Wicked Cruel (13 page)

Carter was there, too, along with three girls Danny knew but hadn’t ever spoken to. The girls were dancing.

Luke leaned toward Danny. “You have no chance,” he said.

“With what?”

“You know what.” Luke glanced at Janelle. “She’s taken.”

Danny didn’t respond. But who’d been dancing with Janelle? Who’d spent the whole evening with her, looking at jack-o’-lanterns and going to a poetry reading and walking in the dark by the pond? Oh, he had a chance all right. He was way ahead of Luke on this one.

He’d fight this battle. Not with his fists, of course, but with his cleverness and imagination. With his amazing way with words.

Danny stepped past Luke, intentionally bumping against him with a bit of strength. Luke bumped back, sending Danny stumbling into one of the other girls. Danny righted himself and began to dance again.

The girls formed a small circle, and Danny took the spot
next to Janelle, shifting his body to face her. He could practically feel Luke fuming.
Go floss your teeth
, he thought.
Brains beat muscle when it counts
.

Danny tried to think of another great line of poetry to match the “spirit turning to thee” thing. But the band was playing “Monster Mash” again and those lines kept getting in the way.

He was the only guy dancing; Luke and Carter were leaning against the fountain and glaring at him. When the next song ended, Janelle asked, “Did you say something about getting a caramel apple?”

“Yeah.” Danny pointed to a white awning set up over a table outside the square. “They sell ’em over there.”

“Let’s go.”

“Where are you going?” called one of the other girls as Janelle and Danny walked away.

“I might be back,” Janelle said.

Be cool
, Danny thought.
And smart. Show the difference between you and Luke
.

They could hear “Light My Fire” again.

“I guess the band ran out of songs they knew,” Janelle said.

“Yeah. They’ve been at it for more than two hours.”

Janelle looked back toward the square. “I don’t really want a caramel apple.” She kept walking past the booth and headed up Main Street.

“No?”

“Nah. I just wanted to get away from Luke.”

To be alone with me?
Danny wondered.

“He asked me this afternoon if he could walk me home later,” Janelle said. “I said I’d think about it.”

“And?”

“I thought about it.” She smiled. “He’s okay. But he gets kind of … grabby, if you know what I mean.”

Danny blushed. Janelle obviously was confident that he wouldn’t get “grabby.” Did she think he was a little kid?

He took a quick look back and saw Luke and Carter trailing behind. The crowds had thinned because of the rain and the cancellation of the fireworks, but there were still a lot of people around.

“So what are we doing?” Danny asked.

“I’m supposed to be home soon,” Janelle replied. “You?”

“Pretty soon.”

“Let’s find another band.”

They walked toward Cheshire Tire, where a bluegrass group was playing under the same tent her brother’s band had been. A large group of eighth graders was heading toward them, laughing and walking fast. Janelle said hello to a few of them as they passed.

Claudine was behind the group, trying to keep up.

“There’s your sister,” Janelle said.

“I see her.”

They reached the band. Janelle folded her arms and stood still. The rain got harder.

“Did he follow us all the way here?” Janelle asked.

“Luke?” Danny craned his neck and looked around. He spotted Luke and Carter on the other side of Main Street, standing under the awning of the theater.

“They’re across the street,” Danny said.

“I’m getting cold,” she said. “You ready to go?”

“Home?”

“Yeah. Will you walk with me?” she asked, glancing across at Luke.

“Sure.” Danny looked uneasily at Luke, too. “Where do you live?”

“Right by the library.”

That was easy. From there he could cut behind a church and through the parking lot by the diner, then take a couple of back streets to the campus.

Claudine came walking toward them, very quickly. She veered away when she saw Danny and headed back downtown.

“She was crying,” Janelle said.

“She was?”

“Yeah. Should we catch up and see if she’s all right?”

Danny stopped walking. “She wouldn’t want us to.”

“Why not?”

“I don’t know. She just wouldn’t.”

“She’s your sister.”

“Yeah. That’s why.”

Janelle squinted and studied Danny. “If my brother saw me crying like that, he’d be there in two seconds.”

“We’re not like that,” Danny said.

“Those kids must have been mean to her.”

“It happens.”

“It shouldn’t.”

“Yeah, but it does.”

Janelle sighed.

Volunteers were already disassembling the scaffolds, letting the pumpkins roll into the street. Several front loaders were at work, dumping pumpkins into pickup trucks.

“Let’s see if ours are still intact,” Janelle said.

But the scaffolding by the Colonial was already down. It was just past nine, but the weather was bringing the festival to an early close. They cut behind a block of stores and within seconds were away from the bustle.

Danny tried to think of something to say, but he could tell that Janelle was bothered by his reaction to his sister. He knew Claudine had been crying; she didn’t have to tell him that.

So they walked a few blocks in silence.

“What did you say to my father?” Danny finally asked.

“Well, he was busy with the people who wanted their books signed. But I asked him if he’d really seen those horses.”

“What did he say?”

“He said he had. More than once.”

“He’s never mentioned it.”

“He wrote that poem about it, so don’t act so surprised.” Janelle sounded less patient. She’d stopped looking at him.

They waited for a car to back out. The rain looked hard and steady in the headlights, but it was a fine rain, not drenching.

“He first saw them when he was our age,” Janelle said. “One night when he was cutting through the woods. There was no arts center then. He thought it was a wind spout or something, or maybe some deer, but then they raced past him and he saw all four of them.”

“And they looked like ghosts?”

“They were definitely ghosts. He said he wasn’t scared exactly. Not when it was happening. But then he avoided the woods at night for years. So he did get spooked by it.”

Danny could already see the library. He wasn’t in any hurry to get to her house. “What about the other times?”

“I can’t believe you never asked him about this.”

“He never brought it up, so how would I know?”

“I guess. Anyway, he last saw them about three years ago. He was in your backyard and they ran on the path around the pond.”

“Same kind of night?”

“That’s what he said. Rainy and windy.”

Janelle stopped and looked up at the streetlight. They’d reached School Street, which did not have a school on it. Hadn’t for fifty years.

“You should talk to your dad more,” she said. “He’s fascinating. Anybody who can write like that …”

Danny shrugged. “Some of his poems are pretty good.”

“I wish I could write
one
like that.”

“You could.”

She frowned. “Maybe someday.” Janelle looked away and blinked a few times. “Your family doesn’t talk to each other much, huh?”

“We talk. We argue.”

“You should support your sister more. My brother looks out for me, and it’s the best thing in the world to know he’s there.”

“She’s older than I am. She should be looking out for me.”

Janelle shook her head gently. “Maybe she would if you did the same.”

Janelle was full of advice all of a sudden. “We get along okay,” Danny said.

“Doesn’t look like it.”

Danny wanted to tell her to mind her own business. He swallowed hard. “It’s not as bad as it looks.”

“I hope not.”

Danny shoved his hands into the pockets of his jacket and let out his breath. He looked up School Street. “That way?”

“See that lamppost?” It was halfway up the block, in front of a small brick house.

“Yeah.”

“One beyond that … I can make it fine from here.”

“I’ll walk with you.”

“It’s okay. Thanks for coming this far.”

“No problem.”

Danny stayed put and watched her walk the fifty yards. She never looked back. He’d have to get home soon, too. But he headed back to Main Street.

Luke was sitting on the steps of the library. Danny crossed the street and circled behind the church to avoid him. But when he reached the parking lot, he could see the library again. Luke was no longer there.

Danny walked faster. The crowds were gone from Main Street, but the cleanup was in full swing. Tents were coming down, trash was being dumped into the backs of trucks, and the ladder of a fire engine was extended to the top of the highest scaffold. A police cruiser sat in the middle of the street; its siren was off, but its blue light was flashing.

Danny felt glum and wished he could settle into a seat at the Colonial Theater and watch more cartoons. But that had ended hours ago. So he’d probably had his last laugh for the day.

Brewbakers Coffee Shop, alongside the Colonial, was still open. It was a place he visited with his mother occasionally. She liked the hippie vibe and the fresh roasted coffee. Danny’d had his fill of junk food today, but a hot chocolate would be nice to kill the chill and maybe lift his spirits.

Claudine had had the same idea. She was in the last booth in the back of the narrow space. She glowered at Danny when he walked in. But he got his drink and slid across from her in the booth. There were only two other customers, at a table by the front window.

“Too bad about the fireworks,” Danny said.

Claudine looked down at her mug of chocolate. “Yeah.”

Danny blew on his cup, which was steaming hot. Claudine looked more angry than sad. He wanted to ask what had happened, just out of curiosity.

“What’s with that girl?” Claudine asked.

“Nothing much. She’s in my class. Janelle. Nice person.”

Claudine smiled slightly. “Then why does she like you?”

Danny blushed. “She doesn’t. Not
like
like. She likes everybody. We just happened to be in the same place for a while.”

“But you brought her to Dad’s reading.”

“I think she just wanted to get out of the rain.”

They sipped their drinks for a moment. A Bob Dylan song was playing softly. That was the usual sound track in here: sixties-ish type folk rock all night and day.

Danny swiped a dark drip from the side of his mug and licked his finger. “She liked the reading, though. Said he had an incredible way with words.”

“He does … sometimes.”

“I thought he was pretty good tonight. Too bad the crowd was so small.”

Claudine raised her eyebrows. “Tell me about it. Five hundred people watching Daffy Duck this afternoon and he couldn’t get twenty for a live performance.”

“He didn’t seem bothered.”

“No. He couldn’t have been expecting a big crowd. I thought more faculty would show up, though.”

“He made at least one fan.”

“Janelle?”

Danny winced and nodded. He hadn’t made Janelle a fan of his tonight; he’d said too many unkind things about Claudine.

Neil Young’s “Harvest Moon” came on. Claudine took the last swig of her hot chocolate and pushed the mug gently aside.

The door opened and three college guys came in, shaking off the rain. They seemed to know the lone server very well, and joked around with her before ordering coffees. The college students were notorious for having massive parties after Pumpkin Fest, and sometimes for being destructive. Danny had noticed more police out tonight. But these guys looked benign.

“What’d you eat today?” Claudine asked.

Danny went down the list. Everything he’d eaten was either fried or sugary.

“Better not tell Dad,” Claudine said. “He’ll put you on a lettuce diet for a week.”

Danny laughed. Claudine could be funny. Should he ask why she’d been crying? Did it matter?

“You okay?” he asked. It was the first time in his life he’d ever thought to ask his sister anything like that.

“Better,” she said. Then she nodded. “Definitely better.”

Danny stared into his mug and finished it.

Claudine took out her phone.

“Who you calling?”

“It’s almost ten,” she said. “Hi, Mom. They canceled the fireworks.… Yeah, I’m
with
him.… I know, right? We’re at the coffee shop.… We will.… Love you, too.”

“What’d she say?”

“She said not to hurry as long we’re safe and dry.”

“You want something else?”

“No. But maybe we’ll just sit here for a while.”

This was far more surprising to Danny than the fact that he’d hung out with Janelle for two hours. But they talked about the pumpkins and the poetry and the food, and Danny didn’t say a single awful thing the whole time.

Claudine shook her head after a long pause. “We’re not normal, Danny.”

“No kidding. I was actually quoting Wordsworth tonight when I should have been acting cool.”

“What did she think about it?”

“I couldn’t tell.”

“You should have quoted Bugs Bunny.” Claudine sighed and looked away. “Kids can be really mean.”

“What happened?”

“Nothing, really. I was just invisible, as usual. We should get home.”

Danny grabbed the handles of both mugs in one hand and set them on the counter. “Should we stay on the street or go through the campus?” he asked.

“Campus is nicer,” Claudine said. “At least once we get past the dorms.”

They walked quietly through the grassy quad and beyond the college library. The rain was steady and the wind was building up, but they’d been warmed by the hot chocolate. Danny was in no hurry to get home.

The arts center was ahead, and the pond.

“ ‘It was the very witching time of night,’ ” Danny said, quoting “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.” Their dad had read that story to them a hundred times when they were little.