“I need you to take out the trash, Son. You can finish the windows later.”
He pushed his son through the door, and offered Max a curt nod before following him inside.
19
“Milk, medicine droppers, Polaroid camera, and steak knives,” Sid said, picking through his backpack.
“And my baseball bat,” Ashley added, clanking her metal bat against the curb. “And keep your eyes on the sky. You see any birds and were out of there.”
They’d neared the edge of the forest when a voice startled them both.
“What are you guys doing?” Shane asked, kicking up his skateboard and balancing it on the tip.
Sid shot her an anxious look and shook his head.
Ashley shrugged. “Walkin.”
“Into those woods?” Shane nodded at the woods where Melanie Dunlop had disappeared several days before.
“No, into the mall. Obviously.” She rolled her eyes, and Sid grinned.
“Can I come?” Shane asked. He tossed his head back, his blond hair returning to a sheath across his forehead.
“No,” Sid whispered under his breath, but Ashley’s head had already tilted up and down.
“Sure, why not?” She ignored Sid and traipsed into the woods, stomping branches beneath her sneakers.
“Are you guys looking for Melanie?” Shane asked as they walked beneath the awning of trees.
“No,” Sid griped, eyes cast toward the sky in search of vultures.
“You okay, man?” Shane asked.
Sid didn’t answer and dropped his jaw when Shane got a running start and ran right up the side of a tree, grabbing a branch above him and swinging his legs up. His upper body arced back, and he dangled, his golden hair waving below his head.
A blue jay squawked and fled from the tree, its bright blue body vanishing into the higher branches.
“Why did you let him come? He’ll make fun of us with The Thrashers,” Sid whispered to Ashley.
Sid’s belly felt like a pit of writhing snakes. He didn’t understand why, but suspected it had something to do with the way Ashley laughed when Shane had flipped into the tree.
“Three is better than two, Sid. We need all the help we can get if we run into the monster.”
Sid grunted and picked up a stick, poking at the dirt and avoiding looking at Shane as he gracefully swung down from the tree.
“Swear you won’t tell anyone what we’re about to show you?” Ashley asked, turning to face Shane.
He stopped, pulling a face and squinting at the forest floor.
“You didn’t find her, did you? Melanie?” Shane whispered.
Ashley screwed up her face.
“No, gross! What do you think, we’re leading you to her body?” Ashley cringed.
Shane released a whoosh of breath and ran his hands through his hair, a mannerism that made Sid want to hack off every piece of his golden hair with a pair of rusted gardening shears.
“Haven’t you read “The Body” by Stephen King? It’s in his book Different Seasons. Crazier things have happened,” Shane replied.
“You’ve read it?” Sid asked, as if he expected Shane to be illiterate, though he knew full well he wasn’t. He'd heard Shane read aloud in English class. He never even stumbled over the big words like procrastinate or bewildered. Sid, on the other hand, who was an exceptional reader in his own head, turned into a stuttering ignoramus when forced to read out loud during class.
“I won’t show you until you promise to keep them a secret.”
“I swear,” Shane said, resting a hand on his chest.
Ashley led him to the clearing where they’d built the raccoon den.
Shane walked up to their little raccoon tree house and peeked into the opening.
“Wow,” he said. “I’ve never seen baby raccoons before.”
“Want to feed one?” Ashley asked.
She pulled the backpack from Sid’s back and took out the milk and medicine droppers.
Shane lifted a raccoon out and cupped it in both hands as he sat on the ground.
“Hey, little dude,” he told it. “Where did you find them?” he asked Ashley.
“In a tree. We think their mom got hit by a car.”
“Bummer,” he said.
“Want the other dropper?” Ashley asked Sid.
He shot Shane a grouchy look and shook his head. “You go ahead,” he murmured.
Ashley lifted Alvin from the den, rubbing his soft head beneath her chin.
“Hey, Alvin. How’s your day been?”
“Alvin?” Shane asked.
“Alvin,” Ash repeated, lifting the raccoon. “And you’re holding Simon. Theodore is the little pork chop still in there. He’d guzzle all the milk if you let him.”
After they fed the raccoons, they walked back toward the road.
Sid had never taken the camera from his bag. He sensed Ashley didn’t want to reveal what else they’d been looking for in the woods. Keeping the secret suited him just fine.
“We could go to the arcade,” Shane suggested as they left the woods.
The summer day lazed around them. Sun splashed across the metallic hoods of cars parked in driveways.
Sid saw sprinkler’s sending arcs of water across green lawns.
In Mrs. Lincoln’s yard, her windmill flamingos didn’t move a feather. The leaves didn’t rustle in the trees. The heat had the thick stifling sensation that reminded Sid, unpleasantly, of being tucked into the dumbwaiter several days before.
“I can’t,” Ashley said. “I’ve got to mow Mr. Bauman’s yard, and then run to the market for Mrs. Jasper.”
“Dang. Are those like your jobs or something?” Shane asked.
“I’m saving for the Huffy Pro Thunder. I only need twenty-two dollars and it’s mine. I have eight right now, fourteen bucks to go.”
Shane whistled.
“I’ve seen that bike in Sampson’s. It’s totally bitchin.”
“What about you?” Shane asked Sid.
Sid looked up sharply, a flush rushing from his neck to his forehead before he could demand his body to play it cool.
Shane watched him as if he were dead serious, not asking so that when Sid said yes, he could laugh in his face.
Sid wanted to go to the arcade. He had dreamed two nights before that he’d defeated Donkey Kong and won back Lady, but when he tried to imagine riding his bike alongside Shane on his skateboard, he stumbled instead into a vision of Shane luring him into the park where Travis and the other Thrashers would hide in the john, waiting to grab him and stick his head in the toilet for a bogwash.
“Nah, I don’t think so,” he said at last. “My mom said something about burgers at the Pin Wheel today.”
It was a lie. His mom never wanted burgers at the Pin Wheel. The last Friday of the month they went as a family because their father insisted the boys deserved a greasy burger and fries once in a blue moon. Gloria Putnam disagreed, but went along with it after too many arguments with her husband to count. However, they’d gone to Pin Wheel two weeks before. Their next trip wouldn’t be until July.
Ashley knew as much, but Sid didn’t let her catch his eye.
“Okay, see you guys later,” Shane said, pulling his skateboard from the bushes.
Sid and Ashley had walked to the woods, so they continued home on foot.
“You’d like him if you gave him a chance,” Ashley said after several minutes of silence.
“Like a needle in the eye,” Sid grumbled.
“Come on,” Ashley argued. “What’s your deal, Sid. He’s been nice.”
“He’s boring, Ash. Okay. He’s one of those perfect everything dudes. Perfect hair, best at skateboarding, too cool for the cool kids, too cool for the dorks. He’s like a shadow of a person.”