The Drought (2 page)

They kept walking, each boy lost in his own thoughts. Further along the trail a rustling in the bushes got their attention. Barry glanced over with a quizzical look. He made a shushing motion when Jar started to speak. Moving his finger in a circular motion around his ear he pointed toward the bushes. He mouthed the words: “Psycho Suzy.”

Jar nodded he understood and waited for Barry to take the lead. Barry stepped toward the bushes and to Jar’s shock, pulled out his penis.

“Goddamn Jar, I must have drank too much soda pop at your house, I’ve got to take myself a piss.” A yellow stream arched into the bushes followed by a shout of disgust.

Suzy Jobes walked out of the bushes and threw a dirty look in Barry’s direction. She had earned the nickname, “psycho” back in the third grade when she had knocked another student to the floor after he spit in her hair. To Jar, she said, “I don’t know why you hang out with this pig!”

Laughing, Barry ignored the look and finished relieving himself. With a deep sigh he finished, bounced once and slipped his penis back into his pants. He winked at Jar and turned to look at Suzy. “What’s the matter Psycho did I get some on you?”

Jar tried to suppress his laughter but couldn’t quite keep the smile off his face. This slip earned him a wrathful look from Suzy, who turned with a flip of her brown hair and managed to encompass both of them with her glaring eyes.

“That’s right bald ass Barry, laugh it up, but I’m sure I’ll get the last laugh when your dad finds out about that ball you’ve got.”

Barry stopped laughing and gave her a dirty look.

Empowered, she continued to taunt him. “Maybe he’ll decorate your backside again, and give you a matching scar down your left side.”

Jar held his breath as Barry balled up his fist and stepped toward Suzy.

Her hazel eyes flashed their challenge as her mouth goaded him on to action. “You gonna hit a girl, Barry? Last time I checked only wussy boys hit girls. Maybe that’s what I oughta call you...wussy boy Barry.”

Jar threw Suzy a look, pleading for her to stop, but it was too late. Barry flew at her and knocked her to the ground before Jar could even blink. She fought like a wild cat, rolling under him, hissing and spitting. Before Barry could get her hands down, she managed to dig her nails into his left cheek. He twisted her hand away and pinned her to the ground.

Suzy’s chest heaved and her hair covered her face. Barry’s eyes were wild. He looked a little crazed, with three thin lines of blood coming down his cheek, mixing in with the dirt and the sweat. Holding Suzy’s hands with one of his own, he lifted his right hand and touched his left cheek. He winced when the salt from his sweat found raw skin. When he drew his fingers away he saw blood.

Barry’s left eye twitched as once again a sharp blade of pain sliced through his skull. An uncontrollable rage swept through him. He shoved his fingers in front of her eyes. “You see this? You see what you did to me, you little bitch!” He twisted her arms tighter. She let out a small cry and started to flay her legs. Extending one of his own legs, Barry managed to hold hers down. During the scuffle her shirt rode up, revealing the white expanse of her belly. His eyes lit on her exposed skin and took on a menacing gleam. He reached under her shirt and grabbed one of her breasts.

Squeezing harder he whispered: “How does that feel, you like that?”

Suzy twisted her head away and Barry unable to restrain himself started to grind her with his crotch.“Is this what you want? Is this why you’re always following us? You got a little peek and now you want the real thing.”

In dazed disbelief, Jar watched the scene unfold in front of him. He didn’t know if it was a sick joke or how far Barry would take it, but he thought it had gone far enough. He called out Barry’s name, but it went unnoticed. Frustrated he charged Barry and pushed him off of Suzy.“Come on Barry, knock it off!”

While the two boys scuffled in the dirt, Suzy made a dash for the bushes. Barry outweighed his friend by a good twenty pounds and it was an easy pin, but Jar wouldn’t stop struggling. Barry felt the anger wash out of him and started laughing. He rolled off his friend. “Come on Jar, I was just having a little fun with her.” The dull quality in his tone didn’t quite match the smirk on his mouth. He dropped his gaze and brushed the dirt off his body.

Breathing heavily, his face red with heat, Jar wiped sweat from his eyes. “It didn’t look like a little fun to me.”

Barry couldn’t explain what happened. He still felt dazed like his head was stuffed with cotton, and Jar’s voice sounded like it was coming from a mile away. Managing a dismissive look he said, “I just wanted to scare her a little. She’s always following us. Now maybe she won’t.”

Jar gave Barry a skeptical look. He walked toward the bushes, calling out, “Suzy, you still there?” Except for a slight rustling in the bushes, there was no response. He took a deep breath and yelled again. “Come on Suzy, Barry has something he wants to say to you.”

Barry gave him a startled look. He shook his head in the negative.

Jar held his ground. “If you don’t apologize, I’ll walk over to your house and tell your dad about that goddamn ball myself. And when I’m through there, I’ll go over to Suzy’s house and tell her dad too.” He looked at the ground, contemplating his next words. “I’m not sure which will go worse for you, but I imagine you won’t look so handsome when they’re through with you.”

Giving Jar a derisive look for being soft, Barry shook his head in disappointment. He called out to Suzy. “Hey Psycho, you can come out, I’m not going to hurt you.” He paused, waiting. “Come on Suzy, I was just trying to scare you.” He shrugged his shoulders at Jar to say see, she’s not even there.

After a moment, Suzy peered out from the bushes. Her face was smeared with long streaks where her tears had cut through the dirt and her hair hung down in her eyes. With a wary look she stepped onto the trail.

Jar grabbed his towel off the ground. “We’re going swimming, you want to come?”

Suzy knew she should go home. Barry was always capable of being mean but today there had been something different, something menacing about his presence that went beyond the physical attack. Her eyes flicked between the two boys in uncertainty. Jar’s gaze was imploring, Barry’s indifferent—the hostility present only a moment earlier already gone.

If she went home, she was a scared girl who couldn’t take a joke—she could already hear Barry mocking her. Determined not to be chased away, she nodded yes to Jar’s request and the three of them, beaten, hot, covered in dirt and sweat, made their way down the trail.

Graffiti marked the underside of Flatrock Bridge and discarded beer cans lined the grass below. The Llano River ran deep here. In late spring this was Texas Tech territory and it was not unusual to see a row of tanned boys jockeying for a turn to dive or flip from the bridge and the chance to impress the pretty girls lounging in the sun below. The younger kids from Junction were forced to cool themselves down at Scudder's Hole. A year without rain had taken its toll. There were no crowds; no one waiting to jump from the bridge, the water was too shallow.

Barry eyed the shrinking pool of water, shrugged and waded into its coolness. He sank down. The water came over his head and the heat slipped mercifully away. Aside from the dull ache behind his left eye, he almost felt normal. When he reemerged, he slicked his hair back and called for Jar to join him.

Unable to take the heat another minute, Jar cast an apologetic look at Suzy and ran into the water. Suzy watched from the edge, splashing water on her feet and arms. She tried to play it cool but her eyes never left Jar. As much as she wanted to convince herself she had stayed because she was strong, the embarrassing truth was she just wanted to spend the afternoon with Jared Riley.

Belly-crawling through the shallow water, Jar returned humming the theme song from Jaws. Smiling, Suzy kicked water at his face. He gave a loud whoop, grabbed her tan leg and tried to drag her into the water. She squealed when the water hit her jean shorts and begged him to stop. Self-conscious from the incident in the woods, Jar released her legs and swam away, calling for her to join him in the deeper water. She looked on for a few minutes before wading out to the deeper water. They splashed around in the coolness, forgetting for the moment the heat surrounding them.

Barry kept his distance from Suzy. Occasionally he would glance out of the corner of his eye and catch a glimpse of her nipples sticking out against her white cotton shirt. The sight caused his blood to pulse and he couldn’t suppress the thoughts that overcame him. He didn’t know what happened to him back in the woods. He had felt like he was outside of himself, almost like he was watching it all unfold, instead of being a participant.

Now he was wondering what would have happened if Jar hadn’t interfered. Unable to stop himself, he pictured Suzy with her clothes off. His body had a mind of its own and he could feel himself getting harder as the image of him and Suzy got more perverse. Barry submerged himself to his neck and reached into his trunks. As he finished, he looked up just in time to see their friend, Luke Casteel, charging down the trail.

Luke, seeing Barry partially submerged in the water, ran straight for him. When they hit, they spun under the water like two young crocodiles going into a death roll. They emerged from the roll, sputtering and laughing. Luke beat at his chest and dove away from Barry. He swam toward shore intent on taking Barry’s towel for himself. When he grabbed the towel, the baseball rolled onto the ground. Luke picked it up.

Barry hollered at his back. “Luke, give it back!”

That was all Luke needed. His eyes lit up at the chance to play keep away. He moved away with the ball, through the mud and under the bridge.

Barry followed him. He yelled, “Don’t get it wet Luke! Whatever you do, don’t get it wet!” The panic in Barry’s voice contradicted his earlier disdain for his father. If that ball got wet Barry knew his father would come close to beating him to death.

Jar, hearing the panic in Barry’s voice turned to see what Luke was doing.

Unaware of the priceless object he was holding, Luke was throwing the ball high above the water and catching it right before it made contact.

Barry approached cautiously with his hands in front of him trying to stop Luke from doing anything stupid.

Laughing, Luke called out, “Hey Barry, you want your ball? Catch!” He cranked his arm back and let the ball fly toward Barry.

Inspired by fear, Barry ran back and jumped. He almost caught it. The ball brushed past his fingertips, flew over the water, and sailed out of sight into the drainage pipe under the bridge. Barry came down from his jump, landed in a crouch and watched in disbelief as his father’s ball disappeared.

Luke jumped up and down shouting, “Now that’s what you call a hole in one!”

Fear made Barry’s heart constrict in his chest. It was difficult to breathe. Collapsing inwardly, he walked toward the drainage pipe. A stale metallic odor greeted him and he hesitated, imagining a long slick tongue emerging from the dark moist interior followed by a contented belch. The ball was not visible.

Easing his upper body into the hole as far as he could, he displaced the thick layer of mud along the bottom of the pipe. Mud oozed through his fingers as he searched but he couldn’t find the ball. When he reemerged his belly and arms were slicked with sludge. He stood for a moment contemplating the hole but all he could see was an image of his father’s angry face. The strength left his limbs. He leaned against the sloped concrete wall and slid slowly down until his butt rested on the ground.

Why had he taken the ball? He’d fought the urge for weeks, knowing his father had put it there to tempt him. It’s presence in the house was not chance, Griffin Tanner knew perfectly well Barry and Jar had found a clip of the game in the public library last summer. They had become baseball junkies watching the play over and over again until they got to the point they knew every line by heart. Barry had made the mistake of gushing about Carlton Fisk and the Red Sox in front of his dad.

The ball was a taunt.

A well aimed, irresistible taunt.

Barry couldn’t wait to show it to Jar. The brief moment of awe on Jar’s face when he touched Carlton Fisk’s signature was worth the beating he was sure to get when he went home. Only now, he didn’t have the ball or a way to placate his dad. This was a whole new league of crime. In the past he had always been able to return the missing object. If a beating followed a normal transgression what would happen to him when he faced his father empty handed?

Luke watched his friend slide to the ground. He approached warily; convinced Barry’s stance was a ruse to get him to come closer, only to tackle him in the mud. Hesitating a few feet back, Luke glanced over at Jar and Suzy with a questioning look.