serious violation of the laws that govern polite society. Your father certainly is an enterprising fellow, isn’t he?”
“Except his greatest joy in life is ripping everyone off,” Kai said.
“So you chose to make an exit, or did he leave you no choice?”
“It was mutual.”
“How old are you, grom?”
“Fifteen.”
“Fifteen and on your own. Well, you’re a capable enough young man from what I’ve seen. Still workin’ for Teddy?”
“Yeah, but I’m not making any money,” Kai said. “I’m still paying off the board she gave me.”
“She know about this?” Curtis nodded at the impression in the sand Kai had made during the night.
“No. It just happened last night. You’re the only one who knows.”
Curtis twisted his head around and looked back up the beach. “You sure about that, grom?”
Jade, wearing shorts and a loose-fitting T-shirt, was coming toward them carrying two large white paper cups.
“Thought you might need this,” she said, handing Kai a cup covered with a white plastic top. The cup was hot and Kai could smell the coffee.
“Thanks, Jade. You know Curtis?” Kai asked. “He owns the Driftwood Motel.”
“Hi,” Jade said.
“Jade works at Sun Haven Surf,” Kai told Curtis.
Curtis offered her his hand and they shook. “We’ve seen each other around town.”
“You want this one?” Jade asked, gesturing to the other coffee cup.
“No, thanks.” Curtis got up from the sand. “I’ve got a full motel for once. I should probably get back to the office before too many of my current guests take leave without settling their motel bills. You take care of this young man, okay?”
“I’ll try,” Jade said.
“I know you like sleeping on the beach,” Curtis said to Kai, “but the bedbugs at my place get ornery if they don’t get fed regular. You need a place to stay tonight, you know where to come.”
“Thanks, old man,” Kai said.
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