Monster (8 page)

Angela considered a moment. They were at a funeral
–
a
double funeral, for that matter.
Jim
had been Mary's
boyfriend, and Mary was her best friend
. He was right; t
his wasn't the
time
to be discussing such matters.
Jim
wasn't asking her out on a date
–
not
really. He just
wanted to talk. There could be no harm in that
.

“
Sure,
” she said. “That'd be fine.”

Angela got home around eleven o'clock. Her gran
dfather
was still asleep. He kept late hours when he was on
the
prowl for a new woman, which he had been for the
last week.
A week searching was a long time for him. Ang
ela
closed his bedroom door before sitting down at the ki
tc
h
en
table to read the paper. Mary
's
rampage was still fron
t
-p
age
news. Angela had asked the police that her role in
the
events not be discussed,
and so far she had avoided being
turned into a hero by the media. She hadn't
gone to
school
on Monday and didn'
t know how her classmates were going
to treat her. She had no taste for the hero role, especially
at
the expense of her best friend and two dead
classmates.

Angela had hardly set
tl
ed herself when there
came a
knock at her door. It was Kevin Christopher, a guy
from
her class who lived up the road
.
Next to Mary, he
was
the best friend she had in the small communit
y of P
oi
nt. Their friendship m
igh
t have been even closer if he hadn’t
developed an immediate crush on her when they first
met
at the beginning of
the summer. He made no secret o
f
his
devotion to her, which both flattered her and mad
e
her uneasy
.
Kevin was short, about five eight, with a m
ess of
black hair and a grin that would light up at the sligh
t
reference to his favourite subjec
t
s, which, of course, w
ere
sex and sex. Yet Angela believed Kevin had never had
sex
outside the confines of his own head. Too much the alt
ar
boy, he was never crude, even when he was trying
to
be.
He simply didn't have the experience to draw upon, she figured.

Not that she had any. In fact, they made a great pair, both virgins pretend
ing they had been around the world
on a waterbed. She cared a great deal for Kevin
.
He
made
her laugh, and she sure could have used him over
the
weekend
.
Yet she hadn't seen him since before
the
party
and
didn't know where he had been.

“
Am I late?
”
he asked as she opened
the
door.

She
smiled, although it was forced. The funerals had taken more out of her than she had
realized
. “
You are
jus
t
in tim
e. Come
in,
ta
ke off your clothes. Let's do it
q
uick
.
My husband will be back in a few minutes.
”

Kevin
jumped inside the door
. “Where is he?”

“
With your
wife.”

“
The
tramp.”

“
Really.
How w
ould y
ou like it today?
”

“
Hard and fast,
”
he said.

“Is there any other way?”
she asked. Then she laughed
as
he grabbed her, and she pushed him away. She really
didn
't feel like clowning around. “
Calm down, boy. My
husband is asleep in the next room.”

Pre
tending disappointment, he said,
“
Maybe next time
.”

“There's always time,”
she agreed. They carried on like
this
whenever they saw each other. It had become a ritual. But some
time
s
she worried
if she
hurt his feelings because
she
was the one who had to bring him back to earth. She
wished
she had romantic feelings for Kevin
–
they might
even have had fun together.
He was handsome enough,
but
h
e
just didn't
do
i
t
for her.

Not t
he way, say
,
Jim
Kline
did.

But
w
e
're not going
t
o think about
that
. He's a monst
er, re
member? He eats poor unsuspecting visitors.

M
a
ry had a sick imagination. Maybe she could write
horror
books
in
prison and make a fortune.

“
A and W,
”
Kevin said, giving her a quick hug
. “
How are
you?”
He often called her
–
Angela Warner
–
A & W in honour of
his
favourite root beer. Before she could respond
he let
go of her and strode into the house to plop down on the
living
-room couch.
“It's nice to be home,”
he said.

H
e
r grandfather's place
was
a two-storey cedar fra
m
e built on an open plan, with exposed beams in the v
aulted c
e
i
ling. The wood was heavil
y lacquered pine and polished ce
dar
.
A huge basement ran the
l
ength of the house.
The living-room's sliding glass windows opened out
on
to Point Lake, which was calm on this warm, sunny
day.
Kevin sat and glanced at the water, on the far side
of
which stood Point High, only a year old. It had been b
uilt directl
y on the shore; half the classrooms had a great vi
ew
which made bored minds wander. Angela went over
and
sat on the couch beside Kevin.

“Hey, girl,”
Kevin said, not meaning Angela. Plastic,
her
grandpa's collie, came bouncing into the room and sho
ved
her head on to Kevin's lap. Angela loved the dog
– she
was beautiful
–
but Plastic had reservations about An
gela.
Perhaps she resented having another female in the ho
use.
But with Kevin, Plastic couldn't show enough affecti
on.
She hungrily rose and licked his face. Angela let it
go
on for a moment until Kevin began to lick her
b
ack
.
She motioned for Plastic to return to he
r
favourite sunn
ing
spot
,
a wooden balcony that jutted out from both
her
grandfather
’
s upstairs bedroom and her own, ten
feet
directly over the water. Plastic could lie on the bal
cony
for hours, staring at the water. One would have thought
she
was a cat searching for fish. Yet the dog never dived in
.

“
Go, girl,
” Angela said. “Go see the water.”

Plastic looked at her with her who-the-hell-do-you-
think-
you-are
-
g
ivin
g-me-
o
rders expression. But she turned
and
went up the stairs, nudged the slider open, and went
out
to sun herself.

“
Smart dog
,” Kevin remarked.

“Yeah,” Angela agreed. “
She likes you more than m
e.”

“
Most young females in hea
t do.”

“Where have you been?”
she asked.

“
I've been here and I've been there. And I've bee
n in
between.
”
He paused.
“Did you go to the funerals?”

“
Yes. I just go
t back. How come you didn't go?”

“I wasn't invited to the party.”

“Be thankful for small favours.”

“How were they?”
he asked.

“
The funerals? Awful. I don't know why they bury
people.
I
don't want to be buried.”

“Do you want to be cremated?” Kevin asked.

“
I want to be shot into space and dropped into the sun. Really, where have you been? How come you didn't call back this weekend?
I
called you twice
.”

“
Did you leave a message?
” he asked.

“Two.”

“
Can I use the excuse
that my machine wasn't working?”
he
asked.

“I
f you really need to. But
I
needed you this weekend.”

Kevin appeared genuinely concerned. He was ordinarily protective of her. He reached over
and put his hand on her knee. “
I'm sorry
.
I went to a computer convention in Chicago. I didn't even know about the shootings until I got back late last nigh
t.”

“
How come you didn't tell me you were going to this c
onvention?”

“
Because I
didn't get invited to the party.”

“You said that already.”

“Then it must be doubly true,”
he said.

Now she was concerned.
“
D
id it upset you that I went to t
he party without asking you? You understand it wasn't my p
arty.
I couldn't invite
people.”

Kevin nodded.
“
It was
Jim
Kline's, I know. And he almost
got
killed at it. The w
ord is that you saved his life.”

“
That's an exagge
ration. The cops saved his life.”

“
I heard you took
a bullet that was meant for him.”

Angela laughed.
“
These stories. Does it look like I took
a
bullet
meant for anybody?”

He
studied her for a minute. “
You look terrible, Angie,
”
he said
quietl
y.

Angela sniffed and
l
owered her eyes, playing with her fingers, an old habit of hers whenever she was upset.
“Of co
urse I look terrible, I feel
terrible. Two people died, and M
ary's in jail. I don't know
.
I almost feel like leaving Point
and
going back to live with one of my parents. They only fo
ught with words –
they didn't use shotguns.
”