We open the car doors and run through the rain and over puddles to the front door. I pull it open and take off my raincoat once I’m inside. Underneath it, I’m warm and dry. Even my feet survived this time. I learned my lesson and put on a pair of brown leather boots before we left.
There’s no one sitting on the bar stools or at any of the booth seats and behind the counter is empty. The music has been turned off, and the counter tops are glistening from having just been wiped down.
“I think we’re too late,” I whisper to Eleanor. “Let’s just go so they can close up.” I don’t like the idea of making people hang around to serve us a bowl of ice cream when all they want to do is go home after a long day at work. She looks over at me and grins mischievously.
“Jake?” she calls out as she walks to the front. “Jake are you here?”
A moment later the blonde guy I met here earlier pops his head out from the back room.
“Nor!” he smiles as he walks towards us, taking off his apron as he goes. “It’s a bit wet to be out don’t you think?”
She shrugs and smiles shyly, and I bite the inside of my cheek to stop myself from smiling. Because she likes him. It’s written all over her face.
“Jake, this is Hartley,” she says, cocking her head in my direction.
“Nice to see you again,” he says politely.
Eleanor looks at me, a shadow of confusion crossing her face that quickly turns to wariness. She thinks Jake is my ‘hang out’ guy.
“We sort of met when I came in for ice cream earlier,’ I say quickly. “But we weren’t properly introduced.”
Next to me Eleanor sighs in relief.
“So you two are friends?” he says, and there’s a hint of amusement in his voice that I don’t understand.
“We’re best friends,” Eleanor says. “We’ve known each other since we were six.”
“Huh,” says Jake, and there’s that look in his eyes again. Like he’s trying not to laugh.
“So Jake,” Eleanor says playfully as she leans forward on the counter between them. Oh God, she’s flirting. “When Hart was in here earlier did you happen to see her with anyone?”
I take a step forward so that I’m right next to her and lightly place my foot on top of hers.
Jake is looking at me, and he’s not even trying to hide his smile now. He’s loving this.
“A guy maybe?” Eleanor says, and I start to press my foot down a little harder. “She’s met someone who she says she’s ‘hanging out’ with but she’s very secretive about it.”
“Hmmmmm,” Jake says, pretending to think. “Now that you mention it, I think I have seen her with a guy. In here, and then again at the beach.”
Eleanor turns to me with a triumphant look on her face.
“The thing I want to know is,” she continues, “why keep it a secret?”
I press down hard, and she tries to wiggle her foot out from under my boot. Not a chance, Nor. “I mean, the only reason I can think of is that she really, really likes this guy.”
“Eleanor!” I hiss, “stop it!”
She’s smiling at Jake over the milkshake syrup, and her cheeks are pink. For goodness sake.
“How much do you reckon she likes him?” Jake asks lightly, ignoring me completely.
“Well,” Eleanor says, looking me up and down, “I’d say a lot.”
I narrow my eyes at her and give her a look. I’m not in the mood to be part of their little contest to see who can be the best flirt.
“Ok, that’s enough,” laughs someone from the doorway to the backroom. “You’re embarrassing her. And you’re giving me a huge ego.”
I give Eleanor one last dirty look then glance over at where Crew is leaning on the doorframe with his arms crossed. My face burns.
“I think your ego is safe,” I say, trying to sound like I don’t care that he just heard that whole ridiculous conversation. “I didn’t say any of it. That was just Miss Sticky-Beak trying to think of something witty and cute to say to impress your friend there.”
Eleanor gasps and then quickly plasters a smile on her face to cover her embarrassment. I don’t know what she’s worried about. Jake doesn’t look like he minds the flirting.
“You two want some ice cream?” Crew says, picking up a metal scoop from a bucket and spinning it around in his hand. “I don’t want to toot my own horn, but I am the best ice cream scoop roller in the world.”
“In the whole world huh?” I say seriously. “That’s quite a claim to fame.”
He walks to the front of the counter so that we’re facing each other.
“What flavor?”
I steal a look at Eleanor and see that she looks uncomfortable. Maybe my little jibe at her and Jake went too far.
“Hey,” I say nudging her with my shoulder. “If you want to go, we can. I was just teasing before.”
She looks at me and doesn’t say anything for a second. I think she’s trying to tell me something with her eyes, but I’m not getting it.
“No, it’s ok,” she says quietly. “I’m not brave enough to stand between you and your ice cream.”
“Smart girl,” Crew smiles, but Eleanor doesn’t say anything back. I’m not sure what’s going on here, but I don’t like the awkwardness between them, and I just want to leave so I can ask her what her problem is. I open my mouth to suggest we go but before I can say anything there’s a loud fizzing sound that bounces around the room, and then suddenly everything around us goes black.
Chapter Twelve
Crew
“Hang on,” I say, reaching under the counter for the box that I know contains The Sea Shack’s emergency supplies. Having the lights go out is nothing new around here. When I worked here as a kid, we had five blackouts in one winter. Every time it happened, Jake and I shoveled as much ice cream as we could into our mouths while his dad was looking for the candles. He figured it out pretty quick; I guess the guilty looks on our faces and the fact that our mouths were stuffed full of ice cream was a bit of a giveaway. But being the great guy that he is, he played along all through that winter. And then when spring came he put together a blackout kit and placed it under the counter without a word.
As the clouds shift across the sky, a shaft of silver light streams in the windows and I catch a glimpse of Hartley and Eleanor over the other side of the counter. Eleanor is leaning in, whispering something urgently into Hartley’s ear. Hartley is frowning and shaking her head. And then the sky clouds over again and their faces are lost in the shadows.
“Ta-da!” says Jake as he strikes a match and lights the first candle. Eleanor looks at him through the glow and smiles slowly, flicking her hair behind her shoulder. I light a few more candles, stick them into empty soda bottles and then Hartley and I place them around the shop. The candlelight has changed the atmosphere in here, and I can’t decide whether it’s romantic or spooky. Eleanor definitely votes for romantic.
“So this is kind of weird,” Hartley says as we put the last of the candles over by the windows.
I pull on the door to check the lock, and it won’t budge. Just as I thought, the security system has put the place into lockdown, and we won’t be able to deactivate it now until the power comes back on.
“It happens a lot at this time of year,” I say lightly and turn back around. She’s standing right in front of me, looking up into my face.
“Are we locked in?”
I’m about to make a joke, but then I see that her eyes are wide, and she’s breathing really fast.
“Hey,” I say, reaching out to brush a curl off her forehead with my finger. I know that’s probably against the rules, but I can’t help it. “You’re ok. The power will be on soon.”
“Sorry,” she stammers, wrapping her arms around her body like she’s hugging herself. “It’s really stupid and totally irrational. I have this thing about being locked in.”
Her teeth are chattering a bit, and I’m not sure if it’s from fear or because the heating went out
with the power.
“I think everyone has irrational fears,” I say quietly. “Just because it’s stupid it doesn’t make it any less scary, right?”
She nods and her eyes flick over to the door.
“You still want an ice cream?”
She shakes her head. “I’m too cold for ice cream now. What I really want is to go home.”
I turn and look out through the side windows. From here you can see all of the houses that line the dunes up the coast and into town, including mine. They’re all dark.
“Crew?” she says quietly and I think I can hear tears in her voice. “Can you give me a hug?”
The flames of the candles next to her are flickering softly, lighting up one side of her face. She’s so soft and beautiful, like her skin is glowing. She’s looking up at me, waiting for me to say something, but I can’t think of anything other than that I want to touch her. So I reach over and take her hand, pulling her to me hard so that her cheek hits my chest, then I wrap my arms around her quickly before she has a chance to pull away. Her hands reach up around my waist and come to rest in the middle of my back. We both let out a deep breath.
“That’s better,” she murmurs into my chest. “Mmmmm you’re so warm.” She rubs her cheek against my t-shirt and squirms to get closer. I’m wondering how long this friendship thing between us has to last because it’s only been a couple of days, and I think I’m done.
Over her head, I can see Jake and Eleanor talking by the cash register. He looks at me and gives me a look. I think he’s trying to tell me that he’s happy I’m moving on, but I don’t want to see that from him. I don’t want Jake to have any part in whatever this thing is with Hartley because that means she will be part of it too. I can’t look at Jake without thinking of her, and that night, and everything that happened because of it.
“I think we’re stuck here for a bit, kid,” I whisper into her hair. I feel her sigh into my chest. Her breath seeps through my t-shirt, sending shivers over my skin. “Want to make a fort?”
She pulls away from me and looks up, laughing.
“Did you just say you wanted to make a fort? As in a cubby house?”
“Why not?” I shrug as I unfold my arms from around her back and take her hand. She doesn’t pull it away. “I used to do it when I was a kid when the power went out. Come on, it will take your mind off it. There’s some old blankets in the store room.”
I pull her behind me across the shop, behind the counter and into the storeroom. It’s even darker in here, and I forgot to bring a candle with me.
“Here you go,” Hartley says as the room suddenly goes bright. She’s holding her phone up in the air and even in the dim light I can see that she’s got about a million unheard voicemails on that thing.
“Thanks.”
I quickly grab a couple of blankets, a few chocolate bars and a bottle of water then we head back out into the shop. Jake and Eleanor have moved to the booth seats on the other side of The Sea Shack. They’ve set up some candles so they can do a crossword in an old newspaper they’ve found somewhere. Even from here I can see that Jake’s as into her as she’s into him.
“We should build it here,” Hartley says as she leads me around the corner to the part of The Sea Shack that’s only open in summer for take away ice creams. In the winter they keep extra chairs and tables stacked up here, and it’s completely hidden from view. I try not to get my hopes up that Hartley picked this spot on purpose because we could be doing just about anything around here, and no one would see.
“So how do we do this?”
She’s looking at the piles of chairs, then down at the blankets in my arms.
“Haven’t you ever built a fort before?”
“Nope,” she smiles. “I kind of missed fort building and went straight to you know, building robots.”
I look into her eyes to see if she’s serious. She is.
“Well smarty pants, tonight you are about to have your first lesson in fort construction. And no,” I add when I see the look on her face, “you can’t take notes.”
She pouts a bit, playing along, then meets my eyes.
“So you’d be my teacher? And I’d be your student?”
God, she’s killing me. “That’s right,” I manage.
She smiles mischievously then looks over her shoulder at the dark little corner where we’ll build our fort.
“Well let’s get started then.”
Twenty minutes, two chocolate bars and one small argument later and we are sitting side by side on an inflatable beach mattress in a little house made of blankets and chairs. I play with my phone for a bit then place it down in front of us. Hartley looks at the image of a fireplace flickering on the screen and laughs.
“Nice touch.”
I’m too big for the fort and my knees are up somewhere around my chin, but I don’t care. I made it small on purpose. Hartley is squashed in next to me and I lift my arm so that she can move closer. She hesitates for the briefest of moments and then leans in.
“Do you want to tell me why you don’t like being locked in?” I say, as I pull her closer. “Because I was planning on locking you in the trunk of my car later, and now I’m not so sure that you’ll like it.”
She laughs softly into my chest then goes quiet.
“It’s dumb. When I was six I was at this gifted kids summer camp. It was where I met Eleanor actually. It was really pretentious and ridiculous and more for the parents than the kids. We just wanted to swim in the lake and climb trees but they had all of these ‘educational’ activities for us to do, mostly so they could show the parents how brilliant we all were at the end of the summer. Anyway, I didn’t want to join in one day, so I ran away to the boatsheds by the lake. I was planning on using a kayak as a kind of bed to read in, but I fell asleep. When I woke up, it was dark and the shed was locked. I stayed in there all night, and there were rats, and well, I’ve never liked the idea of not being able to get out of somewhere ever since.”
She tells the story like she’s said it a thousand times, but I can hear the wobble in her voice when she gets to the end.
“There are camps for smart kids?”
“Like you wouldn’t believe.”
We lean back against the wall and I pull a blanket up over our knees.
“What about you?” she says, “what’s your irrational fear?”
I immediately think of all of the cute things I could say to make her laugh – pink marshmallows, kittens, the way my teeth feel when I bite into a pear. But then I realize that I just want to tell her the truth.
“That I’m going to turn into my father.”
She’s silent for a few seconds and then she sighs deeply and takes my hand.
“You know what Crew? Lately, I’ve been afraid of the same thing.”
Chapter Thirteen
Hartley
My hand is lost inside his. The top of it is brown from the sun, and his knuckles are covered in long-faded scars. The skin on his palm feels rough and calloused where it moves against mine. My hands are pale from too many hours in the lab and soft to the touch from spending the last few years inside a pair of latex gloves. He draws little circles near my wrist with his thumb. With my eyes still closed I’m aware of every sound inside our little house made for two. I can hear the air rush in and out of his lungs under my cheek, and I listen to see if I can hear his heart. Despite what Eleanor said, I know who Crew is. I can feel the goodness in him. Like me, he makes sure any vulnerability in him is carefully stowed away. But he can’t hide it from me. It shines out of him, like light spilling through a crack in a door.
“Do you want to tell me why you’re not answering any of those voice messages on your phone? They came up when you used the light in the storeroom. It looks to me like someone is pretty desperate to get hold of you.”
I love the way he leans down and lowers his voice when he speaks to me, like he’s telling me a secret. I open my eyes and pull my phone out of my pocket. There are 16 voi
ce messages and 24 texts.
“You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to,” he says, pulling the blanket up so that it’s under my chin. I think about that for a second. Do I want to talk about it? Part of me wants to open my mouth and share everything with him. But I’m worried that if I start, I won’t be able to stop. I still haven’t worked out how I feel about what’s going on at Preston Industries. If I tell the authorities about the water samples, I could save an important ecosystem and ensure that it survives for future generations. But I’ll lose my family. And as much as I hate to admit that my father is right, Jefferson wouldn’t survive without Preston Industries. It would eventually become an abandoned town with empty houses, deserted streets and schools with rows of desks and chairs but no children. Have I already made my decision by running away? If I know what’s going on, and do nothing, doesn’t that make me just as guilty as David and my dad? I take a deep breath and let it out slowly through my mouth.
“I can tell you some of it if you promise to take it for what it is and accept that there are some parts I’m not ready to share yet.” I feel him nod above me.
“How about this,” he murmurs. “Since I think we violated the five question rule a long time ago how about we trade information. You tell me something, and I’ll give you something back.”
“That sounds fair,” I smile. But I’m wondering if he’s going to give me useless information like his favorite color or what he eats for breakfast in exchange for my deepest, darkest secrets. “Maybe you should start then,” I say, just to be sure.
“Ok,” he says, and moves back on the mattress. He lifts his arm from around my shoulders, forcing me to sit up straight next to him and wraps his arms around his knees. He’s far too tall to sit in the cubby house. The blanket we’ve used as a roof is draped over his head like he’s playing a shepherd in a school nativity play. When we built it, I tried to add another layer of chairs to give him more room but he didn’t want to hear it. He was actually very bossy.
“I told you about my mom already,” he says quietly. He’s shifting restlessly next to me, so I place my hand gently on his arm. He goes still and swallows loudly. “What I didn’t say was that she lives in a hospital in Seattle. She’s had problems with mental illness her whole life, but a few years ago she had a breakdown, and she’s been living there ever since.”
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