New Title 3 (2 page)

“
You know, if that Grimm Reaper is for real, we're pretty much screwed.” Sara looked uneasy.

“
I think the government can deal with this chump.” I put my arm around her, noticing that she had gooseflesh under her blouse. She rested her head against my chest, her perfumed hair fluttering each time I exhaled. We both closed our eyes and drifted off.

When I awoke, it was four-thirty in the afternoon. Sara was gone, but had left a note on the coffee table asking me to call her later. I smiled and made a mental note to thank Connor when I saw him again.

The house was too silent, so I turned on the radio. The news was on, but instead of yet another Grimm Reaper broadcast, they were airing an investigative report on a new drug that had proven to be over eighty-five percent effective in the treatment of depression. I laughed and swigged some orange juice. A drug like that would go over big time in the face of the world’s current problems. Shit, they should just dump it in water supplies everywhere. Then, if the Grimm Reaper struck, we would fry happy.

The sudden crash of thunder drowned out the commentator’s voice. Grinning in anticipation, I ran to the front door, opened it, and stepped onto the porch. The skies were the colour of slate, creating an unreal backdrop for the vibrant green trees and hills. I wasn’t sure what I loved the most about thunderstorms: the unearthly stillness that preceded them, the glorious shout of thunder, or the freaky lightshow in the sky. I was still pondering the issue when my roommate Kevin pulled into the driveway.

“
Joel!” He shouted at me as he vaulted out of his pickup. “It’s going to storm- close the windows in the addition before my paintings are wrecked!!”

Before I could react, the skies opened up. Kevin was soaked before he reached the door. He tore past me, running up the stairs three at a time. I heard the frantic sound of windows being slammed closed. Then he came back down, his glasses dotted with rain and ‘Pro Painters’ t-shirt clinging to his bony frame.

“
Shit. That was close. I need a drink.” He reached into one of his deep pockets. “I brought some whiskey with me. Do we have any ginger ale left?”

“
Yeah there should be some in the fridge. Make me one too. I'll be there in a minute.”

*****

That night Sara came over. Before we went to bed, I decided to introduce her to a ritual I’d always cherished.

I guided her onto the overhang just outside my bedroom window. The storm long past, the night sky was beset with stars. Pointing upward, I asked her to pick a point of light and stay with it. Standing up, I eased Sara to her feet. Whispering into her ear, I asked, “Have you ever stood under a star, staring intensely, and felt the earth move under your feet?”

I was showing her something that I’d discovered one starry night many years ago. I’d been leaning against a pine tree in the woods behind the house, gazing at all the famous constellations: Big Dipper, Orion, and others. Suddenly I felt as if I were moving, although my feet had not budged. I later learned that the sensation was the earth rotating, something the average person did not notice until the stars provided a point of reference. A smile came to Sara’s face as she experienced the same thing now, in my arms. Connected…

*****

After breakfast, Sara helped me study. The coming week meant exams for some of our crowd, and the commencement of summer jobs for others. I would start working in another three weeks. I’d told the interviewer that my exams were over then, when in reality school would be finished for me in a week. I just wanted the extra fourteen days to relax, drink, party, and have no commitment to anything except my own pleasure.

Little did I know that two weeks from now, my summer job would be the very least of my inconveniences.

T
he Grimm Reaper was mentioned on the radio again. I listened to the broadcast while shaving. Hostess Samantha McGinnis was grilling some military figure about the magnitude of the Reaper threat. The guest assured her that the media had taken yet another psycho’s threats and blown them out of proportion.

“
There is no possibility of anything coming of this,” he said calmly. “No single individual has the resources to pull off an operation as large as he’s suggesting. It is absurd to believe so and unfortunate that this man has the ability to instill such fear into so many via a tool like the Internet.”

I changed the channel and started making dinner. Connor breezed through the front door with a pack of pints and set them on the kitchen table.

“
I’ve got a great idea for our last weekend before you start working, Joel!”

I popped the case open and helped myself to a beer. “Let’s hear it.”

“
Let’s get everyone together, I mean
everybody
, and go up to the lake for a couple days. Camping, canoeing, a little fishing. We’ll go to the same spot we did two years ago with Ruby and Jill.” He stopped to grab a drink. “Only it’ll be way better this time. Get Sara and Julia to come, you know?”

Sounded good to me, but before I could say so, Sonny appeared behind Connor. Both of us jumped at the sight of him.

“
Shit! Sonny, you scared the life outta us!” I complained. “Can’t you knock once in a while?”

He didn’t answer. Face grim, he grabbed a beer from the pack, but didn’t open it. He kept flexing his fingers, as if the beer can was a neck he longed to break. “Someone’s been fucking around out in the field with our pot plants. Any ideas as to who I should beat on?”

“
What happened to them?” We’d cultivated some 20 plants along the farmers’ field the length of my property line.

“
It looks like half the crop has been torn out. At the roots! Pisses me off, man.” He opened the beer can, took an enormous swallow, and sat down. “Well, I have to hurt somebody over this.” He paused, and then brightened. “Hey, I hear you and Sara from Cedar Links hooked up!”

When I nodded, he winked and turned to Connor. “What are you doing with a girl like Julia anyways, Connor? She’s not your type.”

“
Maybe we’re coming up in the world. You should try it.”

“
Bite me. After Ruby, dating a cow would be coming up in the world.”

We all chuckled and clinked cans: he had a point. Then Connor said, “Sonny, what do you say to camping up at the lake next weekend?”

He shrugged his massive shoulders. “Yeah, sounds like a plan.”

Our buddy Earl joined us an hour later. Earl was the human version of a dynamite stick: light his fuse and disaster would follow. He always wore a baseball cap jammed over his shaggy curls, and he was a gun nut, which wasn’t a good match with his temper. But that evening, I was happy to see him come in with his rifle slung across his shoulders. Maybe he would finally shoot that damn skunk.

I’d first encountered the skunk almost two weeks earlier. Earl and I spent the afternoon cruising along the forest trails on our five-wheeler. I was driving. Earl saw the skunk first, planted firmly in the path ahead. He yelled at me to stop, and I did, but the sudden motion sent him flying off the vehicle. He landed on his shoulder and rolled right into the little black and white bastard, who did what all skunks do when they’re pissed off. I remembered Earl’s .22, which we’d brought along for target practice, and threw it to him, knowing that if he didn’t kill the skunk then and there we’d all be hearing about it until the score was finally settled. Before Earl could even take aim, the skunk, which was missing its left front foot, hobbled off into the bushes that lined the trail. I’d been seeing it on my property ever since: on the front lawn, beside the pool, in the garage. It seemed to stare at me with those beady black eyes, more bold than most wild animals in the presence of humans, although I knew skunks were mostly blind so perhaps I was imagining this. Either way it made me almost as nervous as the Reaper, although I couldn’t explain why.

Earl was soaking wet and annoyed. “I can’t shoot a skunk in this shit!” He gestured toward the window, which was streaked with rain. The weather had taken a turn for the worse during dinner.

“
You can’t shoot a skunk at all!” Sonny reminded him. We laughed.

“
Nice, Sonny, thanks.” Earl laid the rifle carefully against the wall and peeled off his wet shirt and jacket. “Well, if I see that little prick here tonight, Stinky will find out that all skunks don’t go to heaven.”

“
Here, Earl, light this up for us.” Conner passed him a freshly rolled joint. We smoked it and retired to the addition, where Kevin resided. Surrounded by Kevin’s art, we sat and listened to the rain pound on the roof. This was a real powerhouse of a storm. The weather was definitely taking a turn for the worse. We were safe though, we reveled in storms such as these. I felt safe in my father’s house.

*****

Earl was up first on Saturday morning, being the resilient party animal that he was, so when the doorbell rang, he answered it.

Jake Sanders was sitting on the stoop. Jake was the sort that just showed up at parties, the kind of guy you saw once in awhile, which was good considering we could only take him in short spurts. Jake was a casebook addict, strung out on my doorstep and looking for a hit. I was willing to bet that he was to blame for stealing our crop, though I would never have told Sonny that. Jake used to be one of us, one of our best friends. Then he began chasing the dragon, and now he just ate, slept and did drugs.

His mother had been killed along with my father on the way home from their joint business venture in the next town. Our families were partners in a hardware store. Maybe that was why I felt like I should try to understand and help him instead of turn my back as so many others had. His dad turned to the bottle after the accident so there wasn’t a whole lot of support at home.

I had come downstairs in response to the doorbell, and invited him in for coffee. When he came into the kitchen, Sonny stared him down as if sharing my suspicions about the pot theft.

“
Drink this, Jake,” I said as I poured a glass of O.J. “We were just going to kill a skunk that’s been hanging around here. Want to join us?”

“
Can I just stick around here?”

“
Sure, I’ll hang back with you.” Although too ashamed to admit it, I worried that he might steal something to feed his habit, so I waved the rest of them off to hunt the elusive skunk.

When Sonny, Earl, and Connor walked out the back door with loaded rifles, I poured Jake a coffee and asked, “Want something to eat?”

He nodded, so I started cracking eggs into a bowl. Scrambled was my specialty.

“
They won’t be good like Connor’s, but I’ll do my best.” I forced a smile- why did I feel like I was babysitting a three year old?

While I was stirring the eggs, Kevin came through the door, struggling with a massive board. “I’m taking it upstairs for a painting,” he explained.

“
That’s cool. Come back down for breakfast.”

“
Will do!” He ascended the stairs carefully, the board wobbling in his grasp. “I brought my dog- she’s just outside.”

Hearing that, I ran out to the balcony and warned Earl and the guys that Kevin’s dog was loose. She wasn’t black and white, but she could rattle a bush or two, and accidents happen. They gave me the thumbs up before disappearing into the woods.

Jake ate only a few bites of breakfast, and spent the rest of his visit smoking weed. I was relieved when he wandered off at around 3 o’clock, leaving me alone with Sara and Julia, who dropped by for a swim and a beer. The hunting party returned to home base soon after 4:00 p.m. Earl was pissed off that they couldn’t find old Stinky, but I just hoped that Dali, Kevin’s dog, wasn’t more successful in that department. We were debating whether or not we should risk a barbecue under the darkening skies, when rain suddenly came pelting down.

“
Again with the rain!” Julia complained. “Damn it, history had better not be repeating itself.” Last summer had been a complete washout, literally, with over 28 days of rain. The ducks had been happy, but we humans had to deal with flooded roads and backed-up sewers. Still swearing, she took Connor’s arm, and hurried inside with him.

Sonny pulled his van keys out of his pocket. “Alright, I’m hitting the road. I have a lot of crap I gotta take care of at home. See you guys in a bit.” He pulled the magazine he had been reading over his head and jogged around the corner of the house.

“
I’m out of here too.” Earl ran after him. “Call you later, Joel.”

I waved goodbye, then turned to Sara, who had just climbed out of the pool. “Coming in?”

“
Joel, I thought you said you loved staying out in a rain storm. Let’s stick it out for a while. Could be killer, didn’t you think?”

Man, was this girl for me. I wished that we weren’t going separate ways come the fall. God, I was pathetic, already experiencing separation anxiety.

We walked down to where the freshly mowed lawn met the wild, rollicking field and laid down on the grass. The rain intensified, and then thunder boomed, driving Sara to wrap herself around me. We remained open to the elements until the cold became too much and we started shivering. Springing to our feet, we raced each other into the house, where we towel-dried our hair and threw bathrobes over our swimming gear.

Connor and Julia were lounging on the living room sofa, munching sandwiches. The news was on, and as usual it was ominous. Sara shifted uncomfortably next to me as the Grimm Reaper took center stage yet again. Before I could reassure her, the phone rang. It was my mom, calling from Australia.