The Summer of Winters (11 page)

Every Sunday night I watched the show, even during the summer when all the episodes were reruns. It was one of the few shows that Ray and I liked that my mother also enjoyed, and it was usually a family event in our household. My mother would whip up homemade milkshakes, which just consisted of her scooping ice cream into glasses, pouring milk over that, and mushing it all up, and we’d all cuddle up on the couch to watch.

This Sunday was no different…at least until the knock on the door.

I was annoyed as my mother went to answer the knock. The show was starting in less than five minutes, after all. My annoyance turned to dread when Mom opened the door and I saw Brody standing there on the stoop.

“Hi, Ms. Guthrie, I hope I’m not bothering you.”

“Not at all, Brody. We were just getting ready to watch some TV. What can I do for you?”

“Well, I was actually planning to head out to the roller rink to meet up with some guys from work. I was thinking maybe Mike might want to tag along.”

The air suddenly turned to molasses and I had trouble drawing it into my lungs. I could hear my brother slurping his milkshake up through a bendy straw next to me, but the sound was distant, as if coming from the other end of a long tunnel.

“That’s so nice,” my mother said. “Is Paige going, too?”

“Afraid not. She’s on the mend but still not up to going out. But she did make me promise to invite Mike.”

“So very thoughtful. I’m sure he would be delighted, wouldn’t you, Mike?”

Mom turned to look at me, and Brody was looking at me, too. I found myself frozen under the glare of the scrutiny.

My mother frowned at me. “Mike, are you okay? Why don’t you run grab your skates out of your room?”

“I don’t wanna go,” I said, my voice a hoarse whisper.

“What?”

“I don’t wanna go.”

“Why not?”

“I…um, I’ll miss the show.”

“Honey, you’ve already seen the show.”

“Yeah, but my milkshake…”

“I’ll put it in the freezer and save it for you. Now hurry up, you don’t want to keep Brody waiting.”

Reluctantly I placed my shake on the scuffed coffee table. It no longer looked appetizing to me anyway—the mushed up chocolate ice cream looked more like mushed up turds. I stood up and headed to my bedroom, moving slowly, moving the way I did on school days when getting ready, each step full of dread. Behind me, I heard my mother invite Brody inside and offer him a milkshake.

My roller skates were in the closet, tucked away at the very back. They were white with blue wheels and had a blue star on each toe. My mother had picked them up at a yard sale a year ago, and they were a little too big for me. I rarely got the opportunity to go to Rollerland so at first I would roller skate up and down Jefferies Street, at least until I’d fallen and bloodied my nose shortly before school had let out for the summer. I hadn’t pulled the skates out of the closet since.

I held them in my hands and sat down on the edge of the bottom bunk, trying to figure a way out of this. Maybe I could convince her I was sick, but it would have to be something with sudden onset because she knew I’d been fine before Brody showed up at the door.

But did I really have anything to worry about? It wasn’t likely Brody was going to kill me when everyone knew I’d be with him. Besides, as far as he knew I completely bought into his story about finding the hairclip at the movie theater. He was probably just being nice.

The bottom line, however, was that it didn’t matter what Brody’s intentions were. He was a killer, or at least I had a strong hunch he was, and I didn’t want to be alone with him.

“Mike,” my mother said sharply from the door. “What are you doing in here? I told you to hurry.”

I fiddled with the front wheels of one of the skates, spinning it around and around. “Can’t I just stay home?”

“What has gotten into you? I thought you’d be ecstatic to get to go to Rollerland. It’s very ungrateful of you to act like this when Brody was nice enough to ask you along.”

Inspiration suddenly struck. “But you always say we’re not a charity case, and Brody’s already taken me to the movies.”

“Not to worry, I gave Brody the money for admission into the roller rink.”

“But Mom, you can’t afford that.”

My mother winced as if the words had physically stung her. She crossed the room and sat next to me, placing her arm around my shoulder. “Baby, I admit things are tight and I can’t always get you and your brother everything you want, but I can scrounge up the money to send my boys to the roller rink every once in a while without going broke.”

I opened my mouth to protest further, but then it hit me that my mother had said
boys
. “Is Ray going, too?”

“Well, I saw him pouting on the couch, and truth is he has been left out of an awful lot this summer, so I asked Brody if he would mind taking the both of you.”

“And he said okay?”

“Of course.”

This changed things quite a bit. For one, surely Brody couldn’t mean me any harm if he was letting my kid brother tag along. Also, even if I somehow found a way out of going, no way would Ray want to stay home now that he’d been told he could go, which would mean he’d be alone with Brody. I certainly didn’t want that. So I decided to go.

***

I had only been to Rollerland a few times in my life, on the occasions when classmates had birthday parties there and their parents made them invite everyone in their grade. The experience had been a lot like school, with most of the kids either ignoring me or picking on me, but it had also included free cake and ice cream and skating, so that was a plus.

This was the first time Ray had ever been to Rollerland, and he seemed near ready to burst by the time we pulled into the parking lot. Brody had been silent on the drive over, and I couldn’t help but wonder what he was thinking. Whatever it was, he didn’t let on from behind his impassive mask.

Once inside, Brody and Ray had to be fitted for loaner skates while I changed into my own pair. I hoped I wouldn’t run into any of the kids from school, but the crowd seemed to mostly be made up of teenagers.

Brody hadn’t been lying about meeting up with some friends from work. Two boys and a redheaded girl who seemed smitten with Brody. They skated for a while then sat at one of the tables by the snack counter while Ray and I continued to circle the rink.

Ray had never been on skates before, and he started off wobbly—I kept having to help him back to his feet after he would wipe out. Eventually he started getting the hang of it, though he went slowly. Once I was sure he wasn’t going to fall and crack his head open, I left him on his own and picked up some speed. I wasn’t the world’s best skater, but I was okay. Even with skates that were slightly too big; I just laced them up extra tight.

After a while, I sort of forgot that I had been brought here by someone I suspected of some atrocious acts, I forgot the dread I’d been living with. My mouth stretched wide in the first genuine smile I’d worn in weeks. At first it felt unnatural on my face, but then I just allowed myself to get lost in the sensation of rocketing around the rink, listening to the sound system blare out one popular song after another. “867-5309,” “Don’t You Want Me,” “Gloria,” “Eye of the Tiger,” “Tainted Love.” Even when I took one turn too fast and ended up colliding with the back of a teenaged girl then falling on my backside, all I could do was laugh, get back up, and keep on.

Later they shut off the music, and everyone skated out to the center of the rink and formed a circle for a version of the Hokey-Pokey, followed by a version of Duck-Duck-Goose. Afterwards, Brody bought Ray and me curly fries, which my little brother liked to pretend were Slinkies.

On the drive home that night, I found myself staring over at Brody. I still believed that something wasn’t right about him. Perhaps tonight’s trip had just been an attempt to stay on my good side so I wouldn’t mention the hairclip to anyone, and it left me with a strange mix of emotions that churned inside me like a witch’s brew.

When we pulled into the Moore’s driveway, Ray instantly hopped out of the car and shot off toward our house, so excited to share the night’s events with our mother. I gathered up my skates and was just about to climb out myself when Brody reached over and grabbed my arm. “Hold up a sec, Mike, I want to talk to you for a moment.”

I suddenly found it hard to breathe, and I wanted to yank my arm free and bolt from the car, but it was as if I were paralyzed. All the good feelings I’d had out at Rollerland dissipated, and I couldn’t help but wonder if something like this had happened to Sarah Winters her last night on earth. If she’d felt that hand grab her arm and heard those words: “I want to talk to you for a moment.”

Brody’s next words only compounded my fear. “Paige tells me you’ve been asking a lot of questions about me lately.”

I tried to speak but all that came out was a sound not unlike the croak of a frog.

“You know, Mike, I thought we were buds, but now I’m starting to suspect that you still think I had something to do with what happened to that poor little girl.”

Still not trusting my voice, I just shook my head.

“Well, I think you do, and it hurts my feelings. It hurts my feelings a lot.”

I was trembling as if caught out in the winter’s snow without a coat; my teeth were even chattering. I almost said “I’m sorry” but then thought better of it; maybe that would be confirmation that I still suspected he’d killed Sarah. I looked over at the Moore house then at my own, wishing someone would come out of either one of them. “My m-mom’s going to be w-w-wondering where I am,” I stammered.

Brody leaned toward me until our noses were almost touching, and when he spoke I could smell onions from the chili dog he’d had at the roller rink. “I worry about you, Mike. I’d hate to see anything bad happen to you. I mean, I know everyone in town seems to think the danger has passed, but the fact is there could still be a lunatic out there. Right now you’re safe because you’re with me…and everyone knows it. But that won’t always be the case. Sometimes you’re off on your own, I know that, and something terrible could happen to you if you’re not careful. So that’s all I’m saying—be very careful and watch your step.”

His grip on my arm tightened until I thought my bones were going to snap. Brody’s expression held no malice, but it didn’t seem to hold any emotion. He was just…blank. But his stare was intense, and I felt an aching in my bladder as if I were about to wet my pants.

Abruptly Brody released his hold and sat back, his face lighting up with a bright smile. “You should run along home now. Don’t want your mother to worry.”

I tumbled out of the car, dropping my skates. I snatched them up then started down the sidewalk, walking backwards because I didn’t like the idea of putting my back to Brody. He remained in the car, watching my progress all the way back to my house. I had failed to close the passenger’s side door, and under the harsh dome light I could see that his expression had gone blank again.

Just before I went into the house, he raised a hand and waved.

Chapter
Twelve

Brody had threatened
me. Or had he? It certainly felt like a threat, but if I were to tell anyone, what could I say? That Brody told me to be careful, that he didn’t want to see anything bad happen to me? Taken out of context, that sounded more like concern than malice.

I couldn’t stop thinking about Sarah Winters. Why would Brody want to hurt her? Of course, despite my mother trying to shield me from all the gory details (and why she should bother when I’d seen the actual body I don’t know), I’d heard the girl had been sexually molested prior to her death. I also remembered the condition of the area between her legs. As if murder wasn’t bad enough, how could anyone be so sick as to do something like that to a little kid?

So what could I do? It wasn’t as if I could follow Brody around everywhere he went so he wouldn’t be able to hurt anyone else. The only plan I could come up with was to watch over the one person I felt was in the most danger from Brody.

And that was his sister.

***

I became Paige’s shadow, as much as I could. If I wasn’t at her house, I tried to arrange for her to be over at my house. Basically the only time we were apart was when we were sleeping. I certainly wanted to make sure I was around if Brody was home but Mr. and Mrs. Moore weren’t. If I could help it, I was going to see to it that Paige was never alone with her brother.

I actually managed to do a pretty decent job.

Until the day of Ray’s accident.

***

It was a Friday afternoon. Mr. and Mrs. Moore were both at work, but Brody had the day off. So I’d invited Paige over to do a puzzle with me. I didn’t really like puzzles, but Paige had once told me how much she enjoyed them, and I knew my mother had a 1000 piece puzzle of a field of daisies in the hall closet. It was the bait that reeled Paige in. She asked her brother if he wanted to come, but he declined, saying he just wanted to crash on the couch and stare at the TV. I was glad but tried not to show it.

Julie made us macaroni and cheese for lunch and we worked on the puzzle at the kitchen table. Even Julie joined in once her soap was off. Ray tried to take part, too, but he proved more of a nuisance than a help and Julie sent him to play outside. It was only in the past week that he’d been allowed out by himself, just in the yard, so he jumped at the chance.

After nearly an hour and a half, I had fit together maybe four pieces, whereas Paige had almost an entire corner together, and Julie wasn’t doing too shabby herself. Of course, my heart wasn’t really in it. I just wanted to keep Paige here until her parents got home.

Julie got up and went to the fridge to pour herself a glass of orange Kool-Aid and asked us, “You guys want anything to drink?”