CROSS (A Gentry Boys Novella) (9 page)

In the thickest heat of a summer afternoon in these parts it’s possible to fry an egg on the ground.  It’s also possible for the rubber soles of thin shoes to melt.  I didn’t hang around in one spot long enough to test out if this was that kind of day.  I hurried past the streets and landmarks at full speed. 

Maybe I could still salvage something out of the day before I had to be at work at Carson’s Garage.  I was sure I could at least get Stone interested in digging up some spare change and getting lunch somewhere.  If I went to Erin with my arms out I knew we could get past our earlier argument.  And one of these days the two of them would learn to stop rolling their eyes every time the name of the other came up and put aside their differences.  They’d do it for my sake.   Now that it was on my mind, the idea of spending a few peaceful hours in the company of the two people I loved best made me feel more cheerful. 

It even made me sort of forget about the Mystery of Kasey Kean and the Groping Hand. 

When I banged on my front door Stone didn’t come out to answer.  I’d forgotten to bring a key earlier but the spare had been returned to its rightful place beneath the flat rock in the front yard.   The house smelled of cigarettes so Stone must have been lighting up a few earlier as an act of defiance. 

As for Stone himself, there was no sign of him.   I reached for my phone to text him but then remembered something.  As I was being fingerprinted at the Emblem police station last night I had realized my phone was not in my pocket.  Instead, it had almost certainly had gone to a watery grave with the Gnome’s Cadillac. So far I’d managed to avoid mentioning that to my mother.  Anyway, all it meant was that I was phone free for the foreseeable future. 

Since I didn’t have any idea when Stone would return I didn’t see any point in hanging around an empty house.  I was smiling on my way out the door.  Erin would be glad to see me.  I was sure of that, even though we’d ended on tense terms this morning. 

As I jogged through her front yard I paused over a sound.  It was laughter, high and sweet.  It was Erin’s laugh, although I knew from years of practice that it took a lot to get her to laugh like that, with such joyful abandon.  It never stopped me from trying though. 

I felt a stab of irrational jealousy that someone, somehow, had made her laugh like that today when earlier she’d seemed like the last thing she was about to do was laugh.  Probably one of her sisters had done something funny.  I was ready to laugh along with whatever the joke was by the time I reached the side door that opened right into the Rielos’ kitchen.  I opened it without knocking because it was exactly what I’d done countless other times. 

The sun’s brilliance contrasted with the dull green color of Erin’s kitchen and my eyes couldn’t adjust right away.  I blinked.  Several times.  I saw them. 

My girlfriend and my brother - two people who mostly didn’t even bother to fake politeness to each other - were sitting at the kitchen table, laughing at some private joke like they were brand new BFF’s. 

They stopped laughing when I walked in.  Just like that.  As if someone had flipped a switch. 

“Hey,” I said, casually leaning against the counter like it was totally natural to find the two of them gossiping over glasses of lemonade.  I felt their eyes on me. 

There are certain snaps of time that seem much longer than they are.  One of them happened yesterday, during a slow eternity when I lost control of a stolen car. 

This was another one. 

It was probably only a split second that passed as the three of us looked at each other, as I noticed how Erin’s smile fell from her face as soon as she saw me, how for the first time ever it seemed like they were a team and I was the outsider.  I didn’t like any of it.  I didn’t like it at all. 

“Hey,” my brother finally answered.  He tipped his half empty glass of lemonade in my direction.  He kept his eyes on me as he gulped it down. 

ERIN

Two things I really didn’t like were walking and heat. 

Yet because my head was all cluttered from the fight with Conway (and because I was a little afraid of what I would do if I just sat in my bedroom alone) I decided to go for a walk in this wretched, skin-searing heat. 

I had a break from summer babysitting for the next few weeks because my dad had signed Penny and Katie up for some day camp thing that was going on at the library.  The camp had been organized by my English teacher, Mrs. Consuelo, and she’d tried to get me to sign on as a counselor.   Even though I could have used the money I turned her down because I wanted some relief from looking after other people more than I wanted extra cash.  But now that the empty hours stretched ahead I wished I had a way to fill them.  Roe was busy packing for the Caribbean cruise her father and stepmother were dragging her to.   She’d sent me a picture of the tiny crystal prism I’d given her, which had already been hung carefully in her bedroom window. It made me smile.

Beyond the cinder block fences of my street was a narrow alley and beyond that was a wide wash filled with rocks and sand and the debris of the desert.  During the summer storms the wash often overflowed and all the local backyards would be miniature lakes for a day or two. I was glad I’d thought to wear sturdy tennis shoes because the ground was rough and the threat of scorpions always loomed. 

Just as I made my way beyond the alley, a startled quail family ran for cover on the other side of the wash.  I watched them, a panicked line of birds that quickly disappeared into a greasewood bush.  Then there was silence.  I knew that despite the barren look of the desert there was life everywhere; lizards and birds and tiny pinch-faced rodents who made their homes underground.   I’d learned their names and their habits from my mother. 

I walked west along the dry bank of the wash.  It stretched for miles.   If I walked for long enough I would eventually find myself in the next county.  When I was little my dad used to caution me against strolling close to the wash. Even now he wouldn’t be thrilled that I was wandering around beside it. 

“Bad people hang around out there,” he would always warn.  “Drug dealers, perverts, men just looking for a quiet place to commit violence.  Not to mention how thick the rattlesnake population becomes the farther you go from the road.  Stay away.” 

I kept a wary eye out for perverts and drug dealers.  I figured if I saw one I would sprint back toward home.  I was a fast runner when I wanted to be. 

But the strong arms that grabbed me out of nowhere did not give me time to do anything. My upper body was pinned from behind by an iron grip and I was too shocked to even cry out.  In that instant every terrible story I’d ever heard that featured a careless young girl galloped through my mind. 

Stranger.  Danger.  STRANGER.  DANGER.
  

I opened my mouth to scream and only yelped like a kitten. 

“Erin!  It’s me.  It’s Stone.” 

“Stone!”  Relief flooded through me.  Then annoyance.  “Let me go for god’s sake.” 

“Okay, but don’t take one step.  There’s a monster diamondback hanging out just underneath that mesquite tree.” 

Stone eased his hold on me and took my right elbow, very slowly leading me backward.  I squinted at the sprawling mesquite that was a mere fifteen feet away.  Sure enough, coiled at the shady base like a conquering king, was the longest, thickest rattlesnake I’d ever seen.  I gulped, unable to take my eyes off of it.  The snake lifted its head and moved it from side to side, flicking a tongue out briefly.

“Easy,” Stone whispered, continuing to lead me backward.   I stumbled over his foot and he circled an arm around my waist, steadying me.  

“You can let go now,” I said when we were safely out of range and the rattler had relaxed once more. 

Stone took his hands away.  “You should be more careful,” he scolded, glaring.  “Don’t you know where we live, Erin?”

“Well, you didn’t have to grab me.  You could have just acted like a normal person and said something like, ‘Hey, look out!’”

He sighed.  “You would have ignored me.” 

“I would not.” 

“You would if you’d seen it was me.  Then you would have kept right on stomping through the brush without a care because somehow you never learned that it’s not a good idea to parade through rattlesnake territory like you own it.” 

I tossed my hair and crossed my arms.  “I’d appreciate it if you’d stop mansplaining to me like I’m five.”

Stone crossed his arms, mimicking my posture.  “Then stop acting like you’re five.”   He looked me up and down, frowning over what he saw.  “Why the hell are you all bundled up in a black sweatshirt when it’s over a hundred degrees out?” 

“I thought it might snow,” I grumbled. “Anyway, look at you.  You’re running around out here half naked.  Who do you think you are?  Some kind of Sonoran desert version of Tarzan?”

Stone glanced down at his bare chest and cutoff shorts.  “You’ve really got to get out of the habit of checking me out.”   

“I’m not!” 

Stone smiled.  I wanted to slap him.  My fists clenched at my sides, fingernails digging into my palms so hard it hurt. 

Stone casually ran a hand through his hair.  Like his brother, his dark sandy hair turned lighter in the summertime.  “Erin, can’t you just say ‘Thank you’?”  Like ‘Gosh, thank you Stone for saving my life.’” 

My fists unclenched.  I was being childish. 

“I would have been fine,” I informed him coolly. 

“Really?”  Stone raised his eyebrows and zeroed in with a penetrating stare.  “I’m not sure you’re ever fine, kid.”   

That comment, casually tossed out of his mouth like it was nothing, knocked the wind out of me.  Stone Gentry had just accidentally summed me up in one thoughtless sentence.   I wasn’t someone who walked around with an arsenal of witty comebacks ready to use.  I had no answer for him.   So I put my head down and started to walk back in the direction I’d come from. 

“Erin.” 

I could hear him, right behind me, his stride much longer than mine.  I quickened my pace. 

“Erin, come on.” 

He caught my elbow but I wrenched out of his grip and started to climb up the embankment.  I’d chosen badly; it was a particularly steep spot. A layer of parched sand gave way beneath my weight and the rubber soles of my sneakers were not enough to keep me from slipping.  My left knee scraped against jagged rock and I probably would have toppled the last several feet and landed in a messy heap of humiliation if Stone didn’t have quick reflexes.   He caught me around the waist and helped me down gently, backing off when I scrambled away, brushing the dust off my clothes. 

“You okay?” he asked and for once his voice wasn’t dripping with mocking arrogance.   For some reason this sent me to the verge of tears.   If Stone Gentry was going to change direction and be all sincere and nice I just couldn’t handle that right now.  I took several deep breaths and noted that my scraped knee was bleeding slightly.  Just a trickle.  Barely more than nothing.  But the sight of the blood went straight to my stomach.  I bent over and promptly dry heaved into a bed of smooth river rock.   

Stone was at my side instantly, pushing a bottle of water in my face.  “Drink it,” he ordered.   

My first instinct was to argue but in the last few minutes my instincts had not proved particularly helpful.  I drank.  The water was warm and tasted vaguely of tobacco. 

“Thanks,” I said weakly, handing the bottle over.  “I didn’t eat breakfast.” 

“Just as well,” Stone said, rather good-naturedly.  “You would have made a much bigger mess if you had.” 

“True.”  My hair was sticking to my neck.  Impatiently I twisted it into a long black rope and piled it atop my head, securing the knot with an elastic band I’d absently left around my wrist.  I’d been meaning to get it cut; the length was a nuisance.  Conway loved my long hair though.  He loved to comb it through his fingers and gather it into his fists when he gently pulled me toward him for a kiss. 

Stone had left my side, either bored with dealing me or at a loss for more conversation.  He stood apart, staring at a distant horizon ringed by mountains that were much farther away than they seemed. 

“Thanks,” I called to him. 

He didn’t turn around.  “You said that already.” 

“I thanked you for the water.  But you were right. I should have thanked you for looking out for me when I was about to get an ankle full of snake fang.” 

“Well, I have my faults, but generally I don’t enjoy watching young girls get eaten by snakes.” 

I kicked a rock.  “Aren’t you tired of this, Stone?”

He turned around then, eyeballing me warily.  “Tired of what?”

“This back and forth, an incessant tug of war over the one thing we have in common.”

Stone said nothing.  He seemed to be waiting for me to continue.  So I took a deep breath and did exactly that. 

“He loves both of us and we both love him.  That should be enough to get us to figure out how to get along.  You don’t have to like me.  I’m not sure I like much about you either.  But it’s not fair.  It’s not fair to Conway to keep forcing him to defend one of us to the other.”  My hair had come loose from its knot.  I shook it out with irritation and then pushed it behind my ears.  “Look, Conway told me last night wasn’t your fault with the car-“

“It
was
my fault,” he interrupted with a devilish grin.  “Of course it was my fault. You know what I’m like, Erin.  Everyone knows.” 

I shook my head, feeling suddenly weary and rather miserable.  “No.  Actually I hardly know you at all.”   This conversation had veered off into an uncomfortable place.  I braced myself for a volley of Stone Gentry’s trademark sarcasm.  

Instead, as his eyes searched my face, something softened in him.  He looked down and nodded. 

“You’re right,” he said quietly. 

“Oh.” I almost fell over from shock.  I really hadn’t expected mature agreement.   “Really?” 

“Really.”  He broke into a grin.  It had a sheepish quality. “I can be a dick.  I know that.  But you make Con happy and I’m happy he has you.” 

“Oh,” I said and swallowed hard, lowering my head.   A tiny gecko scurried across the rocks and then disappeared into a dusty crevice. 

“Erin?”  Stone prompted. 

“Do I?” I asked, snapping my head up and looking him in the eye. 

Stone was confused.  “Do you what?”

“Do I make Con happy?”

He gave me a funny look.  Then he shifted position and stared out into the distance again.  “That’s a bullshit question.  You know you make him happy.” 

I did. Mostly I did.  It wasn’t hard to recall the countless times Conway Gentry had looked at me with tender love in his eyes.  Girls threw themselves at him all the time and he never gave them the time of day.  If Con was tired of me he wouldn’t have stuck around for two years.  I should know all this without being told.  But it still meant the world to hear it from the guy who wouldn’t blow sunshine up my ass to spare my feelings.  Not when it came to his brother.  Stone, for all his flaws, cared about Conway very much. 

“I do know,” I said and smiled.  Stone relaxed and smiled back.  

“Well,” I said, clasping my hands together, “in the spirit of this new semi-friendship, can I offer you a glass of fresh homemade lemonade?  It should be cold by now.” 

Stone considered.  “You made it yourself?”

“Yup.  Measured the mix and everything.” 

He laughed.   “Well then, you’ve got a taker.  I’m a sucker for over sweetened beverages.”  

We walked slowly, almost leisurely, back to my house.  Now that Stone had let his cocky façade slide a bit he opened up a little.  Mostly he talked about Conway and all the trouble they got into when they were kids.  Many of those incidents I knew about, some of them I didn’t.   It had always seemed like the earliest sounds of my childhood included Tracy Gentry screaming their names at the top of her lungs as she hunted the neighborhood to make them answer for something or other they had done. 

A half forgotten memory suddenly bubbled to the surface and I nudged Stone.  “Remember when my mother found you guys hiding in our pantry?  You couldn’t have been more than four or five.  She opened up the door to grab some cake mix and you both popped out, howling like wolves.  She screamed, fell over backward into a kitchen chair, and laughed until she could hardly breathe.”

“I remember that,” Stone chuckled.  “Our hands were all filthy because we’d attacked our parents’ new Egyptian silk sheets with magic marker and we were hiding because we knew there’d be hell to pay.  Your mom was always cool whenever we showed up, although that time she did make us dunk our hands in a sink of soapy water to get all the ink off.  Then she sat us down at the table with you and gave us peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.  Finally our dad came by to haul us back home.” 

At the end his voice kind of fell away and he sighed.  A strange shiver rolled up my spine and we walked for a moment in silence, the mood turned grim over the mention of lost parents. 

“You look like her,” Stone finally said.  “Your mom.”