A Sky for Us Alone

by Kristin Russell

  “I could sit here and talk with you all night, but the two of you should get outside in the air and enjoy yourselves.”

  I stood, happy to have some alone time with Tennessee before we saw everyone at Ryan’s.

  “No driving, Harlowe,” Mama said before we left. “And Tennessee, you come back here anytime.”

  “Thank you, I will. You made me feel right at home,” Tennessee said.

  Chapter 14

  “I HOPE THAT WAS okay back there,” I said once we were walking down Kinley Road together.

  Tennessee’s purse tapped against her leg and her hands tucked into the pockets of her dress. “It was great,” she said. “Your mom’s very kind.”

  “She is. I worry about her.”

  “Of course you do. I’m sure she leans on you even more now.”

  “Yeah, I think she does. I don’t know how much I can help her, though.”

  “Well, from here it looks like you’re doing a great job.” Her smile caught the light of the moon above us.

  I didn’t want her to think that I was a downer all of the time, and tried to come up with something else to talk about. “How’s the reading going?”

  “Almost done with the Carson McCullers. Think I’ll dive into Hamlet next. Oh, and Omie and I are reading Winnie-the-Pooh before he goes to sleep at night.”

  “Can I borrow that first one when you’re done? Haven’t been able to get a copy of it yet. You’re going to Berry Grove, right?”

  She shook her head. “They said the kindergarten there is full. Omie and I will take the bus over to Wilson.”

  “Oh.” My stomach dropped and our pace slowed.

  “Why’d you say it like that?” she asked.

  “It’s nothing. I just assumed we’d be in the same class and thought it’d be pretty great.” There was more to it than that. Amos owned Wilson Academy. Plenty of kids from other counties went there too, but he opened the school so that his own family, and anyone else he wanted to, could get diplomas no matter what their real grades were like.

  “We’ll still see each other,” she said. “I came tonight, didn’t I? It was a little hard to leave Omie at home. I’ve gotten so used to being the one that takes care of him. Mrs. Hemlock’s a good person, right?”

  “She is. Keeps to herself, but I’ve never heard a bad word about her. If there was any reason to worry, I’m sure I’d have heard about it.”

  Tennessee nodded. “Well, I bet you’ve heard some things about us. Dad caused some trouble in a few places. I think Mom planned to leave him once she could find work of her own, but then she got sick.” She looked down. “Go ahead, tell me. I might as well know what they’re saying.”

  “I heard about his leg, and the explosion. You shouldn’t worry about it, though. I’d never make it out of the house if I thought too hard about what people say.” Which made me think of Mama hardly ever leaving.

  “You’re right, it’s a waste of time,” she said.

  Red’s place was up ahead, right past Macnab’s old cabin.

  “Wait.” Tennessee stopped walking. “What’s that? It sounds like a duck is dying.”

  I couldn’t help but laugh. “It’s Peter Macnab, playing his bagpipes. He’s a little strange, doesn’t talk much to anyone.”

  “It’s such a sad song. He lives by himself?”

  “His wife died years ago. His kids are grown and moved away. They all wanted him to sell his land to Amos, but he never gave in. Recognize that?”

  I pointed up the mountain, behind Red’s trailer after we’d passed Macnab’s.

  “It’s the Prater house we saw from the pond,” she said.

  “Yep. Macnab owns all this land that backs up to the mountain. Some say Amos wants to build on it, others think he wants to blast because there’s more coal underneath.”

  “No offense, but why does Macnab want to stay here? Seems like he could make a bunch of money and go somewhere else.”

  “That’s what I’d do, for certain. That land will go to ruin sooner or later anyway, sitting as it does by the mines. Guess he’s used to the way he’s always done and can’t imagine doing it different.”

  Soon, we were close enough to Ryan’s place to see the flicker of lights and hear the bass thumping hard. We took a right turn down the dirt road packed with parked cars on both sides. The music grew louder the closer we got, until we couldn’t hear each other over it anymore. There seemed to be even more people than there were the year before, and I scanned all the strange faces for some familiar ones. Ryan was circled by a group of girls standing next to a new black Dodge Ram.

  “Hey!” He motioned once he saw me. “Come check this thing out!”

  “It’s yours?” I stepped through the herd of girls leaning against the truck and made sure Tennessee was still close at my side. I could already sense other guys looking at her and closing in around us.

  “Sure is.” He handed beers to Tennessee and me. “I’m Ryan.” He offered her his other hand.

  Tennessee gave him a firm shake and said hello. When she turned her head to look out over the crowd, Ryan nudged me in the ribs with his elbow and wore a look on his face like whatever he wanted to say about her was going to be messed up. I shook my head before he could say anything out loud and walked even closer to her.

  “All right then,” he said. “I see. Y’all have a good time. Let me know if you need anything.” He turned his back to us and faced the group of girls again.

  “Hey,” I yelled behind him. “Where’s Jacob?”

  He looked at me over his shoulder. “Round here somewhere.”

  Tennessee opened the door before I could reach it. The house was full of people and cigarettes and dope. She elbowed her way through the room and I followed her, thinking she must have been to parties much bigger than this one before. A hand touched my shoulder and someone yelled my name. I jumped and turned around quick, only to find it was Red, half-drunk, trying to throw me with a weird voice he’d made sound deeper than his own. I tagged his shoulder and he laughed, but stopped whatever he was about to say when he saw Tennessee. “Oh,” he said, straightening. Tennessee shook his hand with the same strong grip as she had Ryan’s.

  “Everyone’s heading downstairs, let’s go check it out.” Red started walking, and we followed him through the crowd into the kitchen, then down the stairs to the basement. Electric guitar blared through the speakers. People sang and danced, holding their beers high and spilling them all over the floor.

  “Shit. Where did all of this stuff come from?” I asked Red. The basement was as loaded as the arcade at the Griggin movie theater.

  “Don’t know. This is the first time I’ve seen any of it. That pool table is epic, though.” He stood on his toes to see over the crowd and handed me the joint in his fingers. I passed because I wasn’t sure how Tennessee would feel about it. She reached over my shoulder, took the joint from Red, hit it once, then handed it back to him.

  “Bet I could beat you,” she yelled over the music, and pointed to the pool table.

  “Only if I let you, and I can’t do that,” I said, though I’d never played pool before in my life, only seen it on TV. But I’d fake it and hope for the best rather than telling her that. The three of us walked down the stairs and pushed our way toward the table. The smoke was so thick it covered all of our faces like a mask. I waved my hand through the air and it cleared just enough for me to see Jacob through the crowd, holding a pool cue.

  Chapter 15

  “LOOK,” RED SAID, AND pointed through the haze. “Original Pac-Man over there.” He bolted toward the corner, but only made it a few yards before a girl two inches taller than him caught his eye. He tried talking with her, but mostly stared at the cleavage spilling over her bra.

  “This way.” I held my hand out to Tennessee. She looked at it like it wasn’t something she needed, but took it anyway and wrapped her fingers around mine. I walked as fast as I could, and squeezed us around and through the crowded bodies. I didn’t wa
nt to let go of her hand just yet, but felt her fingers slipping from mine.

  We stood right in front of him, but Jacob acted like he didn’t see us and leaned over the table to shoot. A cigarette hung from the corner of his lip.

  “Did you get my texts?” I asked him.

  He missed his shot and stood the cue on end. Finally he turned to me. His eyes were bloodshot and he looked like he hadn’t slept or stopped drinking since I dropped him off at Ryan’s the day before. “No,” he said. “You know the service is shitty here.” He smiled at Tennessee, ashed his cigarette on the ground, and looked back at me again. “Aren’t you going to introduce me?”

  Tennessee jumped in and said hello, sensing something was off between us.

  “How’d he talk you into coming with him?” Jacob asked.

  “He didn’t have to,” she said.

  “I need to talk with you for a minute,” I told Jacob. I thought I heard him chuckle a little, like he’d recognized the words I sent from Nate’s phone. I was getting more and more frustrated with him, but didn’t want to make a scene in front of Tennessee.

  When he leaned over the table again, Tennessee stepped back and made room for his cue. The sound of his shot cracked the air and he hit two balls—one went in a left pocket, and one into the right.

  “That’s better,” Jacob said. “Grab us another round, Lowe, and you can tell me all about whatever’s bugging ya.”

  I wanted to tell him to get his own beer but turned and asked Tennessee, “You all right here?”

  “Yep, but I’ll come if you need a hand.”

  “I got it. Keep an eye on him, though.”

  Jacob laughed a little too loudly and patted my shoulder when I walked past him on my way up the stairs. Melting ice and floating beer filled the kitchen sink. I grabbed three cans.

  Yelling sounded from the basement and I froze. It wasn’t party yelling, but the fighting kind that quiets everything else. By the time I stood at the top of the stairs, the crowd had pushed against the walls. Jacob stood beside the pool table in a circle of empty space. My stomach dropped.

  “Get out!” he screamed. “You ain’t welcome here, and you know it!”

  Tommy Prater stood at the other end of the pool table. I pushed the beer onto someone beside me and ran down the stairs. Once I was on the floor, I rushed toward Jacob. Tennessee stood behind him and backed away into the crowd, her arms crossed over her purse.

  “What’s going on?” I whispered to Jacob.

  “Stay away from this, I got it,” he said.

  Tommy wore a tight T-shirt and a look that matched. “Thought I might find the two of you here together,” he said. The sound of his voice and the easy smile on his face brought my stomach into my throat. I saw Nate’s blood in the tub again, swirling down the drain.

  “Why’s that?” I asked.

  “Harlowe, don’t,” Jacob said.

  “You can play dumb if you want, but it won’t change anything.”

  “What is he talking about?” I turned to Jacob.

  “Later,” he said to me, under his breath.

  “Wait,” I said when he started forward, but he’d already left, the cue ball gripped tight in his hand, and flew at Tommy. They were on the floor by the time I got to them. Tommy screamed at him, and swung.

  Jacob’s knuckles were so tight that they matched the white ball. He kicked his way on top of Tommy and brought the ball hard against the side of his skull. Blood ran down Tommy’s face and into his eye socket but he managed to flip Jacob onto his back.

  “Stop!” I yelled at them, but Tommy’s foot kicked me backward and I crouched over my stomach till I caught my breath. Everyone else in the room froze. The ball rolled out of Jacob’s reach. Tommy pulled his arm back and punched Jacob so hard I could hear it over the music from where I stood. Blood dripped from Tommy’s fist onto Jacob, and Jacob’s own blood started to pool beneath him.

  “Is this what you wanted, you sick motherfucker? You want me to beat the shit out of you?”

  My insides burned and my vision went red. I rushed toward the two of them again but couldn’t find a way to tear them apart. “Leave him alone!” I screamed at Tommy, my voice cracking. Tommy wouldn’t look at me. I was invisible to both of them. “I gave you a choice,” Tommy said. “This is all your fault.”

  Jacob tried to block the punches but couldn’t. His head slammed against the concrete floor over and over. Every time I heard it hit, it felt like Tommy’s fist went straight to my stomach.

  “Stop!” I screamed again, and looked around for something to knock over Tommy’s head. I caught sight of Tennessee moving along the wall toward us, but then someone pushed me out of the way and I fell against the cinder blocks. When I was able to stand again, I saw Ryan holding a shotgun, standing over Tommy and Jacob. He jammed the barrel into Tommy’s head. “Get the fuck out of my house,” he said.

  Tommy sat up, his full weight against Jacob’s chest. He ran his hands through the blood in his hair and spat pink onto the ground, then looked up at Ryan. “Real nice stuff you got here,” he said to Ryan. “This ain’t all come from the mine. I know what your daddy makes.” He stood up, Ryan’s gun still pressed against the back of his head. Once Jacob was free of Tommy, he rolled onto his side and coughed out more blood.

  I jumped when a hand touched my shoulder, but then saw it was Tennessee’s. “Are you okay?” she whispered. I nodded and tried to find words again.

  Ryan walked Tommy to the door. “If I see you on my property once more, I’ll shoot,” he said.

  “One week,” Tommy shouted on his way out.

  Jacob lay on the floor, unable to get up. As soon as Tommy left, everyone rushed to help him when they wouldn’t before. I got down on the floor beside him.

  “I need to get back to Omie,” Tennessee said behind me. “We’ll talk later.”

  “Just a minute,” I said.

  “No, do whatever you need to do. I’ll be fine,” she said.

  “I can’t let you walk home by yourself, especially not with Tommy wandering around out there.”

  “I’ll stay off the main roads,” she said.

  Red walked up beside us. “Shit.”

  “Mrs. Hemlock will take care of him. She wouldn’t want you walking home alone, and neither do I. I’ll only be one minute.”

  She took a deep breath and nodded, but looked at the door like she was thinking about leaving anyway. I couldn’t blame her.

  When I got to Jacob’s side, he held his hand to the back of his skull and brought it out full of blood.

  “I’ll fucking kill him, Harlowe.”

  “Let me take a look; you might need stitches,” I said. “Then you have to tell me what the hell is going on.”

  “I’m fine.” Jacob’s face had swelled. The side Tommy punched had turned purple and black.

  I leaned behind him to find the back of his head slick with blood. The gash was bad, but the blood was clotting, and his skull wasn’t cracked. “Come on. Let’s get you home,” I said.

  “No way. I can’t let Mama see me like this.”

  “You’re not taking him anywhere.” Ryan walked up beside us and stood the shotgun on end. “I’ll clean him up, then we gotta leave.”

  “Where?” I asked.

  Ryan didn’t answer. I felt Tennessee beside me, and her need to get back to Omie and away from all of the crazy I’d brought her into.

  “One of you tell me what’s going on! All of you know something, but my brother was the one that got killed for it.”

  “Drop it, Harlowe.” Jacob leaned on Ryan and looked at me. “I mean it. Stop asking questions. You’ll only get hurt. Or worse.”

  “Go home,” Ryan said to me. “Stay out of Tommy’s way. We’ll deal with it.”

  “No,” I said. “I need to know. What was the Woodvale text about, Jacob?”

  “Please.” Jacob’s voice cracked and his eyes filled with tears. “Drop it, okay?”

  Before I could say anything else,
Ryan started walking Jacob up the stairs.

  We both needed air. I took Tennessee’s hand, walked past the blood on the floor and through the door. I knew she felt the tremor in my fingers.

  “I’m sorry,” I said once we were outside. “I wouldn’t have taken you if I had any idea.”

  “Are you okay?”

  “I found some things last night,” I said, and then stopped, remembering Jacob’s face before Ryan took him away. I didn’t want to get her involved.

  “Tommy is the one you told me about?”

  I nodded. “I’ve probably already said too much. I don’t want you to worry about this. Just trust me: I don’t know what’s going on here.”

  “Why didn’t someone call the cops?”

  I sighed and tried to calm the mix of anger and adrenaline that had built up inside of me.

  She dropped my hand and slid her purse strap higher on her shoulder. “Because his dad owns everything,” she said, answering the question herself.

  “I bet you’re thinking all kinds of things right now,” I said. “But I can tell you this—I’m not trouble. I wanted to hit Tommy as much as Jacob did, even more. But I’m not that stupid.”

  “Is that what Nate did? Went after Tommy?”

  “I don’t know. I think he might have known some things about Tommy that he wasn’t supposed to.”

  “And Jacob did too?”

  “Yeah, it looks that way.”

  She looked down at her feet while she walked. “What if Tommy comes after you?”

  “I think he would have already done that if he wanted,” I said, but didn’t tell her I was scared that he still might if he didn’t get whatever it was from Jacob.

  She was quiet and didn’t ask any more questions. We were in Baxter Creek Holler by then, and soon could see Mrs. Hemlock through the curtains, asleep on the couch.

  “Omie must have worn her out,” Tennessee said.

  “I’m really sorry about tonight,” I said again. “Can I call you?” I asked.

  She nodded, but looked off to the side like she wasn’t so sure. Before I could reach out to hug her, she was already up the stairs and standing at the door. “Please be careful, Harlowe,” she said. “You’re my only friend here right now.”