Serpentine (6 page)

EIGHT

It would be another three months before Joe would turn fifteen, but he was pretty sure he was finally starting to understand how the family dynamic worked. When he was being a gigantic dick to his family, he tended to get treated like a child. There had been times in the past where it had seemed that Mac had gotten more freedoms than he had just because she was a genuinely sweet and kindhearted child.

On the other hand, when he actually acted his age and stopped being so difficult, his parents treated him with something very much like respect. They gave him more freedom and treated him almost as an equal.

He’d sensed it ever since he had spent so much time with Mac down at the lake yesterday afternoon. His mother had warmed to him instantly. Then, over dinner, the entire family had all sat on the back porch, looking out to the lake over grilled hamburgers. There had been much laughter, and they had all enjoyed each other in a way that rarely happened.

That was why he had no reservations about testing the limits of that perceived freedom after dinner, only one day removed from such a milestone. Mac was watching a Disney movie, already in her pajamas and ready for bed even before the sun was down, when Joe went out onto the back porch. Both of his parents were sitting there in wooden Adirondack chairs, drinking beer and looking out to the lake.

“What’s up, buddy?” Drew asked him.

“Nothing. I really don’t feel like watching
Frozen
for the millionth time.”

“I hear that,” Drew said.

“That’s mean, guys,” Amy said. “You just have to let it go.
Let it g—”

“Don’t you
even
start that,” Drew said, shaking his head.

They all laughed at this, trying to keep it down as to not let Mac know that they were having too much fun at her favorite movie’s expense. There was something magical about it—something that once again made Joe feel like more of an adult.

“I was wondering,” Joe said. “Since we
did
pack my bike up on the U-Haul, I’d like to take it out for a ride.”

Both parents looked at him at the same time, studying him. He felt like an ant under a microscope, but he didn’t miss the fact that they seemed to be working together…as a unit. No fighting, no grudges, no cold shoulders. It was worth the awkwardness of having them stare him down.

They then looked to each other and shrugged at almost the same time before his dad turned back to him and nodded.

“That’s fine,” Drew said. “But make sure you take your phone. I want you back in an hour. Less would be better. And stay on the dirt roads. Don’t go back near the gravel and don’t even
think
about going to a main road.”

“Sure, Dad.”

“One hour,” Amy echoed. “If you’re gone for an hour and two minutes, there will be trouble.”

“Got it. Thanks, guys.”

Joe turned and headed down the steps before they had time to change their minds. He made his way around the edge of the house and took his bike from its place by the porch. He took his phone out of his pocket, checked the time, and then hopped on the bike.

He came to the end of the driveway and took a right. He had never been down that end of Kerr Lane and the shadowed road seemed to invite him further down. He wondered just how far down these vacation rentals went, finding it easy to imagine them winding all the way around the lake, tucked back in the seemingly endless forests. He pedaled slowly, enjoying the scenery. Kerr Lane was mostly straight, branching off on occasion for thinner roads that led to mobile homes that Joe could see from his perch on his bike.

He passed several cabins that looked incredibly similar to the one his family was staying in. Most of the license plates on the cars he saw in the driveways were from Virginia, but he also saw North Carolina plates, a few from Maryland and even one from Texas. He saw one family playing with a Frisbee in the front yard and, on more than one occasion, he could hear the laughter of children from behind the cabins as they splashed about in the lake.

He also heard the now-familiar buzzing of distant boat motors out on the water. He had been trying to come up with a clever way to subtly drop the hint to his dad that he’d like to go out on the water on such a boat. Joe had seen the brochures lying around the cabin and knew that there were a few places in Clarkton that rented out boats. His dad had been mostly cool as of late and the thought that Joe might be able to convince him wasn’t
totally
absurd.

Joe brought his bike to a four-way intersection that looked ominous in the shadows of the trees. Straight ahead, Kerr Lane kept venturing forward deeper into the woods. Another dirt road cut across it. A dusty road sign identified this road as Tucker Lane. Not wanting to veer too far off course and end up getting sidetracked or lost, Joe kept forward down Kerr Lane.

Twenty seconds later, when he first caught sight of the girl, he was very glad he had chosen to stay on course.

She was walking further up the road and closing in fast as Joe’s bike barreled forward. He gently tapped the brakes, not wanting to go rocketing past her, but also not wanting to creep by her like some perverted stalker.

From behind, all Joe could tell was that she had raven black hair that was put up into a messy ponytail. She wore a spaghetti-strapped shirt that showed her small tanned shoulders and a pair of shorts that wouldn’t pass any school’s dress code. Even without seeing her from the front, Joe assumed that she must be sixteen or older. Far out of his league, for sure.

He caught up to her and she apparently heard his bike as it neared. She turned around slightly, still not breaking stride from her walk. She gave him a slight smile, waved, and then turned back to face the direction she was headed.

Joe saw at once that she was younger than he had thought. Her face looked young, but sort of defined in a way that he had started to notice in most of the girls in his grade. It was the sort of thing teenaged boys that weren’t quite obsessed with sex just yet were still able to pick up on.

She’s my age,
he thought.
She’s my age, and—

The thought came to an abrupt stop as his bicycle seemed to hiccup, stop, and tilt forward. Joe was taken off-guard and went sailing forward, flying over the handlebars. As he did a half-flip forward and felt himself momentarily suspended in the air, he barely had time to think:
what the hell was that?

Then he hit the ground on his back. The air whooshed out of him and he heard a gasping sound escape his throat. He was barely aware of his bike clattering to the ground beside him.

As he whooped for breath and started to try getting up, he felt blood trickling down his hand. He looked at his left palm and saw that he had skinned it up pretty badly. He blinked at the sight of the blood and then noticed the figure that slowly started to come into focus to his right. He blinked once more, wondering if his vision was blurring from the impact, but then he remembered the girl he had been ogling over just before he’d crashed.

Oh my God,
he thought,
that’s so embarrassing, that’s so—

“If you had have landed on your feet,” the girl said, “that would have been awesome.”

Joe gave her a perplexed look as he tried sucking air in. Although he took a moment to search for the right words, the only thing that came out of his mouth, through a strangled gasp for breath, was
“Huh?”

“Are you okay?” she asked.

Her face started to come into focus. She was smiling down at him, her dark eyes sparkling with mischief. It was clear that she wasn’t yet sure if she should be concerned for him or if she was allowed to laugh. Joe knew he had better say or do something quickly or he’d lose her.

“I’m good,” he said, sitting up slowly. He looked behind him to see what had caused the crash. It was nothing more than a stray branch that had fallen from one of the overhanging trees.

“You sure?” she asked. She offered her hand and Joe looked at it oddly for a moment. He made sure not to reach out with his bloody hand and then took it. She helped him to his feet and he dusted off his shirt and pants.

“Well that was embarrassing,” he said.

“I’ve seen worse,” she said. “You should really pay attention, though.”

“I know,” Joe said.
Oh God, she caught me staring at her,
he thought.

But if this was true, she made no mention of it. She gave him a smile and then nodded to his bleeding hand.

“Got somewhere to get that fixed up?” she asked.

“Yeah. My family is staying in a cabin further back down the road. I’ll clean it up there.”

“Ah, an out-of-towner,” the girl said.

“You’re not?” he asked.

“Nope. Born and raised about an hour away from here. My dad brings us out here every summer as a cheap vacation. I wanted Hawaii but I got this. I’ve gotten this every year for as long as I can remember.”

Joe nodded, doing what he could to not blatantly stare at her. She was pretty in a way that he wasn’t used to. There was nothing extraordinary about her at all, but several small qualities seemed to jab him in the heart all at once: the way the one loose strand of hair bobbed over the side of her head, the way she rolled her eyes when she said
but I got this,
and the way she had no problem standing so close to a bleeding boy she had just met.

“So where are you visiting from?” she asked.

“New York,” he said. “My name is Joe.”

He sounded like some weird robot when he gave his name, but he sensed that the conversation was either going to lead much further ahead or stall out within just a few seconds. Giving his name seemed like the most natural way to keep it going.

God,
he thought,
am I really this bad at talking to girls?

“Hello, Joe from New York,” she said. “I’m Valerie. From…well, too close to here.”

“Where are you guys staying?” Joe asked.

Valerie pointed down the way Joe had been headed. “Just a bit further down that way.”

“And you’re just out walking around?” Joe asked.

“I am. Dad is watching baseball. I hate baseball. So I went walking. It’s sort of funny to see the vacationers. No offense. Some of them seem so out of place here. Last summer I met this old lady that said she had been coming here for almost ten years because her therapist had recommended it.”

“There does seem to be a nice mixture of locals and vacation people, huh?”

“Yeah,” Valerie said. She then looked awkwardly to his bike and frowned. “Do you think you messed it up?” she asked.

Joe leaned over and pulled the bike back up onto its wheels. He rolled it back and forth and gave it a once-over. Other than a slight dent along the handlebars, it seemed to be unscathed.

“Seems fine,” he said.

Valerie started walking and waved him on to follow. When Joe obeyed the hand gesture, he tried not to seem overly enthusiastic.

“So,” Valerie said. “New York. New York
City?
”

“Yeah. Manhattan.”

“That’s awesome. Why the hell did your family come out here if you live in New York City?”

“My dad just signed a contract to compose the score to a movie that everyone thinks could be pretty big. Having meetings all of the time was burning him out. Stifling his creativity or whatever. So his agent suggested we leave the state, go somewhere secluded.”

He nearly added in the bit of the tension between his parents but caught it at the last minute. He wasn’t going to go there with this cute and interesting girl.

“And your dad chose
here?”

“I think his agent did. I’m not sure.”

“That’s cool…that your dad is a musician, I mean.”

“You’d think so,” Joe said. “But he can really get wrapped up in it at times.” He sensed the conversation leaning towards his parents after all, so he swerved it as quickly as he could. “How about your dad?” he asked. “What’s he do?”

“He owns a small engine repair shop. But he also does home repair on the side. He doesn’t need to, though. He makes good money. My mom died three years ago and even though he hasn’t told me, I know we got a nice chunk of money from the insurance. He says we need the extra cash so I can go to college.”

“Cool,” Joe said, mainly because he didn’t know what else to say. Valerie had just dropped a bomb about the death of a parent and her family’s financial state. It had gotten very awkward very fast. “Not about your mom, I mean,” he added. “But about… yeah…”

She smiled at him and shrugged. “It’s okay.”

They walked on in silence for another twenty seconds. Joe glanced to her several times, taking her in as much as he could without being too obvious.

“That’s me,” Valerie said, pointing to a grove within the trees ahead. A pick-up truck sat parked in the driveway of a cabin that was a bit smaller than the one Joe was staying in.

“You calling it a day?” Joe asked.

“Yeah. Dad is going to take me out on the lake tomorrow. He’s going to try to teach me how to ski. He wants to get started early. Also, if he saw me out here talking to a strange boy, he’d kill you first and make me watch. Then he’d kill me.”