F. Wilson - Secret Circles

A cat … a fat tabby looked up at him and made that sound again. From farther away, through the fog, Jack imagined it could have sounded like a frightened child. He chased it away and stood listening.

All quiet.

He gave up and headed back to his bike.

8

Mr. Bainbridge was leaving just as Jack got home. He could tell from his eyes he‟d had more than a couple of Dad‟s Carling Black Labels.

“Gonna make it to the smoker on Thursday?” Mr. Bainbridge asked his father.

Jack knew that “the smoker” was the monthly get-together at the VFW post where they drank, played cards, and showed porno movies.

Dad shook his head. “Not my cup of tea, Kurt. You know that.”

“Yeah, but we finally got rid of those old eight-millimeters. We‟ve got a VCR now and we can rent all sorts of new stuff.” He laughed. “All in living color!”

Dad gave him a tolerant smile and waved. “You boys have fun.”

Mom walked in as he left. She held a dish towel. “That was Kate on the phone. She was talking to Tim and he says they‟re stalled on Cody. The state police are involved now. They had a search party in the Pines today and they‟re planning on going back tomorrow. They dragged the lake and found nothing. They‟re also searching the cornfields and the orchards. There‟s so many places he could be.” She twisted the towel and looked about to cry. “His poor parents. Think what they must be going through.”

“He‟s got to be somewhere.”

As soon as the words left his mouth Jack wanted to kick himself for saying something so ridiculously obvious. Of course Cody was somewhere. Everybody was somewhere. Question was: Wherever he was, was he alive?

It seemed less and less likely to Jack that this was going to have a happy ending.

9

That night Jack dreamed he was at the Taber & Sons circus, showing off for Karina at the ring-the-bell game. Tony Vivino was nowhere in sight this time, but his mother and Sally were, and he wondered why until he realized that Mr. Vivino‟s head had replaced the ringer weight. He swung the mallet in a mighty arc that sent Mr. V‟s head to the top and rang the bell. The instant-home-movie guy from the bumper cars was taping it all and everyone was having a great time until Cody Bockman showed up with Mr. Prather‟s Mystery Machine and dissolved

everyone with the disintegrating ray it created.

TUESDAY

1

After Mr. Kressy‟s class, Karina went through the caf line with Jack and they joined a table with Eddie and a few other kids. As he pulled up a chair Jack noticed Elvin Neolin approaching. They made brief eye contact and Jack started to wave him over. He didn‟t know any of the pineys and Elvin seemed like an okay guy. Shy as all get-out, but maybe Jack could draw him out … see if he knew anything about a pyramid in the Pines.

But Jake Shuett raised a hand in a stop signal. “Don‟t even think about it, piney. We don‟t eat with inbreds.”

Elvin‟s gaze dropped and he veered away.

Karina slammed her hands on the table. “ What?

Matt Follette and Erik Burns looked up from their food and Eddie stopped fiddling with his Rubik‟s Cube.

Jake looked surprised. “Hey—”

Karina jabbed a finger at his face from across the table. “Don‟t you ever say „we‟ when I‟m around. I‟m not part of you, I‟m not like you, and I don‟t want to be included with you.”

She began putting her food back onto her tray.

Jack watched Elvin approach another table occupied by fellow pineys, then turned to Jake.

“That was pretty cold, Shuett. And you don‟t speak for me either.”

“What is it with you two?” Jake said. “He‟s a piney. They‟re retards. He‟s probably going to marry his sister just like his daddy did.”

Karina‟s eyes blazed. “Mostly they‟re just poor. Some don‟t have electricity or running water, but that brother-sister stuff is garbage.”

“What did you say to Elvin?” said a new voice.

Jack looked up and saw a tall skinny kid with long, unruly brown hair. His clothes were too small, leaving his gangly arms sticking out of his sleeves and his cuffs above his ankles. He had one blue eye and one brown. His mismatched gaze was fixed on Jake.

Jake seemed to shrink for an instant, then he puffed up. He had ten or fifteen pounds on the new kid. He picked up a ketchup pack and casually began shaking it down.

“Who wants to know?”

“My name‟s Levi Coffin.”

Jake snickered. “Coffin? Is that a made-up name like Sid Vicious?”

He looked around the table. If he was expecting a laugh, he was disappointed. Jack was feeling acutely uncomfortable.

“It‟s an old Quaker name,” Levi said. “And I‟m asking if you called El an inbred.”

Jake tried to stare him down. “Yeah. I did. What‟re you going to do about it?”

The guy didn‟t flinch. “Just wanted to make sure.”

With that he turned and walked away.

Jack wondered if a threat had been issued.

Jake‟s laugh sounded forced. “Another piney loser.”

Just then his ketchup pack exploded, spraying his shirt-front with crimson sauce.

As he cursed and grabbed for a paper napkin, he must have knocked against his plate, because it spilled his burger and cole slaw onto his lap.

Everyone at the table burst out laughing as he jumped from his seat and danced around, wiping himself off.

“Man, I don‟t believe this!”

Karina grinned as she picked up her tray and stepped away from the table.

“Talk about an inbred retard!”

Jake reddened. He looked like he wanted to say something but couldn‟t think of anything. He hurried from the caf, probably headed for the boys‟ room.

Karina sat down again. “Well, if he‟s leaving, I‟ll stay.”

Jack leaned back and looked at her, then at Levi Coffin, reseating himself with the other pineys, then at the retreating Jake Shuett.

What a weird chain of events. He had the strangest feeling that something had happened here, something more than what he‟d seen. But what?

He shrugged it off and looked at Karina. She was something else.

He gave her a smile. “Next time, don‟t hold back—tell Jake how you really feel.”

Her returning smile was warm as she looked him in the eye. “Sometimes keeping quiet is just like agreeing. Thanks for backing me up.”

Karina struck him as a thinker, like Weezy. He liked that. And she‟d even been in his dream last night—

The dream—it fast-forwarded through his head. No way he could tell her he‟d been dreaming about her—especially not in front of this crew. Be cool if he could somehow get hold of the videotape that circus guy had been recording in the dream. He could show Karina. Then again, it had been so weird it might scare her off.

He stiffened.

Videotape …

… show the videotape.

“Jack?” Karina said. “Something wrong?”

“Hmmm? No. Just had an idea.”

A very cool idea about something that waited—he hoped—at USED. He prayed Mr. Rosen

hadn‟t sold it.

2

School seemed to drag for an eternity. As soon as Jack got home he grabbed the keys to USED and raced to the store.

As long as I‟m here, he thought as he unlocked the front door, might as well open for business.

He shut the door and flipped the CLOSED sign to OPEN. Then he headed straight for the rear of the store.

Where was it? Where had he put it?

There—he recognized the gray carrying case. He pulled it out and unzipped it to reveal a video camera. Mr. Rosen had bought it off a guy last month. Expecting a quick turnover, he‟d put it in the window, but no one had seemed interested. Eventually he‟d had Jack move it back into the store to make room for something else in the scarce window space.