Jonesy returned from the bathroom as we were leaving. “They're already playing baseball out in the field,”
“What are we waiting for?” I asked, all of us tearing out of there like our asses were on fire.
****
My belly was full of hot dogs, chips, and all the chocolate milks that were handed out after the games. Jonesy had got a home run and John had got to first base, tripping on the way there. I was busy staring at Jade and got nailed by a bad pitch right on my shin. My leg was throbbing in a distracting way.
“Look what I got,” Jonesy said, making a loose fan of blow pops in one hand. He looked like one of those magicians who pulled coins from behind peoples ears. I grabbed a grape. Mom would have a turtle if she caught me with sugar. Sugar was evil.
I thought it tasted pretty good.
Jade grabbed sour apple. Disgusting, but she did like licorice ice cream.
John shook his head. “Two for me then!”
I glanced at Jade just as the sun slid behind a cloud reducing the luster of her hair to shimmering black oil. She caught me looking at her and smiled.
Jonesy snapped his fingers in front of my face. “Snap out of it, Hart!”
I swatted his hand away like a buzzing fly, smoothly changing subjects, “What's the haunted plan tonight?
“I think,” Jonesy smirked, “you can just show up and scare all the ghosts with that haircut your dad gave you.”
Jade gave me a sympathetic look.
“How do you know my dad gave me a haircut?” I asked.
Jonesy looked at me. “Are you really asking that question? Your dad always gives you The Haircut,” he did airquotes.
“Is it that obvious?”
Everyone nodded.
Well hell.
I ran a hand over my super-short hair.
“I doubt my hair is going to be enough to scare anyone or anything.”
“I don't know about that, Caleb,” Jonesy said.
“Knock it off,” I said.
“Caleb's right, what's the plan? I noticed it's Friday the 13th and nothing's happened,” John said, hands spread.
“The day's young,” Jonesy said. “There's plenty of crap that can still happen.”
“And you want to see... right?”
He pointed his blow pop in Jade's direction. “She's quick to catch on.”
“Yeah, Jade's been part of enough of your plans (read: schemes); she's figured out the potential,” John said.
“Well, it's not any good to creep around and do scary stuff in broad daylight,” Jonesy said, brandishing his sucker with a flourish. “So, I'm thinkin' we should meet around eight, at the cemetery, then weasel over to the shack about,” his eyes rolled up in his head, the blow pop stuffed in his mouth, “say dusk, like ten.”
John looked up at the sky, partly cloudy. “Maybe bringing my LEDs would be good.”
Jonesy huffed. “Ah... nooooo... how is it gonna be creepy if you're wrecking it with LEDs? Think, my man!”
“He's got a point, kinda defeatist,” I agreed.
“It seems safer though,” Jade smoothly sided with John.
“What could go wrong?” Jonesy commented, popping a very small remaining sucker back in his mouth.
Jade gave him an astonished look. “Ah... everything,” in the no-duh voice, crunching her sucker to reach the gum.
John said, “The gum loses flavor fast.”
“Yeah,” Jade and Jonesy said at the same time.
Jonesy and Jade grinned. The gum fell out of his mouth. Plop on the ground it went.
“Ah, damn,” Jonesy said.
“Like I said, it loses flavor, no loss,” John restated.
“I don't care, it pisses me off, I wanted to leech the flavor forever,” he scowled.
“You'll live,” I said.
They gave their sticks to me to put in the garbage separator with a plan for eight at the old cemetery. Jade and I leaned in and barely brushed lips, mindful of the Js.
Jonesy yelled, “Get a room!”
John gave the regular salute, Jonesy cackling.
After they walked off I said, “Why don't you pulse Andrea and see if you can stay for dinner?”
“Okay,” she did the flash fingers and was pulsed and done in less than a minute.
“It's okay. But, did ya ask your parents?”
“Nah, my mom won't care. She'll think it's a vacation from the Js.”
“They eat a lot?”
“Ah... yeah.” Understatement!
Walking into the house, Jade leaned in, a fragrant chunk of hair brushing my cheek as we whispered together. “What's that funny smell?”
“Yeast.”
“What's that?”
“It's some ingredient my mom puts in stuff that makes it get bigger, like bread and whatnot.”
“Oh.”
Mom walked through the pass-through that leads to the kitchen. “Oh... hi Jade.”
“Hey Alicia.”
“Is Jade staying for supper?”
“It's okay, right?”
“You bet. It'll be ready in,” she turned to the pulse-clock, synchronized to Greenwich Mean Time, “fiveish, okay?”
“Yeah, we're gonna go up to my room.”
“Doors open, Caleb.”
Jade blushed, awkward-much. “Yeah Mom.”
“Oh!” she paused, turning. “How was your last day of school?”
I thought about the rotting banana episode. Pass.
“It was good. Jonesy got a home run.”
“Not surprising, he's pretty athletic, our Jonesy.”
“Yeah he is,” I said.
We all stood there. “Dad will be home shortly.”
“Really?” That was different, Dad didn't usually get home until supper time.
“He knew it was your last day of school and thought it would be fun to play some ball or whatever.”
That was great but I looked at Jade.
“Ah, I've got some stuff to do and then I can come back for dinner.”
“I didn't mean to chase you off, Jade,” Mom said.
“No,” she laughed. “I'm sure my aunt has something for me to do since I'm going out with friends tonight.”
“Oh?” Mom arched a brow, all-sharpness. Careful, she was really good at getting to the bottom of secret intent.
“Ah-huh, a group of us kids are going to explore and walk around,” I said.
“Who?” Mom demanded, hands on hips, eyes intense.
“The Js,” I nodded like, of course, “and Tiff.”
“That tough girl from Scenic Cemetery?”
“Yeah, she's good to have around, Mom.”
“Really? Why?”
“Because she is AFTD too. It just makes things better if some weird stuff comes up.”
“Is there a plan for weird stuff?” Uh-oh, this was getting close to lying.
“No. But we didn't think anything bad was gonna happen at Scenic and look what happened there.”
Mom looked thoughtful, absently correcting, “Going to.”
“Right.”
“Okay, who else?
“Sophie and...”
“Bry Weller,” Jade supplied.
“Who's he?”
“He's the older boy that was there.”
“Oh... that was an unfortunate incident for him,” Mom said, grimacing.
Unfortunate incident didn't cover it.
“Is there some issue with everyone in that Weller family shortening their names?” Mom asked suddenly.
Jade said, “Tiff thinks her name sounds,” she paused, “too girlie.”
“What about the boy?”
“I don't know about him,” Jade admitted.
“Look at Jonesy. Why doesn't anyone call him Mark?”
We thought on that.
Finally, Mom said, “he doesn't seem like a Mark.”
Yeah, Mark was so wrong for him.
“Yet, he is clearly Mark,” I said.
Mom seemed to sh
ake cobwebs away. “Okay, be back by around five and we'll have pizza and salad.”
Disgusting. I'd drown it in ranch dressing.
Jade smiled. “I love salad.”
“I know,” Mom smiled.
Rabbit food.
Jade and I did a hug by the front door and she sauntered off. I looked after her, torn between walking her home but not wanting to be freaky overprotective.
Mom watched me. “You can't protect her all the time.”
“I hate where she lives.”
“No, you hate who she lives by.”
“That too.” I turned away and went to the bathroom to take a shower. I had a layer of baseball grime on me. I looked at the pulse-clock, almost two. Good, a few minutes of peace, then a Jonesy-plan for tonight, with pizza in the middle, a sandwich of anticipation.
Perfect.
CHAPTER 30
Jade and I arrived around eight at the cemetery, Onyx in tow. He seemed to know something exciting was going to happen and wanted to come. The whole group was already there. Bikes were piled up like sardines in a can. Tiff and Bry lived by Panther Lake, so they were there first.
I looked around, it wasn't dark yet but the shine was off the day. The sky had deepened to a polished azure, that color that only summer can claim.
Jade and I were holding hands and Onyx's tail would occasionally whack my leg.
Tiff and Bry had hoodies on (the Weller uniform). My stomach clenched as I caught sight of him. Our last encounter ended badly, he stood a half a head taller than his sister. He was John's height but had fifty pounds on John, definitely a jock. I swallowed nervously, Onyx lowered his head and I thought at him, it's okay Onyx.
The Boy has put the good sounds in the Dog's head but there was a nervousness that is not typical of the Boy. The Dog became watchful of this group, a foreign pack.
The Dog approached the big male that was still young, still smelled like boy and sniffed his hand, moving his nose to the female beside him. They were pack, but the others... not. This pack was not his pack. He backed away cautiously, knowing that he must maintain his rude eye contact when his Boy was nervous with this pack of two. The Dog understood when the big male, that was still a boy, looked away that the Dog was dominant.
This was good, he wagged his tail.
“It's okay Onyx.”
“Doesn't seem like your dog likes me much, Hart,” Bry said.
“Nah... just sizing ya up,” I said because I knew.
Tiff said, “Hey Caleb.”
“Hey.”
Jonesy broke the ice on the awkward turtleness. “Let's get going,”
I looked at my watch, almost nine already. Looking at the sky, Venus shone faintly in sight, the sky a brilliant sapphire.
Bry came over and I tensed, Onyx omitting a soft growl. “We're cool,” he said, giving me the guy clap on the back. Not the kind guys did to let you know they could kick your ass. The one they did when they wanted to hug you but that was totally not okay, no-homo, right?
The group relaxed, Bry setting the tone for the night. Cool, I instinctively liked him for setting it to rights.
The Dog understood the male and his Boy would not fight. That was good; thunk, wag, thunk.
We hiked up a steep knoll, Jonesy leading the pack and John, with his LED strapped to his side, following closely.
Sophie had arrived late, giving a coy glance to Jonesy, which oblivious-him, hadn't noticed. She was taller than Jonesy, what a weird pair they'd make.
“Ya know, you didn't need to bring a murse with all your safe crap,” Jonesy said, eying up John's satchel-thing.
“What's that?” Bry asked.
I was an authority “A purse for dudes.”
“It doesn't look like a purse,” Bry said, eying it.
Jonesy turned. “Listen, if it has a strap and hangs off your body, it's a purse.”
Bry said, all humor, “Jock-straps hang off your body.”
We laughed and John said, “But those are mandatory.”
He had a point.
Sophie let a lone giggle slip.
“Anyway,” Jonesy said, drawing out each syllable, “John has the,” he paused, “contingency crap in case something happens.”
“What's gonna happen? We're here to see some ghosts, right?” Bry asked.
“Well... ya see, it's Friday the 13th... and...” Jonesy began. I waved him quiet.
“You remember Scenic, right Bry?” I quizzed.
“Unforgettable, my brother,” he said.
“Right, stuff like that.”
Sophie said, “It's okay, there aren't any more Caleb relatives here.”
“Like that's going to matter?” John said.
“I don't know, Gran seemed pretty...”
“Enthusiastic,” Jonesy finished.
“Yeah,” Tiff agreed.
“Huh,” Bry said.
We all looked up at the cemetery. I put my feelers out, there were some old dead here. They called to me like a satellite come to orbit, my teeth humming in response.
John looked down from his twenty feet away. “Hey Caleb,” he said, just short of yelling, “how's your signal?”
“Fine, why?” The buzzing of the dead a dull roar in my skull.
Then... suddenly, a well-like silence filled the void where the dead had occupied. I looked up sharply at John.
“You doin' the whammy on me?”
“I am,” John said.
Jonesy nodded. “...nice John.”
I turned to Tiff. “Do ya feel that?”
“Not anymore,” she said.
I turned to Jade, our hands locked together. “... and you?”
“Wonderful silence, nothing.”
“Let go of my hand; touch Tiff.” Jade moved away and touched Tiff. She shook her head. No Empath stuff there.
John watched us. “She a blank too?”
Jade nodded.
Well... damn.
Bry was around the base of the knoll, about twenty-five feet. Reconnaissance I guess.
“Hey Bry!” I shouted.
“Shhh! Don't be an idiot, remember, radar.”
Bry said, “Yeah?”
“Jade's gonna come over there and see if she can get a read on you, see how far John's whammy extends.”
“Ah... okay.”
I turned my face back up to John, who by this time had his skinny ass leaning against a crooked tombstone, glowing like a soft beacon of whiteness in the dark that was closing in. “You still narrowed in on me?”
“Yeah.”
“Okay Jade.”
Jade walked over to Bry while I crushed a spark of jealousy.
She put a hand on his forearm and said, “I get something but...” she looked at John, “it's an echo of normal.”
Okay, so we were working with maybe fifty feet.
“Are you fully juicing us John?”
“No, almost though.”
“Give us all ya got,” I commanded.
John made a strained face, I could see him struggle in the low light. He settled on a point between where Jade and Bry stood, about halfway around the base of the knoll, a loose arc.
Jade touched Bry again. “Nothing this time.”
“Kill it John.”
“Yeah, don't keep all amped-up or we won't have any cool shit happen,” Jonesy huffed.
John visibly relaxed and the white noise of the dead rushed back in like waves to the shore. This close to the graveyard, it was a constant thing.
“I hear them a lot,” Tiff said.
“Yeah, kinda hard to miss that whole group at the top of the hill,” I said.
Tiff rolled her eyes at that.
Jade joined us with Bry.
Jonesy was impatient up there next to John.
“Let's do it,” I said.
I half-pulled Jade up behind me as we laughed and talked about the baseball game.
“Jonesy got that last home run, right?” Sophie remarked.
“Yeah he did.�
�
“Brett did too,” Jade said.
“He'd be a really good athlete if he wasn't such an ass,” John stated.
“It's too bad,” Jade said.
“Come on, don't feel sorry for him. Look at what just happened at the hideout? I'll tell ya something. If either one of those jerks comes near you,” I said, putting a finger under her chin, “they'll get a reckoning.”
I wasn't doing forty pushes before bed for nothing.
Jonesy heard and said, “Yeah, I'm itching to get old pyro and Brett. That would be great!”
Nice to count on the Js.
We took a rest at the top, surveying the surroundings. The small hill overlooking Highway 167 had cars whizzing by, their progress creating constant noise. At least there wasn't the horrible auto smells anymore my parents described from when they were young. Pretty much, we were surrounded by a bunch of buildings with just a small oasis of trees adjacent to the graveyard. Which looked, well, untended.
Bry said, “My grandparents used to come here to make-out.”
“Are you kidding? They told you that?” Sophie gasped.
“Yeah, they've been married forever and thought they could just, ya know, talk about everything.”
“Wow, awkwardness,” Jade said.
“Not a lot of privacy,” I remarked, looking around.
“It was different back then. There was just the highway down there,” he jerked his head in the direction of the cars moving on the ribbon of concrete. “And nothing was here but those houses up by Panther Lake. Small neighborhoods, nothing more, from the 1960s and a few farmhouses.”
We tried to envision the Kent of sixty or seventy years ago; it didn't seem real. We moved forward into the center of the cemetery, looking at the tombstones, seeing that many of the etchings had worn away, only a few letters left.
Jade bent over to survey one, hair sweeping forward, her pert nose the only thing visible from the side. “Why is this one speckled?” she asked, running her hand over the polished surface, pressing a finger into a corner divot, worn smooth from many seasons.
I looked closer, some of the speckles seemed to sparkle in the pale light. I looked around me, there were similar tombstones with that speckled look. Small flecks caught the light, winking.
Night had descended, a velvet glove encasing our group while the moonlight speared through the trees, caressing a stone marker here and there, illuminating the areas between.
Death Whispers (Death Series, Book 1) Page 31