by Tia Fielding
“I think this is the prettiest,” Joey interrupted his musings, pointing at the orangeish kitten.
The babies looked more like weird oversized furry beans than actual cats, but then Emil hadn’t seen cats this young before.
“They will all be pretty cats, I think,” he murmured, still a bit unsettled by Makai for reasons he couldn’t put his finger on.
Once Mouse started to yawn, Emil nudged Joey. “Let’s go. She needs to sleep.”
“Okay,” Joey replied quietly. He petted Mouse on the head. “Bye-bye, Mouse and babies.”
They got up and went out into the living area. Emil looked around curiously, interested to see what would make up Makai’s home.
Several boxes of books stood by a wall, a small flat-screen TV much like the one Emil had in his room, and a couch that looked new.
The coffee table seemed old and definitely looked rickety, so he guessed it wasn’t something Makai himself had made.
“Can I get a drink after all?”
Emil looked at Joey who had wandered into the kitchen and peered at Makai, batting his lashes.
“Sure, kid. Can you have a Sprite?” Makai looked at Emil.
“Yeah, he can have one,” Emil confirmed, and Joey made a little happy dance.
“I need to build bookshelves on that wall,” Makai said after giving the boy his drink. He walked around the couch and kept his distance from Emil, as if orbiting him. “Obviously need a new coffee table and maybe an end table too. And a cat tree. Won’t fit anywhere else,” he mused out loud.
“Yeah, you’ll have your hands full as soon as the kittens grow a bit.”
Joey went to sit on the edge of the couch, looking very prim and proper for a boy his age, but then Emil knew Lotte would’ve taught him how to act while visiting someone’s home: no spilling things on furniture.
“So, hey, I was wondering,” Makai said, making Emil’s attention snap to him again.
“Yeah?”
“Are you big on music?” Makai asked, and before Emil could answer, he glanced away and added, “I saw you had earbuds hanging from your collar when we met at the grocery store.”
“Yeah, I have a bit of an obsession. It’s also a coping mechanism. Why?” Emil looked at Makai curiously.
“Well, I had a few favorite bands back in the day, but take out a decade of being able to freely listen to whatever, and now I don’t really know much at all when it comes to music.”
Something about that made Emil’s chest do a weird squeezing thing. “Oh,” he managed to say. “Well I can certainly figure out stuff for you to listen to if you’d like?”
“I’m going to drive to Minocqua tomorrow. Go to the Walmart there and see what I need to get. I guess I’ve started from the basics that have come to mind, you know?”
“Oh, makes sense. There are lists online you could use. Like for people who move to their own homes, away from parents and stuff. Can’t be much different situation in that sense?” Emil raised a brow at Makai who thought about it for a while.
“Yeah, I guess not. But I don’t have access to the internet right now. Might have to leave that for another time.” Makai shuffled his feet a little, looking embarrassed.
“Understandable. Once you get a laptop, though, they’ll set it up in the shop if needed, or I can take a look. I’m not much of a computer geek, but I know my way around the basics,” Emil offered, and his heart did that thing again when Makai smiled at him shyly.
“I might just take you up on that.”
“Can we go back outside?” Joey asked and held his can of soda for Emil to take.
It was halfway done, but Emil doubted Makai would mind. He went to put the can on the kitchen counter and listened to Makai and Joey talk as they went out of the door.
Emil followed them and dug out a folded piece of paper from his pocket. It was today’s main assignment for him and Joey.
Lotte had decided to stop with any official school things with Joey for the summer, but she liked to keep him active as much as she could, and Emil agreed. Working the kid’s brain seemed to be the most efficient way to tire him out, really. Well, both of them, because Emil was usually wiped out as well after his days with Joey.
“Hey, Joey? I’ve something for you,” he said when he got outside. He’d made sure to close the door so Mouse wouldn’t wander out, just in case.
“What is it?” Joey bounced to him like an overeager puppy, and both Emil and Makai grinned at him.
“Here, let’s show it to Makai, maybe he can help.” Emil didn’t pay attention to what he was doing and ended up standing so that they could all see the paper, only an arm’s length away from Makai. “So here, this is a scavenger hunt, okay? Here are things that you need to find.”
“Treasures!” Joey squealed, and Emil couldn’t suppress the flinch. “Oh, sorry, sorry,” Joey whispered.
“It’s okay. Just, keep it down a bit,” Emil assured him, and started to point things out. “Okay, this is a list. So there’s something red”—he pointed at a square colored red—“a pine cone, a stick, a flower, and rock, and a leaf that’s smaller than your hand.” He then showed the bottom row of the sheet. “You get one point for each of those, and two points if you find any of these.” He showed Joey the feather, a piece of trash that didn’t belong in nature, and a leaf that’d be bigger than the boy’s hand.
He handed over the list but didn’t let it go yet. “More rules, buddy,” he said when Joey looked at him with clear impatience. “You can’t go where we can’t see you. You can’t go inside the forest or in buildings, unless one of us is with you. And no going too close to water, okay?”
Joey nodded solemnly. “Okay.”
Emil let go of the list and watched as the boy bounced to the edge of the yard where some plants were growing.
Emil smiled and looked up and saw that Makai was practically inside his bubble. “Oh,” he breathed, then, as Makai was about to move, shook his head. “No, don’t. I….” How did he explain that he wasn’t feeling the usual way when he got close to people? That his skin didn’t feel two sizes too small, and his heart wasn’t beating out of his chest while his hands shook and his throat tried to close up. “It’s okay.”
Makai looked at him quizzically, then shrugged. “Okay, you know best when it comes to you.” Then he gestured to the highest point of the yard’s edge, and they walked there together. Not quite as close as they’d just been, but close enough for it to feel new.
Emil glanced at where Joey was and called out to him. “We’re going down to the dock soon, so be quick. We can’t see you from there!”
“Okay!” Joey yelled back but concentrated on looking at the ground in his search for the items.
“There’s still plenty for him to find down there,” Emil explained. “But I didn’t want to keep you from your work.”
“Oh, it’s fine.” Makai smiled briefly. “We could walk with him toward the boat shed if you want? I bet there are things for him to find there as the path goes through that patch of forest there.” He pointed at a copse of trees opposite from where Emil and Joey would come to Makai’s property.
“Sure, works for me.” They stood quietly for a few moments, and Emil tilted his face toward the sun, finding that he enjoyed the warmth quite a bit.
“I heard this song the other day and then again this morning. I don’t know what it’s called, but I’d like to find it again.”
“Well, first of all, if you remember how it goes, I might know it, and secondly, if you get a smartphone, you can get this app called Shazam, and you can use it to figure out what a song is called. It’s really neat, let me show you,” he said and turned to see where Joey was. “Going down the hill, Joey!”
“Be right there!”
Makai and Emil walked to the table as Emil dug out his cell from his pocket. “Like this,” he said and held the phone so that Makai could see the app. “Do you know this song?” he asked, nodding toward the radio still playing on the table.
“Okay, so you’d do this, then.” He touched the screen and the app “listened” for maybe ten seconds, then changed the display to show them the song title and artist. “Ta-da!”
“That’s impressive,” Makai said, sounding a bit awed. “I didn’t know there was such a thing. Really handy.”
“Yeah, it is. I’ve held it to my headphones at home when a song comes up in the background of a show I’m watching or something. Works that way too.” He put his phone back into his pocket. He hated it when people were on their phones while socializing one-on-one.
“What kind of shows do you like?” Makai asked in an almost shy tone, and Emil realized more than before how awkward Makai really was underneath the facade he put up when he was in town.
“I should write you a list,” he said, grinning. Then Joey came barreling down the hill, showing them what he’d found so far. “That’s great, buddy. How about we go take a walk on that path. Just be careful, okay?” He pointed toward the boat shed he couldn’t see from where they stood.
They started to walk slowly after Joey, who rushed ahead on the path, in search of something red.
“What did you like to watch, you know, before?” Emil asked, wondering what he could recommend to Makai.
“Hmm… I liked really random things, I guess. Watched Buffy a lot, and Veronica Mars with my mom sometimes. Dexter too, and South Park.” Makai sounded thoughtful.
“Anything you didn’t like?”
“How I Met Your Mother. I hated the main character. Everyone else was fine,” Makai confessed and then chuckled. “And I never got into Lost after the first season. Another one my mom loves was Friends, but I couldn’t watch it much before something or other annoyed me too much.”
Emil nodded. “My mom loves Friends too. Ross is a total asshole.” He grinned at Makai. “Some of the shows you liked still run, you know. South Park at least. And there’s a Veronica Mars movie now. They made it a couple of years back.”
“Oh, I need to check it out. Maybe watch the whole show from the beginning. It was pretty clever.”
“Yeah, I’ve seen a few episodes, but not everything.”
Whatever he was about to say next died on his lips with the “Uh-oh!” they heard from ahead of them.
“Joey, no!” Makai yelled and started to run.
Emil didn’t freeze, but it took him a beat or two longer to get himself moving.
A horrible creaking, crunching sound crept through the trees before half of the boat shed collapsed. He couldn’t see Makai or Joey.
“Joey! Makai!” he called out while trying to get his phone out of his pocket with trembling, uncooperative fingers.
It took a few seconds of silence and a literal dust settling before he could hear Makai’s voice.
“Call an ambulance,” Makai said calmly but loud enough for him to hear. “We’re mostly fine, but Joey got knocked out when we fell.”
Emil froze.
“Emil. Can you hear me? You need to call 911 for us, okay? It’ll be fine. I promise.”
He stared at the collapsed mess of wood and tried to get his limbs to work. His fingers were clenched around his phone so hard they were white.
“Emil, you can do this. I believe that you can. Just take a deep breath for me, okay?”
Something about Makai’s tone made him take that breath. It felt like on the next exhale his body jerked into motion again, as if someone had pressed pause for the second time.
“Okay!” he called out to Makai, then went through the motions of calling for help. He couldn’t remember the address, but that didn’t matter, because Makai gave it to him anyway, and because they were so close to the Sheriff’s Station, the operator let him go as soon as he heard the first sirens.
“Go make sure they find us, okay?” Makai told him from somewhere in the rubble.
Emil nodded, then realized he couldn’t make another sound even if he tried and just turned around and ran back through the patch of woods and up the hill.
It was his dad’s cruiser that rolled to a stop by Makai’s truck, and Emil let out a sob of pure relief.
“Emil!” Dad and Jason got out of the cruiser at the same time, looking equally worried.
“Here, down where the boat shed is. It started to go down when Joey went in. Then Makai went to protect him, I guess, and it collapsed on them.”
“Jason, you stay here, make sure they know where to come,” Dad told his deputy, and Jason nodded solemnly. “Show me, son.”
Emil started to jog back with his dad on his heels. “It wasn’t anyone’s fault. We told him not to go into buildings, but he’s a little kid and—”
“Hey, it’s okay. Accidents happen,” Dad said, and Emil hoped it wasn’t just to calm him down and away from the precipice of the looming anxiety attack they both could feel.
It felt like no time at all and yet an eternity to get to the boat shed.
“Stay back,” Dad told him when they got there.
Emil watched as Dad turned into the sheriff in front of his eyes and started to do his job.
“Mr. Stone, what’s the situation?” he called into the rubble and tried to see inside it.
“Neither of us is badly hurt, I think I got the brunt of it when I dove in to cover him. He hit his head on the ground, though. He’s unconscious but breathing, and his heart, from what I can feel, is beating normally.”
“Okay, just stay as still as possible while the fire department and the EMTs get here. I’ll walk to the other side and try to scope the situation.” After an affirmative noise from Makai, Dad started to step back, then asked, “Do you remember there being anything dangerous in the shed?”
“No, but I couldn’t see every bit of it before.” Makai hissed. “Shit, I can feel blood on my back somewhere.”
“Just stay still. Help will be here soon.”
Emil knew soon would likely be at least fifteen more minutes and frowned.
“It’s fine, just doesn’t feel great, you know.” Makai’s tone was dry, and Emil had to smile. “I was supposed to tear this place down as soon as I could, but I kept putting it off,” Makai spoke evenly, and Emil made eye contact with his dad. They both frowned at the same time.
“Hey, you have been in town what, a week? It’s not like you’ve been slacking. There have been other things to do. Besides, kids get into trouble all the time.” Dad’s radio crackled on his shoulder.
Emil couldn’t hear what was said, but it seemed like someone had called Lotte at work. Emil winced. Shit.
“She’ll understand, son,” Dad said calmly when he glanced back. The radio went on again, and Dad ten-foured the call. “They were close, so it’s ten more minutes, son.” This time Emil was pretty sure he meant Makai, who grunted from the pile of rotten wood.
Dad kept Makai talking, and something about that made Emil worry a bit more than he would’ve otherwise. Dad also started to avoid Emil’s gaze, which wasn’t a good sign either. Then Emil heard it, the slight slur in some of Makai’s words.
Emil started to tremble a little, and Dad came to him and made him sit on a boulder by the path.
The sirens started not long after, and before Emil knew, the firemen from Mercer were swarming the scene, with the EMTs following on their heels. Most of the EMTs went to hover at a safe distance from the shed, but one had noticed Emil.
He didn’t know the young female EMT who came to where he was sitting out of the way, and that alone made him jerk away from her, even though she hadn’t touched him yet.
“Hey, it’s okay. Can I take your pulse?” she asked in a soothing voice that Emil immediately hated.
“It’s not that fast. I’m fine. I have issues with being touched,” he added tightly.
“Okay. If you’re sure?”
“He’s my son. What he’s saying is true. He knows himself better than anyone,” Dad said firmly from where he stood halfway between Emil and the shed, and the EMT backed off.
In short order, the firemen supported the rubble that couldn’t be lifted off securely, and just as they were starting to give space to the EMTs to get to Makai and Joey, Lotte ran to the scene.
“What’s going on?” she all but screamed, and Jason grabbed her arms gently to hold her back.
“He was doing the scavenger hunt,” Emil said numbly. “Ran into there, and Makai dove in after, I guess. When I got to them, it had collapsed on them.”
Lotte tore her gaze off the proceedings and looked at him. There was sympathy in her gaze, something he hadn’t expected.
“He got away from you?”
“Yeah, both of us. Split-second kind of thing.” Emil tensed when the firemen helped the EMTs lift Makai out of the rubble.
Makai seemed to be able to stand, barely, and the EMT who had spoken to Emil rushed to take his vitals and order him to sit down. Another lifted Joey onto a backboard and started to check him through.
Time jolted forward like it sometimes did for Emil. People moved around him in starts and stops, jumping from one place to another as he tried to follow them with his gaze. He could hear someone talking, calling out orders maybe, and then someone else would reply in a way that made no sense, because the answer was to a new question that Emil hadn’t even heard. He realized he was dissociating, when another set of EMTs walked to them and insisted on taking Makai to be checked.
Emil wanted to go with him. In that moment, he didn’t want to leave Makai out of his sight, because he didn’t have anyone else in town and because….
“Emil, do you want to ride with us to the hospital?” Dad asked, and Emil nodded numbly. He didn’t want to go to the hospital, but he didn’t want to leave Makai’s side either.
Makai looked zoned out as the EMTs and two firemen carried him out on the backboard, probably wanting to make sure he wouldn’t fall on his way to the ambulances. The terrain was too rough and the path too narrow for anything with wheels. Idly, Emil wondered how much Makai weighed.
