Chapter 26

Since the next day was Saturday, we gathered for a quiet breakfast. As relaxed as the meal started, my pulse accelerated with each of my mother’s many sidelong glances. While she’d drained me the night before, thank God, her need hadn’t diminished. When dad stood to refill their coffee mugs, despite sitting away from me, she swept her hair back to bare her neck.

After I noted the shallow indentations left by my teeth, our eyes met. Filled with spirals of gold, hers blazed. No words. None needed.

Even as she and dad headed out for their usual errands, shiny and hopeful, her eyes flashed over his shoulder at me. At my abrupt shift to relieve the pressure in my shorts, her gaze flicked downwards. With her bright white teeth deep in her full, glossy red lower lip, she let dad guide her from sight, towards the car.

But God, that last glimpse of her glimmering blue pools before dad tugged the front door shut behind him had the room spinning. As I stared at the closed door, powerful tremors rippling through my frame.

Just as the car roared into the distance, I swept my gaze around the room. With her head tilting, Shayna glanced up at me from beside the coffee table. All of my mother’s lingering aromas: perfume, shampoo, the delicate soap, swirled into my nostrils. Already spinning, the house wobbled. As I gasped for air, my fists crushed the chariot’s armrests.

My pulse soared. I had to get out. Had. To. Leave.

That was when I made a mistake.

Well, I mean, so far, my life had been a chain of weird decisions, but what I chose to do right then could’ve gotten me killed. Perhaps, having almost died of that damned China bug, I was immortal? More as if it’d turned my brain, as small as it was, to mush. I dunno, but I did something stupid.

It was way too nice outdoors. I glanced at the backyard. In the distance, the treetops swayed in a light breeze under a cloudless sky. No. Not good enough.

With my phone shoved into its side pocket, I aimed the chariot for the front door. After lifting to her feet, Shayna started to pad across the room before halting and scanning the house. When she returned to me with her head cocked, I caught the question behind her eyes. Neither dad nor my mother was home. At no time had I gone anywhere without either of them being aware. As she looked around once more, her tail lowered before returning to glare at me.

Yeh, she was glaring again. And that got my blood boiling. It shouldn’t have, but it did.

“Open the door.” I gestured at the rope tug dangling from the handle.

Motionless, as she glanced from me to the door, Shayna’s long pink tongue slithered over her gleaming white teeth. When she started to sit, I surged the chariot forward, narrowly missing her before scraping along the solid door.

Although I could grab the thick twine, I couldn’t pull it downward and roll backwards at the same time. One glance at Shayna confirmed she also understood. With a snarl of frustration, I slapped the rope against the door and sped in reverse. Just before I would’ve struck her tail, she leaped aside.

“Open the damned door!”

To this day, I’m not sure how the vehemence in my voice got her to move, but with a yelp, Shayna zipped before me. After latching her jaws on the pull, she tugged the door wide. At the shocked look on her face, I found my own body tightening. My gaze flicked to her collar.

“Good girl,” I whispered before smacking my dry lips. “Thank you.”

As I trundled past her, the world sorta wobbled and she pressed into me when I ran my fingertips along her back. Even as my brain was computing what had just happened, because it had been significant, the bright sunshine struck my eyes. While squinting under a shading hand, I sighed at the warmth heating my skin.

With my heart thumping, I looked around. Like a comforting wave, a profound sense of freedom overwhelmed me. Every muscle relaxed and though I noted the mobility van and my mother’s car in the driveway, I flung my gaze skyward to track a pair of birds. After swooping low, they zipped over the front yard. A smile spread across my face.

Once she’d tugged the door closed with a thump, Shayna trotted alongside me. But her body was tense, and she kept her gaze fixed forward. Yeh, she wasn’t happy. When she glanced at me, her emerald pools were—shadowed. Concern?

As my heartbeat slowed, I gestured her close. As I raked my fingertips through her thick neck fur, she settled her muzzle on my thigh.

“I’m sorry.” At my gentle tone, her eyes softened. “I shouldn’t have yelled. I—It’s just...”

When she ran her tongue over my skin, shivers zipped along my spine. After a swift glance up the street towards Beth and Nina’s matching BMWs—Nina’s was the fire engine red one—I sighed.

Did I really think I had a snowball’s chance in hell with someone like Beth? Most especially after sending her that cringy text? Other than telling me she’d oh-so-conveniently disappeared to her grandmother’s for the weekend, there’d been nothing from her. Because, duh, I’d been an awkward idiot.

After a longer sigh and a slow shake of my head, I moved down the road. It wasn’t long before I found what I was seeking. A tangled brush, leaning into a half-dead tree, obscured a narrow trail entrance.

At some point, somebody had spread a layer of gray gravel, but the uneven ground remained mostly rust-colored dirt. Winter and the spring rains had worn gouges in the path, though it appeared clear. Well, at least as far as I could see.

Worry forgotten, Shayna padded forward, tail wagging and nose twitching.

With gritted teeth, I held on as the chariot angled from the pavement to lurch down a shallow incline. Once it had flattened a bit, I did my best to keep the chair centered while moving along the rough path. Even then, as it plowed through the rock-covered sand, tall weeds rubbed against its sides.

Once I’d worked our way through the scraggly underbrush beneath ever-higher twisted trees, the sunlight grew dimmer. Besides becoming denser, the humid atmosphere filled with the odors of wet wood, wildflowers, and—life. After so much time in air conditioning, despite beads of sweat trickling down my frame, a grin widened on my face.

At last, the trail emerged into a winding, dusty wash. Cut with wavering, long-dry channels, it meandered towards the ragged debris and shrub-choked shore of an old fishpond. As my nostrils crinkled, my smile lessened. While reeking of older life and decay, its stagnant blue-green waters glimmered under the dappled sunlight. Nose in the air and tail wagging, Shayna was in heaven. She dashed about, zipping in and out of tree trunks dotting the thick undergrowth.

It’d been over a year since I’d been here. Before my health had worsened. As much as anything in a middle-class neighborhood could be, it was my secret spot. When a trio of chirping bright blue birds raced past just above the pond, my grin widened further. From high in the swaying green trees, other colorful fowl answered. The rhythmic sounds of cicadas echoed from everywhere.

It was a magical place.

At least that’s what I’d always believed.

Despite the chariot’s wheels skidding and sliding over a tangled pile of shattered crackling brown branches, the smile remained. When I pulled to a halt, with scattered sunlight twinkling over me, I tugged out my phone. After a few brief glimpses of Shayna flitting through the mottled underbrush lining the distant shore, I chuckled.

She was in heaven. Magical for her, as well?

After a lengthy sigh, I returned to the phone. My fingers hovered over the touchpad.

Would Jeri even care? I mean, what were we? Should I bother her at home? At her parents’? Had she really risked visiting the hospital? But my chest ached. At least I’d hear her voice.

No, at that point, with Beth a million miles away, I needed to see her. After a curt exhale, I switched to the vidphone app.

It rang. Rang again. And once more. Darn it, she wasn’t home.

“Kyle?”

After her voice came through, she appeared. Although there couldn’t have been the sparkles I noted, my heart—soul—seized. With her beautiful, gleaming, dark eyes flitting around, Jeri’s face was—drawn.

In an off-white, lightweight cotton blouse whose thin flower-laced straps were distinct against her shiny, dusky shoulders, she had my heart restarting. Then racing. Held by a deep purple headband, the wavy black mass of hair bounced on her shoulders. Despite little make-up, her sharp features and defined profile had me crushing the chariot’s armrests.

Behind her, pink flowered wallpaper adorned a small bedroom.

Over a narrow white four-poster bed swayed a gauzy light pink canopy. Of course, a fuchsia comforter covered the mattress. Stuffed unicorns of all shapes and sizes peeked from among a pile of lace-fringed pink pillows. Alongside an open window in a white painted wooden frame, sheer pink curtains rustled.

The entire place said “Jeri.” Not intelligent, needy slut Jeri, but soft, wonder-filled, and fragile Jeri. With my eyebrows lifting, I caught her face.

“Yes, it’s me. Uh, hi, Jeri.” Okay, what do I say now? I paused when the image shook. “How are—”

“Oh, thank God! How’ve you been? What happened? I’ve been so worried. I hadn’t heard from you. And I had to leave. I couldn’t tell ... Ask anyone to check on you. And I didn’t know if I should call your house. Or what I would say to your parents or—”

As she gasped for air after the torrent of words, her full lips trembled. I forced a smile and took the opportunity to respond.

“It’s okay, Jeri. I’m fine. Just, uh, tired.” After running my tongue around my dry mouth, I flicked my gaze at Shayna’s fleeting shadow, tail whipping from side to side. She was chasing something deeper into the woods. “Still recovering.”

“I was so scared, Kyle.” She sniffled before continuing. “I know I ... We haven’t had much time t—together, but you’re ... You’re special to me.”

“You’re also special to me, Jeri.”

“I’ve missed you, master.” When her phone trembled again, she pursed her lips before shifting to look at the closed bedroom door.

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