Knights of the Hill Country (12 page)

A local country band was onstage. They was kind of old and so was their songs, but I didn't mind. Misty didn't make no secret out of how bored she was, though. We hadn't watched them ten minutes when she stretched out her arms and yawned and said she had to go visit the little girls' room. The porta-potties was on the other side of a line of oaks, and I watched her head off that way just to make sure she was all right. The way she swang that little butt of hers back and forth, she was sure worth watching for other reasons too, but I wasn't about to let my hormones get out of control over her no more now.

While I was looking off after her, I seen something I didn't
notice before—an empty wheelchair parked on the grass way on the other side of the crowd. Sure enough, Mr. and Mrs. Reynolds was stretched out on a blanket in front of it, along with Sara's little sister, Lisa. Sara wasn't with them, but there was enough of an open spot left on that blanket that you could bet she'd been there sometime.

Now this don't make a bit of sense, but just the idea that Sara seen me come strolling along with Misty hit me about like a rusty hammer right in the chest bone. Wasn't no good reason for me to feel guilty like that. Me and Sara never even went out on a real date. We sure wasn't boyfriend and girlfriend. But somehow that didn't matter. I had to go find her and explain. That's how it was with Sara. I was always wanting to explain something to her, even when I didn't know exactly what it was.

She wasn't nowhere near the edges of the crowd or the line of oak trees or over by the Ferris wheel or merry-go-round, but just as I turned around the corner of the turkey-leg booth, I about run smack into her and her giant cup full of pop.

I stepped back and asked her if I made her spill any, and she looked down and said maybe just a little.

“Here,” I said, reaching back for my wallet. “Let me get you another one.”

“That's all right.” She took a suck on her straw. “There's still plenty left.”

So there we was, standing about a foot apart, and, course, everything I thought I'd explain to her flew right out of my mind, leaving my head about as empty as a birdhouse on a cold December day.

“Sure is a nice night out,” she said.

And I didn't come back with nothing but, “Sure is.”

I looked off down the row of refreshment stands, hoping maybe I'd see something down there worth talking about.

“Did you get out in time to see the bluegrass band?” she asked.

“Naw. I just been out here a little while.” I was pretty sure saying
I
instead of
we
didn't exactly count as an official lie.

“They were a lot better than these guys playing now.” She waved in the direction of where the band was. A different group was up now, younger with newer songs. “I can't stand this Top 40 stuff on the radio these days. My dad says it's like the polyester of country music.”

I laughed. “I never thought of it like that. That's a good one.”

She took another drag off her straw. “So,” she said. “I guess you're out here with Misty Koonce?”

Just like that. She sure didn't beat around the bush none.

“Uh, yeah,” I said. “But we're not
going out,
like dating or anything like that. I mean, it is a date, but it's just a fix-up kind of deal.” I felt about like I was heading down a curvy road to nowhere, the way I was rambling around. “Does that even make any sense at all?”

“Sure,” she said. “You're out, but you're not
going out.
You're on a date, but you're not
dating
dating.” She cracked into a big grin, and we both got to laughing at how it sounded.

“Anyways,” I said, “it was Blaine's idea. He got Rachel to set it up.”

“You sure do hang around with Blaine a lot, don't you?”

“Yep,” I said, kind of rocking back on my heels a little. I was always proud of being Blaine's best friend. “Me and old Blaine, we're about like brothers.”

“Really?” She looked me square in the eye like she was sizing something up. “What makes you think that?”

That got me rocking back forward again. “What do you mean? That's what everyone says.”

“But outside of playing football, y'all don't seem that much alike. I mean, for one thing, I wouldn't even think of trying to talk to Blaine about the things I could talk to you about. I don't even think he'd hear a word I was saying. You know?”

“Yeah, I know. He don't always listen real good. But you just gotta get to know him. We talk about a buncha stuff.” I wanted Sara to like Blaine, same as I wanted him to like her. But standing there looking into them brown eyes, I could see she knew how it was. She knew I had a whole tangled woods worth of thoughts in me that my best buddy didn't have the first idea about.

She looked down and fiddled with the straw in her cup for a second, then looked me back in the eye. “I bet you don't talk to him about how you like to take walks in the country and watch the sun come up.”

“No,” I said. “I guess you're about the only one I talked to about that.”

She gave that just a little bitty breath of a smile and said, “Well, you know what, the first time I saw you in eighth grade, when you came walking into math class, I could tell there was more to you than meets the eye.”

“Yeah?” I rubbed my hand across the top of my head the way I do. “I guess I never was much to look at.”

“I don't know about that.” She looked away down the row of refreshment stands like maybe she didn't want me to see how big her smile had got now.

Right there, I felt like stepping over and hugging her. Wrapping her right up in my arms and telling her everything
I ever wanted to say to anyone. Probably scare her so bad she'd run home and lock the door for a week. Take out one of them stalker-restraining orders on me. Or maybe not. Maybe she'd have hugged me back and said, “Go on and tell it. Tell it all.”

Course, I wasn't about to find out, not right then. Officially, I was still out on a date with Misty, and besides, I just didn't do things like that. But I figured I wouldn't be breaking no date rules if I at least said something about how I was thinking of taking me a good long walk out in the woods with a picnic lunch and wouldn't mind some company when I did.

“So,” I started off. “I was thinking, you ever go out around Lake Hawkshaw much?”

“Oh, sure. We go out there and have picnics all the time.”

“Well.” I kind of shifted back and forth from one foot to the other. “They got a trail out there that leads through the woods and all the way up to these real great cliffs looking out over the lake. You ever hike up there any?”

“No,” she said. “We don't do much hiking. My dad and all.”

“That's right. I guess that was dumb.”

“That's okay.” She reached over and touched my arm real light just to show she didn't take no offense. “I'd like to hike up there. I bet it's beautiful in the fall.”

“It sure is. You'd really like it.” The only thing I had left to say was how about we both go out there together, but all the sudden, a hand clamped down on my arm and yanked me around the other direction.

It was Blaine, and he looked mad. “What are you doing over here?”

I started to explain, but he didn't let me get a half of it out.
“You know what's been happening while you was piddling around?” He didn't wait for me to answer that one neither. “C'mere and take a look.”

He dragged me over about five yards so we could see past the corn-dog booth. At first, I didn't see what he was talking about, but then he pointed out this big oak way across the way, and there they was, three big boys and one little one all ganged around Misty Koonce.

“So what?” I said. For a second there, I guess I done forgot Misty was supposed to be my date.

It's guaranteed old Blaine didn't forget, though. His eyes flamed up hotter than a couple of Bunsen burners. “I'll tell you
so what,
” he said. “Take a look at them red letter jackets over there. Okalah boys. Trying to snake your date right out from under you.”

“Looks to me like they're just talking,” I said. Truth be told, I wouldn't have minded if Misty did hook up with someone else. That way I wouldn't feel bad over how much I was enjoying talking to Sara when I was supposed to be on a date with another girl. Let Misty traipse off with them boys to Tucumcari, New Mexico, or anywheres else they wanted. I'd just stay here and hang with Sara till they folded the refreshment booths up and tore the Ferris wheel down. That'd be fine by me.

Course, Blaine didn't see it that way. He got going on how them Okalah characters was not only disrespecting me but the whole Knights team and the town of Kennisaw to boot. “You might let people walk all over you like that,” he said. “But I ain't gonna let 'em get away with it.”

You should've heard him. He was so full up with righteousness he might as well have been behind a high pulpit with
one of them shiny blue robes on. Me, I didn't care so much if they did snake Misty off, but I had to admit them boys was showing some pretty hefty disrespect for us Kennisaw folk. Blaine had that pegged one hundred percent. Here I was, out on a date with Misty Koonce in her pink sweater, and these boys roll into our town, bent on hauling her off with them. For all they knew, I could've been in love with her too. Flat-out, jelly-legged, perfume-hypnotized, trophy-stealing in love. And they didn't care no more than if I was nothing but a little old ant trying to haul a bread crumb up a slick hill.

Man alive. The boys at school wouldn't never let me live that one down.

“Okalah's been pressing their luck against us for a long time.” The way Blaine sounded, you'd have thought the whole town done him wrong someways instead of just a couple players. “I was gonna just wait and lay down the law on the football field, but when they come into our town, going after our girls, I ain't about to stand around and let 'em get away with that crap.”

I didn't blame him for being mad about the way them boys cut his knee out on him, not one bit. It made me mad too. Course, the ones that really done it had already graduated and was gone by this season, but somehow that didn't make no difference right then. We was just thinking,
Buddy, if you're wearing a red letter jacket with an O pasted on front, you better look out
.

“So,” Blaine said. “You coming, or am I gonna have to take care of this alone?”

I glanced back at Sara. The wind whipped her hair across her face, and she pulled it back. “What's going on?” she said.

“Don't worry,” I told her. “This won't take long.”

Just like that, I left her and took off after Blaine. How can you explain something like that? One second, I'm standing there talking to a brown-eyed girl about how pretty it is out around Lake Hawkshaw, and the next thing you know, I'm storming off across the park with my fists balled up.

“Let me do the talking,” Blaine said when we was about halfway there.

“But she's my date.”

He waved that off. “Don't matter. Just leave it to me and jump in when I need you.”

“But we're just gonna talk to 'em, right?” I was already starting to lose some steam over the deal.

“Depends,” Blaine said over his shoulder. He was walking out in front of me a little ways. It always bugged me when he done that. Made me feel like I wasn't nothing but a henchman. Like in the movies, how the gangster boss snaps his fingers at the big dumb guy and orders him to do the dirty work.

Over by Misty, the Okalah boys laughed at something. Judging from their size, I guessed they was a linebacker, two running backs, and a little free safety. The linebacker—a big meaty type with a blond crew cut and a wide red face—had his hand on her shoulder while the others stood around gawking at her chest like she was on TV or something instead of right there where she could catch them. Blaine was right—we didn't need these boys in our town. But that didn't mean we had to get in a fight or nothing. Best thing to do was just to shame them into slinking off with their tails between their legs. Blaine was an expert at that kind of thing, so I expected he had him a surefire speech ready to go. I should've known better.

Without saying word one, he barreled straight into their
little half circle, and just as the big blond linebacker turned his head, a fat old Romeo grin on his face, Blaine whipped a right so hard into his mouth the kid's knees buckled and he went down about like a Christmas tree the day after New Year.

Aw crap,
I thought.
Here we go
.
Two of us against four of them
.

“What the hell?” the little free safety said. The running back next to him started towards Blaine, but I grabbed him by the jacket and slung him to the ground.

“Hey,” Misty yelled. “What do you two think you're doing?”

Blaine just glared at the two kids left standing next to her and said, “We don't allow Okalah boys in our town, and we sure as hell don't let 'em talk to our girls.” He stood there in his wide-legged stance with his fists clenched at his sides. “And we don't put up with sorry-ass football players that go for a guy's knees on purpose neither.”

“I'll talk to anyone I want to,” Misty said.

The running back I'd slung down was up on his feet again now, and the blond linebacker was up on one knee, dabbing at his lip with his fingertips.

“I'll talk to the man in the moon if I want to,” Misty kept on. “You can't come in here and…”

Before she could finish, the linebacker launched up into Blaine's waist. Then the running back I'd grabbed before charged again, and I slung him right back down. The free safety stepped off to the side, but the second running back lunged in and clipped me a pretty good one on the ear. I shoved him backwards and hit him in the chest with a left and then a roundhouse right into his jaw. I was in the middle
of it now. No last chances to choose any other ways. Arms and legs was flying everywhere, and a crowd come circling up, hooting and hollering, and little old Misty went to wailing like a siren going off.

Blaine was straddling the blond kid on the ground and the little free safety was kicking at him, but I had both the running backs on me, so my hands was too full to help him. We might've bit off more than we could chew, but Jake Sweet jumped in out of the crowd and took one of them boys off me. That would've been the end for the Okalah bunch right there, even if it was four of them against three of us, but Assistant Coach Liddell and Officer Longacre off the Kennisaw police force busted in and started pulling us off one another.