The Color of Jade (Jade Series Book 1) (9 page)

“Let’s go back now,” I whispered to Emery. She nodded in agreement and we quietly went back down the hall to my room. I shut the door and we sat on my bed under the dim lighting of the candles that burned on my dresser and pretended to look at my photo albums.

“I’m not sure I like what they were saying,” Emery said. She was a very smart little girl but I wondered how much she really understood the seriousness of everything.

“I know…”

The door opened and Kane walked in. “They’re gone now. You can come out if you want to,” Kane said. He looked at us for a minute, surprised Emery and I got along. Kane’s stressful burdens erased for a moment as he forced a smile on his face. “Oh, Jade, by the way, you left our saddle packs at Marge’s yesterday.”

My cheeks flushed crimson red as I shriveled into the fluff of my soft downy comforter. Kane looked at me puzzled.

“Sorry, it won’t happen again.”

“I’m running to the farm for a few hours, I’ll be back before midnight.”

“Okay… Want help?”

Kane paused for a moment as if he actually considered it. “Nah, it’s late, go to bed.”

I felt a twinge of sadness as Kane slipped back into the darkened hallway.

The next day, restlessness stirred inside me and I welcomed the invitation when Trey asked if I wanted to go to the lake. At first, I was hesitant, but Kane insisted, apparently tired of hamburger he requested fish for dinner.

I packed us a lunch as Trey grabbed our poles. We made our way through the field until we reached the trees. Content with the quiet we rode up the trail. The forest, full of the sounds of life as squirrels and chipmunks called out to each other while the birds chirped in the trees. The branches started to form buds. Spring would be here soon enough and the grey mountainside would be green and beautiful again. I couldn’t help but smile.

As we rode out into the meadow and looked down over the lake, my smile faded. I could see from here, fishing wouldn't be good. The lake lacked the normal pristine sapphire transparency but took on a murky brownish green hue with a faint, bottom of the lake and dead fish smell. I glanced at Trey, disappointed.

“What? You're not going to let a little lake turnover stop you from fishing are you?”

“We aren't going to catch a thing.”

“You are so negative, Jade,” he said, as we dismounted and turned the horses out to graze. The grass was yellow still from winter but as I looked closer, small sprouts of tender green sprigs emerged from beneath.

I followed him to the edge of the shoreline and found a cold damp rock to sit against, wishing I had brought a blanket. My jacket would have to do. I unzipped it and placed it underneath me then reached for the tackle box.

“It will be a waste of time,” I said, as we tied hooks on the end of our lines.

“Since when? You love the lake.”

“I just feel guilty Kane is home working.”

“He insisted. Bring him fish home for dinner and he’ll be happy. So relax.”

The worm he held between dexterous fingers tried to twist away as he placed it on my hook. He placed another one on his, and then looked at me with a falsely intimidating, outlandish glare.

“Are you ever going to learn to hook your own worm?”

“I know how… I just don’t want to touch the slithery thing.”

Trey shook his head and laughed at my quirkiness. I could do without the feel of the squirmy worm in my hands.

“You know, I’m not going to do this for you forever.”

“I know, but you are going to do it for me today, and that’s all I care about right now.”

Trey chuckled. With poles stretched tight in the cloudy water, I dared myself to ask the question.

“You know the other night when those men were over?”

“When you were sitting at the top of the stairs spying?” He answered sarcastically. I laughed.

“How did you know?”

“I could
feel your presence.
”

“You could not!” I laughed, not completely doubting him. “Who were they?”  I wondered about one in particular.

“Mike Thornton, Grant Hill… Darby Johnston, oh and Lieutenant General, Prescott.”

“And?”

“Mike was in the marines with Uncle Raymond, so was Grant. Darby was in the army and Kane has been talking to them about, well just everything that has happened and everything that needs to be done.”

“And?”

“What more do you want? Their rank and serial number?”

“No… are you going to make me beg,” I asked, a nervous laugh escaped me as my cheeks flushed red. “The guy with Joel?”

Trey’s brows peaked as I looked at him incessantly. My insides liquefying with impatience.

“Who.     Is.    He?”

I fished for information as I reeled in the line. With my bait still intact, I tossed it back in the water with a plunk. The bobber rested just above the surface and sent out soft ripples in the smooth water.

“You know Gage Michaels… Joel’s brother, don’t you?”

“I recognize him from school…They’re brothers?”

“Yeah… Don’t you remember them from when we were younger?”

“No... Aren’t they new around here?” I shot him a perplexed look.

“Not really. They moved away and came back… You remember when we were younger we used to play with Zach at the farm?  Gage is Zach’s cousin…his dad was friends with Uncle Raymond and in the Marines together. His dad stayed in and a roadside bomb killed him in the war. They moved back after that, oh, it’s been about two years now,” Trey paused, “I’m surprised you don’t remember him.”

I thought back to soccer, baseball and kickball out in the back pasture when we were younger with a group of kids. “I forgot all about him. He’s changed
a lot.”

I didn’t mean to over emphasize
a lot
as much as I did, but he had changed. A cute kid when we were younger, full of life, daring and overly confident, but cute.

“I saw him around school for the two weeks we were there but I never put it together he was Zach’s cousin.”

“I just assumed you knew him,” Trey said, quietly and looked out across the lake. “I guess we were pretty young then… When Zach was alive…” His voice trailed off as he looked off into the distance. “Kind of weird how all that happened wasn’t it, when Zach died. One minute we were all playing, the next minute you two were lying on the ground. I thought you were dead too.”

Trey never talked about Zach or anything about the day he died so I was unsure of what to say. He never wanted to talk about it. I’m sure it must have been hard on Trey to see the whole thing happen. The traumatic effects from the incident would have scarred an adult, let alone a six-year-old boy.

I remembered that day…

Zach and I were almost to his house. I looked back at Trey for a brief moment to watch him catch up when I saw panic on his face. A blur of motion flashed. Zach yelled, “Jade! Watch out!” Then he shoved me.

The next thing I knew, pain emanated throughout my body as I lay on the ground. I faintly heard sirens and saw a blur of people around me. A helicopter hovered then landed on the road.

I glanced to the side and saw my friend. One shoe missing. His legs, lifeless and covered with black road rash and blood, curled out from under a grey car. His body a shadowed heap underneath it. The sounds of his mom’s screams echoed in my head.

Men in uniforms stepped in front of me and I couldn’t see him anymore. They put me in the ambulance as the helicopter lifted off into the bright blue sky.

Trey’s hand touched my shoulder and I sucked in a mouthful of cool air. “I wasn’t that far behind you,” he said, jarring me from my horrific childhood memories, the last time I would ever see Zach. I could still hear her screams. “I was running to catch up. I don’t know how you avoided getting seriously hurt…”

“I… didn’t,” I paused, my throat dry, my voice a strangled whisper. “Zach pushed me out of the way.”

“He did?”

For some reason I thought he knew, he sat quiet and stared in disbelief and then looked across the lake as a distant look settled into his eyes. He sighed as his shoulders slumped. I guess in realization of how close I’d come to actually being killed myself. We sat quiet for a moment, left to our thoughts, our memories of Zach.

“Well anyway,” he sighed, “that was a long time ago…”

“Yeah.”

“So, Gage must be the one you were daydreaming about.” Trey grinned at me. He put his hands up as if to block an attack. I slapped his arm in jest.

“I wasn’t thinking about him. I mean, I wasn’t thinking about anyone. I don’t know what the big deal is,” I said, my face flushed, red as the roses in our yard.

“Hey, I saw you spacing off… It’s okay, he’s a nice guy, I approve,” Trey laughed as he nudged me with his elbow.

“I didn’t know I needed your permission.”

“
He
needs my permission. I won’t let just anyone see my sister.”

I covered my face with my hands. I wasn’t sure I wanted to admit I liked him. Now that I knew he was Gage, Zach’s cousin, and Trey knew about my interest in him I felt vulnerable. He put an arm around me and tightened it into a squeeze.

“He doesn’t want to see me… Me…
hypothetically
liking him and him wanting to see me… isn’t the same.”

“How do you know?”

“I just do… The only reason…” I felt myself getting more flustered as I tried to dig myself out. “I saw him at Marge’s the other day. I just wanted to know what his name was,
that is all, okay!
Can we not talk about him anymore, please?”

“Oh, so you
were
thinking about him,” Trey said as he laughed again ignoring my request. I really walked into that one.

“Ugghh,” I growled, “yeah…I guess I was... Are you happy now? I was just wondering about what happened to him. I really doubt he knows I exist.”

“I doubt that.”

“Promise me you won’t say anything… Emery blew this way out of proportion, I am so embarrassed.”

“I won’t say anything. But it looks like I need to give Em a little more credit. I thought I was the only one who understood you. She reads you pretty good.”

“Enough Trey.”

“What? I can't give you a hard time. I remember, not that long ago when you wouldn't let me live down a certain April Hudson once you found out.”

“Oh yeah… sorry about that,” I said. My face slightly reddened as I giggled with the memory of Trey and April last summer, when I caught them in the loft of the barn.

“Okay, so… changing the subject. How’s the garden coming along? Do I need to worry about you starving us this winter? Because if it’s anything like how you do laundry...”  I burst out laughing, relieving tension in my chest, he laughed too.

“You are too much sometimes…”

“Yeah, but don’t forget, you can’t live without me, remember,” he grinned.

“I remember. What would I do without you prying into my private thoughts and embarrassing the crap out of me?” I nudged him with my elbow.

“Sorry, I had to.”

I smiled and handed him a sandwich. “Here, stick this in your mouth.”

We fished most of the afternoon without much luck. We talked and laughed as we used to and barely noticed the late hour until a bluish-grey haze crept over the lake and through the trees. The sun had gone down and I shivered as I slipped my arms into my jacket.

“Should we head back? I think we have enough fish for a meal,” he said, then held up three meager fish. I laughed.

Darkness curled around me as we rode home. The chill in the air cold enough to reach through my jacket but I barely noticed. His name grew with energy, bringing new life to his image in my mind far more tangible than the outside air.

Gage.

The thought of the other day, his hands on my arms sent a tingle over my skin and warmed my insides like hot chocolate on a cold night.

I shook off the haze, walked in the door and I went to the sink to clean the fish. Kane stood in the kitchen as he made him and Emery a sandwich.

“Fishing was that bad? Only three,” Kane sounded disappointed as he glanced at the three fish in the sink. Trey had gutted them at the lake so I chopped the heads and tails off, wrapped them up and placed them in the fridge.

“You can have all three, Kane,” I offered.

“I'll cook them for breakfast…You’ve been gone a while.”

“We had a lot to talk about,” Trey commented casually.

“No, we didn’t,” I replied quickly as I whirled around feeling completely betrayed as Trey flashed me a smile with a wink and I returned the favor with a glare.  Kane raised an eyebrow and looked at the both of us.

“Just kidding… Don’t put that stuff away, I’ll have a sandwich, want one, Jade?” Trey lost the smirk as he quickly changed the subject. “By the way, Jade, you’re getting better at making bread.”

“Thanks… I think, and no thanks, I’m tired. I think I’ll just go up to bed…Night.”

“You can’t go to bed hungry, here, have a sandwich.”

He quickly slapped peanut butter and my mom’s strawberry jam between two pieces of the homemade bread and handed it to me as he grinned. I grabbed the sandwich and the glass of milk fresh from the cow he just poured for himself as I rolled my eyes at him.

“Yes mother,” I said sarcastically and he laughed. His concern for my need to eat annoyed me at times and I took a bite of the sandwich and walked up to my room.