On Little Wings (36 page)

“If everybody’s goin’, then I’m goin’,” Little insisted. “’Sides, the girl’ll need someone on her side.”

“Her side?” Nathan challenged in disgust.

“Tough gal. It’s hard to go after what you want,” she said as she pushed herself up using the arms of her chair.

“She’s a little girl!” Nathan shouted at her. Little’s eyebrows rose in scorn.

I whipped around to Nathan. “She’s my age!”

“Never mind,” Sarah said above us. “We can’t afford to fight right now. Let’s just go.” Nathan and I broke our glaring contest. “I’ll get my car. Hester, girl, you run home and tell your mom that we’re checking the dock. Tell her to call us if she hears anything.” Hester nodded, a gleam of regret that she had to miss whatever came next.

“That’s your sister, too?” My mother asked Nathan as Little disappeared.

He nodded quickly, flicking the question like a fly. “I’m not waiting. I’m leaving now,” Nathan said. With Little safe from the grip of the Angel of Death, his urgency resurged.

“No,” Sarah demanded. “No. You let one of us get there first. I know you, Nathan.”

He started to argue but I put a hand on his arm and spoke to Sarah. “I’m going with him now. I’ll make sure he doesn’t do anything stupid.” I looked to my mother’s face, still stunned by the vortex of drama swirling around her entrance to Smithport. “Are you going to ride with Little?”

Her hazel eyes flickered in confusion, “I’m going with you.”

Nathan wouldn’t tolerate another word. Minutes later we were at his truck, climbing up onto the torn, fabric bench. I was so close to Nathan that I could smell him. Every time he changed gears his shoulder knocked into mine and despite my worry for Claudia, despite my mother stiff beside me, I couldn’t make my body ignore his touch.

“Do you think they eloped?” My mother asked as the engine roared and Nathan slammed it into fourth gear, knocking my knee with his knuckles.

“I have no idea what the age laws are here. But she’s sixteen. I doubt it’s legal,” Nathan responded with a curl of his lip.

“What if they aren’t there? At the boat?” I asked him.

“If Harvey’s there we’ll ask if he’s seen them.”

“Harvey?” My mother asked, a new worry appearing in her voice.

“Yes, your Harvey. I’m sorry Claire, but we have to go see him.” Nathan’s answer shocked me so completely that I didn’t know on whom to focus my accusing stare.

“
Your
Harvey?” I asked my mother.

“He isn’t …how do you know me, again?” she asked Nathan, her face nonplussed.

“I don’t have time for delicacy,” Nathan muttered, watching the road as he hit Main Street too fast. “I know you because I know Sarah. Everyone knows you.” Then he directed his words to me. “Harvey is your mom’s old boyfriend. She broke his heart when she ran away.” My mother opened her mouth to protest a strange teenage boy telling her life story, but Nathan kept going. “And don’t worry. Harvey’s fine. He left for college and married a girl from Portland. Three kids.” The truck engine cut off abruptly and Nathan leaped out. “You can come or stay. Doesn’t matter,” he told us through his open window as he paused with his door half open.

“I’m coming,” I said and slid out behind him. “You might have told me about Harvey before now,” I breathed low.

“I didn’t run away. I went to college!” My mother insisted as she shoved her door open.

“Come on,” he answered and pulled my hand. His grip was warm and tight.

“Didja see …” I heard one of the Jacks ask as we hurtled past them. I would have to apologize later. I scanned the dock. The water lapped smoothly where Jake’s boat usually sat.

“Harvey!” Nathan yelled, rushing past the empty square of ocean toward Harvey’s boat with the dull red hull. The wrinkles around Harvey’s eyes crowded together as he poked his head out of his cabin and squinted into the sun to see who was calling for him.

“Harvey, have you seen Jake’s boat?” Nathan asked.

Harvey slowly mounted his small staircase. “Yup. He took it out a couple hours ago,” He scratched his stubbled chin.

“Was Will with him?” Nathan enunciated each word clear and slow, his hands poised in an open position, like he meant to capture Harvey’s answer with his fingers.

“Nah. Don’t believe so. He took it out hisself. Just checking the pumps. Something wrong?” His words drawled out, the answers unfurling at an agonizing pace.

“We can’t find Claude,” Nathan answered. “Or Will.” His lip curled with dislike when he added the last two words.

“Well, I reckon …” Harvey’s eyes, which had been roaming vaguely, focused on something over my shoulder. He dropped his words, letting them slur into silence. “Claire?” He murmured.

I turned to see my mother walking slowly behind us, her hand raised to chest height in a stiff wave. The pink of her face deepened as we tracked her approach. She stopped several feet away from us. “Hi, Harvey,” she said it like she expected him to attack her.

Harvey chewed on something in his mouth, but I think it was his own cheek. He never took his eyes from my mother’s face as he reached into his holey jeans and pulled out a toothpick that he shoved between his back teeth. I couldn’t see any similarities to my proper, shy father. I studied my mother, looking for any sign of regret.
Could this have been the man she spent her life with?
Even Nathan bridled his impatience long enough to observe the unfolding scene.

“So yuh home, huh?” Harvey asked, his face betraying no emotion, but his teeth gnawing vigorously.

“I’m
here
,” my mother corrected gently. She looked at me. “You met Jennifer?”

He nodded once and said “huh” in an agreeable tone.

“And you’ve got three of your own?” She said too brightly.

“Huh.” The toothpick bobbed on his lip as he chewed.

In the uncomfortable quiet my mother shoved her hands into the pocket of her light jacket and sucked in a breath like a diver about to go under. “Harvey, this isn’t the time or place, but I’m only here today, so I better just tell you that I’m sorry. It doesn’t count for much twenty years late …”

“Huh.” This time his mouth flicked up in the briefest smile and the flexible syllable stretched into something that sounded like, “It’s water under the bridge.”

My mother shifted her weight, relief and shame leaving her face a mottled red. “So you haven’t seen the girl they’re looking for?” She asked.

“Nuh.” Harvey managed to shove the toothpick with his tongue to the other side of his mouth. “She’s not around here. I thought that was the one scared a’ boats,” he said to Nathan.

“She is. But we’re running out of places to check,” Nathan scanned the horizon and I knew he was deciding where to go next.

“We could ask the Jacks,” I suggested.

“They were too drunk last night to remember anything,” Nathan glanced up to their bench.

“Jake said something about a proposal last night,” Harvey said off-handedly.

“Decided to mention that, did you?” Nathan’s hand flew up in frustration.

“Didn’t suppose he meant Will. Just thought he was talking about one of his deckhands,” Harvey shifted his weight to his other leg.

“What exactly did he say?” My mother asked nervously, as if afraid to interrupt.

“Jus’ said it was a romantic night for a proposal. I was getting’ my fireworks ready. Didn’t hear no mo’.”

“But Will was on the boat for the show, right? So they had to go somewhere after …” I thought out loud.

“Yuh, he was on the boat. Call the hotels yet?” Harvey’s bored voice made his question a hundred times worse.

I diverted my embarrassed eyes, trying not to see the flush of fury washing over Nathan’s face. “We can try Michael’s house,” I suggested.

“That’d be real classy,” Nathan muttered in disgust.

His cell phone let out a jarring jangle and Nathan thrust his hand into his pocket like he was grabbing a drowning man from water. Before the second ring sounded the black phone was at his ear.

“Yeah,” he said, his teeth not opening to let the word out. His tight jaw flexed and he gave another clipped, “Yeah. Bye.” A flat, black fire burned at the center of his eyes when he turned to us. “They’re home.”

I breathed a sigh of relief in unison with my mother. Harvey just pulled the corner of his lips down thoughtfully. “Well, then.” he gave my mother one nod. “It’s good you came back,” he said before he turned back to his boat.

She lingered uncertainly, watching his back before she ducked and said a timid, “thanks.”

Nathan stalked up the dock in silence, anger building visibly under his skin, stiffening his limbs. “What’s the matter?” Glenn asked gruffly when we passed them. Nathan didn’t slow or turn his head. I’m not sure he knew Glenn was there. I’m not sure he knew
he
was there. I shrugged a fast apology and tried to keep up with Nathan.

“I’ll drive,” my mother said when we got to the car. Nathan turned his dead face on her and she ignored his expression, holding out her hands for the keys. “Trust me, it’s hard to drive when you want to kill someone,” she said calmly, her eyes not moving from his. I watched in disbelief as he dropped the cluster of keys into her hand. I took my seat in between them and felt the car jerk to life. “Roll down your window. Try to calm down,” my mother instructed him like a flight attendant.

“You broke Harvey’s heart?” I finally found my voice again and decided against addressing Nathan in his current state.

“I didn’t mean to. I wrote to him. He was one of the only ones. I told him I was sorry. Told him I was okay,” She answered as the car gathered speed. “But I never told him where I went. I knew he’d tell Sarah.”

“I didn’t know you could drive a stick,” I told her.

A grim smile crossed her face. “Judith still live at Boulder Bend?” Mother asked.

I nodded.

“I don’t think we should take him yet,” she said, tilting her head at Nathan.

“Try and stop me,” he growled.

“Nathan, we don’t know anything. Let them explain first,” I begged.

He didn’t acknowledge me, just kept his face trained out the open window. The wind blew his sandy hair and whipped strands of mine onto his shoulder until I reached up and pulled it into one hand. The truck bounced onto Haven Lane, past Shelter Cove and down to Boulder Bend. A small congregation waited on the front yard; Sarah and Little stood beside Judith and across from them Will slouched awkwardly beside Claudia, guilt and worry wrinkling his forehead. Claudia stood tall, but her defiant stance didn’t make her tiny body look any older. My mother rolled to a slow stop and killed the engine.

The door whipped open and Nathan jumped down, midstride, plunging toward Claudia. “Where have you been?” he kept his voice just below a shout.

“Nathan,” she said, half angry, half placating. “Wait.”

“Where have you been?” He yelled. Sarah and Judith moved toward him. I left the door swinging on its hinges and followed behind him. My mother said my name but I ignored her. Nathan was a torrential wave, not stopping for anyone, headed straight for Claudia and Will. “Were you with him all night?”

“Not like you think,” Claudia said, her hands up in surrender.

Will slid in front of Claudia right as Nathan reached them. As fluid as his undaunted stride across the yard, Nathan’s fist swung over his head and then down in a grand arch, collecting Will’s face as it plunged toward the ground. I heard other screams over my own and watched Will collapse almost to the grass before staggering back up, his fists clenched.

I’d never seen someone make another person bleed, but bloody spit trailed from Will’s mouth. I heard Sarah shouting angrily at Nathan, she was running, but Will put his long arm up, telling her to step back.

Claudia, over her first abrupt shock, sprung on Nathan with a vicious wrath. Her small fists pummeled his arm as she screamed. I could tell she didn’t even know what she was saying. Just letting the anger spew out like Will’s blood.

“Feel better?” Will asked, quieting everyone. His small eyes glinted with hate for Nathan but he took a step back to show he wasn’t going to retaliate. Nathan was strong, but I’d seen Will on his boat. He could do damage if he wanted.

Nathan took a threatening stomp closer to him, but Claudia was in the middle now, her hands up to her brother. “What did you do?” Nathan yelled. “What did you do to her?”

“Nothing!” Will shouted and spit some blood from his mouth. “We … I, I asked her to marry me.”

“She’s sixteen!” Nathan screamed.

“Not now. Later. In a few years. I just wanted to ask!” Will retorted, holding up a defensive hand as Nathan leaned closer.

“Over my dead body. Over yours!” Nathan yelled as he pointed a deadly finger at Will’s face.

Claudia wrenched his hand away from Will. I noticed a glint of gold flash in the hot sun. “What do you think you’re doing? You can’t tell people what to ask me! You’re not in charge of the world.” But even she, as tough as she was, stepped back under the tidal wave of Nathan’s rage. It crushed her into silence.

Will spared a fast glance for the circle of appalled women around him before addressing Nathan again, “Don’t you see what happens if we do this? It’s like Romeo and that cousin. Claude gets hurt no matter who wins. I’m not doing it.”

Nathan’s voice snaked down to a hiss. “You read
Shakespeare
? Is that to impress her? Is that to make her think you could actually stimulate her mind and not just …”

“We watched the movie,” Will explained, stepping to his left as Nathan stepped right.

“Trying to educate the village idiot?” Nathan asked Claudia. “You think it will make it okay to waste your life on him if he’s seen an old black and white movie?” Even I wanted to slap him for that one. If he wasn’t so coiled to fight, so ready to swing his fist blindly, I might have.

“It wasn’t old,” Will said. “It was the new one. With the guns. She’s not trying to make me anything I’m not.”

Nathan paused like an actor when the director yells cut. His face smoothed for a short instant in disbelief as he spoke to Claudia, “The Dicaprio movie?”

“I like that one best!” Her shrill cry pained my chest. “Better than the old ones. Better than the book. We’re different, Nathan. I’m not like you. I’ve never been good at the things you’re good at.” Her red, embarrassed face was beseeching. “That’s okay. That we’re different. Like it’s okay that Will and I are different.”