Shadow Keeper

by M. K. Yarbrough

  “Hey, this is me you’re talking to. It won’t go any further.”

  His grip eased on the stirring wheel. “Okay, so I like her, but that’s as far as it goes. She’s still with Paul.”

  “Yeah, but he cheated on her with Regina, then lied about it. As soon as she finds out for sure, she’ll probably kick his butt to the curb.”

  His face scrunched. “Do you think she’ll be mad at me if she hears that I went out with Regina too?”

  “I don’t know, but at least you weren’t dating her when it happened.”

  “Right, I just hope Sherry sees it that way.”

  Her house sat on the outskirts of town, but was only a few minutes from school. In a small town like Esparto, nothing was further away than a dozen blocks.

  Carson parked the pickup in front of the house and turned off the engine. “I’m going in with you for a minute just to say hi.”

  “That’s fine by me.” I stepped onto the sidewalk. His minute was probably going to turn into an hour, but I didn’t care. At least I’d have a ride home. Up until now, I worried I’d have to hitchhike, or call my mom.

  He caught up with me on the front walk, but grabbed his hat and tossed it in the direction of the pickup. His cap landed in the pickup bed. He combed his fingers through his flaming red hair. “How do I look?”

  I shot him a sideways glance. He had on jeans and a tee, the same as me. “Are you serious? Like I give a crap about how you look.”

  “You ought to at least care about yourself. Your shirt looks like you slept in it.”

  “This shirt’s clean.” I smoothed my hand down the fold–crease in the center of the gray tee shirt. “I just had it stuffed in my backpack.”

  “You could’ve at least shaved.”

  I scratched at the sparse patches of hair scattered on my neck. “I did—this morning.”

  “Well, don’t worry, man. I doubt the new girl is going to let you close enough to rub your rough stubble over her lily white skin.”

  “Probably,” I said, although I disagreed with his assumption. Memories of the other night with Lisa flitted through my mind. She’d pressed her hand against my chest and leaned toward me. In my bedroom and in the car, I’d almost kissed her.

  Sherry’s mother met us at the front door and ushered us through the house to the backyard. Sherry and Lisa sat at a round picnic table doing homework, but put it away when we walked out the sliding glass door to the patio.

  I pulled a plastic lawn chair up to the table so I sat close to Lisa. Carson plopped into one next to me and stuck his feet in the empty seat of another, but he wasn’t his usual goofy self. Quiet and laidback was more like it. Right away, he started in on Sherry’s favorite subject—horses.

  * * *

  “We’ve got two mares going to foal in late January,” Carson said. “If you want, I’ll give you a call when they’re ready. That might help you make up your mind if you want to be a vet.”

  “I’d like that, Carson. Thanks.”

  “How about you, Lisa?” I asked. She’d been listening quietly to the conversation and I wanted to include her. “Do you like riding horses?”

  She fidgeted with the hem of her peach colored tee and smoothed it over the top of her jeans. “I’ve never barrel raced like Sherry has, but I have done a lot of trail riding in primitive areas where four wheel vehicles couldn’t go.”

  “That sounds like fun.” She had an adventurous side. I liked that. “Where have you gone?”

  “All over. The Southwest mostly.” She leaned back in the chair and a glimmer developed in her eyes. “When I was younger, I would go with my parents to Mexico and Central America. They’re both anthropologists. My mom specializes in ancient religions and spirituality of the indigenous people of the Americas. My dad used to teach classes at Cal Poly on Pre–Columbian Mesoamerican.”

  “That is so cool. Last Spring I took a Pre–Columbian class at UCD for extra credit. At the end of the semester, the students went on a field trip to Chichen Itza in the Yucatan peninsula.”

  The sparkle in her eyes intensified. “Oh, I loved Chichen Itza. What did you think of it?”

  “I couldn’t go.” I glanced away so she wouldn’t see the anguish. My mom didn’t have the money for me to take an expensive trip like that, but I told Lisa a different story. “I got a job working for Carson’s dad during the summer and that cut into my travel time.”

  “Oh, well.” She shrugged as if it was unimportant. “Summer isn’t the best time to see it anyway. It’s too hot.”

  I leaned back in the lawn chair. She probably guessed the real reason I couldn’t go, but was being nice about it.

  Her tongue swiped across her lips. “The best time to go is during the spring or autumn equinox. That’s when you can see the shadow of the serpent slither down the giant staircase.”

  “That’s when I plan to go.” If I ever have the money. I tried to steer the conversation away from me. “Does your father still teach?”

  “No.” She put her head down and stared at the cement patio. “My dad became very ill a few months ago. He’s in the hospital right now.”

  “I’m sorry.” I didn’t know what else to say. “Is he going to be all right?”

  She shook her head. “The doctors don’t know what’s wrong. Until they figure it out, they can’t make him better.”

  “A couple years ago,” Carson said, “my dad got really sick. When the doctors told him it was cancer, it was rough for a while, but they knew how to treat it and he got better. It’s got to be harder not knowing what’s wrong.”

  “It is hard,” she said. “The doctors won’t let him out of the hospital. That’s why my mom and I moved here, so we could be closer to my dad. My mom got a position at UCD and we’ve been staying there with some friends.”

  I mentally calculated the miles from my house to Davis. “That’s a long way to drive if I want to come and see you—about homework, I mean.”

  A smile tugged at her lips. “We’ll be moving to Esparto soon. The house we rented will be ready on Friday, which is the first of October. That’s when our furniture should arrive. Mom’s car is supposed to be delivered also. Then I’ll be able to get around without waiting for her to drive me.”

  Carson’s eyes lit up. “You’ll be driving the Hummer?”

  “No, I’ll get my mom’s Lexus.”

  “You just ruined Carson’s day,” I said when he let out a heavy groan. “He was hoping to take a ride in the Hummer.”

  “Sorry, but it doesn’t matter which car I drive. I only got my license in May when I turned sixteen and can’t have anyone underage in the car unless my mom is with me.”

  “That could work,” Carson said. “Maybe your mom could take all of us in to Woodland for pizza or something.”

  She smiled at the suggestion, but glanced at me. “That would be fun. I’ll see what I can arrange.”

  “Talking about pizza makes me hungry.” Sherry scooted out of the chair. “I’m going to see how my mom is coming with dinner. We’re having spaghetti if you guys want to stick around and eat.”

  I figured Carson would want to stay, but he did a brief shake of his head. I went with his lead. “Thanks, Sherry, but we have to head out soon.”

  “Yeah,” Carson agreed. “We can’t stay much longer.”

  “Then I’ll bring out some sodas.”

  “I’ll help you.” Carson jumped up and followed her.

  When we were alone, Lisa turned to me. “My mom thinks she knows what’s wrong with my dad, but the doctors won’t let her do anything to make him better. They think that what she wants to do is too unorthodox. You know how doctors are. If they can’t see it with a microscope, they don’t believe it exists.”

  “What sort of treatment does your mom want to do?”

  “Exorcism.”

  My body twitched. Was she serious?

  “You think that’s weird, don’t you?”

  “Not really,” I lied. Exorcism was at the top of
the weird list, but I tried to say something positive. “Don’t the Catholics do that all the time?”

  “Maybe, but my mom isn’t Catholic.”

  “Then what’s she going to do?”

  “We found my dad’s notes about the research he was doing. My mom and I read through them, and she figured out what happened. Only an exorcism will heal him, but finding someone to perform the proper ritual will be difficult. If it’s not done right, his condition could get worse. He could even die.”

  “Wow. Sounds pretty scary. No wonder the doctors won’t let her do it.”

  She stood up and took a step toward me. “While Sherry and Carson are in the house, I was wondering if you would…” She caught her lower lip between her teeth.

  I hopped out of the chair. We stood so close, I only had to flick my hand and our fingers touched. The warmth of her skin zinged up my arm. Her scent surrounded me. The citrusy fragrance of her shampoo and the floral smell of body lotion mingled together and overloaded my senses. I gazed at her flawless face. “If I would do what?”

  The intensity in her blue eyes came up a notch. “Would you do something for me without asking why?”

  Anything. Whatever she wanted, I’d do it. My mouth went dry, and all I could do was nod.

  “Would you take off your shirt and let me see your chest?”

  She was into naked chests? I swallowed hard. If she liked looking at strong, muscular bodies, she came to the right man. Between football practice, lifting weights, and bucking heavy bales of hay all summer, I was buffed. I grabbed at the collar band and skinned the shirt over my head.

  She put her fingers to her lips and nibbled at her nails while staring at my bare chest.

  “Anything else?” I cocked one eyebrow and waited. I wasn’t in the habit of stripping down in front of girls. If Lisa asked me to take off my jeans, I wasn’t sure I’d do it—not with Carson and Sherry due outside at any minute.

  She shook her head and glanced away. “You can put your shirt back on.”

  “Can I ask you now why you wanted to look at my chest?”

  Her forehead crinkled. “Whoever performs the ceremony on my dad has to be a mystic, or a medicine man with special powers and protections.” She glanced into my eyes. Her unflinching gaze made me think she tried to peer into my soul. “You don’t happen to know any medicine men, do you?”

  I would’ve laughed out loud at the absurdity of the idea, but something about the intense look on her face told me she was serious. “Sorry, but like I told you the other night, we’re Baptists.”

  “Perhaps you are, but what about your father?”

  Now I did laugh. “You think my father was a medicine man? Did you know he’s been dead for several years?”

  “Yes, Sherry told me.”

  I tipped my head to one side to study her better. “You’re serious, aren’t you? You think my father was involved in some kind of weird religion?”

  “Not weird, just different from the modern Western belief.” She pointed to my chest. “That would explain the scar you have there. Your father branded it on you to protect you from the evil elements.”

  All the pieces of the puzzle fell in to place and I finally made sense of it. She wasn’t interested in me. She only wanted a better look at the burn on my skin. “Is that what this is all about? You’ve been getting friendly with me, rubbing your hands all over me, and trying to get my shirt off just so you could look at this scar on my chest?”

  “I…I wasn’t certain I’d seen it correctly,” she stammered out a lame excuse.

  I tugged on my shirt. “It’s just a burn. A weird looking scar and that’s all. There was a fire. I don’t remember when or how, but I’ve got burn marks on my body in a couple other places. Maybe you noticed them when I had my shirt off.” I jerked up the sleeve on my left arm. “Do you see that? That scar extends almost to the middle of my shoulder blade. Do you think my father deliberately burned me, scarred me like this because of some crazy voodoo crap?”

  Her lower lip quivered, and her eyes filled with tears, but I didn’t care. She didn’t know my father. He would never hurt me for any reason. I turned away from her when a tear trickled down her cheek. Out of the corner of my eye, I glimpsed Carson and Sherry standing by the patio door. Their hands were full of plastic cups and soda cans. Both of them stared at me, their mouths opened wide.

  I walked past them to the house. “Carson,” I said over my shoulder. “The party’s over. It’s time to hit the road.”

  Chapter Eleven

  Stevie was sound asleep so I used the light from the hallway to make the bed. After tucking the edges of the clean sheet under the mattress, I glanced around the bedroom to make sure I hadn’t missed anything. The room was good. Nothing remained that might carry Lisa’s scent. I’d even showered and washed my hair, because tonight I intended to get a good night’s sleep.

  I flipped off the hall light and stumbled through the darkness to my bed. As soon I closed my eyes, I realized the one place I’d forgotten. Lisa appeared on the inside of my eyelids.

  I opened my eyes and stared at the bottom of the upper bunk, but it didn’t help. She lingered at the peripheral of my vision, waiting for me to close my eyes again.

  What was this attraction I had for her? Why did she haunt me? I barely knew her. Was today only the third day since I’d met her? What quality did she possess that made her stick in my mind?

  Her blue eyes? They were just ordinary blue. Half the time I couldn’t even see them. She always looked down, or looked away. But there were a few times she’d stared directly at me. Her gaze had locked onto mine, and she’d gaze into my eyes as if looking beyond the hazel color and searching deep into my mind—my soul.

  Perhaps her hair held the key. Her long blonde hair had flowed silky and soft on my skin. I liked that. When she leaned over me, her golden strands had brushed across my naked chest and teased my senses. Wait. That was in my dreams.

  I closed my eyes and envisioned her. Mentally, I cut her hair short, but it didn’t matter. I still wanted to thrust my fingers through her short, blonde tresses and pull her to me.

  Her body might be the answer. She stood fairly tall for a girl—an inch or two over the five and a half foot mark. A good match for my six foot, one frame. She was slender, but not in an anorexic way. Her arms and legs were lean and toned. Her rear end round and firm. Her belly flat. Her breasts were…I didn’t know. Girls liked to disguise that part of the body. She wore her shirts loose and didn’t expose any cleavage, but my imagination filled in the missing details. “Oh, yeah,” I whispered. “Nothing wrong there.”

  All that remained was her personality. Her character. She’d come to my house to see me, but only wanted help with homework—or so I’d thought. Curiosity about the scar on my chest had been the driving force that brought the shy new girl to my door. And to my bedroom.

  Everything added up in my mind. The way her fingers circled over my heart, her persistence to get me naked, or at least strip the shirt from my body, all made sense now. Even in her car when we’d parked outside the minimart, that had only been to see the scar on my chest in a brilliant light. Meeting her at Sherry’s house wasn’t to get to know me better, but to probe me for information about my burn and about a medicine man. She’d use me, played me, manipulated me. The thought that she really wasn’t interested in me deflated my ego.

  Flickering images, like an old movie, played in my mind. Visions of my last moments with Lisa, her lips trembling and her eyes filled with tears appeared and vanished. The scenes played in reverse, moving backward through the day from Spanish class, to lunchtime, to the night before, all the way back to that first day in class when she’d looked at me with disgust just because I’d sniffed her hair.

  My heavy eyelids closed. Lisa didn’t materialize. I took a deep breath and released it. My pulse slowed. My muscles relaxed. I’d purged her from my body and mind. The black void of sleep crept over me. I drifted deeper into slumber while the last fli
ckers of the old movie played out, showing the first moments of meeting Lisa when she’d stepped out of the car and walked to the entrance of the school where I stood. At that instant, she’d been interested in me and nothing else. She’d glanced at my face, and then did a double take. Her gaze had lingered on my brown and green eyes, and she’d complimented the hazel color. Then she’d smiled.

  My blood heated, my pulse quickened, and my ego swelled. I opened my eyes and squeezed them shut again, but it didn’t help. The vision of Lisa hovered over me. Her long blonde hair brushed across my chest. Her moist lips lingered close to mine. Her warm body pressed against me.

  “Dang it, Lisa,” I mumbled out loud. “You’re back.”