Andrew Klavan - The long way home

"I know," I said. "But you can't. It's too dangerous. You saw what just happened."

"But…"

"No, listen to me, Rick. Either you go or I have to. I can't do this while I'm worrying about one of you guys getting hurt."

"Hey, that's stupid-," Rick began.

But Beth said, "No. Charlie's right." We all turned to listen to her. Beth was like that. Whenever she talked, everyone always stopped to listen. "Josh got away today, but it could've been worse. It could've been a lot worse. He might've gotten hurt. Or he might've alerted the police to Charlie. The police could be following any one of us. They know who Charlie's friends are. The bad guys probably know too. We could lead them right to him. I know we're trying to help, but we're really just making things more dangerous."

I nodded. That was exactly what I was thinking-and now that Beth said it, I knew it was right. My heart felt like it weighed a ton.

"So what are you saying?" said Rick. I think he already understood; he just didn't want to face it any more than I did. "You saying we gotta just… go? Just, like… leave you alone here? Just say good-bye and not see you anymore and just hope you don't get arrested or killed?"

"Pretty much," I told him. "That's pretty much what I'm saying. Yeah."

"Well, I won't," said Rick. "I'm not doing that. It's crazy." No one said anything. "It's crazy," Rick repeated, looking around at the others for support.

Miler took one of his hands out from behind his head. He reached over with it and patted Rick's ankle.

"It's not crazy, Rick-O," he said. "It's true. I guess we all know it."

"No," said Rick. "No, man. We can't just leave him alone here."

"We won't just leave him," said Beth. "We'll bring him supplies. Food and some money and some new clothes and shoes."

"Beth," I said, "I can't take those things."

"Yes, you can," said Beth. "In fact, you have to. You have to let us help you, Charlie. We need to."

"That's true too," said Miler.

Rick nodded heavily. His big round face looked so sad it almost seemed angry. "See, that's the thing, Charlie. That's the thing you don't get about all this. You being out there-alone-with everyone after you-that's just like- it's just like a piece of us is out there."

"That's right," said Josh.

"That's right," said Miler.

"Every time we see on television that you got chased or attacked or accused of doing something we know you didn't do, that's just like it was happening to us too."

"Even when we don't see it," said Beth. "Even when we don't know it's happening, it's like it's happening to us."

The guys nodded.

"You gotta let us help you," said Rick. "Then it's like we're not all so far away from each other."

"Right," said Josh. "I mean, if we can at least give you some stuff to take with you, then it's like you can look at it and know we're there and we'll know you're doing that and we'll know you're there. It'll be like… I don't know…" He couldn't find the words.

"Like the old days," said Miler. "At lunch and stuff."

Rick smiled at the memory. "Yeah, like when we'd be all laughing and everything."

They were quiet a second.

Then Rick added, "Man, I miss that."

Then we were all quiet. I felt the cool autumn air from the window on my neck, and a thought flashed through my mind that it wasn't the chill air at all but the chill finger of that cowled woman in the graveyard as she reached out her hand trying to stop the things she loved from dying.

"Hey, I have an idea," said Josh, making his voice bright.

"Uh-oh," said Rick. "We're in trouble now."

"No, really. I could set up webcams for all of us. You know, Charlie, so maybe sometimes you could stop in at one of those cybercafes or something and get a computer and we could see each other."

"Hey," said Rick, surprised. "That's actually a good idea. That's actually not stupid."

"And anyway," said Beth, her voice brighter too, "it's not like it's going to be forever or anything. Charlie's going to find out who killed Alex, and then the police will understand they have the wrong person and they'll help him find…" Suddenly her face kind of crumpled up. She put her head down in one hand and sobbed. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry."

Rick and Miler and Josh looked away, looked at the floor, looked anywhere. I went to Beth and tried to put my arms around her, but she waved me off, saying, "I'm okay. I'm sorry, I just… I'm okay now."

And she was. I moved away from her.

"Okay," said Josh. He clapped his hands together. "Let's make a plan."

We did. It was a good plan too. First they were going to bring me some stuff I could use: money, food, a backpack, warm clothes, new sneakers. Whatever else they could think of: a good flashlight and one of those sleeping bags that can be crushed down almost to nothing and other stuff like that. Plus, they were going to bring me duplicate car keys and text me to tell me where they'd parked their cars during the day so I could go and get a car if I needed one while I was here. Plus Josh was going to hook them all up with webcams and fix me up with some Internet connections in their names so we could link up with one another sometimes and I could tell them if I needed something, or we could just see one another and talk and they could pass messages on to my parents too. For now, they'd leave me with the laptop so we could still communicate. Later, when I'd left town, I'd be able to get in touch through other computers. If we didn't talk too long or anything, we might do it without being noticed and traced.

"It'll be like you have-what do they call that?" said Rick. "Oh yeah: a support network."

Everyone in the parlor seemed to like that. We all repeated it several times. "A support network, yeah."

Miler said, "It'll be like: The terrorists have guns and bombs and knives and stuff. And the police have cars and sirens and computers and nationwide communication. And you have us."

I tried to laugh. "Sounds like a fair fight to me."

For the rest of the day, Beth and the guys came and went, each of them bringing things they either had at home or had gone out and bought at the store. Josh set up the webcams on each person's computer and we tested them on the laptop. They brought me duplicates of their car keys. They pooled some money for me, and Beth even thought to buy me a wallet to hold it in. Rick brought me an excellent Swiss Army knife with about a dozen tools in it. I promised to leave all the stuff I didn't need in the house when I left so they could come and pick it up.

By the time they were finished with everything, it was almost evening. The sun had fallen low and spread a sort of peaceful, golden light on the stark branches of the trees around the cemetery. I was wearing my fleece, plus a thick windbreaker Beth had lifted from a box her mother had been going to send to the Goodwill. Even so, the air coming in through the broken window had the first touch of night in it and I could feel the cold.

I looked around the room. I had plenty of food to eat now-packaged meat and bread and apples and cheese- a feast practically-all put into lots of plastic containers to keep the mice out. I had cash if I needed to buy anything. I had water and sleeping bags and the computer.

"Place is like the Batcave now," said Rick. "Like the Fortress of Solitude. Charlie Headquarters."

We were all standing around the room, our hands in our pockets, our shoulders hunched against the cold. Our talk had become halting and awkward. We knew it was getting to be time to say good-bye.

Finally, our voices trailed off to nothing.

"Well…" said Rick.

"Yeah," said Miler. "Well…"

I could feel the sadness settling over us. I imagined it dropping down from the ceiling like a heavy velvet shroud.

"Hey," I said, trying to sound cheerful. "Stay on the Web. I'm gonna turn up on your computer more often than a second-rate starlet."