After Midnight

by Lynn Viehl

  “That’s right, your foster parents work for them,” Barb said. “I forgot.”

  “Yeah.” Ego scowled. “They wanted me to work on the island, too, mowing the lawns and doing the landscaping, but I said no way. That place gives me the creeps.” He glanced at me. “Seriously, Cat, it couldn’t have been Jesse Raven. He doesn’t even go to school. Marcia—my foster mom—said he takes all his classes by computer. Pretty sweet deal, if you ask me.”

  I tried to hide my disappointment. “Okay, so he doesn’t go to Tanglewood, and he lives on an island. It still could have been him out riding.”

  “You don’t get it, Cat,” Ego said. “Jesse Raven doesn’t just skip coming to school. He never leaves the island. Neither do his parents.”

  Five

  Thinking about Jesse Raven, his rich family and how they’d marooned him on their private island preoccupied me for the rest of the day. So did wondering if he was or wasn’t the dark boy, which didn’t help the headache I’d gotten during lunch. By the time I met Grayson after the last bell I needed an aspirin, so as soon as I got in the truck I raided the first aid kit Trick kept in the glove box.

  Gray watched me rummaging through the band-aids. “What’s wrong?”

  “Raisins. Quantum physics. Mint green polyester stretch pants.” I found a little packet marked pain reliever, but all it offered were two chewable orange-flavored pills. My big bottle of extra-strength aspirin, the only medicine Trick let me take whenever I needed it, was at home in the bathroom cabinet. “Don’t you have anything stronger than this baby stuff?”

  “Not in the truck,” my brother said, “and I meant, what’s wrong with you?”

  “That’s a much longer list. If I tell you we’ll be sitting here all weekend.” I tore open the packet and popped the pills in my mouth. “Don’t worry, it’s just a teenager tension headache.”

  He just sat there watching the other kids walking out to their cars. “What made you tense?”

  “High school, Dr. Grouch. It’s the gift that keeps on giving.” The orange flavoring didn’t do much to cover the bitterness of the pills, and I made a face. “Would you drive by the lake on the way home? I want to see something.”

  Tanglewood High had been built on the outer east side of town, and I’d thought the lake was on the far west side. After Gray drove down two blocks of candy-colored shops that constituted downtown, I saw I was wrong. The business section of Lost Lake had been built on a rise which blocked the lake from view. Once my brother made a turn onto an unmarked, curving street lined with bigger, older houses I finally saw the glitter of water.

  The lake was so close I could have walked from the school to the edge of the water in three minutes.

  I spotted a sign that read Public Docks and pointed to it. “Can you park over there for minute? I want to take a closer look.”

  Gray eyed me. “You don’t like boats, water, or fish.”

  “I’m not planning to sail, swim, or catch anything.” I sighed. “Someone at school told me there’s an island in the middle of the lake. Come on, I just want to see it.”

  My brother pulled the truck into the small empty lot by three rickety-looking piers. “Make it fast. I’ve got stuff to do.”

  “Be right back.” I climbed out and walked around the truck toward the first pier.

  Lost Lake wasn’t just big. It was huge.

  At least five times as large as the town, the lake stretched out like a scallop-edged looking glass, the far side disappearing beyond the horizon. Although clouds filled the sky overhead, here and there the sun shone through and made the murky lake water look like diamond-studded quicksilver.

  I shaded my eyes with a hand as I looked out toward the center of the water, where a gray and dark green smudge lay surrounded by some kind of low-lying mist. If that was the island, it had to be at least a mile from shore. I saw no sign of the fabled Raven mansion, but the mist around the island was so thick that only the very tops of tall, leafy trees were visible. They appeared so close together they seemed to be growing into each other.

  Was he out there? Was my dark boy Jesse Raven?

  “Help you, miss?”

  I jumped around and saw a balding, tanned old man in a brown uniform embroidered with Lost Lake above the right pocket and the name Ray above the left. “No, sir. I just came down to look at the water.”

  “If you want your folks to take you out on the lake, they can charter a pontoon over at Gladys’s boat yard,” he said, giving me a patient smile. “The old girl charges about twenty dollars an hour.”

  “I’m not a tourist; we moved here over the summer.” I pointed toward the center of the lake. “Do you know the name of that island out there?”

  “Raven Island.” All the friendliness left his expression. “That’s private property, miss.” Without another word he walked away and disappeared behind a boat shed.

  I heard Gray tap his horn twice, and glanced one more time at the island before I walked back to the truck.

  As soon as I got in Gray reversed out of the lot and drove to the main road leading out of town.

  “You’re speeding,” I pointed out. When he didn’t slow down I glanced sideways and saw that he had both hands on the wheel and his jaw set. “Sure, ignore me now. When you have to explain to Trick why you need ninety bucks to pay for a speeding ticket, you’ll wish you’d listened to me.”

  That worked.

  I lifted a hand to rub my temple, only to realize my headache had vanished. “Other than most of the civilized world, something bothering you?”

  His hair shook a little. That was Grayson-speak for “I can’t talk about it.”

  My brother didn’t confide in me very often, so I wasn’t surprised. Normally I would try to annoy him by guessing out loud whatever was on his mind, but after meeting the dark boy I understood why Gray might want to keep some things to himself. “If you change your mind, I won’t say anything to Big Brother.” I drew a cross over my heart.

  “Has Trick been talking to you about me?” He didn’t sound especially interested.

  I pretended to think. “He mentioned selling you and Flash the next time there’s a stock auction.” I grinned. “I told him no one can handle Flash’s temper or your food bills.”

  All my brother did was grunt, but his grip on the steering wheel relaxed and he didn’t try again to break the land speed record for pickup trucks. When we got home I found a note from Trick saying that he was going to look at a stallion for sale and wouldn’t be home for dinner.

  No point cooking a big meal for just the two of us, I thought as I folded over the note. I still didn’t have much appetite, either.

  “You want soup and sandwiches?” I asked Gray, who shrugged before he dropped his backpack and headed out to the barn. A few minutes later I glanced through the kitchen window and saw him riding Flash out toward the woods.

  Gray liked to ride as much as me, but usually he did his homework before he jumped in the saddle. Something must have been seriously bothering him to put off Trig and World History. Maybe he was still sulking over the vetoed football tryouts.

  I got a soda from the fridge and sat down to sort out my own schoolwork. After my first week at Tanglewood I was having no problem keeping up with my classes, although I suspected that Calculus and English Comp were both going to be a yearlong bore. One problem with switching states and schools so much was that I often repeated the same lessons over and over. According to the syllabus my English teacher had handed out, my class was going to be reading and analyzing Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird. Which I’d already done at my last two schools. Still, I hadn’t forgotten Trick’s promise to let me test for my driver’s license if I brought home straight A’s, so it was good to know I’d ace at least one test.

  I started reading over the notes I’d taken in Calculus, but the formulas and derivatives began fading away as I thought about the dark boy.

  If he was this Jesse Raven, how had he gotten off that island? Where did
he keep his horse? Why did he ride on our neighbor’s property? Why did he ride at night?

  Everything Barb and Ego had told me about the Ravens echoed in my head, answering my questions. You know if they want something, they make my foster dad buy it and bring it out to them … The family still owns just about every shop in town, plus most of the ranches and farms around here. The land next to your farm belongs to them, too.

  As for riding at night, I could imagine why. Maybe the only time Jesse Raven could get away from his parents was while they were sleeping. He’d run less risk of being seen by anyone, too.

  I felt the bulge of the ring in my pocket and took it out to look at it again. Boys at school usually wore only their class rings. Something this old and expensive had to belong to his dad or his grandfather. If it was a family heirloom, he’d definitely want it back. So why hadn’t he come to look for it? Didn’t he realize he’d lost it?

  I sat studying the pattern of the red and black stones for a while. I couldn’t keep it, but I didn’t know how to get it back to him. I couldn’t exactly drop by a private island on the way home from school. If I tried to call his house his parents would likely answer the phone, and then I’d have to explain who I was, what I had, and how I’d gotten it. They’d probably ground Jesse for life. I didn’t even know how to mail it to him; what could be his address? Jesse Raven, huge mansion, Raven Island?

  Finally I put the ring down on top of my notebook and unfastened the chain of the St. Christopher’s medal I wore around my neck. I felt embarrassed as I slid the ring onto the chain; I shouldn’t be wearing it as if we were going steady or something. But as soon as I fastened the chain and slipped it under my T-shirt I felt calmer, as if the weight of it against my heart lifted some of the worry off my shoulders.

  “What are you doing?”

  I jumped and turned around to see Gray standing in the doorway. “Homework, obviously. Cough or something next time, will you? You almost gave me a heart attack.”

  He made a point of glaring at the wall clock. “It takes you forever to do homework now?”

  I didn’t believe him until I saw the time: six-thirty. Outside the kitchen window the sun was starting to sink behind the tops of the trees, and my back and leg muscles suddenly felt stiff, as if I hadn’t moved for hours.

  That was just it: I hadn’t. Nor had I started my homework, made dinner, fed the horses or done any of my chores. All this time I’d just been sitting and thinking about Jesse Raven and his ring.

  For three straight hours.

  “I guess I got sidetracked,” I said as I got up and winced. “Can you take care of the horses for me?”

  “Already did.” He went to the fridge and took out some cold cuts and cheese. “I’ll make the sandwiches. You do the soup.”

  I retrieved a couple cans of soup and emptied them into a pot. My brother was being awfully forgiving. “Aren’t you going to complain about how starved you are, or rag me about wasting time daydreaming?”

  “I’ll wait until Trick gets home.” He dodged my elbow. “Or maybe someone will do my laundry tonight and I’ll forget about it.”

  “Fine.” I loved my brother, not that I’d ever admit that to his face. “Blackmailer.”

  He grinned. “Slacker.”

  Trick got home a few hours later, and came upstairs to say good night. “Anything happen while I was out?”

  “Just the usual.” Not counting the three hours I’d zoned out thinking about Jesse Raven, which I was in no hurry to discuss. “We had soup and sandwiches for dinner. I think there’s some ham left if you’re hungry.”

  “Thanks, but I grabbed a burger on the way back.” He eyed the book I was reading. “To Kill a Mockingbird, huh? You must have that memorized by now.”

  “Almost,” I said. “But it could be worse. It could be Moby Dick again. After reading that book seven times, I’m starting to cheer on the whale.”

  “I think I would, too.” He chuckled. “ ’Night, Cat.”

  “ ’Night.”

  Skimming through three more chapters of the book didn’t bore me enough to make me sleepy. Neither did burrowing under the covers and keeping my eyes shut. All I could think of was Jesse Raven and the dark boy. Maybe they were the same person, maybe they weren’t. The two names began spinning in my imagination, blurring into each other: Jesse Raven, dark boy, dark boy, Jesse Raven, Jesse Raven, dark boy, dark Jesse, Raven boy—

  Stop.

  I tried to distract myself by listening to the familiar sounds of Trick fixing the coffeemaker, checking the locks, and shutting off the lights before he went to bed. I counted all the little creaks the old house made and the ticking of my alarm clock like sheep. Every time I moved, the rustle of the sheets seemed overloud. Then the night got so quiet that I heard the sound of my heartbeat, faint but steady, pulsing in my ears.

  The dark boy’s heart hadn’t been faint; it had beat under my hand like a drum, or no, more like a jackhammer. Such an ordinary thing, a heartbeat, but the skin on my palm tingled as I remembered how amazing it felt.

  Okay, how amazing he felt.

  Being alone in my room made it okay to think about him; there was no one around to see me turn red. Touching him had felt like scary and thrilling and magical, like nothing I’d ever done. Not that I had a huge amount of experience with putting my hand on a boy’s chest. I didn’t exactly go around touching strangers. And then, when I’d toppled over and he caught me in his arms …

  Like that will ever happen again. I turned onto my side and tried to find a cool spot on my pillow. Jesse Raven lives on an island. He’s seriously rich. His parents don’t even let him go to school. If he is the dark boy, you’ll never see him again.

  I’d never see him again.

  I sat straight up, pushing the covers off me as I climbed out of bed. I didn’t know why I had to see him again, but I didn’t really care. Not knowing who or where he was felt worse than any trouble I might get into trying to find him. I had to go back to where we’d met.

  There had to be something else there to help me find him.

  I pulled on a pair of jeans and a T-shirt, but I felt too hot to put on a jacket. I wanted to run to the stables, but I forced myself to slow down and make no sound as I crept downstairs. The last thing I needed was for Trick to catch me sneaking out of the house.

  At the barn Sali stood quietly as I got her ready.

  “I wish you had wings,” I told her as I led her out of her stall. “Then you could fly me out to that island.” I ran my hand down her long neck, letting her warmth and strength soothe me. “Let’s go back out there. Maybe he dropped something else.”

  I walked Sali from the barn out to the back of it, where I jumped up on her. I’d never mounted her without using a step-up, so finding myself straddling her made me go still and look down at the ground. I didn’t know how I’d done it. It was as if my legs had grown invisible springs, and I’d simply bounced up onto her.

  The night air felt good against my hot face, and cooled some of the sweat on my scalp. Sali shuffled under me, and I saw that I had the reins in a white-knuckled grip.

  “Sorry, girl.” I eased off and patted her side. “It’s not you.”

  I rode her along the same path I’d followed that first night, and the closer I came to the spot where I’d seen the dark boy fall, the calmer I became. I slowed Sali to a walk so I could check the ground, but I didn’t see anything else he might have dropped. By the time we reached the back fence I was beginning to feel a little foolish.

  “No wallet, no ID, no helpful note inscribed with his phone number.” I guided her over to the fence where I dismounted and tethered her to one of the boards before I moved to the spot where I’d found the ring in the grass. Nothing else was there. “Looks like we’re out of luck, girl.”

  Two little shadows padded over to me, flanking me as the moon reflected in their slanted eyes. One was the kitten with the soul patch; the other an older, tough-looking tabby that I’d also fed a few times w
ho I’d nicknamed Terrible. They reached me and meowed as they tried to get their heads under my hands.

  “What are you guys doing out here so late? Hunting for something interesting?” I ran my hands over their arching backs before I stood and looked around. The cats both sat down on their haunches and gazed up at me. “I think all the mice were smarter than us and went to bed.”

  Terrible turned his head, hissed at something and then scampered off. Soul Patch stood his ground for a minute before uttering a short yowl and following his friend.

  “Go ahead, abandon me.” I watched them disappear into the trees before I felt something, and turned to see a much larger shadow vault over the fence.

  It was him.

  My heart skipped a beat as I watched him land. He’d jumped a five-foot fence like it was a parking curb. He walked toward me, and I almost reached out to him before I caught myself. Behind him, I saw the big black he’d been riding the other night stood tethered on the opposite side of the fence.

  He’d come back here, like me. It didn’t seem real. I wondered if I’d just gotten an enormous compliment. Or I needed my head examined.

  The moon appeared to get brighter, and painted him with its silvery-white light. I’d been so sure he wouldn’t be as stunning as I remembered; no teenager I knew had flawless skin and hair like polished black silk and gleaming gemstone eyes.

  But this close, I could see that he looked exactly as I remembered, just as tall and pale and perfect as before. The only difference this time was that his long black hair had been pulled away from his face. Seeing those dark marcasite eyes and the sheer beauty of his features made my throat tight. He must have been riding the stallion, and yet he didn’t have a single strand of hair out of place.

  Compared to him I was a hot, sweaty, rumpled mess.

  “Catlyn.”

  “Hi.” Hearing his voice made me smile. Which was silly, but it was better than giggling. “I didn’t expect to see you out here again.”

  “I hadn’t planned to return.” He took a step closer. “You are well?”