Instead of sneaking through the back, which felt strange without Marco, Alice knocked on the front door.
After a few minutes, Mr. Mayer answered. He was haggard, with dark circles under his eyes, his tie askew.
“Oh, Alice,” he said. “I’m afraid Marco is...he’s not able to play today.”
Alice felt as if someone had grabbed her heart and squeezed it.
“What’s wrong? Is he alright?”
“He’s...he will be fine. Just sick, a fever.”
“Well...maybe I could read to him...or something?”
Mr. Mayer shook his head. “I’m sorry Alice, not right now. Maybe in a few days.”
He closed the door and all Alice could do was stand there.
Tears stung her eyes as she walked down the steps, that hollow feeling that had settled into her heart when Mama died started to deepen.
Deciding that Lionel would likely be stopping by soon and receive a similar rejection, Alice sat on her front steps to wait.
Hours passed, and it was clear Lionel wasn’t coming.
More tears clouded her vision as she stood and walked inside, running to her room. Not caring if she fell on her cast, Alice flung herself onto the bed and cried herself to sleep.
She woke to voices downstairs and bolted from her room, hopeful that Lionel might’ve come by after all.
But it became clear very quickly that it wasn’t Lionel. It was a man’s voice, deep and rumbling.
“If the father did indeed run out, well then, the girl must be put into a home.”
Alice’s stomach dropped.
The last thing she wanted was to live with her father, but a home would be just as bad.
“My sister wouldn’t have wanted that,” Aunt Diana said. “My husband and I have no children, and are in a position to take custody of my niece.”
“Well, yes, I see how that might be better, if you’re willing to do that.”
“We are,” Uncle Logan said.
“If the father doesn’t return by the funeral, then he probably won’t be returning at all. We can start the process after that.”
“Thank you, officer,” Aunt Diana said.
Alice sank to her knees in the hall.
Fear and relief flooded her in equal measure. She barely knew her aunt and uncle, yet from what she’d seen they were kind and good people.
Though Mama barely spoke of them. Why is that? Maybe it’s false. Maybe after a little while they’ll get tired of me or maybe...
“Do you think she’ll want to go with us?” Uncle Logan asked.
“There’s really no other option. Even if that man returns there’s no way in hell I’ll leave her with him.”
“Agreed. When should we tell her?”
“Tonight, the sooner the better. That child needs to know that she’s safe, first and foremost.”
“There’s nothing in the house to eat.”
“I didn’t have the chance to go to the market, what with the funeral arrangements.
“We’ll go out then.”
“There’s a diner...but no, that wouldn’t be a good idea.”
“I’ll look in the phone book. Why don’t you go wake her up.”
Alice jumped to her feet and was almost to her room when she heard Aunt Diana’s steps behind her.
“Alice?”
She turned around, afraid Aunt Diana would be mad at her for listening. Instead, her aunt smiled.
“Well? What do you think? Would you like to come live with us? We have a lovely home, and back yard. I own a book store, you’d have your pick of however many you want.”
Alice licked her lips. “My friends...”
“Yes, I’m sure you’ll miss them, but they can come visit as often as you want. And maybe in the summer months, you could stay with them?”
“Well...I-I don’t...I don’t want to stay with...him.”
Aunt Diana nodded, a stormy look passing over her lovely features. “No, I wouldn’t think you would.”
“I...I guess so then.”
“Wonderful. Why don’t you wash your face and brush your hair. Uncle Logan is taking us out for dinner.”
Alice nodded, a reluctant excitement taking root in her mind.
The next week passed in a flurry of packing and arranging for the selling of the house. Alice often felt in the way as her aunt and uncle made phone calls, and ran errands, but they never seemed to treat her like it.
After two days, Alice went back to Marco’s house, longing to spend the last few days with him and Lionel on the worn library rug. But once again, Mr. Mayer told her that Marco was too sick to see anyone. And no matter how many hours she waited on the front porch, Lionel never showed up either.
All too soon the day of the funeral arrived.
Rain pelted the windows and roof of the small church, as the minister read from a black Bible. Alice tried to be strong, to not cry, but tears fell from her eyes anyway.
Once the service was over and they pulled up to the house, Alice bolted from the car, not caring who wanted to talk to her. The cast made climbing her tree difficult, but soon she found herself safely ensconced in it’s branches, the vibrant leaves shielding her from the curious eyes of mourners.
She found the book where she’d left it in the hollow part of the trunk and pulled it out. The pages felt brittle under Alice’s fingers as she turned them. She didn’t have to read the story, she’d memorized it long ago, but holding the book that her mother had read to her was a kind of comfort.
A soft summer breeze stirred the leaves in her tree, fat drops of water plopping onto her tightly braided hair and dark blue dress. The sounds of people talking drifted to her. She glared in their direction. So many people had come to her mother’s funeral, but where had they been all this time? Where were her friends when her mother really needed them?
Where were her friends?
Hugging the book tight to her chest, Alice squeezed her eyes shut to keep the tears from falling. She didn’t want to cry anymore. She wanted to scream and kick and punch someone.
Rage burst inside of her like a boil and she found her body trembling with it. She’d been mad before, of course, but this felt different. It burned through her, bright and hard, and she wondered if she’d burst into flames.
“Why’s a raven like a—”
She snarled, jumping down in front of Marco, his brown eyes huge with shock.
“Where’ve you been?!”
“Alice—”
“The day I left your house my father beat me! Where were y-you? And then today, they-they buried my mama and-and, you weren’t there!”
She kicked him hard in the leg, and then awkwardly slapped him across the face with her left hand as tears blinded her.
“Stop it!” Strong arms encircled her from behind.
“And you!” she said to Lionel. “Why-why didn’t you...? Why did he do it?! I’ll kill him someday, I will!”
Lionel held her tight against his chest as Alice screamed and cried. She wanted to hit the man who’d taken her mother’s life, to beat him and make him feel as bad as she did. She wanted to take something away from him, make him know that hollow feeling inside that wakes you up at night, that no one can ever make go away.
Once her sobs had begun to quiet, Lionel let her go and Marco caught her in a tight embrace. She pressed her face into his slim chest, saying over and over what she’d do to the man who killed her mother.
“No, you won’t,” Marco said after a minute. “You won’t, because you’re better than him.”
“Shut up,” she said, wiping her nose with her fingers.
A violet hankie appeared next to her, and that’s when Alice realized that half the house had emptied to watch her throwing a fit. Many of them shook their head, or gave her looks of pity mixed with curiosity. Heat rose to her cheeks, but this time it wasn’t anger.
“Don’t pay any attention to them,” her aunt said, kneeling. “You go ahead and rage.”
Alice looked
into her aunt’s large blue eyes. “Why didn’t you take us away?”
Aunt Diana’s face crumpled a little. “I tried. But your mom...she wanted to stay.”
“Okay, everyone,” said Uncle Logan. “Show’s over, back in the house, and give her some privacy.”
“Do you want me to stay out here?” Aunt Diana asked.
Alice hesitated. “No. That’s okay.” Aunt Diana gave her a brief hug and walked back towards the house.
Lionel plopped down on the ground with a sigh. “I’m sorry I wasn’t here this week.”
Alice shrugged, sniffling.
“My mom, she...it’s stupid. I think it is, but she went and got married.”
“What?” Alice stared at him.
“Yeah, to that rich idiot she’s been seeing, Jason James. Wanted me at the hurried-up wedding. So stupid.”
“But, now you have—”
“Don’t call him my dad.” Lionel’s face was stormy.
“Sorry.”
“He hates me. Wants to send me away to some snooty school.”
Alice looked at Marco, who was staring very hard at the grass. His small mouth was drawn into a severe frown and there were dark circles under his eyes, along with a purple bruise on his left cheek. Lionel had been protecting Marco at school for years. If he left for good...
“I’ll be fine,” he said, looking up at her.
“I’m not going!” Lionel said.
“Yeah, you are.”
Lionel looked away, his square jaw clenched.
“Alice...” Marco said.
“I’m sorry I hit you,” she said, touching his cheek where she’d left a red hand print under the bruise.
He smiled. “It’s okay. I should’ve told you that I was...well, I was sick.”
“Your dad said, but I...it just felt like you’d left. Are you alright now?”
“Yeah, just...didn’t want to give it to you.”
“I wouldn’t have cared. I...I wanted you here. Both of you,” she gasped, eyes widening. “Oh my gosh! I haven’t told you about the two heroes.”
“Who?” Lionel asked.
For the first time all week, she felt alive again as the story spilled out of her in an excited rush. Lionel and Marco listened, but they weren’t as intrigued as she thought they’d be. In fact, Marco seemed more agitated than anything.
“Don’t you think that’s amazing?” she said.
Lionel shrugged. “Maybe.”
“But they made him scared enough to leave.” She stared at Lionel, a faint memory of blond hair under a stocking cap flashing through her mind.
He met her gaze. “What?”
She shook her head. It’s too crazy, there’s no way...was there?
“You hit your head,” Marco said, tossing handfuls of plucked grass. “You don’t know what happened, right? I mean do you remember anything?”
She bit her lip. “Well...it sounds crazy, but, one of them had these smoky snake-like things come out of him.”
Marco’s eyes became huge, but Lionel burst out laughing.
“Yeah, you definitely hit your head.”
“I didn’t imagine it!” She hit him on the shoulder. “It was real.”
“Okay, sure. Smoky snake things!” Lionel shook his head.
“That’s not the point! They helped me.”
She chewed her bottom lip again. She’d tried to remember as much as possible from that afternoon, but a lot of it was hazy. And the parts that weren’t...well, Lionel wasn’t the only one that thought what she remembered was a little crazy. Alice couldn’t believe it either sometimes. The last few days she’d started to wonder if they weren’t just ordinary people who saw someone in need and helped. They had been so strong and brave. Two things she longed to be.
Straightening her little shoulders and looking them in the eye, she said, “And someday, I’m going to do the same.”
Lionel laughed. “What?”
“I’m going to help people, too. People that can’t help themselves.”
“I don’t think—” Marco said.
“Why not?”
“Because, you’re a girl,” Lionel said.
Alice felt that same flash of heat course through her body, her small hands clenching into fists.
“So what?”
“It’s just that—” Marco said.
“You said it yourself, they were boys or men or whatever. The point is you’re a girl, and girls just don’t—” The kick to Lionel’s leg was swift, and hard enough to make him yelp. He scurried to his feet and stared at Alice. She closed the gap between them quickly, sending Lionel stumbling back and almost falling to the wet grass.
Marco ran between them and held Alice at bay. “No more fights.”
“I can do it!” Alice said. “And when I do, no one will touch me again.”
Lionel just stared at her, eyes wide.
“Okay,” Marco said. “But, let’s not fight. You’re leaving tomorrow, right?”
Her aunt and uncle’s home was in downtown Jet City and only twenty minutes away but it might as well be twenty hours. She hadn’t let herself think about losing Marco and Lionel, but now...
Alice felt the fire within her smothered by all this.
“Then, let’s just...I don’t know. What do you wanna do?” Marco asked.
“Eat something?” Lionel said.
She laughed in spite of everything, and Lionel and Marco seemed to relax.
“My ma brought cannoli.”
“Really?” Lionel grinned.
“Okay,” Alice said.
They ate cannoli and chocolate chip cookies on the back porch. They climbed her tree, and Marco and Alice tossed out lines from books to see if the other could finish it, while Lionel stuffed a roast beef sandwich in his mouth. When the rain returned, they went up to her room and played games. When those were exhausted and the rain still hadn’t let up, they lay on her bed, staring at the ceiling and talking about what they might want to be when they were older.
“A fireman, I think,” Lionel said.
“Why?” Alice asked, stuffing a pencil down her cast to itch her arm.
“Dunno. I like the trucks, I guess.”
“What about you, Marco?”
He stared at the ceiling, his long, thin face dark in thought. Lionel sat up and looked at him, a frown of worry on his tanned face.
“I used to want to be a photographer, like my dad.”
“You could be.”
Marco’s expression darkened even further. “Maybe.”
“I’m hungry,” Lionel said after a moment.
Marco smiled. “You’re always hungry.”
“Do you think your aunt would mind if I...?”
“Nope.”
Lionel scrambled off the bed and down the stairs.
The rain pelted the roof and her window like someone was throwing handfuls of pebbles. Somewhere in the distance, a rumble of thunder sounded. Alice laid her head on Marco’s shoulder and closed her eyes. After a moment, his sticky hot hand grabbed hers and squeezed.
“I’ll miss you,” he whispered.
There was nothing she could say, she didn’t know what word could possibly describe what she felt. So, she just nodded.
“We could write, I guess,” Marco said.
“Yeah. I guess.”
After a few minutes, they could hear Lionel clomping up the stairs. For some reason she couldn’t understand, she knew that Lionel shouldn’t see them so close. Reluctantly, she let go of Marco’s hand and sat up, looking at the small collection of boxes that made up her young life so far.
“Your aunt says we gotta go,” Lionel said. “You’re leaving early tomorrow I guess.”
Her stomach dropped, tears stinging her eyes. It felt like all she did lately was cry. She wondered if this was her future, just a puddle of awful tears.
Marco grabbed Alice in a tight hug. She could hear his heart hammering behind his ribs, feel his thin body tremble a little. She looked up and saw h
im wipe away tears. Despite that, he forced a smile and with one more quick hug, he bolted down stairs.
“I, uh...Maybe I’ll come downtown and see you?” Lionel said.
“I’d like that.”
He scuffed his old converse shoes on the wood floor, looking up at the ceiling, then down at his feet, then up again.
Since she didn’t think Lionel was going to hug her, Alice threw her arms around him. Not right away, but eventually, his long, surprisingly strong, arms held her. She felt his cheek against the top of her head and wished he’d never let go.
But, of course, he did, and Alice saw that his cheeks were wet with tears he tried to pretend weren’t there.
He gave her a crooked grin. “Well...good-bye, I guess.”
Alice took a deep breath and made a decision. If she was going to leave, and maybe never see him again, she would do something that Lionel would never forget, something she’d wanted to try for months now.
“Til next we meet, sweet.” And she leaned forward with closed eyes and puckered lips, planting a quick kiss on Lionel’s full lips.
When she stepped back, Lionel’s blue eyes were wide with surprise. Alice tried to say something, but instead of her lips, her feet moved. Without a backward glance, she ran down the stairs and into the bathroom. After a long hard cry, Aunt Diana coaxed her out and put her to bed.
“I don’t want to leave,” Alice whispered.
“I know,” Aunt Diana said. “But, do you really want to stay?”
Alice was about to nod, but then realized that everything was different now. Her mother was gone, Lionel was leaving, and who knew what Marco would do without Lionel’s protection. Nothing that she loved about this place was here anymore.
“It doesn’t seem like it now,” Aunt Diana said with a gentle smile, “But there will be a lot of things to be happy about in the future. You just have to give all the new things a chance.”
Uncle Logan knocked on the door, peeking his curly brown head around the corner. Alice felt her muscles tighten, her hands clutching the covers.
He noticed too, brown eyes sad behind his glasses. “I thought a little warm milk? Helps me sleep.”
“You didn’t put whiskey in that, did you?” Aunt Diana asked.
“Not in this one,” he said, kissing her before setting the glass down.
Serpent's Sacrifice (The Vigilantes Book 1) Page 4