Steven Gould - Jumper:Griffin _s Story

"They held Sam and Consuelo hostage, trying to get me to surrender. When I sent the INS in… well, you see what happened."

She read on. She stopped tracking me as she got into the body count. I crossed my right arm over my stomach, pulling my left into my side. I felt my shoulders droop, hunch forward. The accused is in the dock awaiting the verdict of the jury.

"So why do they want to kill you?"

I shook my head. "I wish I knew for sure."

"It's something to do with, uh, what you just did, right?"

"Yeah-I really think so."

"And what did you just do?" She licked her lips. "I mean, I saw you disappear, but where did you go?"

"My place-uh, Southern Cal. In the desert."

"You're kidding me."

I shook my head. "No. Want to see?" I took a step forward.

She held up her hands. "Whoa, boy!"

I stepped back again, the corners of my mouth tugging down. Please, please, please.

She pointed at the far side of the cemetery. "See the corner over by the birth control clinic?" It was about two hundred yards away. "Go there. Show me."

I did.

How many Sensitives could there be? Hopefully there wasn't one around here.

I stood there, two hundred yards away, and waved. After a moment, she raised her arm and made a large come-here gesture. I returned, my way. She didn't jerk so much this time when I appeared.

"I suppose it could be drugs. Did you put something in my coffee?"

I shook my head.

"How do you do that?"

"I just do it. When I was five, the first time."

"The Starbucks cup, in Mont-Saint-Michel-you said you'd got it in San Diego. You meant that morning, didn't you?"

I nodded.

It started to rain, fat drops falling at an angle with the wind.

"Shit!" said E.V. "I'm so tired of winter! I want it to be warm." She sounded upset and I didn't think it was the weather.

"I can't make it warm here," I said. "But I can take you someplace that is."

She didn't say no. Her eyes were still wary but her forehead was no longer furrowed.

"How do you feel about Thai food?"

Rites of Passage We were walking down Kensington High Street on our third date when E.V. said, "Let's go in here."

I thought she meant the shoe boutique but she pulled me sideways toward the shop on the corner. "What? The chemist?"

"Yes, the chemist."

I followed her through the door-it was afternoon in New Jersey and nearly ten at night in London and they were about to close. "What do you need?"

She looked over her shoulder at me and said, "What do we need." Then she blushed.

She bought the condoms, Durex brand, and some lubricant but got the cash from me since she only had American.

The clerk looked bored and my ears burned.

Back on the sidewalk she said, "We've two more hours."

I'd offered to show her my place, the Hole, before, but she'd refused. So far she'd let me take her swimming in Mexico, to Paris for coffee, to Madrid for tapas, and Phuket for sa-tay. But not to my place.

"Uh, I've never done it."

She nodded. "I know. I could tell." She stepped up to me and pressed against me. "Don't you want to?"

I nodded mutely.

"Well, then."

It was after, when we were lying in my bed, hip to belly, that she finally found out I was thirteen months younger than her seventeen and a half years.

"Oh, Christ! It's like child abuse!"

I moved my hand sideways and she arched her back. "Well, more fun than self-abuse," I said. "Think of it as charity to a poor orphan boy."

"An orphan boy?"

"An orphan boy."

She sang,

"Oh, men of dark and dismal fate, Forgo your cruel employ, Have pity on my lonely state, I am an orphan boy!"

"Huh?" I was thoroughly confused.

"And you an Englishman! Pirates of Penzance. Gilbert and Sullivan. Got it?"

"Oh. Never saw it. 'Modern Major-General,' right? Okay, have pity on my lonely…?"

"State. What time is it? Oh, shit!" She pushed my hands away. "Get me back or I'll be grounded for all time."

I jumped her to the corner of her block, depending on the gathering gloom to hide our sudden appearance. She kissed me and ran up the block, her book bag thumping at her shoulder.

I walked between two parked cars on the street and jumped away.

E.V.'s father had a rough commute, forty-five minutes, so he was rarely home before six. Her mother worked in a middle school in the Neshaminy school district in Pennsylvania- across the river and then some. She rarely made it home before five-thirty. So we had that time between three-fifteen and five-thirty, most weekdays.

"I'm not burning us out, though," she said. "Three times a week, tops."

I had to buy more condoms.

She drew me naked.

Well, naked with a sketchpad.

We drew each other.

And we swam naked in the moonlight at Phuket.

And we ate at little cafes overlooking the Seine while she did her class assignments. I helped her with her French-she helped me with Algebra II.

"Madame Breskin says my accent is improving remarkably."

"Lefrangais est la langue de Vamour. Let's go back to my place."

She laughed. "No. I've barely got time to finish this essay."

My sigh was eloquent.

"Tomorrow. Homework or not," she promised.

But the next day she wasn't there. We'd been meeting at the Shell station, across Greenwood Avenue from the high school and only a few blocks from her house.

I thought about calling but she told me her parents had caller ID, so if I was going to call, do it from where I was supposed to be. With a small mountain of quarters, I stood at a pay phone in San Diego's Balboa Park, and dialed.

She answered. "Hey," I said.

"Where are you calling from? Ah, where's six-one-nine?"

" San Diego. How are you?" What I really meant was, Can you talk?

"I'm pissed. Dad went through my nightstand. He found the sketch I did of you in the nude. When we were sketching?"

"That was a really good sketch. Uh, what did he say? What did you say?"

"I said I'd drawn it from my imagination. Also that it was none of his business and if he ever went through my stuff again, I'd leave home." She cleared her throat. "There was some shouting involved."

"When did this happen?"

"Today. He showed up and pulled me out of school last period. Sorry. I'm grounded for a month. He suspects something-I have to come straight home after school and check in with him by phone at work. Can't go anywhere. He'll probably spot check with phone calls."

"What are you going to do?"

"I'll stick it out. My mother's upset, but a bit more at him, I think. I know they did it in high school. He's a hypocrite. She's the one who made sure I had condoms when I entered high school."

"Oh, yeah? I knew I liked her." I tried to keep my voice light but I felt like crying. I couldn't imagine not seeing her for an entire month.

"Yeah. We fought like wildcats when I was in middle school but we've come to a pretty good place now. But I'm not speaking to Dad. I predict two weeks, tops, then he'll cave. Maybe even sooner."

That wasn't quite as bad. "Will I be able to call you?"

"Hmmm. I don't see why not. We've got call waiting. He'll know you called, though-he'll check the numbers when he gets home-so make sure it's from San Diego, right?"

"Right."

I heard a noise in the background. "They're calling me for supper. Gotta go." "Okay. Je t'aime." "Damn straight," she said.

I did laundry. The sheets needed changing. I bought more sheets, a nicer comforter, more pillows. She'd complained about my not having music, so I boug-volt power system, and a selection of CDs. I stocked up on her favorite diet cola and some snacks, healthy and otherwise. She liked those weird rice cakes, the ones that are like Styrofoam, so I bought a case of those.