The Summer I Died: A Thriller (3 page)

A
s we
detoured
to the packy store
—
as was customary to call it around here
—
the setting summer sun felt just the opposite, like a hot pair of jeans fresh from the drier. And with the humidity tapering
off
—
which is
usually so damn high you feel like you
’
re being boiled alive all day long
—
I felt comfortable enough to take a nap. The smell of pine trees bak
ing in the residual heat and
dried-up grass
swirled into the car as we sped by. It was a good smell, reminding me of the times T
ooth and I
play
ed
war
in my back
yard as kids.
Our little G.I. Joe figures storming over a sand hill to batt
le the forces of Cobra. The two of us lying in the dry grass,
m
aking
machine gun sounds with our mouths.

It smelled like childhood.

We were carded at the entrance to the store by some kid with blue hair who certainly wasn’t old enough to buy anything inside, probably the
owner’s son. That was a blessing, because the dumb shit fell for the fake ID. But the clerk behind the counter was eyeballing us from the minute we walked in, put down the magazine he was reading and leaned over the counter to watch us. Ah shit, I thought, and I knew we were toast; the bastard was just waiting to catch us.

I made like I was looking for a bag of chips and drifted down an aisle. Tooth grabbed a twelve pack of Bud and dropped it on the counter with an air of authority, playing grownup as best he could.

“
Lemme see that ID,
”
the clerk said right away.

I knew we were busted at this point.

Tooth handed it over, not saying anything. I spotted a comic book rack and started spinning it around but all it had was kiddie shit, X-men crap that wasn’t written by anyone who actually knew anything about the X-men.

“
Son, you better get your money back,
”
the clerk said, tossing it back to Tooth.
“
I seen better fake ID’s cut out the back of cereal boxes. Tell you this, too. Some kid came in the other day with the same kind. I know where you get
’
em, down in Boston
, buy ’
em on the corner from the crackheads. Shit, you must think I’m dense.
”

“
Actually, I think you’re a retard, but that’s besides the point. This ain’t no fake ID, and if you don’t believe me, call the police and they can verify my information.
”

The clerk picked up the license a second time and held it up
to the fluorescent lights overhead
, laughing. Tooth gave me a quick glance and pointed at me. Oh shit, I knew what that meant: he wanted
me to pinch the beer. S
on of a bitch, how did he expect me to get a twelve pack under my shirt?
Just walk out and say I was pregnant or something?
On top of which, that night in jail had been a wake-up call for me, and I hadn’t done anything illegal
to put me back there since
. Well, aside from smoking some pot and drinking some beer. But shoplifting was another story. I could lose my student loans if I went to jail.

“
Ok, I’m calling the cops because I’ve had enough of this fake ID bullshit. It’s a waste of my time.
”

“
Why, what else you got to do?
”
Tooth said smartly.
“
Hang out in the back and beat your meat to porno mags? I noticed some are missing from the stand
.
You’re all outta the faggot ones.
They in the back room where you eat your lunch? Little bit of
PB and J and a side of man meat?
”

That poor clerk, old as he was, didn’t really know how to answer that. He just started shaking a little, really pissed, like he was going to pull out that gun you know he had under the counter and blow Tooth’s head off.

“
Get out now or I
will
call the cops!
”

“
Go ahead, but I ain’t leaving till I get my beer. You stupid fuck!
”

Taking the bait, the clerk mumbled something and picked up the phone behind the counter. I knew there was no way I was gonna get all the beer out the door without being seen, so I moused over to a bin full of $3.99 nips. I took six and stuffed them in my socks and pulled my pant legs over them, the whole time thinking how this would look to my college advisors shoul
d I get caught.

The boy at the door w
as preoccupied with the scene Tooth was making
, probably wondering if this was a holdup or something, so I figured I hadn’t been seen.

I went back to the comic books and selected a cheesy looking
Batman
comic with Killer Croc on the cover. It looked like it had been written for six year olds. I went and put it on the counter.

You know you’ve got a remarkable relationship with someone when you can read each other’s minds. We did that a lot, Tooth and I. Like, I would ask,
“
Hey, you remember that movie with the guy?
”
and he would answer,
“
Yeah,
Bloodfist 4
.
”
And he was right. We just always knew what each other was thinking. And even if we didn’t know right away, it didn’t take more than one clue for either of us to catch on.

So when I put the comic on the counter, Tooth knew I had the goods and swiped his ID out of the clerk’s hand and said,
“
You know what, fuck this. We’re going to the packy on Deerfield. No sale for you, buddy.
”

The clerk was as red as a horny monkey’s ass.
“
Can I buy this?
”
I asked him, pointing to the comic.

He leaned over and yelled,
“
No! Now get out!
”

“
C’mon,
”
Tooth said,
giving the man his customary one-fingered salute
.

The poor clerk was so upset he mangled his threat as we left.
“
If you ever come back I’ll fuck you good.
”

“
See, you are a fag,
”
Tooth yelled back.

On the way out I picked up a bag of chips and tossed it to the door boy. It confused the hell out of him, but it also kept his eyes off my socks, which were bulging like I had
elephantiasis
of the ankles.

In the car Tooth slammed his head back against the headrest a few times before turning the ignition on.

“
What dumbass prick went to Boston and got an ID from the same place as me. If I find him I’ll kick his father’s ass. What did you get anyway?
”

I pulled the nips out from my socks as we drove out of the parking lot.
“
Just these. Two cherry-
flavored vodkas, two orange liqueurs, and two mint schnapps.
”

“
Perfect, and what did you get for yourself?
”

CHAPTER 3

I suppose since you’ve followed my story this far, I should tell you why Tooth is called Tooth. It also figures into why we w
ere headed
to my house instead of his.

When Tooth was ten, his father ran him over with his car. He didn’t do it on purpose, but it wasn’t exactly an accident either. See, Tooth’s dad has a drinking problem. I guess that’s no biggie these days; who doesn’t know somebody who drinks a lot? And I guess you can make a comparison between my friend and his father, but where Tooth is what I prefer to call a functioning alcoholic
—
or at least he’s on his way to being—his father is a straight up drunk.

He’s not a bad man, not in any way. In fact he was once a minister, back when Tooth was a toddler; probably
where he first took to drinking
if you ask me. He’s quite the caring man when he’s sober
, b
ut the last time he was sober, well, let’s just say that was back when you had to get your ass up out of the recliner and turn the knob on the TV to change channels.

Tooth was in the driveway playing with some action figures, Star Wars or
He-Man
and whatnot, and his father got the idea he had to go to see his father
—
which would be Tooth’s grandfather
—
who’d been dead over a decade. Well, you know where this is going.
Drunk to the point of seeing ghosts
, his father got in the car and backed down the driveway, taking Tooth under the car with him. Tooth
rolled all the way underneath, missing the wheels by some divine intervention, and popped out the front where he went rolling into the bushes. When he sat up screaming bloody murder, he was missing six of his front teeth.

His mother burst through the front door like one of those snakes popping out of a novelty can, all arms flailing and hair licking about like it was made of flames, screaming incoherently and running so fast she nearly tripped. She grabbed up her little boy and rushed him away to the end of the earth
—
which would be Jersey. Two weeks later, she came
back and got a divorce, and Tooth got his nickname because ever since then he had to wear a bridge.

And what I never understood after that was why Tooth asked to live with his father. My guess
is
, his father being a drunk and all, Tooth could pretty much do whatever he wanted.

Anyway, things became sort of like an after school special. You had your usual child welfare services, and AA meetings, and Tooth’s parents trying to get back together and not succeeding, and you c
an
figure the rest out.

Going to my house was just simpler than dealing with his dad, who was always trying to get us to go to church when he was drunk, even if it was three in the morning on a
Wednesday. The man
obviously regretted his decision to leave the
ministry
and
take the blue-collar route
, as if in the end he’
d let God down. Maybe that accounted for a lot, maybe it didn’t.

I told Tooth to park his beat up Camaro in the driveway. My parents were gone for the weekend to Providence, visiting my grandmother who’d been complaining of back pains. She was always scared she had the latest disease she saw on CNN, even if it was only in pumpkins or something.

Unfortunately, them being out of town didn’t mean I had run of the house. Jamie was there too, and since I’d been away at college all semester, she saw fit to assume the role of
homeowner
. In the few days I’d been home already, she said that things had changed since I’d been away and since I didn’t know how they were doing things now, I could just leave if I preferred. The only thing that had changed as far as I saw was that she’d moved into my old room and torn down my
limited edition
Daredevil and Gambit posters.
While part of me debated shaving her hair off while she slept for ruining perfectly good collectables,
the rational side of me decided
it wasn’t worth the fight, I’d be gone in another two months when the fall semester started.

When we came in, she was sitting on the living room couch with a bag of rice cakes, watching some stupid chick flick with sappy music and some guy talking about feelings. I wasted no time picking up the remote and changing the channel.

“
Put it back, asshole,
”
she said.

“
Why don’t you go up to my room and watch TV? You know this is the only one I can watch now. Tooth and I are gonna watch a movie.
”

“
Well, in case you didn’t notice, Geekmaster, I was in the middle of one.
”

“
Yeah, I’ve seen it. The girl gets the guy, and somebody dies, then somebody gets married, and everybody cries and shares their feelings. It’s wonderful. Now move.
”

“
Wow, you’ve watched a movie that had actual adult themes and not grown men in tights rubbing their codpieces together. ‘Oh
,
Boy Wonder, is that your gun or are you happy to see me?’
”

“
Robin doesn’t carry a gun, Einstein.
”

“
Who the fuck is Robin?
”

Tooth, who
was
amusing himself with our sibling rivalry, went and plopped on the couch next to her. He put his arm around her and stared at her chest.
“
Hey
,
Jamie,
”
he said,
“
ain’t seen you in a few months. You’re developing nicely.
”