“I guess,” I said.
“I’m not a fool, Sage. Don’t try to make it seem so innocent. I’m sure he’s meeting you at the mall and will go to the movie with you,” she said. She looked at me for confirmation before she started driving us away. “Well?”
“Yes.” I didn’t see the harm in confessing that much. In fact, I thought it would ease her fears if I was that honest.
“Don’t go anywhere else with him,” she warned. “If this little romance continues, your father wants to meet him properly.”
“Okay,” I said. I could feel the trembling in my voice and expected she would sense it, but she didn’t or she didn’t want to say anything, which stirred up even greater fear. What if she sensed what I was planning to do and was just waiting for me to do it? What if Summer was right to suggest that she or my father would follow me?
“Give her enough rope, and she’ll hang herself,” I could imagine her telling my father.
When we got home, I went up to my room, ostensibly to do my homework so I wouldn’t have so much to do over the weekend. What I really wanted was to stay away from both of my parents until I had to leave. I was always afraid they could look at me and read my most secret thoughts.
When I began to dress to go out, I found myself taking more time about my choices, not because I was looking for what might make me more attractive and sexier but actually just the opposite. I wanted to be careful not to overdo it. I knew the moment I stepped off the stairway and turned, my mother would be scrutinizing everything I had put on. To her, every decision I made carried deeper significance, some hidden purpose.
In the end, I decided to wear the violet sweater she had bought me with a pair of jeans. I was hoping what I had read about the color violet was true. I wanted my imagination to be at full strength and any obstacles to that removed. I needed my third eye tonight more than any night, I thought.
I put on my black leather jacket my parents had bought me for the fall and wore both the pentacle necklace and my amber necklace and the matching amber earrings my father had bought me two weeks after my birthday. I had pinned my hair up and wore just a brush of lipstick.
“You look very nice,” my father said before my mother had a chance to say anything negative or critical, but I did think she was happy about my choice of the sweater. Ever since the day of the pentacle revelation, they were keen on my feeling and doing something spiritual, something with what they called positive energy.
For a moment, I thought my mother was going to come along to the mall with us to watch me meet up with my girlfriends and be sure everything I had told her was true. She followed us to the doorway but then stopped. I didn’t want to look back and show her how nervous I now was, but she seized my right arm to turn me toward herself. She looked intently at me. Did she finally realize the truth? Was she going to accuse me right now and stop me from going out? I tried desperately not to look guilty.
“Every decision you make in your life is another link in the chain that connects you with the spiritual good in the universe, Sage,” she began. “And remember, a chain is only as strong as its weakest link.”
I nodded. She looked at my father.
“Don’t worry. She’s a good girl,” he said.
“Famous last words,” she muttered, and turned away from us. We left.
“Why is she so suspicious of everything I do?” I protested after my father and I got into the car. “Did something terrible happen in her life, something she caused?” I guessed I was learning the bad habits from my girlfriends—put your parents on the defensive every chance you had.
“No. Of course not. She’s only looking after your best interests, Sage. She really cares about you, as do I.”
I was silent. Those were basically the same words Uncle Wade had used to explain her. Maybe it was true. Maybe Summer was wrong. Maybe I should have trusted them with the truth and not deceived them.
“Uncle Alexis and Aunt Suzume will arrive at about ten tomorrow,” my father told me as we drove to the mall. “Your mother is going to prepare a very nice lunch.”
“Are they staying for dinner?”
“No. They’re visiting with some friends they haven’t seen in quite a while.”
Of course, I wondered why they weren’t staying with us after all these years without seeing my parents, but I didn’t ask. He talked a little more about Uncle Alexis but was still very vague with the answers to more of my questions about his family and his growing up. The suspicions that Summer had put in my mind seemed to be justified more and more. There was something in their past, something about which they were both ashamed.
“Have a good time. I’ll be right here at midnight,” my father said when we’d pulled up to the mall’s main entrance. He gave me a quick kiss. I looked quickly to see if Summer was standing outside, maybe loitering in a shadow, but he wasn’t in sight. I wouldn’t have thought he would be waiting with the girls for me. Where was he? What if he had changed his mind or for some reason couldn’t come at the last minute? Should I go on to the party with the girls?
“Okay. Thanks, Dad,” I said, and got out. I started toward the mall as he pulled away. Before I reached the door, I heard the car horn sound behind me and saw that Summer had pulled to the curb.
He was leaning out of the passenger-side window and beckoning. “No need to go in there!” he shouted.
I looked to see if the girls were gathered just inside waiting for us, but I didn’t see them. My father’s car was gone, so I started for Summer’s. He got out and opened the door for me. He saw the way I continued to look around, searching the parking lot and the entrances to the mall before I got in.
I didn’t see my father’s car, but I had a strong feeling of being watched. There was a shadowy silhouette of a man to my right, just past the corner of the mall, but I was confident that wasn’t my father. Whoever it was resembled a statue, unmoving.
“Hey, c’mon. What? Do you think your father circled around to see if you were going off with me or something?” he asked.
“It crossed my mind.”
“He didn’t,” he said.
“How can you be so sure?”
“I just am. Trust me,” he said, and we started away from the mall. The silhouetted man I had seen was gone.
“Trust you? How can you be so certain?”
“I don’t know. What I do know is when I put my mind to it, I can sense things other people can’t,” he said. We pulled out of the mall parking lot. My father’s car was nowhere in sight. Summer paused at the first stop sign and smiled at me. “And so can you,” he said.
“How do you know that?”
“I sensed it,” he said, smiling. “I’m right, right?”
“Sometimes,” I admitted.
How much more about my secret self should I reveal? I wondered. I glanced at him. He looked so content with himself. If he had that third eye, too, how was he so comfortable about it? What did he know that I didn’t? I was caught between wanting to know his secrets and being afraid to reveal my own. There was no way one would come without the other, I realized. Perhaps I could do it in baby steps.
“Speaking of sensing things, I’ve had some bad feelings about my girlfriends and Jason’s house party,” I confessed, and waited anxiously for his reaction.
He stared ahead, his eyes so fixed on the traffic I wondered if he had heard what I said. “Tell me about it,” he said, still holding his gaze on the street ahead.
“There’s nothing specific. Whenever they talked about the party, I felt . . .”
“Danger?”
“Yes.”
He nodded. “Girls can be wildcats. Let’s see what they have in mind for you.”
“Oh, that’s nice. Really makes me want to go to the party.”
He laughed. “Don’t worry. I won’t let anything happen to you,” he said confidently. He reached for my hand, pressed his fingers softly over mine, and drove on, as if he had lived here as long as I had, meandering through sid
e streets confidently and arriving at Jason’s home so quickly that I wondered if the girls were there yet.
I asked him. “Maybe we should wait for them. We left the mall so quickly.”
“No need. They came directly here,” he said. “They didn’t go to the mall first.”
“What? How come?”
“The only reason they were meeting in the mall was to give you a cover story.”
“When did you know this?”
“Ginny told me yesterday. She claimed she wanted to confirm that I was bringing you to the party.”
“Well, why didn’t you tell me?”
“I saw how spooked you were as it was and didn’t want to make you any more nervous. What’s the difference? You don’t need them now. You have me,” he said, and shut off the engine. “Well? Let’s see why this is such a great party.”
He stepped out. I hesitated, and he came around and opened my door.
“Madame,” he said with a Shakespearean bow. He reached for my hand, and I stepped out.
I looked at the very large two-story colonial house. It was in a very upscale residential section of Dorey, with each home having a good acre or more of property. There were custom homes on the street, some Victorian and one or two more modern ranch-style, all with elegantly manicured lawns and hedges, double and even triple garages, and, like Jason’s parents’ home, with elaborate stonework and sidewalks. We could hear the music seeping out of the house but dissipating enough so as not to alarm or annoy the nearest neighbors.
Summer took my hand, but I didn’t move.
“What’s wrong?” he asked, seeing how intensely I was looking at the house.
How could I tell him that I saw a very dark shadow sweep in and settle on it? Would he think I was insane? Would he find it amusing and annoy me with ridicule?
Maybe, Sage, you should find out before you go any further with him?
“Something very wrong is going to happen in there,” I said.
He looked at the house. “So? It won’t happen to you,” he said. He smiled, and I looked at him. He was so confident.
“What do you know?” I asked him. I was ready to ask him how he knew as well, but he shrugged.
“I know you and I are going to look out for each other,” he said. “That’s all that matters. C’mon,” he urged, and we headed down the walkway toward the front door.
15
I felt like I was stepping through a fog when Summer opened the door to Jason’s house and we entered. He expected the door would be unlocked. He didn’t press the buzzer or knock. We paused in the wide entryway. No one came rushing out to greet us, but Summer behaved as though he had been here before. He moved us quickly down the short hallway and turned to the right. Just like at Ginny’s home, the music flooded every room and hallway, but unlike Ginny’s party, Jason’s gathering was small. There were only ten of us. Ginny, Darlene, Mia and Kay sat with Todd, Jason, Ward, and Skip in the living room.
No one was dancing. Bottles of bourbon and vodka with an ice bucket and glasses were on the large, black marble oval table. I didn’t see any food, not even chips or peanuts. Surprisingly, no one was smoking anything, but everyone had a drink in his or her hand. Jason sat on the corner of the large circular tan leather sectional sofa and had his fractured wrist resting on a pillow on a small table in front of him. He had his other arm around Kay, who was leaning on him. The others sat together on the remaining portion of the sofa. They all looked very relaxed, almost bored, which I thought was strange. None of my girlfriends said anything.
“Sorry we got started ahead of you,” Jason said. “Make whatever you like,” he added, nodding and waving at the bottles on the center table. “We’re ordering in, Chinese. The menu’s on the table, too. No one was sure what you drank, Summer. I thought you once mentioned drinking vodka. There’s also rum and gin at the bar, and tequila. Choose your poison.”
“Thanks,” Summer said.
I squeezed his hand tightly and stayed back.
“Oh. If you want a soft drink, Sage, there’s an opened carbonated lemonade on the bar,” Jason added with a wider smile. “We all know you have to be extra careful tonight.”
I started toward it, but Summer still held my hand quite firmly and didn’t move, anchoring me to the spot. “So this is it?” he said, gesturing at the bottles and glasses on the table. “Nothing happier and stronger than alcohol?”
“No one had anything for tonight. You?”
“Sure,” Summer said, which surprised me. “I always come prepared. It’s good manners.”
All of them finally smiled. He let go of my hand and stepped forward to kneel at the table. Everyone leaned over to watch him take a small, flat white box out of his right pants pocket and put it on the table. He looked up at them, turned to me, winked, and then opened the box to reveal a dozen small pink pills.
“These are the latest and the best,” he said.
“What is it?” Ward asked.
“Some people call them Smiles for obvious reasons,” Summer replied.
“I’ve heard of those,” Jason said. “My cousin in Chicago told me about them. Where’d you get them? They’re not easy to get. They’re illegal to manufacture, sell, or possess.”
“I have a trusted source,” Summer said. “These live up to their reputation. I can testify from actually experiencing them, more than once. They give you a great kick. I can guarantee that they’ll get the party kick-started.”
“Did he tell you about this? Are you going to take one?” Ginny asked me.
“Sure I told her, and sure she is,” Summer said, answering for me. He plucked one out of the box and held it out for me.
I looked at it in his palm and then at him and saw him wink again. He was up to something. Maybe the pills were nothing, but he wanted to see how they would react if they thought they were something special. It would be a good joke on them, and from the way they were acting toward me and the fact that they hadn’t told me they weren’t going to meet me at the mall first, I was happy to see a joke pulled on them.
Trusting him, I took the pill out of his palm.
“Well, that’s a surprise,” Darlene said. “Must be your influence, Summer. I would never think Sage would do any drug, happy or not.”
“Oh, you’d be surprised. Everyone has secrets,” he replied. He picked up the box and offered a pill to everyone. Everyone took one.
“Can you take it with alcohol?” Mia asked.
“Sure,” Summer said. “You won’t want much more vodka or whiskey after, anyway.”
“You’d better take it with your soft drink, Sage,” Ginny said, taking hers. “We don’t want anything weird to happen to you since your parents don’t know you’re here.”
“Very thoughtful and considerate,” Summer said. He took one of the pills and poured himself a little vodka. “Bottoms up,” he said, and everyone joined him.
Then he walked me to the bar. Even if what he gave them was a joke, it still made me nervous to participate.
“I don’t want to take this,” I told him, sotto voce.
“Don’t,” he whispered. “Don’t drink any of that lemonade, either,” he warned. “Pretend to. It’s bad stuff.”
I looked at the lemonade. There was no way to tell by its color. How did he know what was in it? I wondered. Obviously, they had been planning to have fun at my expense and had spiked it with something. With our backs to them, I did just as he said. I poured some in the glass, brought it toward my mouth, and put it back on the counter. He took my hand again and fingered the pill he had given me. Then he put it in his pocket.
“You don’t need this now,” he said. I was surprised he didn’t whisper.
We turned to look at the others.
Only a minute or so had passed since he had given them the pills, but they all had the same stupid smile.
“No wonder you called them Smiles,” I told him, loudly enough for them all to hear, but none of them reacted. They held their smiles and stare
d at us. “They look like they’re hypnotized,” I said, more loudly. Again, no one reacted.
“Well, it can have that effect,” he said. “You might say it’s the only effect.”
“What?” I looked at him, a surprised smile on my face.
Then I looked at them again. Nothing had changed; no one had moved. They seemed frozen in time, no one even blinking.
“What’s going on? What’s happening to them? What did you give them?”
“I knew they were out to do you harm,” Summer said. “It wasn’t the original purpose of this party, but it quickly became their intention. There’s enough Ecstasy in that lemonade to set you on fire.” He nodded at the glass on the bar. “You would be in quite a lot of trouble with your parents when your father picked you up later, and from the way you’ve described them to me, I wouldn’t see you for years except at school. Couldn’t let that happen,” he added.
I looked at the others again. There was still no sign any of them had heard anything he said, nor had any of them moved an inch since they had taken the pills Summer had provided.
“What is in that pill, and how come you aren’t reacting to it like they are? I saw you take one.”
“Mine was what is referred to as a placebo. It’s shaped and colored the same way, but it’s just sugar.”
“Where did you get the rest of them?”
“I picked them up in Europe. Don’t worry. It won’t harm them permanently. In fact, when they wake up, they won’t remember anything.”
“When they wake up?”
“Don’t they look asleep, even with their eyes open? Did you ever see a more vulnerable group of idiots?”
“What are you going to do, Summer?”
“Well, what do you want to do? They were going to hurt you, Sage!”
“Let’s just leave,” I said. “If you’re sure they’ll be all right.”
“Can’t just leave. That’s a waste of all my efforts,” he said. “Besides, they’ll not have learned anything, and they might just come after you in some way again.”
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