Falling From the Sky (17 page)

“I can make you one of those,” Micah says. “C’mon.”

He tugs on my arm, and we continue on. “You can make those?” I ask.

“Well, sort of. Poppa B can, and he’s tried showing me before. I never really took interest. But if it was for you, that’d be different,” he says.

It would be different. It’d be Micah-made, and nothing chases away my demons like Micah does.

I force my eyes and thoughts away from the dreamcatchers and nightmares and push through the crowded sidewalk with Micah. I spot the backward cap and smoke cloud before I even see the name of the booth. I have to give Tuck some props for his willingness to smoke around a booth of canvases which could set ablaze in a heartbeat.

A graffiti painted sign hangs over the wooden booth with “Graffiti Kings” in purple letters with silver trim. Painted canvases of city scenes and ocean views stand upright on a table.

“I was wondering when you were going to show,” Tuck says to Micah as we approach the booth. Then he turns to me. “I’ve got something for you. C’mon on back.”

His maroon SUV is parked behind their vendor booth, and he opens the back doors. Tuck pulls out a graffiti painted canvas divided into three scenes. There’s a wiry jungle painted in wild streaks of green sprouting from the bottom of the canvas. The sky is a mixture of blue and purple, blended almost perfectly for this not to be a perfected piece of art. And there’s a silver plane nose-diving toward the tangled greenery.

Luckily my eyes take in the entire picture before I blast him for painting my dad’s death and then offering it to me as a gift. The scene in the middle of the canvas depicts an angel with white wings hovering in the air under the plane and pushing it back up with his bare hands. I can’t see his face, but there’s a number painted on his back, and he’s wearing a football jersey. The story of Tuck’s cousin flows back through my mind. I know without even asking that his cousin is the angel in the painting. The third scene only shows a silhouette of the angel’s face, but now he’s flying under the plane, holding it up with his silver-trimmed wings.

“Is it okay?” Tuck breaks the silence.

I just nod. Words can’t do this justice. It’s exactly what I wanted to see – a plane that didn’t crash.

“Damien helped me with it. He drew out the plane, the details. I added the wings, clouds, jungle, you know,” he explains, like I really care about the artistic measures that went into it. I’m completely amazed.

“I know you’ve got a lot going on today, so I can hold on to it for now. You and Youngblood can swing by the warehouse later this week and pick it up,” he says.

I keep nodding like one of those stupid bobble heads on a dashboard, and I feel about as stupid as they look.

“And if I’m not there when you come by, Damien should be, so he can hand it off. You don’t owe me anything. Just keep living, and keep your head up,” Tuck says.

He obviously hasn’t noticed my bobble head. Or maybe he’s just too nice to acknowledge it. It’s probably written in his eyes that he wants to laugh at me, but I can’t see through his sunglasses.

Micah waves me over to him but hurries around the side of the booth before I catch up to him. Pax stands on a ladder when I round the corner. A white sheet is draped over the entire side of the booth, and Pax holds the top corner.

“They’re about to unveil the finished product,” Micah announces to me as I walk up beside him.

Tuck climbs the other ladder and unhooks his corner of the sheet. He nods to Pax, and the sheet plummets to the ground, unveiling the masterpiece graffiti painting they’ve worked on all summer.

Pieces of it are familiar – the school of wildly colored angel fish, the white and silver shark, and a huge treasure chest that was just an outline Damien was working on last month. A ship is broken in half on the ocean floor, and a skeleton wearing a pirate hat is propped up next to the chest. Tuck was right about one thing. There’s some beauty even in disaster.

I sit on the curb next to Abby while Micah walks over toward a booth called Shucks. The booth itself is black with giant yellow umbrellas shading it. He disappears into a huddle of people and pops back out moments later holding the largest shuck of corn I’ve ever seen.

“Bite?” he asks, sitting on the concrete next to me. He takes a bite of it and points it toward my mouth.

I shake my head. “That’s okay. It’s all yours.”

I’ve never cared much for corn, but Micah gnaws on it like it’s his last meal. Jade sits on the other side of Abby with a turkey leg that’s as long and bulky as Micah’s corn cob. I don’t know what secret ingredient people use in their recipes around here, but they could market it as a growth hormone.

An orange sunset falls to the ground behind us, and the lights of the vendor booths light up the strip like a mini-city right here on the river. Sebastian’s Shadow, the final band of the night, sets up their instruments as we scan the crowd to find Kyle the Ripper. Micah drags me by my wrist through the crowd, and I glance over my shoulder to make sure Zoey hasn’t fallen behind.

We track through the thick mud, and I squeeze Micah’s hand. I really don’t care who sees us at this point. If I slip, he’ll either catch me or go down with me. I feel like I’m treading through quicksand as the mud pulls at the soles of my shoes. I’m relieved to feel the metal flooring under me when we reach the stage. Spots of silver gleam through the muck.

I spot Kyle on the side of the stage with his digital camcorder. The Krazy Korn van’s back doors are wide open. The footage should be good from his standpoint. At least he’s not in the shoe-sucking mud.

“Will you hold still?” I ask Micah.

He rocks back and forth on his heels, and I run my hand up and down his forearm.

He shrugs. “I’m sorry. I’m excited.”

The stage lights fade from purple to hot pink to orange. I’m not sure if it’s the stage lights, the mud, or the blueberry pie, but the twins can’t hold still either.

After an introduction and a few fast-paced songs to get the crowd excited, Micah tugs on my arm and pulls me closer to him.

“This is the song. This is it. This is the one I was telling you about,” he says as the guitarist strums a few chords.

Micah rambles and repeats himself five times over. I shouldn’t laugh at his jittery excitement, but he’s over the top right now, and I haven’t laughed like this in a long time. Not in a year. Or maybe two. He might not even be that excited. He could just be doing this to humor me, but there’s something in his eyes that says otherwise. They’re glowing, and it’s not because of the reflection of the orange lights.

Sebastian’s Shadow sings about lights – city lights and the way they reflect off the ocean’s shore, how the water glows and the lights bleed into the sunset. I see it so perfectly. It makes me want to fall asleep next to the ocean, sand in my hair and water rushing over my legs. Their lead singer had to have gone as far as California to capture those lyrics.

“Please. Pleeeeeeeease.” Abby hasn’t stopped begging to ride the ferris wheel since we got here. Zoey washes Jade’s hands under a water bottle-turned-faucet and ignores Abby’s pleas.

“You know I don’t like heights, Ab. And you can’t ride it alone,” Zoey says.

Abby turns those sad puppy eyes to Micah, who shakes his head adamantly.

“Please Mike? I really want to ride it,” Abby says.

“I don’t do heights,” he replies, looking up at the giant cups lifting over us.

“You what?” I ask.

“Don’t. Do. Heights.” He emphasizes each word. He licks his lips, almost nervously, and looks back to the ground.

“Micah, you jumped off a bridge. Into a river. An alligator-infested river,” I remind him. “Hell, I jumped off that bridge scared out of my mind. I can’t believe you’re too scared to ride it.”

He still shakes his head. “The only reason I can jump off that bridge is because Zoey pushed me the first time.”

Zoey throws her head back laughing. Everyone around us stares, and for once, it’s not because I’m watching airplanes. Micah pushes her away from him. He doesn’t laugh.

“I’ll ride it with you, if your mom will let you go with me,” I say to Abby.

Her eyes light up, and she shoves her sticky cotton candy into Jade’s freshly washed hands. “Can Widge take me?” she says, tugging at Zoey’s shirt.

Zoey looks up from Abby’s wide eyes. “Ridge, you’re not scared to ride?”

I shake my head. “I rode one last summer at a county fair with Samantha. It’s nothing.”

Abby is curious now. “Who is Samantha?”

“My girlfriend,” I say.

Jade looks at me and asks the obvious question. “You have a girlfriend?”

I don’t know if I should take it as an inquiry or a total diss. Her nose wrinkles like it did at the fish fry.

I just nod. Jade studies me quietly. “I thought you were Micah’s boyfriend. Mommy says Micah likes boys, and it’s okay if he doesn’t like girls,” she says.

“Jade!” Zoey yells. “Manners, young lady! I’m so sorry.”

Her voice is sympathetic, but I’m not sure if she’s speaking to Micah or me. Micah buries his face in his hands, and I feel too awkward to even think of consoling him.

“Let’s get tickets,” I say to Abby.

She skips toward the ticket booth, and I jog to keep up with her. She bounces now, just like her uncle was earlier. I hope she’s this excited when we’re at the top of the ride. I don’t know how to handle a screaming, crying five-year-old girl. I couldn’t bear facing Zoey if Abby’s face was tear-streaked when we landed.

Micah sits on a curb with Jade and Kyle as we walk back over to the ferris wheel. Zoey thanks me and tells me I don’t have to do this. She joins her brother on the curb while Abby and I wait in line. Micah hasn’t looked at me since Jade’s comment, and it’s selfish but I want him to make the first move. Abby tugs on my arm like Micah had before Sebastian’s Shadow’s song, and I wish he was standing here with me instead of a five-year-old.

The giant cup wobbles as Abby and I climb aboard the ride. Her eyes widen, and she grabs for the side to brace herself. The cup rocks again, and she’s all giggles. Thank God.

“You’re going to be able to see everything when we get up there,” I tell her, trying to maintain her excitement. “It’ll be like being on top of the world. All those city lights will look like light bulbs.”

“This is so cool, Widge.” She doesn’t look at me. She clings to the side of the cup, looking over. We’re not even off the dock yet.

“McCoy! Wait!” I hear someone holler out to me.

I panic inside. My throat goes dry. I feel like I’ve swallowed my Adam’s apple. I turn back slowly, dragging out my agony, waiting to see Aaron and some random girl or another basketball player while I’m sitting here with a little girl whose mom I’m supposed to be hooking up with. But this little girl and her sister both assume I’m dating their uncle, their mom is sitting with her boyfriend on the curb, and now everything is about to blow up in my face.

Tuck takes a final drag off his cigarette and walks up the ramp. Pax is behind him, and Abby jumps to her feet, waving them over to us. Tuck throws his cigarette butt over the railing and climbs inside next to me. Pax hugs Abby, who tells him that we’re going to ride to the top of the world. Sweet relief.

“Couldn’t get Uncle Mike to ride it?” Pax asks her.

“Uncle Mike’s a chicken,” she says.

Pax laughs and looks at me. “
You
couldn’t get him on here?”

“You heard Abby. He’s a chicken,” I answer.

The bucket rocks again, and Pax rocks back on his feet before falling onto the semi-circle bench. Abby giggles again, and I edge closer to her. She’s too curious, and I refuse to let either of us fall from the sky.

We’re ten feet up once the ride attendant fills the last seat. Tuck checks over his shoulder before lighting up another cigarette. I’m pretty sure it’s prohibited, but he doesn’t seem to care. He leans back and stretches his legs out, like he’s done this a thousand times before. After another jolt, we rise up, and Abby scrambles to get turned around and look over at the ground.

“Whoa!” she yells out, still all smiles.

Her statements become silenced as we ascend, but she isn’t scared. She takes in the scenery, savoring her moment on top of the world. She isn’t fazed by anything – not Tuck’s cigarette smoke or Pax’s white-knuckled death grip on the table in the center of the bucket. The ride slows as we near the top.

“Look at the river,” Tuck says.

It looks like Sebastian’s Shadow’s final song. The orange lights of the city splash across the river’s surface, rippling against the pull of the dark water. The water sloshes over the rocks and sand, leaving it like a mini shore waiting for another wave to spatter over. Maybe they didn’t travel to California. All they had to do was ride the ferris wheel. Abby’s hand squeezes my wrist, and I wish Micah was up here with me.

“Uncle Mike!” Abby hollers as she runs toward him. “Mike-cah! You have to ride it. It’s the awesomest thing ever!”

Abby jumps up and down. Her eyes haven’t shrunk since the moment we first stepped onto the ramp to get on the ride. She’s sort of starting to resemble a doe. I wait for Micah to tell her something along the lines of her eyes getting stuck like that if she doesn’t chill out, but he says nothing.

Jade folds her arms across her chest and pouts her lips. “I want to ride it now,” she says.

I see Jade as the type to be red-eyed and tear-stained getting off the ride. She’d tell Zoey how horrible and scary it was, and Zoey would give me a death glare for taking her baby to the top of the world. I don’t volunteer myself to ride with her.

But Abby does. Luckily Zoey doesn’t want to burden me with the responsibility. So Abby volunteers Zoey…and Micah. Maybe Abby is on to something after all.

“C’mon. It’s awesome,” I agree.

Zoey hesitates as she glances between her daughters and the ferris wheel.

“That’s really high, Jade. I don’t know,” she says. “Abby’s a bit more of a daredevil.”

Jade stomps her foot and bends her eyebrows. “I want to ride!” she cries.

“Okay,” Zoey says. “You can ride it and I’ll ride with you, but Micah has to go too.”