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Part XII: 1988- End of Innocence
"I'm sorry," Jamie said. She'd misheard them. Shit..
"Coke, please."
Leo smiled, getting to his feet to retrieve a bottle of Coke from the fridge, "I didn't think Jim had a lot of girl friends."
"He does not," said Jimmy, "I figured Audrey over here might be able to benefit from Mrs. L's boundless charity."
The older woman regarded Jamie with bright eyes, "You are in some trouble?"
"She could use a place to stay the night for starters."
The tininess of the house seemed more apparent than ever. Leo poured out a glass for Jamie before returning to his seat, the cat leaping up to his lap to recline.
"She is a stranger," said Mrs. L.
"Wasn't I?"
Mrs. L propped her head up in one hand, "You boys, go out."
"But the rabbit..." Jimmy protested.
"This is a woman's conversation. You boys, go now, out."
"C'mon," Leo patted Jimmy on the shoulder, "I can show you my progress."
"Right," he turned to Jamie, "She's really a very nice lady, so you know."
"Nicer than I can afford to be. Now..."
"Out, out, I get it."
Leo led Jimmy out through the front door. The sounds of their muted conversation faded into the distance. The cat stretched out, moving to curl around Jamie's leg.
"It's a friendly animal," said Mrs. L, "His name is Lycas."
-Jimmy, Leo, and Mrs. L
"He's very nice, ma'am," Jamie said, as she petted Lycas, who had started purring.
"James says you need a place to sleep," she continued in a businesslike voice, "It is like a parable. You feed one, who tells another, who comes to be fed, who is fed and tells another, and before long, you can no longer feed yourself. But where I come from, charity is a virtue and not a vice. America..." she gestured with a concerted face, "Everyone here has more than they know what to do with, and yet who will part with it? So it isn't strange that he seeks me out when he needs someone. I suppose that makes us unique."
-Mrs. L
"I...I suppose so," Jamie said...suddenly feeling guilty for lying to this woman, who'd opened up her doors for her, "And I greatly it, ma'am."
"Never mind. I can tell looking at you that you're burdened with more than a tiny stomach. The girls at the school, where I work, they joke that I am a witch, a fortune teller...their heads are full of ghost stories and scary movies. A gypsy woman can only be one thing to them. But it is true that I can see things, and know things by seeing. It is not magic, though, but an eye trained by necessity."
She dunked a crust of bread into the bowl before her, taking a healthy bite, "Is it a man?"
-Mrs. L
Well...this whole thing had started over a ma...no. A boy. And if her suspicions about Kirk Devlin were right, that counted too.
"You could say that," Jamie said, truthfully, "And it's gotten more complicated than I had ever imagined it would."
"That is how it goes," she chuckled, "I was about your age when I met Leandro's father. He was a good man, but troubled in his own way. In the back of my mind, I knew this, but it is one thing to know something, and another to confront it."
She clasped her hands together, "He has hurt you?"
-Mrs. L
"He all but called me an idiot, to my face," Jamie blurted out, "And I didn't have the guts to tell him where to shove it."
There was a short silence before Mrs. L laughed, "Leandro's father never tried that with me. No, then it was I who called him an idiot. I was wrong then as well. But things seem different when you are young. And, mind you, it was a very different time and place. There were things expected of me that would sound silly to you, or dangerous."
She clasped her hands together on the table, "Some months ago, your new friend James befriended my son. They were strangers. They did not even go to the same school. Still, he saw them coming after him, and he came to my son's defense. And so my son becomes loyal to him. Time passes, and James comes here in a moment of deep distress, saying he has nowhere else to go. Refuge is important in our culture. We are not called the traveling folk for nothing. It takes sacrifice to shelter someone. But, if you have ever been sheltered, you know how special that charge is, and then how could you refuse?"
She cocked her head to the side, "Does your mother know?"
-Mrs. L
"About the boy, or...oh," Jamie said, realizing what she meant, "No. She doesn't. Just my dad."
Mrs. L nodded ponderously, "Do you trust your father? Or your mother, as to that?"
-Mrs. L
"I do," Jamie said, without hesitation.
"And what have they advised, that even now you're sitting with me instead of them?"
-Mrs. L
"To follow my gut, and never back down."
Mrs. L seemed to like this answer, "And what does your gut tell you?"
-Mrs. L
"Do what I have to do, and never look back."
Mrs. L was quiet for a short time, nodding, "Very good," seemingly decided, she leaned back in her chair, "You may stay the night. Leandro keeps a sleeping bag in his room for when James comes over. But if you aren't comfortable sleeping with a boy, I can make an arrangement elsewhere. In the morning..." she cocked her head to the side, "Is there anyplace you will need to be going?"
-Mrs. L
"St. Mary's. I have to take care of something."
"What a coincidence," Mrs. L smiled, "That is on my way. I work at the school," she got to her feet with a contented sigh. Lycas nosed around her expectantly as she began to collect dishes, "You will find Leandro's room down the little passage there," she nodded to the door her son had emerged from earlier, "His door is on the left side, and mine to the right. There is a bathroom at the end of the hall."
She scratched the cat between the ears, "Maybe you'd like to say goodnight to James? Or not, and who could blame you?"
-Mrs. L
"I would," Jamie smiled.
"You'll find them in the copse behind the house. Stick to the trail, and don't stray too far. Those boys have less sense than Lycas," she crossed to the sink, retrieving a sponge and a tube of violently yellow Dial dish soap to begin her ministrations.
The cat crossed to the doorway, pausing as if expecting Jamie to follow.
"You might as well let him take you. The animal's many things, but he doesn't get lost."
-Mrs. L
"Thank you," Jamie got up, and started following Lycas.
Always stick to the trail. Straying is what led to dying in horror movies.
Mrs. Lakotos waited until Jamie had left the room before sighing in the manner of one who was bereaved, turning on the taps over the sink.
"Kaiméno paidí," she muttered dolorously.
***
"I wonder what Vicky would think about all this."
"Are you still on that?" Sam rolled his eyes, stopping halfway up the wooden steps that hugged the side of the Devlin lake house. Pamela, three steps below, folded her arms as if in accusation, "Whatever it was, it got Kirk pretty steamed."
"Vicky's in Memphis."
"Memphis is just a phone call away," Pamela cocked her head to the side, "You know, I always said Kirk was too good for her."
"What do you know about what's good for him? You're his sister."
"Exactly."
"See, this seems like the kind of thing you bring up to your therapist..."
"Shut up, Sam."
He picked her up with both arms, hefting her up, spinning her around, and positioning her so that she was sitting on the railing, a story and a half above the stone of the pool deck, "Don't tell me to shut up."
"Or you'll drop me?" she asked softly, "I'm trembling."
"You don't think I will?"
"What do I say to stop you? Chant 'I love you, babe' three times fast?"
"Nice idea," he let her go. Pamela let out a short scream, feeling herself falling, headfirst, toward solid ground...
He grabbed her by the ankles, both hands gripping them so that his knuckles were white.
"Wha...what the hell?" she protested.
"I caught you, didn't I?"
"Sam!"
"See, I was gonna drop you anyway. The condition was if I'd catch you."
"Pick me up," she pressed her eyes shut, "...please."
"Right away," he hefted her up as easily as if she were made of paper, "You were saying?"
She slapped him, "Don't do that again."
Sam grimaced, rubbing his cheek with one hand, "You really thought I'd hurt you?"
"You almost dropped me from the balcony!"
He pressed her against the stone side of the house, "I would never hurt you. Never. And Kirk would never do anything to hurt Vicky. We don't act like that. That isn't us? Got it?"
Pamela nodded slowly, "...got it," a tear escaped her eye.
"Hey, hey..." he reached up to brush the moisture from her cheek, "Don't cry on me, Pammy. Come on..."
"Sam..."
"I didn't want to scare you."
"Sam..."
He kissed the tear away. She let out a short gasp, an electric shiver passing through her body, "Sam stop..."
"I don't want to hurt you, Pam."
"Fine," she put a hand on his wrist, "Fine. I believe you."
She could feel him, rigid and tense against her. His breath was hot on her skin. Slowly, she pried herself away from him, not letting go of his hands as she led him the rest of the way up the stairs, along the balcony, and through the french doors to her room.
"Pamela..." he began, "You're still crying."
"I know," she grabbed him by the front of his lacrosse jersey, pulling him down on top of her in the bed, "I want to cry some more."
"Pam..."
"Let me cry," she dug her fingers into his shoulders, "Let me cry, or I swear to God, I will scream for everybody and their mother to hear what you just did on those stairs. Now kiss me, love me, hurt me, I don't care, but let me cry."
He looked down at her with something like adulation in his eyes, "You drive me crazy," he pulled her up against him, kissing the tears from her face as he tugged the sundress over her. She pulled the jersey over his head, burying her face in the immensity of his chest, listening to the living heart beating somewhere in the cold stone of the rest of him. Her pants turned to quiet sobs.
"Wa-wait..." she began softly.
"What?"
"They'll...they'll hear," with one hand, she reached to the night stand and switched the clock radio on. Pop music oozed into the room, a peppy, heavily electrified female voice singing in accompaniment.
"Children, behave/That's what they say when we're together/And watch how you play..." "That's better," Pamela pressed herself back into him, crying in full force as he held her in his arms, working his hips against hers. Her sobs turned to moans. "They don't understand/And so we're..."
***
"Running just as fast as we can/Holding on to one another's hand..."
"I've been wondering," Paula said softly, sitting up at the aft of the rowboat.
Jason looked up from the oars, "Regretting keeping me company already?"
"No, silly, I wasn't thinking about you at all."
"Right."
"Just...you ever get the feeling you can make a difference in someone's life?"
"Trying to get away into the night/And then you put your arms around me/And we tumble to the ground and then you say..."
"Isn't that the point of being alive?"
She shrugged, "I don't know. I guess it's a first for me."
"I think we're alone now..."
***
"There doesn't seem to be anyone around..."
"Leo, you're a swell guy and all, but I'm beginning to worry I'm about to be short a head."
"Oh, shut up. If I wanted to kill you, I would've taken that knife from your boot first."
"You're unreal," Jimmy muttered, "What, is it like a gypsy superpower that you just know when a guy has a knife?"
"You had to move it around with your hand when you put it back on. That's not superpowers; it's just you being stupid."
"Point conceded," Jimmy looked around the tight beech copse, "Wasn't it, uh...around here?"
"It is," Leo nodded proudly, "You're standing on it."
"I think we're alone now/The beating of our hearts is the only sound..."
Jimmy stepped back, realizing the forest floor beneath his feet was, in fact, loose, "So, is this a gypsy superpower?"
"It's a welcome mat from the dollar store covered with dirt."
"Right."
Leo pulled it aside, revealing a sort of warren leading about four feet down into a shadowy earthen ditch, "Not exactly comfortable yet, but it's getting there."
"No cable?"
"But endless privacy."
"Look at the way we gotta hide what we're doin'/'Cause what would they say/If they ever knew?/And so we're..."
"You're really serious about this whole 'secret hole', huh?"
"Is it any stupider than building a tree house?"
"That's also stupid. Only little jackasses build treehouses. But you're the only guy I know that built himself a...hole."
"It's more like a cave."
"No it's not."
"It's close to a cave," he paused, "I don't know, it's...just something I felt I had to do."
"What, like a habit? Because I'm pretty sure smoking is more socially acceptable."
"Running just as fast as we can/Holding on to one another's hand..."
"You think I'm crazy," Leo frowned, "I thought you would."
"No, I don't you're crazy. I think you dug a hole in the ground."
"You're my friend, right?"
"Uh...yeah, man, of course."
"And I can trust you?"
"You know that," Jimmy said softly.
"So if I say that this is something I need to do..." his hands were twitching in his lap, "You believe me?"
Jimmy reached out to still his hand in his, "Like Gospel, brother."
"Trying to get away into the night/And then you put your arms around me/And we tumble to the ground and then you say..."
"I'm not crazy," Leo said, as if willing himself to believe it.
"Hey," Jimmy pointed out, "I am. To be honest it gets a little lonely."
Leo laughed softly, "You aren't really crazy, Jimmy."
"Tell that to my folks. Even Sal thinks I'm from another planet half the time, the way I get..."
"It's normal as I am?"
"Hey, who's side are you on anyway?" but Jimmy chuckled, "Do, uh...you wanna show me around down there?"
Leo hesitated, "Well..." but he was cut short by a rustling in the brush, as a pair of bright green eyes made themselves clear in the darkness.
"Lycas," Leo greeted, "And you brought company."
"I think we're alone now/There doesn't seem to be anyone around/I think we're alone now/The beating of our hearts is the only sound..."
-Mrs. L, Pamela, Sam, Paula, Jason, Jimmy, and Leo
"Oh, nothing," said Jimmy immediately, getting to his feet, "Nothing at all untoward, young lady, don't you fret about..."
"It's a hole in the ground," said Leo, "I dug it."
"It's a thing he does," added Jimmy lamely, "He has his reasons, allegedly."
-Jimmy and Leo
"It looks pretty big for just a hole."
She walked over and took a look in it, "You tunneling?"
"No," Leo answered simply, "It doesn't go anywhere."
"Decent size for a TV and a futon, though."
"Did my mother give you the works?" asked Leo, "I'm sorry about her. She can be hard to get used to."
-Leo and Jimmy
"She was actually very insightful, and gave me some pretty good advice," Jamie said, a small smile forming.
She peered in again, "So...what's your reasoning for making a cave?"
Leo became suddenly quite withdrawn, either embarrassed or just at a loss. Jimmy shrugged, "Everyone needs a hobby," he put his hands in his pockets, "So, Mrs. L gave you the greenlight to stay the night?"
-Leo and Jimmy