The Field (24 page)

“No, I'm okay. I'm sorry—you were right,” she gulps out between sobs. “I thought you were just jealous of Miles. I thought he was harmless. I always thought if I got into a bad situation I could defend myself, get myself out of it, but I was wrong. He totally overpowered me and there was nothing I could do. It was like I wasn't doing a thing. I was so scared. And then you came.” She stops crying and looks up at me. “You knew, didn't you?”

I brush her hair off her forehead and kiss her eyelids, tasting her salty tears. “I'm glad you're okay.” I pause and take a deep breath. “He just always gave me a bad feeling and tonight … When I found out you were with Miles … I can't explain it, but I'm glad I paid attention.”

“So am I. Thank you.” When I start to open my mouth to speak, she puts her finger to my lips to silence me. “You should always pay attention to those feelings. I was wrong when I said they aren't real.” She moves her finger and kisses me, which also has the effect of silencing me.

We stand together for several minutes while Renee collects herself. I run my hand down the back of her head, stroking her hair, not sure of the best way to comfort her. I'm so relieved that she's okay, but for some reason I still have a sense of unease.
Like a low undercurrent of foreboding. I want to shake it off, but I can't.

Renee rinses off her tear-stained face and fixes her makeup at the sink. She turns to me and asks, “Do I look okay? Are my eyes puffy?” She's a little pink around her nose and her eyes are especially green, and maybe a little puffy, but I think she looks beautiful.

“You look perfect,” I say. “You're beautiful.” I put my arm around her and kiss the top of her head. “Do you feel like staying or do you want me to take you home?”

“No. Let's stay and have fun. I don't want to let Miles ruin the night.” We quietly make our way downstairs and walk back across the hill toward the barn.

“Let's stay outside by the bonfire,” Renee says. Cole and Bonnie are still there, but they've moved to sit on one of the hay bales. Some of the guys from the team are also there, enjoying the attention from the other kids. We go over to talk to Cole and Bonnie.

“I see you found her,” Cole remarks.

“Yeah, I did.” I have my arm around Renee's waist and she's staying pretty close by my side.

“We have marshmallows and sticks if you want to roast them in the fire.” Bonnie picks up a bag of marshmallows from one of the hay bales. “There might still be some chocolate and graham crackers on the table over there if you want to make s'mores.”

“So what's been going on?”

“You're seeing it. Everyone's hanging out and celebrating the big win. The soccer players are all rock stars now, as you're probably aware. Will's been especially enjoying the attention,” he says sarcastically.

“Yeah, well he deserves it. He played great D tonight—all season really.” Sometimes Cole's snarkiness can get irritating. He's always trying to shoot somebody down.

“There's also beer stashed in the woods and a bunch of people have been going over there and coming back really happy, if you know what I mean.”

“Will's the ‘happiest' one of them all,” Bonnie chimes in. “He's being really loud and obnoxious.”

“I guess he's just having a good time. I mean, he's not really hurting anyone, right? And we did just win the championship.” I'm not sure why I'm defending him, except that it seems like someone needs to take his side.

“He's just been acting really stupid lately,” Bonnie says quietly. I can't argue with that, because it's totally true.

We hang out with Cole and Bonnie until it gets late. Renee makes us each two s'mores, and she and Bonnie sit together talking intently about whatever it is girls talk about.

Behind them I see Paul coming purposely towards us.

“Have you guys seen Asplunth? He's totally wasted and out of control,” Paul says when he reaches the group. “I think we should do something.”

“Like what?” Cole shrugs.

“I don't know. Take his keys or something.” Paul runs a hand through his black hair—as a senior, he didn't have to shave his head for the tournament. Will and I refused to shave ours even though we're juniors. “Did he drive?” he asks.

“Yeah, he did,” I say. “I saw his car when I came in.” The undercurrent of foreboding swells into a tight knot in the pit of my stomach.

“That's not good,” Paul says. “He shouldn't drive. He's wasted.”

As if on cue, we hear a loud commotion on the other side of the yard by the driveway. Will is there with his new buddies. We can't really hear what they're saying, but one thing is clear. Will has his car keys in his hand.

“Shit,” says Paul. “We've got to stop him.”

“Let's go. I'll try to drive him home. Renee can take my car.” We gather up our stuff and follow Will as fast as we can. He's already out of sight down the driveway. By the time we catch up with him, he's gotten into his car and started the ignition. I knock on the window to get his attention.

“Hey, was'up dude?” he says when he rolls down the window. His smile is crooked and his words are definitely slurred.

“Why don't you let me drive you home? You're drunk. You shouldn't be driving,” I say.

His smile disappears. “No. I'm fine. I'm not going home, anyway. There's another party over at Steve McMahon's house that we're all going to.”

“I'll go with you. Move over and let me drive.” I move to open the door, but he's already got his hand on the automatic door lock and I hear a click before I can pull the handle.

“I said ‘No.'” He jams the car into gear, revving past me out of his spot and doing a U-turn in the drive around us. Paul yells and tries to stop him by getting in front of the car, but Will just veers around him onto the grass and takes off fast down the driveway, spraying gravel from his tires.

“Crap—what should we do now?” Paul asks. “Call the cops?”

“Let's follow him. We can try to get him to pull over. My car's right here.” I'm already moving towards the van and unlocking the doors with the remote. Now that uneasy feeling has turned into full-fledged fear. “Come on, I don't want to lose him.” We all pile in, Renee sitting in the front next to me and
Paul behind me, leaning over the back of my seat. Bonnie and Cole squeeze into the back together. I do a quick U-turn and follow Will down the drive. He has a pretty good head start on us, and I just see his taillights flash red briefly as he brakes before making a left onto the road.

Once I get to the road I try to make up the distance between the cars. Will's driving erratically and weaving all over the road. The Vickery's place is out in the country and it's really late, so fortunately there aren't any other cars on the road. We get to within a few car lengths of the Taurus—I don't want to get any closer. I start honking the horn at him and flashing my brights. He speeds up. Not the response I was hoping for.

“Man, this is crazy,” Paul says over my shoulder. “I don't think this is such a good idea.”

“Be careful,” Renee cautions as I speed up to keep pace with him. I look over at her and see that her knuckles are white from gripping the arm rest so tightly.

Will turns onto the road that goes past the lagoons. He takes the corner so fast that his car fishtails before straightening out on the road. I see the headlights of another car approaching. Not good. My heart is pounding. How can we get him to stop? He's acting totally irrational. Maybe we shouldn't have chased him. But calling the police seemed so extreme and they'd just chase him, too. Would he have stopped for them?

We see the Taurus go off onto the low shoulder and then jerk back onto the road, but Will's overcompensated and the car careens into the other lane, directly in the path of the oncoming car. Then the Taurus jerks to the right, missing the other car, but this time it goes completely off the road and into the field. It appears to be totally out of control, careening and bumping across
the uneven ground and heading straight for a huge tree directly in his path.

“Oh my God!” Bonnie screams from the back seat.

“No!” yells Renee. She's leaning forward in her seat and Paul has my shoulder in a vice grip. I skid over to the side of the road and jerk to a stop. We watch in horror, helpless as Will's car speeds closer to the tree for what looks like a head-on collision, and then at the very last minute the car jerks to the right, skidding away. The front end narrowly misses the tree, but the back end on the driver's side swings around, slamming the side of the car into the trunk with a sickening crunching sound that jolts it abruptly to a stop.

We're all out of the car and running towards the crash. I hear Cole on his cell calling 9-1-1.

Steam and smoke are pouring from the hood of the car when I get there. I try to yank open the front passenger side door, but it's still locked.

“Find a rock or something to break the window!” I yell. Through the window I see Will slumped over the airbag, apparently unconscious. The white material of the airbag is smeared with blood. The driver's side door is smashed up against the tree, pinning him in.

“Here!” Renee runs towards me with a grapefruit-sized rock. “Hurry, I smell gasoline.” I meet her eyes and I see the fear there.

Realization hits me. “My dreams,” I say. “The explosions.” Dread constricts my chest. This can't be happening.

“Yes,” she says, nodding. “Hurry.”

I take the rock from her, step back, lift it high over my head and launch it at the window. The safety glass shatters, sending a
thousand sharp missiles showering over us. Reaching through the jagged hole, I unlock the door and pull it open.

“Can you get him out?” Paul yells.

“I don't know.” I crawl onto the bucket seat of the Taurus and see that Will's chest is rising and falling.
At least he's not dead
, I think, but I can't tell how badly he's hurt. The blood on the airbag is coming from a gash on his forehead. Amazingly, he's wearing his seatbelt. He's wedged between the airbag, the seat and the driver's side door, which is pressed up against the left side of his body from where it collided with the tree.

I don't want to hurt him any more than he already is, but I know with certainty that I have to get him out of the car before it explodes. The smell of gasoline is getting stronger and the seconds are ticking away. I'm not really thinking, just going on autopilot; doing the next thing that needs to be done, pushing back the panic.

I unlatch his seat belt and kneel half on the seat half on the center console. Hooking my left arm over his shoulder and under his left armpit and my right hand under his right arm, I try to pull him towards me. At first he seems to be coming free, but then I feel resistance and he starts to groan. I'm afraid to pull too hard and can't really see the lower part of his body, but I think his left leg is stuck where the car is smashed in, pinning him inside.

“I think he's stuck!” I yell over my shoulder to Paul, who's practically on top of me in the door of the car.

I pull harder, trying to see if I can somehow free Will's leg, but he groans louder, his eyes flickering open and then rolling back in his head, and I can't get him loose. “This isn't working. We have to try something else.” I just haven't figured out what.

“I'm coming out,” I tell Paul, who moves out of the way and I scramble out backwards after him. Cole, Bonnie and Renee are huddled together to one side. There's a middle-aged guy standing behind Paul who must be the driver of the other car that Will almost hit.

“His leg is stuck on the other side of the car where it's smashed against the tree,” I tell them. “I can't pull him out from this side. We need to free his leg first.”

“How? How're we going to do that?” Paul is wild-eyed and his hair is standing on end from where he's been running his hands through it.

“We have to move the car away from the tree,” I say calmly and with what I hope is authority. An idea is forming in my mind. From the moment I started running across the field toward Will's car, I could feel the energy from the star gazing rock and the power from the earth and the ley-lines coursing through me. As the urgency of the situation heightened, the feeling's been growing stronger. I think I might be able to channel the power of The Field to get Will free of the car. I at least have to try.

“Are you nuts? How're we going to do that?” Paul demands.

“I've heard about people doing stuff like that, you know, in an emergency,” Bonnie says, stepping forward. “It's like they get superhuman strength or something.”

“The Field,” says Renee, coming over to me and putting her hand on my arm. “Do you feel it?” I nod and she adds, “We're by the lagoons. It must be really strong here. I think I can feel something, too.”

“What the hell are you talking about?” says Paul. “We need to do something! Where are the paramedics? They should be here
by now.” It feels like an eternity since the crash, but it's really only been one or two minutes.

“Come on,” I say and move quickly to the rear of the car. “Everyone grab hold of the bumper. We're going to lift it up and move it away from the tree.” We all line up behind the trunk. “Put your hands underneath and use your legs to lift.” Cole and Paul and the other driver look at me skeptically, but at this point we're desperate to get Will out, so they line up. I position myself in the center between the others. “Okay, now just concentrate on lifting the car and moving it on the count of three.” I take a deep breath. “Ready? One, two, three—LIFT!”

I use all my strength, pushing up with my legs, focusing my thoughts on accessing the power that I know is there. I feel the car lift up a few inches and move slightly to the right. Not enough. Images from my dreams flash into my mind. Black and orange explosions, red-hot fire, screaming.