Death Whispers (Death Series, Book 1) (56 page)

Jonesy leaned in
quietly, “The girls look really dry right now.”

“Alarmingly,” John
concurred.

“That's what I was
thinking,” I said.

Tiff must've known
something was brewing because she had the eagle eye trained on the
three of us and sat up, looking alert.

Too late. We sprinted
for the girl posse and Tiff was up and off her towel taking off
before Jade and Sophie had barely cleared the terry cloth.

I grabbed Jade as she
was trying to take off from behind, wrapping my arms around her and
pinning her to my chest as I lifted her bodily off the lawn. “Caleb!”
she squealed, and I lurched down the long dock, with her flailing and
squealing where I heaved her off the end into the lake. Jonesy
followed, with a bellowing Sophie and then there was John.
Where
was John?
I wondered as Jade bobbed to the surface, sputtering
and fuming.

John was having a
helluva time getting Tiff to cooperate. His lankiness and reach
drawing her in and her shrieking at the top of her lungs, “Knock it
off, Terran or I'll de-jewel you!” giving John pause, as he deftly
avoided her fast feet.

Finally, when Tiff and
John were battling it out, he swung her with the arm he had latched
onto, and she started to sail off the end of the deck. John had a
huge grin on his face until her free arm swung around, using the
momentum he had started and she latched on to him and their combined
weight took them both over the edge into the icy water.

Jonesy looked over the
edge of the deck at an enraged Sophie and an irritated (and very wet)
Jade. “Looks like Terran ended up going first after all.”

Right.

I turned around
thinking I was going to have to suck it up and heave Jade out of the
lake on the dock ladder when Gramps appeared out of nowhere.
Cripes,
he was kind of a ninja.

A long cigarette
dangled out of his mouth, the ash about two inches long. Just as I
thought it'd fall to the ground he flicked it, stuffing it back in
his mouth, his eyes narrowing. “I thought Terran was the smart
one?”

“Well...” how to
defend this, “he, ah, fell in by accident.”

“
Accidents will
happen,” Gramps said, winking. He totally
knew
.

He turned around
without saying a word and went back to using that dumb push-mower
thing on his half-acre of
illegal
lawn.

Jonesy looked after
Gramps. “He's kinda weird, Caleb.”

Gramps turned around,
his eyes lasering Jonesy.

He jumped, saying
quietly, “He couldn't have heard me.”

Gramps kept on walking,
throwing over his shoulder, “Yes, I did!”

I laughed; Gramps had
it goin' on for an old dude!

I raced over to the
ladder to pull Jade up.

“No-oh, you get your
butt in here Caleb Hart, I'm all used to it now!” She crossed her
arms in front of her, feet moving to tread the water. Tiff sat
glaring at John who looked like a drenched greyhound, mopish hair
plastered over his head and bones sticking out everywhere like tent
poles.

“
I'm not asking
anyone for help and you...!” Sophie glared at Jonesy. “Your ass
is mine!” Sophie said, swimming over to the ladder and heaving
herself up, while Jonesy touched a hand to his chest,
who
me?

“Come on Jade, I
won't dump you in again, I promise.” I gave her my most sincere
look.

She said, “Okay, but
help me out.”

“Okay,” I said,
walking over to the ladder, she obviously wasn't as mad as I thought
she'd be. I leaned over the top of the two poles that began the rungs
and extended my palm, which Jade grabbed then pulled with her body
weight...

...and in I went.

The water slammed into
my body like an icy slap, taking my breath away. I spun in the water,
heading up toward the surface. I was gonna tickle Jade until she
peed, that's what I was gonna do. Then the talking started. The
fish...

Images flooded my head: their life in the murky
wetness, a sharp hook in their mouth...no escape, no breath, the
enveloping waters of their home gone, while a bright orb of heat lay
upon their sleekness...drying their flesh as a shadow moved over
their still form, a mouth gasping for breath... a sharp pain...and
then, nothing...

I was floating when
strong arms encircled my waist and I was towed to the surface where
four faces peered down at me.

“What's going on,
Caleb?” Jade asked, her face a pinched mask of worry.

Tiff looked steadily at
me. “Did ya have an undead moment?”

I nodded.

“You can let me go
now, I'm not gonna take long showers with ya or something.”

Jonesy pushed me away.
“Yeah, well, the next time you look like you're drowning I'll sic
our boy Terran on ya!”

“What was it?” Tiff
asked.

“Fish.”

“Geez, I'm not
sensing them...”

“I didn't either
until Jade pulled me in.” I gave her a narrowed-eyed look. She
wasn't sure how to respond to that because suddenly Gramps' face
appeared in the sea of teens, his cigarette jammed precariously
between his lips. “Taking a bath, Caleb?”

I blushed, feeling
stupid. “No Gramps, Jade pulled me in...”

He turned that
stern face to Jade, smoke escaping the sides of his mouth. “She
did,
did she?
Well
good for her!” he said, flicking the ash in the water where it
floated away to pollute and contaminate. I could hear Mom's ranting
all the way from Kent.

The Js widened
their eyes at the flagrant environmental contamination but said
nothing, knowing where that conversation would lead: exactly nowhere
.

“It's time for you to
get your dead ass out of there anyway and have some lunch.” Gramps
straightened, not seeing his undead pun for a mile, lighting a new
cigarette with the old one.

The girls watched him,
fascinated. That an adult would disregard his health so much,
unbelievable. But I was used to Gramps, he was just him and that was
a good thing.

The Js perked up over
the mention of a lunch. “What's for lunch, Mr. O’Brien?”

“Mac, John.”

“Yeah, okay, Mac.”

“Same thing as I
always fix you guys: hotdogs, and bags of chips and all the pop you
can drink.”

Everyone was grinning,
mine the biggest. Mom didn't allow me to have pop because it had the
Evil Sugar. But when I went to Gramps, he gave me an IV of the stuff,
that was fine by me.

I heaved myself out of
the lake, dripping all over the deck, the dark splatters of water
soaking into the wood.

Sophie huffed past me
and the Js, mad for part of the day at least. We trailed after her
and Tiff, the pissed girl contingent.

Jade leaned a
head into my shoulder and said as we walked, my arm slung comfortably
around her, “You could have just
asked
me to swim, ya know.” She smiled up at me.

“You didn't ask me!”
I said, my thumb to my chest.

“Yeah, but it was
fair. You had to get wet too!”

Feisty, I dug it!

“Way to get Sophie's
attention, Jonester.”

“Yeah.”

“Maybe just ask her
out and get it out of your system,” John said.

“Yeah.”

Jade smiled and didn't
say anything.

Smart girl.

Jonesy scowled, he
wasn't quite getting it with the girl thing yet. I went ahead and
said it, “Practice makes perfect, Jonesy.”

“Piss off, Hart.”

“I'm just sayin'”

“
Yeah, well
don't.
”

“Geez, touchy-much!”
Jade laughed and Jonesy wasted a scowl on her. Which made her laugh
harder.

Jonesy sighed and
stalked off toward the wrap around deck (in real wood). It held
Gramps BBQ-er. Another illegal item as he used those old-fashioned
briquettes that caused more environmental mayhem.

Gramps was busy
torching the hell out of the hotdogs, taking them off the grill and
mashing the whole group onto a huge platter that had a stainless,
fork thing stabbed into the unfortunate center dog. Three bags of
chips lay open on top of the picnic table that was clipped on all
four sides with these metal clamp-things and the pop bottles lined on
end, standing at attention on the red and white checkered tablecloth.
A huge fishing weight lay on top of the napkins to keep them from
blowing away.

Sophie looked at it
curiously, wondering what it was.

Jonesy breezed in to
relieve her of her ignorance. “That's for fishing.”

“
I know
that,
”
she said.

Oh, well that went
well.

Jonesy scowled again,
he couldn't win for losing.

“Makes a good weight
for things.” Gramps stated, squirting water onto the flames to keep
them low. God, was that gray water? Geez.

I thought about the
memories dead fish and wasn't sure that I wanted to talk about
fishing right now.

Jonesy gave up trying
to get back in Sophie's good graces and dove into the food instead.
Piling his plate with four hot dogs and a half bag of the chips he
grabbed the first of the pop when Gramps said, “Why don't you let
the girls dish up first, eh?” Without even turning.

Gramps was performing
the BBQ dance, swiveling his hips, he danced in front of the circular
thing, taming the flames and spearing the dogs. I guess that was a
skill.

“Don't you have to
register those now?” John asked Gramps, pointing to the BBQ-er.

“Yes, you do, no, I
did not.”

Don't ask John, don't ask.

He asked.

“Why not?”

“Well, mainly, it's
because they told me I had to.”

The girls turned to
him, interested in what he had to say because Gramps was just that
way. Interesting.

“All these hot-shot
government types spewing their lies around and all the sheep in the
country thinking that they know everything. Let them come on my
property and try to enforce any of those bleeding heart laws, I'll
give them all something to think about.”

Don't ask, don't ask.

Jonesy asked.

“Well, I think I'd
start with the kneecaps, and eventually work my way up to the...”

“Gramps?”

He turned his head to
me. “Maybe my friends aren't ready for The Solution yet.”

“I'm ready,” Jonesy
said.

“Me too.” John
echoed.

Brother.

Just then, there was a
huge clatter as a dilapidated car drove up, had to be Bry.

He cranked open the
door, which squealed in protest. Saved by Bry. I did a mental
forehead-wipe.

“Hey guys,” Bry
said moving into range of Gramps.

“Hello, Mr. Weller.”

“Hi Mac, how's it
goin'?”

“Fair to middling...”

Bry raised his eyebrows
and I translated old-guy-speak, “Average.”

“Oh, right, I
gotcha.” He said, plopping down next to Tiff and wading right into
the food with typical teen boy gusto.

Tiff gave him The Look.
Apparently, she had a special one reserved just for sibling
interaction. “Ya gonna be okay?”

“Yeah,”
wolf-slurp-gulp, “just need to fuel up, didn't have anything at
work,” he said, his cheek already distended with a half a hotdog.

Gramps was wiping his
hands off on a cloth dishtowel he always kept stuffed in his back
pocket. “You kids get enough to eat here?”

He looked at the girls,
who all had one hotdog each, except Sophie, she seemed to actually
eat food, with two on her plate.

The boys nodded,
cognizant of food showing if they spoke.

Then Jade chimed in,
“Do you have diet?” She pointed to the pop.

“No. I don't like
that crap in the house. Very suspicious, replacing honest-to-God
sugar with that fake stuff.”

Jade slowly
lowered her hand and shrugged, she grabbed a Coke instead. Like she
needed
diet
pop.
Brother.

“And you...” Gramps
pointed at Jade, “don't need anything with the word diet associated
with it.”

“Right, ah, but I
don't want to get fat,” she stated with her girl-logic.

“I wouldn't worry
about that. How much do you weigh anyhow?”

Oh my God, I couldn't
believe Gramps asked that question! The boys physically paled and
John started choking on his hot dog while Jonesy pounded his back to
help unstick the lodged morsel.

Jade sat there for a
second, balancing the Dreaded Weight Question with the fact that A)
he was an old guy and maybe didn't know he stepped in it and B) that
every boy there would then know what she weighed.

“Probably a buck
five, I'd bet,” Bry said.

I slapped my forehead,
I guess he was clueless too, no wonder he didn't have a girlfriend!

“Actually, I weigh
around that.” Jade said as neutrally as possible but Tiff wasn't
neutral.

“You never ask a girl
what she weighs. It's just, ugh!”

“Yeah,” Sophie
said.

Gramps looked
perplexed.

John, who was
breathing again thanks to Jonesy's enthusiasm, answered, “All girls
think they're fat and asking about weight just points out this
issue.” He spread his hands wide as if to say,
simple,
huh?

Well, not really.

“That doesn't make
any sense. She's obviously skinnier than a rail, look at her.”

We all looked at Jade.
Yeah, she was pretty small.

Gramps shrugged,
starting to scrape off the grill. “No diets! Men like women with a
little meat on their bones!”

“Amen to that,”
Jonesy said, putting his foot in it. It was well known in boy
circles that Jonesy was a booty man.

Sophie looked at him
and smiled. He grinned right back. All was forgiven.