by Cheree Alsop
I closed my eyes tight, trying to shut them out. Madelyn was going to leave me. The phrase repeated itself over and over in my mind.
“I don’t want to go,” she sobbed. I held her closer, lost in the sound of her crying.
Dr. Carrison left us alone. Eventually we both cried ourselves out and could only lay there numb and trying to cope with everything that had been thrown at us. I couldn’t lose Madelyn. I wouldn’t.
“If you go, I’ll go too. I’ll visit you every night.”
She sniffed, but a hint of light showed in her eyes. “She lives in Warrell. It’s four hours away.”
“That’s just a short bike ride,” I said, winning a small smile from her. I sighed and forced myself to ask. “When?”
She closed her eyes. “I’m going to school Monday to gather all my things.”
I rested my chin on her head, taking a deep breath of her vanilla scent. “I’ll help you.”
She shook her head. “You’ll be resting; at least you should be.”
“I’ll be there,” I replied.
A tap sounded on the door. We both looked up to see Mr. West standing in the doorway. His eyes tightened slightly at the sight of Madelyn lying in my arms on the bed, but he didn’t say anything.
“Time to go,” he said quietly.
Madelyn kissed me lightly on the cheek as she rose. “I love you,” she whispered quietly enough that her dad couldn’t hear. I listened to her footsteps fade down the hallway and felt empty inside.
“HEY, DUDE,” MAGNUM SAID when he walked through the door. He made himself comfortable on the chair next to the bed and looked around. “Nice crib.”
I forced down the sorrow I felt at Madelyn’s departure and smiled. “Thanks. I hired a decorator.”
“Yeah,” he replied. “Because your taste is crap.”
I motioned toward the beeping monitor near the bed. “It adds a nice ambiance.”
He lifted an eyebrow. “I’m surprised you even know a word like that.”
I shrugged. “I wasn’t raised on a farm.”
“Oh, the ambiance wasn’t good enough for you?”
I laughed again and winced at the pain. “You’d better leave. Your sense of humor is killing me.”
“I don’t have a sense of humor,” he replied dryly, then he grinned.
“How’d you get in here? I thought they only let in family.”
“I told them I was your estranged brother,” he said.
I couldn’t help laughing again despite the pain. “And they didn’t think it was weird that you were visiting me if you were estranged?”
He shrugged. “I think they got stuck on the word. I don’t know what it means—I just threw it in there because it sounded important.”
Exhausted, I rested my head on the pillow and turned to look at him. “Thanks for coming.”
A furrow formed between his eyebrows. “I shouldn’t have called you. I’m not sure what I thought you could do.” He jerked his head in the direction of the school. “Definitely not that.”
“What, too dramatic?”
A begrudging smile touched his lips. “Yes, but it was effective.”
“Think the principal will charge me for the doors?”
He laughed. “And for cleaning the court. You made a mess with those tires.” He sobered. “But man, you were a good shot.”
“I had a good teacher,” I replied.
He shook his head. “I handed you an Uzi and about let you kill us all.”
I chuckled. “Not you, idiot. Jagger.”
He laughed. “You mean the redneck with the ammunition warehouse beneath his junkyard? Sure, learn from him instead of your best friend.”
“You’re my best friend?” I asked with enough sarcastic doubt that he laughed again.
“I don’t see Martin lining up to shake your hand, although he would if he knew who you were.”
“It was close,” I said, thinking of the factory. “I owe you for that.”
He shrugged. “I think you evened it out when you shot the guy who had me in a headlock. Although you could’ve hit me if you were two inches off.”
“I took a chance,” I said nonchalantly.
He let out an incredulous laugh. “I hope it was more than just luck!”
I gave him a serious look. “Magnum, if there was any doubt I couldn’t hit him, I wouldn’t have shot, trust me.”
“I do,” he replied with enough emotion that both of us grew uncomfortable. He cleared his throat. “I, uh,” he paused and took a breath, then said, “I think I’m going to use my free time to concentrate on football.”
I let his words sink in. “You mean you don’t want to be the Black Rider’s sidekick anymore?”
His hands curled into fists; at my grin, he realized I was giving him a hard time and he took a calming breath before he nodded. “You have a death wish, man. I don’t think I could keep up with you. Will you be all right riding without a partner?” he asked, stressing the last word.
I nodded. “I’ll be fine. I don’t have a death wish,” I said, but we were both unconvinced. I held out a hand. “It’s been great riding with you.”
He shook my hand firmly. “You too. And it’s not like this’ll be the last time we see each other. I still have to pick on you at school.”
“Maybe I should sign up for karate so I can explain it when I beat you down.”
He chuckled. “Unfortunately, Sparrow doesn’t have a karate instructor. The best you could do is yoga. You could yoga me to death.”
“That sounds pleasant.”
He stood up, then sighed and grabbed something from his jacket. He held out a bunch of very wilted flowers, some of which were missing petals. “Jessica said to give these to you.”
I stared at him. “Your sister knows I’m the Black Rider?”
He shook his head. “I told her you had the flu and she said they would make you feel better.” He looked very uncomfortable holding the flowers. When I didn’t take them, he set them on a side table and wiped his hand on his pants. “Don’t ask me why girls do what they do. I just know she’d kill me if I didn’t give them to you.”
“We don’t want the toughest member of the Fisher family on your case.”
He grimaced. “Shut up.”
“Please tell her thank you.”
He stalked out without looking back.
THE SHERIFF WAS THE last person I expected to see, but he walked in with an apologetic smile. “Your mom said you were taking visitors.”
I sat up, holding my side. “I thought you’d still be at the school,” I said, shaking his hand.
He shrugged and sat down on the chair Magnum had vacated. “The FBI pretty much has the place closed down. Sounds like they’ll be taking pictures and collecting evidence for the rest of the night.”
“How’d you know I was here?” I asked curiously.
He studied the wall for a minute. “I saw the blood on the gas station door. After you left the school, I called your cell and then the Ashby house. When no one answered, I figured you either got shot or messed up whatever happened at the gas station.” He grimaced. “Although, when I called Dr. Carrison, he was very tight-lipped about everything. It seems you have more friends around here than I do.”
I shook my head. “I only have a few, and I think I just lost another one.”
He glanced at the door. “You mean Magnum? He mentioned he wanted to trade his motorcycle for another CBR. Think I can get him to take a scooter?”
I chuckled at the thought. “He might lose a bit of cred with the Bullets.”
“Oh, I don’t know about that. He could wear one of those half helmets and get passed by tractors.”
We both grinned at the thought. “He thinks I have a death wish,” I said. I lifted the edge of my shirt and showed him the bandages around my side. “Magnum called me right after your help with Mitch West. He said he found the robbers and I told him we should call the cops. He called me out for being a coward and said he
was going to take them on himself, so I had to go.”
“Naturally,” the sheriff said, though his sarcasm was good-natured.
“There was a pretty entertaining knife fight, and I made the stupid mistake of turning my back on an armed assailant to take down an unarmed one.”
He nodded. “Happens sometimes in the heat of the moment. That’s why kids aren’t supposed to be vigilantes.”
“I know better,” I said.
He shrugged. “Just like I knew not to let you in that gymnasium, yet here we are.” A smile raised his mustache. “That was pretty smart, using those rubber bullets.”
“Jagger’s idea. I told him I didn’t want to hurt anyone, but it was going to be dangerous. He said he had just the thing.”
He nodded. “I need to commend him for that.” He ran a hand across his beard, then gave a small sigh. “I came here for another reason.”
I wondered how many times I would hear that. Tension tightened my shoulders.
The sheriff continued. “Bustin’ up gang wars, getting stabbed in a knife fight, and now single-handedly taking down school shooters? I think you’ve done enough for a dozen lifetimes, Kelson.”
The tension tightened. “Are you telling me to give up being the Black Rider?” I couldn’t hide the loss that filled my voice. Somehow, I felt like the Black Rider was the true part of me, not the coward who was beat up by bullies and fumbled the simplest farm jobs. If I gave up being the Black Rider, I didn’t know if I could accept what was left.
The sheriff slammed a hand down on the table, catching me by surprise. “Dang it, Kelson,” he barked. “It’s driving me crazy. I should be giving you a medal, not telling you to lie low because the FBI wants to take the Black Rider in.”
I stared at him. “Why?”
“A million reasons,” he explained. “You’re a vigilante who took on a terrorist group at a school.”
“But I used rubber bullets and I was trying to save the students,” I protested.
He nodded. “It’s still a very serious situation, and they weren’t satisfied when I told them I didn’t know who you were.”
“What if they followed you here?” I expected to see FBI agents walking through the door at any moment.
He shook his head. “They’re busy right now, but I’d recommend getting home as soon as possible.” He shook his head. “Just lie low for real this time. No Black Rider stuff for a while. You’re a good kid and I don’t want you taken in for this.”
“Thanks for the warning,” I said, my mind reeling from what he had told me. I let out a slow breath. “I appreciate the visit.”
He rose and shook my hand. “I’m glad you’re open to the suggestion. You’re not without friends, no matter what happens to the Black Rider,” he reassured me.
“Thanks.”
Mom met me out in the parking lot in her little green car. I eased onto the seat, then leaned my head back against the rest as she drove slowly down the road.
“I’m sorry, Mom,” I said after a few minutes of silence.
She let out a quiet breath and glanced at me. I was still wearing my black helmet and gear, but we were far enough from the hospital that it no longer mattered. I eased the helmet off my head and held it in my hands.
“Sometimes I feel like I lost you when we lost Zoey,” she said quietly. She glanced at me again as if she immediately regretted the statement.
“I think you’re right,” I replied, staring at my reflection in the helmet’s visor.
She sat in surprised silence for a few minutes. When she broke it, her voice was gentle. “It hurt when you said you thought of Maddy and what it would do to her if you were killed. I was foolish to hope you’d think of me.”
I opened my mouth to protest, but she held up her hand, her look asking me to wait. I obeyed and kept silent.
She continued, “I was wrong to think I would be first on your mind after all we’ve been through. I’m just grateful that you care about her enough to think before you do something dangerous.” Her eyes glittered in the passing streetlight, showing tears she refused to let fall.
I rubbed my eyes. “Do you know what I kept thinking when Dr. Carrison stitched me up at the Ashbys’?”
She shook her head silently.
I clenched my hands around the helmet. “It was, how many times would my mom have to worry about losing me?” I rubbed a thumb over the groove the bullet had cut into the black paint. “I know I’m not the easiest son to have.”
She cracked a smile. “You are the easiest son,” she said. She gave the helmet a wry look. “It’s the Black Rider I’m not so sure of.”
I chuckled and leaned my head against the seat. “Don’t worry. The sheriff mentioned I may have to give it up anyway.” At her questioning look, I frowned at the night outside the window. “It seems the FBI wants to bring the Black Rider in for shooting a gun in the school.”
Her mouth fell open. “You saved those students’ lives.”
“I know, but I definitely crossed some lines.”
“You risked your life,” she said, her voice rising.
I held up my hands in surprise at her reaction and fought back a laugh. “Mom, I thought that’s what you wanted.”
“Not like this,” she protested. “You deserve better than this.”
Her sentiments echoed mine, but I didn’t say anything. I merely smiled and closed my eyes. The hum of the tires lulled me into a dreamless daze. We pulled up to the Ashby house that was blissfully quiet due to the late hour.
When we got inside, I collapsed on the cot. In the time it took Mom to let Aunt Lauren and Uncle Rick know we were home, I was half asleep. Mom came back to the living room and kissed me on the forehead, smoothing my hair back the way she used to when I was a child.
I forced my eyes open. “Hey, Mom.”
She gave me a warm smile. “Get some sleep, Kel. You need it.”
I closed my eyes and was out before she left the room.
FOOTSTEPS SOUNDED ON THE carpet. I didn’t know how much time had passed. I opened my eyes and saw Cassidy looking in the door as though uncertain whether she should enter. When she saw I was awake, she rushed to the bed.
Tears filled her eyes before she spoke. “I was there, Kel. You saved us from them. I was so scared.”
She buried her face in her hands as she cried. I patted her arm uncertainly, not knowing what else to do. “They’re gone now,” I said. The words sounded pathetic compared to what she was feeling. I wondered if they needed to treat all the students for post-traumatic stress. The annoying voice in the back of my mind said I probably could use it too.
“How do you stay so brave?” she asked without looking at me. The light of the slowly burning fire in the fireplace reflected in her tears.
“I was scared to death,” I told her honestly.
She looked up at me and sniffed. “Really?”
I nodded. “I was afraid they’d shoot someone or hit a student trying to get me.”
“It was close,” she said, wiping her eyes.
“Too close. I think going in might not have been a good idea,” I told her ruefully.
She shook her head. “They said they were going to start shooting students if the Black Rider didn’t step forward. When no one spoke up, they made all the teachers stand in the middle of the gym and said they were going to shoot them one by one while we watched.”
Her words made a knot form in my stomach. I had almost ridden in on a mass teacher slaughter. “It would have been because of me.”
She shook her head and defiance sparked in her eyes. “You didn’t make them come to the school with guns—or try to set up Sparrow as a drug trading center, for that matter.” The seriousness in her gaze gripped my heart like a fist. “You saved us from their selfishness. Don’t ever forget that, because the students at Sparrow High won’t.”
I blinked back tears that burned in my eyes. I refused to cry, but the stark honesty in my cousin’s words meant everything to me.
>
I COULDN’T SLEEP AFTER Cassidy left. Thoughts of Madelyn leaving kept circling through my head. I finally rose and made my way to the four-wheeler. I had to sit on it for a minute to wait for my head to clear. Going from nearly bleeding to death, stitches at the Ashbys’ house, riding through the gymnasium like a madman and fighting off a gang out for blood, then getting the stitches redone definitely didn’t leave me with much to work with as far as mental clarity.
Jake ran up to the four-wheeler as I pulled out of the driveway. If anyone in the house heard, no one tried to stop me.
I drove to the edge of the Wests’ property, then sat on the four-wheeler wondering how I was going to climb up the tree to Madelyn’s room. Just walking to the house looked exhausting, but thoughts of Madelyn gave me no choice.
I set a hand on the tree and was about to put a leg up when a voice spoke from beneath the shadowed branches.
“I think climbing trees might be outside of doctor’s orders,” Madelyn said.
Giving a silent prayer of thanks for not having to climb, I turned and peered through the leaves. The expression on Madelyn’s face made everything stand still.
“What are you doing here?” she asked, her voice breathless and full at the same time.
“I couldn’t sleep without seeing you again,” I answered honestly.
She took my hand as if she needed to reassure herself that I was real. “I hoped you would come,” she admitted, lowering her lashes to peer up at me through them. “I knew it was foolish after everything you’ve been through, but I hoped anyway.”
Her words gripped my heart. “How long would you have waited here?”
“All night,” she answered softly.
Without a word, I led her across the lawn to the four-wheeler. Jake sat down by where Buck was still chained to his dog house. Neither animal made a sound, as if they knew how important this night was to us.
Madelyn climbed on behind me and I drove us along the path carved by our footsteps. The long grass rustled against the four-wheeler, brushing our legs in passing. I drove along the fields to the trees that hide our pond from prying eyes. I shut off the engine and leaned back, enjoying the feeling of Madelyn’s arms gently encircling my waist. A breeze toyed with our hair and sent a few dried leaves spiraling into the night sky. In the distance, a coyote barked.