by Abe Moss
She hit SEND.
She brought her attention back to her family and realized suddenly her mother had disappeared somewhere, her chair empty. She looked up as the patio door opened and shut behind them. A moment later, her mom reappeared, grocery bags in her hands.
“Did you get the big marshmallows?” Michael asked.
That was all the information Maria needed to get caught up.
She went through the motions of roasting marshmallows for s’mores the next five minutes or so, her thoughts flying away in the distance, until she received another message.
Nick replied: It’s whatever. You aren’t missing out on much.
Maria read his message without expression. It was the strangest thing. She’d thought nothing negative the entire trip so far, and yet one little message from Kayleen Straub sent her mind reeling into panic and paranoia? Was that really how her brain wanted her to feel?
She felt an abrupt, overwhelming need to call him, and hated that she didn’t recognize whatever part of her was revealing itself through the cracks of insecurity. With her phone in hand, she stood from her chair. Her family, in the middle of whatever conversation they’d wandered into, looked up in response.
“Is it okay if I call my friend real quick?”
Her mother shrugged. “Of course.”
“It’s your boyfriend, isn’t it?” Michael mocked. Maria left without indulging him.
She wandered toward the dark street, standing behind her family’s car. She navigated her phone, hovering over both Kayleen’s contact and Nick’s. She took a deep breath. She glanced up, scanning the surrounding trailer park, the neighboring trailers and mobile homes, some of them dark and empty, others glowing with shadows through the windows. Somewhere, in an unseen part of the community, there came the faint-yet-rowdy voices of another family enjoying their evening outside.
She moved her thumb over Nick’s contact, over the dial symbol, and paused there. Was this what she wanted to do? How she wanted to feel? If there was something awry… did she want to know about it right now?
She flinched as a sudden commotion occurred nearby. Several pairs of feet on someone’s patio, down the steps. The clatter of a screen door swinging shut behind them. Maria looked up to see a small group of boys—the same as the previous night—departing from the home just across the narrow street. She watched them quietly from the shadows, took a step closer to her family’s car to shield her from their view. Four of them, possibly the very same four as before. One of them carried something under his arm, long and bulky. He opened the rear door of the vehicle there—an old Jeep, Maria recognized—and placed it inside. The boys gathered there for a moment, and Maria listened to their whispering voices. She couldn’t tell what exactly they said.
One of them glanced up and seemed to see her there. She froze, afraid to move in case he hadn’t. He lifted his hand to her in a wave. She turned her phone off and awkwardly did the same. The boy turned to his three friends and said something Maria couldn’t hear. Then, much to the displeasure of her sinking stomach, he started toward her.
“Oh, god…”
It was dark enough she couldn’t see his face until he was standing directly beside her. Once she saw him—got a good look at him—she was abruptly overcome with a sense of unpreparedness.
“Hey,” he said in a low, casual voice.
He was peculiarly handsome. He was young, definitely around her age. He possessed a pretty, almost-feminine face if not for his long, sharp, beak of a nose. His father would have the very same nose, she imagined, and would appear quite distinguished with it. This boy, however, hadn’t quite grown into it yet.
Over his shoulder, Maria observed his three friends watching with childish interest.
“I don’t think I’ve seen you here before,” he said. He leaned to the side, getting a peek at her family still gathered around the firepit behind her. “You must be Ramona’s granddaughter?”
She nodded, and was filled with sudden horror at the idea of these boys knowing anything at all about her.
“That’s me.”
“Everyone here kind of knows everyone,” he explained. “Your grandma’s a pretty cool lady. I’m Adrian, by the way.”
Maria nodded again. It was the only thing she felt capable of doing, really.
“Maria,” she replied.
Adrian stuffed his hands in his pockets, swaying in place as he tried thinking of what to say next. Maria wished she could be more than a bystander to their conversation, but her mind was entirely blank. There was something surprisingly forthright about him. Perhaps it was just the way he’d approached her, so casual and yet so purposeful. He was sure of himself.
“So, what’s your family up to tonight?” Adrian asked.
“Oh…” She looked over her shoulder, nervously checking to see if any of them had noticed her conversation with the neighbor boy. To her relief, they still appeared absorbed in their own talk. “We had hotdogs, and now everyone is making s’mores…”
“That’s cool,” Adrian said. He glanced back at his friends, who were trying to pretend they weren’t just watching. “We were about to take my dad’s telescope out on the desert, to look at the moon. It’s full tonight. I don’t know if you noticed.”
Maria craned her neck to the sky, searching for it. Adrian laughed and pointed behind her, where the moon hung swollen and white just above the distant horizon. Full indeed.
“Oh, wow,” she said. “I didn’t notice.”
“Want to go with us?” Adrian asked. “My friends look dorky, I know, but they’re pretty chill.”
There was a battle inside her at the proposition, one which made her smile.
“I don’t know… I’m here to spend time with my family, so I’m kind of—”
“How long you here for?” he asked.
“Hmm? Oh. Um… three days.”
“So… you’ve got two days left?” Maria couldn’t help grinning, already knowing what he was getting at. “Like… I know there’s a lot happening out here, and you don’t want to leave your family for a couple hours and maybe miss something really interesting—”
Maria interrupted him with laughter, which caused him to beam like a kid.
“I’m sure my mom wouldn’t like the idea, even if I wanted to.”
Adrian straightened, peering over Maria’s head to see her family. “Well, why don’t I introduce myself? Then I can just ask, and—”
“No, you don’t need to—”
“—everyone can feel a little better about it?”
Adrian moved past her, making his way toward her grandmother’s patio, her family beyond it, and her heart began to knock uncomfortably in her chest. She reached uselessly after him, afraid to raise her voice and draw her family’s attention anyway. She couldn’t believe this guy. Desert boys weren’t like boys back home, it seemed…
Adrian’s friends giggled to themselves, watching it unfold. Standing alone now, Maria hurried after him.
Adrian waved as his approach drew the attention of her family around the fire.
“Hey, Ramona,” he said just as Maria caught up with him, mortified.
“Oh, hello Adrian!” Her grandmother perked up at the sight of him. As she saw Maria with him, an entirely different kind of mood took hold of her. “Oh, so you’ve met my granddaughter!”
Maria looked to her parents, who watched the exchange with growing interest, looks of skepticism on both their faces.
“I was just telling Maria my friend’s and I are about to take my dad’s telescope out on the desert, to look at the moon. I asked her if she’d want to come, but…” He glanced at Maria, standing sheepishly. “…then I thought I should probably ask you first. I don’t want to ruin anyone’s family plans.”
“To tell you the truth,” Maria’s mother said, and leaned forward in her chair, eyes narrowed. “I’m not sure that’s a good idea tonight. It’s already getting a bit—”
“Oh,” Maria’s grandmother interrupted, w
aving her hand dismissively, “I think the kids would love that! They’ve been trapped here all day. Is there room for Michael to join you?”
Adrian answered without hesitation, “Yeah! For sure!”
Maria’s grandmother turned to her parents. “Adrian’s family has lived here for years. I know him well. His friends, too. They’re good kids. You have nothing to worry about.”
Maria’s mother appeared ever-so-slightly irritated with her grandmother’s undermining her. Maria knew the expression frightfully well. Her mother turned to Michael, who listened raptly but said nothing yet.
“I guess I’d feel better if they were together…” she said. “Michael, these boys are taking their telescope out to the desert to look at the moon. Does that sound like something you’d like to do?”
Michael, though clearly interested, had become suddenly shy in Adrian’s presence.
“Okay,” he said. Then his eyes grew big. He turned to their grandmother. “Maybe we’ll see something creepy, too!”
Maria’s parents exchanged looks.
“We’ll be fine,” Maria said, speaking up at last. She reached down the front of her shirt and removed her grandmother’s necklace. “I’ve got this to keep us safe.”
She shared a knowing smile with her mother.
“We won’t be gone very long,” Adrian said.
Eager to join his big sister on a late-night desert adventure, Michael handed his half-roasted-marshmallow skewer to their father and jumped from his seat to join them.
As they started toward the other boys waiting by the Jeep, Adrian pointed to the necklace around Maria’s neck. “What is that thing, anyway?”.
“Oh, it’s an heirloom, kind of…” She looked it over herself, difficult to see in the night. “Given to my family by natives a long time ago, I guess?”
“It’s ugly, is what it is,” Michael added, spontaneously cured of his timidity.
Maria rolled her eyes.
Though she wouldn’t admit it… she was glad he was tagging along.
✽ ✽ ✽
Adrian introduced them to his other friends—Lucas, Santino, and Theo. They were friendly enough. Despite their snickering earlier, when Maria had only been a nameless girl standing in the dark across the way, they were much more stoic and contained now. Polite.
The illusion of maturity.
The drive out took them maybe twenty minutes from Wellwyn. They left the paved road entirely, following a tire-worn trail through the dirt and sage. The moon was a cold beacon over the far horizon as they rolled up and down over the shallow valley hills, only their headlights in front of them and not much else besides. Maria watched out her window in the passenger seat, amazed by how different everything looked at night—pitch-black shadows, and everything else white as snow in the moonlight
Meanwhile, Lucas, Santino, Theo, and Michael were scrunched in the backseat, side by side. Adrian’s enthusiasm about how much room there was for Michael to come along was carefully exaggerated.
“Hey, Maria,” Santino said, leaning toward her from the back. “You should know… Or I mean, I should warn you…”
Doing his best to keep an eye on the road, Adrian turned in his seat and attempted to shove his friend back into his. Santino leaned away, avoiding Adrian’s arm, laughing.
“Adrian here—”
“Quiet, Tino,” Adrian warned, and Maria was alarmed to see the serious face he wore.
“—has talked about nothing all day since yesterday—”
“I mean it,” Adrian said, though now his embarrassment betrayed him, and Maria caught the hint of a guilty smile. “Stop.”
“What?” Santino said. “You don’t even know what I’m going to say!”
Adrian scoffed. “Yeah, okay…”
“What I was going to say…” Santino leaned forward again, keeping an eye on his grumpy friend behind the wheel. “…was Adrian hasn’t stopped talking about how excited he is…” An impish pause. “…to bring the telescope out here tonight.”
A collectively tired laugh worked its way through the car.
“My sister has a boyfriend, anyway,” Michael blurted from the backseat.
An awkward pause followed, until suddenly all of Adrian’s friends erupted in raucous laughter. Santino slapped the sides of Adrian’s headrest, rattling it in his tickled uproar.
Maria, blushing with all the attention, felt mostly grateful for Michael’s comment—even if he’d probably intended it to be at her expense somehow.
“Is it true?” Lucas asked. “You have a boyfriend, Maria?”
“I do.” She exchanged glances with Adrian beside her and was relieved to see he was humored, at least. “I hope all of this wasn’t just about that.”
“No!” Adrian said. Even though it was dark inside the car, Maria could tell he blushed like she did. “Nothing like that. This was purely a friendly invitation.”
His friends couldn’t contain their laughter behind him.
✽ ✽ ✽
When they reached an adequate spot—a small hill where they could park and see most of the valley around them—they climbed out of the Jeep and got to work setting up the telescope.
“It’s a bit more complicated than you’d think,” Adrian explained as Maria and Michael stood with him, watching. “This telescope is actually a really good one…”
“His dad dropped like, a grand on that thing,” Theo said.
Maria was baffled. “And he trusts you with it?”
“Oh, yeah. He doesn’t use it. Might as well take it out of its box every now and then…”
“It’s cold…” Michael complained.
Maria put her hand around her brother’s shoulders and pulled him against herself. “It is, kind of, huh…”
Just then, across the hilly valley, a sound reached them. One that made Maria’s already-chilled arms crawl with goosebumps. Howling.
“You hear that?” Lucas said, his attention on Michael who huddled close beside his sister. “Coyotes.”
“I want to go home,” Michael grumbled.
“It’s okay,” Maria said. “It’s nothing scary.”
“You want my jacket?” Santino said, removing it from his shoulders and offering it to Michael. “Keep you a lot warmer.”
Michael accepted the jacket. He held out his arms as Santino slipped it on.
The coyotes in the distance continued to yelp and howl.
“They’re actually afraid of us,” Santino told her brother.
“How close are they?” he asked.
“Not very,” Adrian said, still tinkering with the telescope. A moment later, he uncapped the lens and took a look through the eyepiece. He swiveled it a bit, getting it where he wanted it, adjusting the focus as he did. “I think we’re about ready…”
“It’s done?” Michael asked, eager not to be standing still any longer. He looked up at the full moon, a little higher in the sky than before. “I can see it without a telescope.”
Adrian and his friends laughed.
“But with a telescope,” Maria said, “you can see all its craters and stuff.”
Adrian tweaked the telescope a little more. “Here… come take a look, Michael.”
Michael—clunky under Santino’s oversized jacket—approached the telescope, where Adrian stepped aside. He’d lowered the tripod enough that Michael could see at his shorter height. Adrian instructed him to look through the downward eyepiece. Michael peered through.
“You see it?” Adrian asked.
Michael stared into the telescope for a time saying nothing. His mouth twisted as he squinted. The others waited with bated breath, strangely invested in his reaction. After all, impressing Michael was a sure way to impress his sister, wasn’t it? Or maybe the first step, at least…
“It just looks like the moon, but bigger.”
There was an audible exhale between the group. Adrian laughed.
“Can’t you see all the craters, the texture of it?” he asked.
Mi
chael continued looking. “Yeah… I can see all that…” He stood straight, turned to his sister, and shrugged. “You try.”
“You wanna look, Maria?” Adrian asked.
“Sure.”
She waited while Adrian adjusted the height for her and repositioned it. Then he stood aside and gestured for her to go ahead. She leaned over the eyepiece, squinting, making a similar face as her brother had. It took a second to figure out what she was looking at.
“Am I supposed to see it?”
“Oh, here, let me see…” Adrian checked it again, adjusted it some more. “There. Try it now.”
This time, as she peered through the little eyepiece, it was the first thing she saw. Huge and with some depth to it. She had to admit, though, she couldn’t blame Michael for not being amazed. It made her wonder if these boys were all enthusiasts or something—to make a night out of something as simple as this.
“Wow,” she said, standing straight.
“You see it?”
“I did. It’s pretty cool.”
Adrian grinned, sensing her lack of awe.
“It’s not for everyone,” he said.
“No, really. It’s neat. You don’t really ever pay much attention to the moon, usually…”
They stepped back as the rest of Adrian’s pals took turns looking. Before long, the others were training it elsewhere in the sky, in search of other sights.
“So, what, you and your friends just come out here to look through a telescope?” Maria said, gently teasing Adrian as they watched his friends gradually regress into children, pointing the thousand-dollar telescope at each other, or trying to.
Adrian leaned closer to Maria to whisper in her ear. “We usually smoke a little, too.”
He pulled away, smiling, gauging Maria’s reaction.
“Ah,” she said.
“Santino always has some. But we’ll hold off tonight with your little brother and all.”
“So the telescope, that’s just…”
“A good story for our parents.” Adrian laughed. “No… we’ll usually come out here and make a fire, play some music, smoke a little. Something to do. It’s fun.”
“I bet.”
Maria returned his smile, amused. As it turned out, desert boys weren’t entirely different than the boys she knew back home. Though, she supposed if she lived out here, her idea of fun would be quite different as well.
