Burning Midnight

by Will McIntosh

  The Midnight Blue was balanced on a simple gold cylinder that resembled a candleholder. Cosette Amiot lifted it, offered it to Sully.

  He couldn’t help but feel awe as he held it. It was the most valuable object on the planet, and in Sully’s mind, the most important. Who knew what it did when paired with its match? Maybe it was the key to understanding the spheres. By reseeding the world with new spheres, the Cherry Red had done something miraculous, and it had been normal-sized. That the Midnight Blue was twice as large must mean it did something even more miraculous.

  Sully wished he could be there after its match was found, when the secret was unlocked.

  “I wish I could tell you where we found it,” someone said from behind them. Sully immediately recognized Alex Holliday’s voice. “I know you’d appreciate it more than just about anyone.”

  Holliday stretched out his hand as he approached, as if Sully was an old friend he was glad to see. Or an old enemy. At another time and place Sully might have refused to shake Holliday’s hand, but he shook it now, stunned and a little confused.

  “Ms. Toko,” Holliday said, turning to Mandy. He placed his hand over his heart as they shook. “I swear to you, I had nothing to do with the accident at your aunt’s store. You know, I lived in Philly, not ten blocks from where your aunt’s store was, before I moved to Yonkers when I was twelve.”

  “It was probably just some kids who got hold of sophisticated timers and fuel mixes,” Mandy said.

  Chuckling, Holliday shook his head. “Wanmei has a store in Philadelphia, if I’m not mistaken. Why don’t you go bust his balls?”

  Mandy didn’t answer; she didn’t even nod, just went on looking at Holliday sporting a tight half smile.

  Holliday shrugged. “I don’t know what I can do to convince you. How do you prove you didn’t do something?”

  “Thanks for the tour,” Sully said, gritting his teeth but determined to be polite. “I’ve enjoyed getting a chance to see the Midnight Blue up close.” He wasn’t about to give Holliday the satisfaction of playing the part of the reasonable man hosting immature kids.

  “When I heard you were here, I had to do something to welcome you.”

  Sully offered the Midnight Blue to Mandy, but she shook her head, so he set it on the marble counter. Holliday reached over and retrieved it. “David, let’s take a walk.” He gestured down the hall, then handed the sphere to Cosette, who had reappeared with a tray of drinks in glasses made of stained glass.

  Sully exchanged a glance with Dom, then turned down the hall, leaving his friends with Cosette. He was astonished by the attention Holliday was giving him and curious as to why. Holliday led him down a hallway that opened onto a vast lobby with a glass ceiling and lavish fountain, then on into a room that looked to be a combination luxury suite and control room. The walls were screens displaying data, scrolling stock prices, and camera feeds that showed various parts of this store and others.

  “My office.” Holliday raised his eyebrows. “You want anything? We’ve got pretty much everything.”

  Sully shook his head.

  “Been doing a little Christmas shopping?” Holliday gestured at the bag holding Hunter’s gloves.

  “That’s why we came down,” Sully said. “We stopped in here on a whim.” What the hell was going on? Holliday was acting like they were old buds.

  Holliday folded his arms across his chest, studied a screen of numbers that kept updating. It resembled a stock feed, but Sully quickly recognized that the letters in the columns weren’t stock symbols, they were abbreviations for sphere colors.

  “This is where it all happens, all the strategizing,” Holliday said. “Three years from now I’m going to be the biggest seller in the United States. In five I’ll be bigger than Bao.”

  Sully wasn’t sure how Holliday expected him to respond to such an egotistical pronouncement. He went on looking at the screen.

  “Want to see what I really do in here?” Holliday lifted a little remote like the one Cosette had used to open the case. The data disappeared, replaced by a hyperrealistic prehistoric jungle scene. In the distance, a T. rex was prowling among the trees. “Video games.” Holliday pointed a finger at the T. rex, pretended he was shooting.

  The screen switched back to data.

  “You know, I was raised by a single mother in a shitty neighborhood, just like you.”

  “Yeah, I’m familiar with your biography,” Sully said.

  Holliday looked at him. “Oh, really? Why is that?”

  Because rage had been boiling inside Sully since the day Holliday cheated him, and he couldn’t help but want to understand everything he could about the bastard. “Everything sphere-related interests me.”

  “I’m glad to hear that. Me too.”

  Sully turned to face Holliday. He was getting tired of this game. “Why are you glad? What difference does it make to you?”

  The door opened and a woman came in carrying a bottle of water on a tray. As soon as Holliday plucked the bottle up, the woman disappeared back through the door. “Because I’m always on the lookout for good people.” He shrugged. “You’ve been on my radar. Why do you think I invited you to that opening?”

  It took a moment for the words to register. When they did, Sully was sure he’d misunderstood.

  “Are you offering me a job?”

  Holliday took a swig from the bottle. “You can start on the third floor. If you do well you can advance to higher floors, or move out of sales into acquisitions, marketing, research….”

  He wasn’t talking minimum wage; he was talking real money. Benefits. A salary. Enough to take all the pressure off Sully’s mom and erase all possibility that they’d have to move to Pittsburgh.

  Just the thought of pulling on a silver suit each morning, standing at parade rest to help Holliday make money, made Sully’s skin crawl. But he and Mom were in serious financial trouble, and he’d just been offered a way out.

  What about school, though?

  “I’m not sure I could work with school—”

  “Drop out,” Holliday said immediately, as if he’d been anticipating the question. He gave Sully a wry smile. “I didn’t graduate from high school.”

  “I know.”

  Holliday pointed at him. “Right. It’s in my biography.” He took another swig of water. “To bastardize a saying, people who can’t do, learn.”

  Sully couldn’t work for this guy. What would Dom say? What would Hunter say? She’d never speak to him again. And he wouldn’t blame her; he’d be a sellout. Holliday would own him.

  Sully had a flash of his mom, giving Sully a high five after the fight outside the auditorium. Would she be happy if he took a job from Alex Holliday, even if it solved their problems?

  No. No, she wouldn’t. She especially wouldn’t like it that he was dropping out of school. She would hate that.

  But they were in trouble. Could he really afford to be proud?

  Holliday pointed at the screen displaying sphere prices. “Hot Pink is up another five.” When Sully didn’t respond, he said, “What can I say? I see a lot of my younger self in you.”

  Sully didn’t see how Holliday could know much of anything about him. Maybe he saw benefit in having the kid he’d cheated working for him. The Cherry Red was one of the few PR black eyes Holliday had taken. If Sully was working for him, it would look like there were no hard feelings.

  “No, thanks,” Sully said. “I think I’ll keep on wasting my life learning for a while.”

  Sully wanted to let Holliday have it. When else would he have a chance to tell him off right to his face? The problem was, Holliday was rich, and powerful. It wouldn’t be hard for him to make Sully’s life miserable.

  “I am sorry about what happened with the Cherry Red. I didn’t have a chance to apologize when it happened, because you were suing me and my lawyer advised against it. But I felt bad about how that played out.”

  “Yeah. Me too.” Sully could still picture that check, with all t
hose zeros. He could still remember the elation he felt holding it, like it was a balloon rising higher and higher. He clutched that check with all of his might as it lifted him higher and higher….

  And then it popped, and Sully had come crashing to the ground.

  “I hope you can see my side of it. I got nothing from the Cherry Reds, either. I didn’t receive any benefit when I burned them.” Sully was pretty sure Holliday was reciting directly from the legal arguments his lawyer had drawn up. “My Cherry Red became just as worthless as yours, so you could argue I lost two point five million dollars in the transaction as well.”

  “Except the Cherry Red was probably worth ten times that. I was just a thirteen-year-old kid, so I didn’t know that when you told me your offer was only good for thirty minutes.”

  Holliday made a sour face. “Back then? Twenty-five? No way.”

  Sully realized that for a few minutes he’d begun to think maybe Holliday wasn’t the biggest scumbag on the planet. Now he was back to his original opinion on the subject. He leaned up against a built-in desk, facing Holliday.

  “To be honest, Alex, I’m surprised you’d ask me to work for you. I mean, I know you’re a thief and a liar. I may have been thirteen, but I was still there, in that room.”

  Holliday’s smile flattened a little.

  “I know some of those things you swore under oath you said to me were never said. You cheated a kid, then you lied about it.” Sully pushed off the desk, headed for the door. “I wouldn’t work for you in a million years.”

  “Hey.” The doorknob clicked as Sully reached for it. The door was locked. “Don’t turn your back on me, Dollar Meal.” Holliday stalked over, stuck his finger in Sully’s face. “This isn’t Rocky. This is the real world. You don’t want to work for me? Fine. Graduate high school, then go flip hamburgers. But watch how you speak to me, and about me, or I will wreck you. Do you understand?”

  Sully should have been scared, but all he felt was rage. He wanted to bite Holliday’s finger off and spit it in his face. “Unlock the damned door.”

  “I’ll unlock it when I’m finished,” Holliday said through his perfect teeth, courtesy of a pair of Ruby Reds. “I asked you a question.”

  Sully kept his gaze hard on Holliday. “And I told you to unlock the damned door.”

  Sully could almost see the wheels turning in Holliday’s head. He didn’t want to back down and unlock the door, but what was he going to do? Summon a bodyguard and have him beat Sully until Sully said he understood? That would just prove Sully’s point, that Holliday was nothing but a criminal. Or Holliday could take a swing at Sully himself. Sully would like that, even though Holliday was pumped up with Peach, Chocolate, and Cream spheres.

  Holliday touched the remote in his hand. The lock clicked open. “Don’t ever come back here.”

  “Don’t worry.” Sully yanked the door open and stormed out.

  Mandy and Dom were waiting with Cosette. It looked as if they’d run out of conversation topics.

  “Come on,” Sully said, striding toward the elevator.

  With Mandy and Dom on his heels, Sully stepped into the waiting elevator. The operator was back to staring at the buttons, the friendly smile gone.

  “What did he want?” Dom asked as they descended.

  “He offered me a job.”

  Despite everything, Sully got a kick out of Dom’s bug-eyed reaction. “What? What did you tell him?”

  “I told him I don’t work for thieves.” Sully watched the elevator operator’s profile. He showed no reaction.

  Mandy, on the other hand, burst out laughing.

  —

  While they were crossing the parking lot on the way to Dom’s car, Mandy dumped a pile of snow on Sully’s head, setting off a snowball fight that left all three of them panting, red-faced, and laughing. As the fight was petering out, Dom raised his eyebrows at Sully when Mandy wasn’t looking. Sully gave him a questioning look. Dom gestured emphatically for Sully to take a walk. He’d almost forgotten Dom’s plan to ask Mandy out.

  Sully got in the car. Fortunately, he could still hear them.

  “That was a blast,” Dom said.

  “Thanks for talking me into coming out. I feel so much better.”

  “You want to do something tomorrow after school? Maybe go to Nathan’s?”

  “Sully, too?” Mandy asked.

  “Nah. Tuesday is Sully’s marble-hunting day. With the girl in the gloves.”

  “Wait. Are you asking me out?” Mandy sounded perplexed. That didn’t seem like a good sign.

  “Yeah. I guess.” Dom sounded hesitant. He was picking up on the surprise in her voice, too. Sully turned partway around so he could see them.

  “Dom, I’m sorry. I should have mentioned earlier, but it never came up.”

  Dom looked at the ground. “You have a boyfriend?”

  “No. Dom, I’m gay.”

  Dom’s thick eyebrows pinched. He pressed a hand to his forehead. “Damn. That’s even worse. If it was a boyfriend I could hope you’d break up with him.”

  Laughing, Mandy leaned in, kissed Dom’s cheek. “That’s sweet, though. Thank you. I was wondering why you suddenly seemed nervous.”

  “I was nervous.”

  Sully cracked the door open. “Can I come back out now?”

  Mandy peered around Dom, saw Sully sitting in the car, and burst out laughing. “Is that why you got in the car? What, did Dom give you a signal?”

  “Pretty much, yeah.”

  Mandy sighed. “Very smooth.” She turned to Dom. “We’re still friends, though, right?”

  “Yeah,” Dom said immediately. “Of course. You’re a blast.”

  Mandy’s eyes got a little misty. “I didn’t think—” She choked up. For a moment, she couldn’t speak. She fanned herself with one hand, blinking back tears. “I didn’t think anything could cheer me up tonight, but I’ve had the best time.”

  “What happened?” Dom asked. “We didn’t want to pry, but we were wondering why you were so down.”

  Mandy waited as two shoppers speaking in low voices passed.

  “I broke up with my girlfriend, Alexis, a couple of days ago.” She reached up and rubbed her nose, which was pink from the cold. “As it turns out, most of our friends were her friends, or at least they’re taking her side.” She shrugged. “Suddenly I don’t have many friends.”

  “Well, you’ve got two, anyway,” Dom said.

  CHAPTER 7

  Sully was winded by the time he reached the fifth floor. As he approached Hunter’s apartment, number 503, he could hear so many voices inside it sounded like someone was having a party.

  The door swung open as soon as he knocked. A boy about ten years old looked up at him, clutching the knob.

  “Is Hunter here?”

  The kid turned, yelled something in Spanish. Sully couldn’t see much, because the living room was divided into smaller spaces by old blankets hanging from the ceiling. Based on the voices he guessed twenty people were in there. He heard angry voices—two men having an argument—coming from a back bedroom. To his right, a blanket-free corridor ran along the edge of the room toward what he guessed was the kitchen.

  One of the blankets swung back, giving him a glimpse inside as a woman stepped out. The space was packed with cardboard boxes and three rolled-up sleeping bags. There was also a little square TV and piles of clothes.

  Hunter appeared in the corridor, smiling.

  “Ready?” Sully asked.

  Hunter nodded. She didn’t turn to say goodbye to anyone, just led him out.

  “Wow, that’s a lot of people,” Sully said.

  “That’s because it’s Christmas Eve, and because it’s winter. On an average day in the summer there might be just eight or ten.”

  Sully’s little apartment didn’t seem so cramped all of a sudden.

  —

  It was snowing as they pulled into the Garden Apartments. Sully thought that was perfect. Any other time of year he hat
ed snow, but who didn’t want tree branches and roofs covered with white on Christmas Eve? It even brightened the Garden Apartments, and that was a challenge. Those joyless redbrick rectangles evenly spaced on a flat parcel of land didn’t have much going for them beyond being close to McDonald’s and Price Chopper.

  He licked his lips, suddenly nervous. “I want to apologize in advance for anything weird or inappropriate my mother says. She means well.”

  Turning to pull her pack out of the backseat, Hunter said, “The woman’s welcoming me into her house on Christmas, feeding me a turkey dinner. It’ll take a hell of a lot for her to offend me.”

  “We’ll see if she’s up to the challenge.”

  The door opened before he could turn the knob. Mom burst through wearing a hat in the shape of a Christmas tree, a strip of white fur around the band.

  “Merry Christmas, Mom.” Sully turned to Hunter. “This is my friend Hunter.”

  Mom opened her arms and enveloped Hunter. “Merry Christmas, sweetheart.”

  “Thank you for inviting me, Mrs. Sullivan.”

  Mom waved her words away. “The more, the merrier. It’s always too quiet on Christmas with just Sully and me.” She looked from Hunter to Sully and back again. “The mighty hunters. Over dinner I want to hear you tell the story of finding the Hot Pink, Hunter.”

  Sully showed Hunter his room, where she’d be sleeping while Sully took the couch in the living room. He felt a little self-conscious as she looked around, taking in the Kate Upton poster with amusement. Sully had removed all signs of baseball cards, video games, Marvel superhero comics and figures, and anything else that seemed boyish, and hidden them in his closet. He felt okay about Hunter seeing his baseball equipment, which was stashed in a corner, the framed eight-by-ten photos he’d taken on their trip to the Adirondacks two years ago. Leaving the Kate Upton poster up might have been a mistake.

  He ducked out to let Hunter get situated.

  His mom was in the kitchen. Sully helped himself to one of the chocolate-covered pretzels spread on a serving dish on the kitchen table. As he took a bite, Mom pointed a spatula at him and whispered, “Don’t even think about having sex with this girl in my house.”