Naomi Hirahara - Santa Cruz Noir

As if she would know , thought Karen.

Tammy kept her gaze on Karen. “Because it would really help Lisa now.”

“No, no drugs,” said Karen. “As far as I know.”

“Maybe a problem at home?”

“No,” Miss Know-It-All Rachel said.

“I don’t know her that well,” Tammy said, “but she’s been super quiet. She asked me to pray for her tonight, but she wouldn’t tell me for what. We even got cooking oil from the kitchen to anoint her. And that’s when all the trouble happened.”

Tammy took her hands out of her pockets and started to cry. Wendy put an arm around her. The campers hung their heads. They didn’t know what to do with a college person’s tears.

Karen took a deep breath. She didn’t know how the words reached her lips, but they dripped out like fresh honey: “You know, I think we saw that pentagram up there. Lisa was checking it out. She was really fascinated by it.” She now had the attention of everyone on the porch.

“You mean you think that Lisa is demon-possessed?” the chubby boy said, almost ecstatic.

“It’s just that Lisa really started acting weird after she saw that pentagram. That’s all I’m saying.”

An ambulance siren pierced the hum of the insects outside. It stopped and restarted. Help had arrived.

Lisa hadn’t been herself, all right. Karen knew it. But she took full advantage of it.

In fact, in the caravan from the Valley to Santa Cruz, Lisa volunteered to ride in a van with one of the parents and the camp supplies. Why would she do that? Karen got a backseat with Jacob and his best friend in the second car. It was pure heaven. She got to be with Jacob for six uninterrupted hours and that was all that mattered.

Jacob’s friend held his pillow to his chest and immediately fell asleep. Most of the drive, Jacob and Karen took turns trying to throw Doritos in the boy’s open mouth. It was hilarious.

After hours on the road, Karen felt that the old Karen was fading away. Wasn’t that even in the Bible? New wine in new wineskins . Her old wineskin — the less popular one, less smart, less pretty — was blowing away. New Karen had everything going on.

When they arrived at camp, Karen was relieved to see that she wouldn’t be sharing a cabin with Lisa. More distance, more independence. More time alone with Jacob, maybe.

Lisa cornered her in the dining room. Karen was still holding her breakfast tray. “Go for a walk with me during free time.” It was a command, not a request.

That was the last thing Karen wanted to do, but Lisa had blindsided her so early in the morning. All Karen could do was nod her head yes.

On their walk, Lisa took the lead, like always. She was smaller than Karen, more nimble. She jumped up and down from rocks with ease. A damn billy goat .

Finally, when they reached a clearing, Lisa stopped dead in her tracks and turned around. “I need to tell you something.”

Karen felt unsteady. Ordinarily she would relish hearing some stain, some sin in Lisa’s life, whether it was true or not. To hear it directly from Lisa herself, though. There was no pleasure in that.

“I was raped by Jacob Connor.”

Karen’s first inclination was to laugh. What a stupid practical joke. But then Lisa didn’t laugh back.

“When?” She was barely able to speak.

“After the car wash fundraiser. A month ago.”

Somehow that didn’t surprise Karen. She noticed how chummy-chummy they’d been. Goofing around and spraying water on each other. Karen was burning with jealousy and left the fundraiser early. “Who knows about this?” she asked.

Lisa started crying. She never cried. There were two dark smudges on her forehead like the ones on the Japanese empress doll in Karen’s grandmother’s house.

“Just you, now. And Jesus.”

This is the biggest sack of horseshit ever.

“I spoke to Jesus. Really, I did. During this morning’s quiet time.” A breeze moved up the mountain, whipping Lisa’s black silk hair over her face. “He told me that I need to talk to my parents; that He would take care of me through all of this.”

“What are you going to tell them?”

“Everything. I have to.”

“You’re not going to mention Jacob, right?”

“He did it to me. He raped me.”

“But you’ll ruin his life.”

“I don’t give a fuck about that. He raped me.”

Lisa never swore either. And to hear the F-word from her mouth in the quietness of Mount Hermon jarred Karen. “C’mon, he didn’t rape- rape you. How can you be so awful?”

“Yes, he did. I didn’t want to do it. I had never done it before. I told him to stop.”

Karen couldn’t stand it. She couldn’t imagine that Jacob had such insatiable passion for Lisa. “You’re the one who kept throwing yourself at him that day. I saw you at the car wash fundraiser. I remember. You were in your cutoffs. You weren’t even wearing any underwear.”

“What, are you saying that it was my fault?”

“I’m not sure. I would’ve known.”

It was Lisa’s turn to look incredulous. “And why’s that? Because of your crush on Jacob? Everyone knows you like him, Karen. I wanted to tell you first because I didn’t want you to hear this from someone else. You know, he even makes fun of you liking him.”

Karen’s anger flip-flopped into shame. No, that couldn’t be true. Beautiful Jacob with his lean swimmer’s body, his long hair tinged light brown from sun. Jacob, who Karen imagined kissing every single night.

“You are such a bitch!” Karen saw the pile of stones in the clearing, calling her to action like David facing Goliath. She scooped one up and threw it as hard as she could at Lisa’s face. Lisa expertly moved to avoid contact, but her shoes hit some gravel and she lost her footing. She fell headfirst against a boulder.

And there she lay.

For a second, Karen was frozen in place. She looked around her. Were there any witnesses? A crow called out to another crow in the tall pine trees. Were they reporting what happened? And then there was God. He had seen it.

“Jesus, please,” she prayed. “Let her be okay.”

She kneeled over her friend’s body. “Lisa.” She could barely say her name. What if she killed her? And then again, louder, “Lisa?” Air was still coming out of her friend’s delicate nostrils.

She gently lifted Lisa’s head, her hair streaming behind like a black veil, and surprisingly there was no blood, no evidence of the collision with the ground. Lisa’s eyes were closed and there was a tiny bit of foam at the corner of her mouth. Karen wished she had brought her canteen.

“Dear Lord, please. I’ll do anything. I’ll be a better person. Just heal Lisa.”

A crow cawed again, and miraculously, Lisa’s eyes fluttered open.

“Oh my gosh, are you okay?”

“What happened?” Lisa squinted and frowned, pulling herself up by her elbows.

No, can it really be true? Has she forgotten?

“You slipped and hit your head. Maybe it’s the altitude. I think it got to you.” She helped Lisa to her feet.

“That was really weird.”

“What do you remember?”

“Just that we were walking up the hill.” Lisa’s eyes got big. “I wanted to tell you something.”

“Not now,” Karen said. “Later tonight, okay?”

Lisa reluctantly nodded, and although a bit wobbly, she took the lead again. Walking behind her, Karen said silently: Thank you, Jesus .

“Let’s pray for Lisa,” Wendy instructed, as the paramedics strapped Lisa onto a gurney.

The Lukewarms had arrived and were sobbing, their noses red like cartoon bunnies. They all smelled death in the room.

All arms were extended toward Lisa’s body. Karen didn’t want to. Stupid poison-oak boy, with his pink legs, stood right next to her. Jacob on her other side. His whole body, especially his hands, seemed to be shaking, but no one else noticed.