Richard Kadrey - Dead Set

There was a soft knock at the door and her mother stuck her head in. “You ready to go?”

“Yep,” Zoe said, grabbing her backpack from the floor. She tried to look cheerful on the way out but felt too weird, so she settled for trying to look relaxed.

The drive to school was mercifully short. The car wasn’t even too embarrassing-a relatively new, red, four-door Honda Civic. Zoe found a song she liked on the radio, but when she turned it up, one of the speakers in the back crackled and died. She sighed and turned it off. They rode the rest of the way in silence.

She was hoping that her mother would drop her and speed away in the rented car. She had to suppress a groan when, after they stopped, her mother shifted the car into neutral.

“Thanks for the ride,” Zoe said, and reached for the door handle. Her mother put a hand on her arm.

“I have to go see the lawyers today and then I have a second interview at a place I went last week,” she said.

“That’s great. Good luck,” said Zoe.

“Thanks. Promise me you’ll go to your classes and be good. I’ll pick you up at four.”

“I promise,” she said, feeling funny and wondering how she could possibly keep the promise and still make it to Emmett’s.

“I know there’s something else going on that you’re not telling me about,” said her mother. “I won’t push you on it. When you’re ready, I want you to know that you can talk to me and tell me anything.”

“I know. Thanks,” Zoe said, feeling gratitude for her mother reaching out, but fear that the timing was all wrong. “See you later.”

She got out of the car, feeling pure relief as her mother drove away.

It was like she had a fever all day. Zoe felt hot and her classes were all a complete blank. She’d sit through English or history, and as she walked out the door realize that she hadn’t heard a word or remembered a thing that anyone had said. Not even Mr. Danvers’s class got through the fog that enveloped her brain. He was talking about reptiles again, but her mind kept leaping from one thought to the next, one problem to another.

How was she going to get to Emmett’s and back without breaking her promise to her mother? Not that breaking promises or lying had stopped her from much of anything recently. . And if she did ditch her afternoon classes, could she make it back to school before four?

And if she did make it to Emmett’s, then what? She kept playing Valentine’s warning over and over in her head. She wondered about the man on the mountain, looking at them through a telescope. Had it been Emmett? Why would it be him? She’d gone back to him day after day and given him what he wanted. Well, except for that last time, she thought. Still, he got a tooth, another creepy trophy for his collection. What more could he want from her? Then she shifted in her seat and felt the razor in her pocket, which brought back Valentine’s warning.

Absynthe wasn’t helping. Sitting a couple of rows ahead of Zoe, Absynthe could always find the perfect moment, when the other kids were distracted by one of Mr. Danvers’s skulls or a drawing on the blackboard, to turn and shoot Zoe an inquiring look. She mouthed, “How did it go?”

Zoe just shrugged and mouthed, “Talk to you after class.”

When the bell rang, Zoe lost Absynthe in the mad rush as people ran off to lunch or the bleachers for a beer or weed break. When she didn’t see Absynthe by the lockers or in the hallway, she went outside and around the building to the staircase that Absynthe had led her to yesterday. Sure enough, Absynthe was there, leaning against the wall smoking a cigarette. Her hair looked very blue in the sunlight. She wore a black thrift-store little girl’s party dress, trimmed in moth-eaten white lace, and green-and-black-striped tights tucked into the tops of shiny thick-soled boots covered in laces and buckles. They looked like something from a science-fiction movie. Zoe smiled to herself.

“What are you smiling at?” asked Absynthe.

“I like the Aeon Flux boots,” she said.

Absynthe put her hands together with her index fingers steepled like a gun and made shooting noises with her mouth. Zoe grabbed her chest and fell against the wall like she’d been shot. When she was done dying, she leaned against the wall looking down the cul-de-sac at the other girl.

“Listen, I didn’t mean to freak you out or anything yesterday,” Absynthe said. “About the kiss thing.”

“Don’t worry about it,” said Zoe. “It’s fine.”

“We still friends or whatever?” Absynthe asked. The question surprised Zoe. It was funny thinking of Absynthe as uncertain about something.

“We’re cool,” Zoe said. “I’m much more tweaked about other things today.”

“Then come over here and tell me about it.” Absynthe sat on the steps in front of an old fire door and patted the space next to her. Zoe came over and sat down.

“So what’s the big deal about today?”

Zoe sighed. “Aside from being grounded, I need to see someone and get back to school before my mother gets here later.”

“Is this about your mystery man?”

“Which one?” said Zoe, and laughed ruefully.

“There’s more than one? Damn, girl. Here I was thinking I was corrupting a little suburban girl and you’ve got a secret harem.”

Zoe leaned back against the pockmarked surface of the fire door. “I wish it was that simple. There’s one guy I’m worried about helping and another I just have to deal with to do it. And I want to finish this all up today so it’s over with and I don’t have to see him anymore.”

“Then why don’t you just go? Do the deed and get back before your mom’s any the wiser?”

Zoe shrugged. “I wasn’t before, but now I’m a little weirded out by the guy.”

“Did he hurt you?” asked Absynthe. There was real concern in her voice.

“No. He never did anything but what I asked him. But he’s always been a little weird and yesterday someone warned me about him.”

“Maybe you should take the advice and forget about this guy.”

“That’s the problem. I can’t. He has something of mine, and I really need it. I don’t know what I’ll do if I didn’t get it back.”

Absynthe puffed the cigarette, dropped it on the ground, and stubbed it out. “Then do it fast and do it now. It’s daytime and people aren’t as crazy as they get after dark. Don’t chitchat, just do what you have to do and get out.” She leaned forward on her knees and clasped her hands together. “I can wait for you. If you like.”

“Thanks a lot,” said Zoe. “I’m probably blowing this way out of proportion. Like I said, he never did anything to me and he could have. I’m just being a big chicken.”

“ ‘Hope is the thing with feathers,’ ” said Absynthe.

“What?”

“It’s an Emily Dickinson poem about not being afraid, even in the middle of a shit storm.”

“Wish I had feathers like that.” Zoe hadn’t pictured Absynthe as a big reader or someone into poetry at all. And if she did read poetry, not Emily Dickinson. Bukowski maybe. She set the thought aside as one more thing to ask her about when she had Dad and was free of Emmett. “It’s been a weird few weeks, you know? Even weirder since we came here.”

“Please.” Absynthe let out a sarcastic laugh. “Don’t go playing innocent with me. I know your dirty little secrets now.”

“No, you really don’t. But I might tell you. Tomorrow. When it’s done.”

“You sure you’re going to be all right? Endings for stuff like this can get kind of messy.”

“Don’t worry. It’s all settled except for this one thing.”

Absynthe lit another cigarette. “Tell me what you want when you want. I’m all ears.”