Bentley Little - The Summoning

John looked up as they entered. He frowned when his mother put the plate on the table He put down his fork and spoon. "How come we never have breakfast food for breakfast?" he asked in English ..... His father glared at him. "Eat!

"I want pancakes or something. I don't want rice. We have rice every day. I'm sick of it"

"John .... " Sue warned.

But the argument had already started, her mother joining her father in lecturing John on nutrition, telling him that he was ungrateful and disrespectful. The argument was bilingual, her parents speaking in Cantonese, her brother speaking in English in order to annoy his parents.

"When I'm eighteen," John said finally, "I'm getting an earring."

"You are not. Be quiet and eat your food."

John lapsed into silence, slumping down in his seat. Sue said nothing but scooped some fried rice onto her plate. She worried about her brother. Right now he was still young, and he still showed his parents some respect, but he was much more Americanized than even she was and much more than her parents understood. Her parents were going to have a very tough time with him in the next few years. He was going to want to do the same things his friends did, and he was going to chafe and right against the restrictions her parents would place on him. That's what concerned her. John was easily swayed, too concerned with fitting in, too worried about what his peers thought of him. She, too, had been torn between the two cultures, not feeling fully a part of either, but she had had enough self-confidence that she had done what she thought was right and had never succumbed to peer pressure. John was different.

"That's it," he muttered under his breath. "When I'm eighteen, I'm hitting the road."

Neither of her parents heard his remark, and Sue just let it lie. She didn't want to inflame the situation even further.

John finished eating quickly and, without waiting to be excused, pushed his chair away from the table "I gotta catch the bus," he said. He ran down the hall to his bed room to get his books, and a moment later yelled, "ByeI"

The door slammed behind him.

"Tieu pei, "her father said, more to himself than anyone else.

Her mother finished eating, and she took her own and John's bowl to the kitchen. A few seconds later, the phone rang, and Sue heard her mother answer it. " "Lo?" There was a short moment of silence "Sue?"

"Coming!" She pushed back her chair and hurried into the kitchen, taking the receiver from her mother. "Yes"

"Sue, it's me."

"Janine?"

"Yeah. My car died again this morning, and I have to be at work in five minutes" Her friend's words were rushed, her voice on the edge of panic "I called Shelly, but her mom says she's not home Do you think you could get your dad's car and pick me up?"

"Sure. I'll be there in a few minutes. Where are you?

Home?" - :

"Yeah." ........ "Okay, I'll be right over."

She asked her parents if she could borrow the car to take Janine to work. Her father said okay, but her mother said no, they had shopping to do. She explained that she'd be back in ten minutes, two hours before the grocery store even opened.

"The keys are on the dresser," her father said. :

Before her mother could disagree, Sue hurried into her bedroom, put on a pair of jeans and a T-shirt, grabbed the keys from her parents' room, and hurried out to the garage.

Janine worked at The Rocking D, a dude ranch situated at the foot of Poundcake Hill that catered to young rich couples from the Valley and out of state who liked to pre tend for a week or a weekend that they were living in the

Old West.

The Old West with swimming pools and cable TV.

The ranch was Rio Verde's sole claim to fame. A four star resort, it had been built in the 1950s by a hotel mogul from back East who had been suckered into buying investment land in Rio Verde sight unseen.

Determined to turn a lemon into lemonade, the mogul had built the Rocking D and had then proceeded to place advertisements for his "guest ranch" in such unconventional places as National Geographic and Modern Equestrian magazines. His strategy had worked, and while Rio Verde had been too far from civilization to ever make it a resort mecca, the Rocking D did generate a consistent profit. Ads for the ranch still appeared periodically on TBS and other cable stations, although, like the rest of the town, the ranch had lately fallen on hard times and had seen much of its business defect to Scottsdale and Laughlin.

Janine was waiting in front of her house in her cowgirl uniform, nervously banging her purse against her thigh, when Sue pulled up. She had the passenger door opened and was inside almost before Sue had stopped the car.

"What's the hurry? We'll make it."

"Yeah, but I have to be there on time. I was already late once last week, and let's just say my supervisor is not exactly my best friend."

. Sue turned around at the end of the cul-de-sac and headed back toward the highway. They passed a corner where three raggedy-looking elementary schoolchildren waited for the bus.

"Did you get that schedule for Pueblo College?" Sue asked.

Janine shrugged. "I think so."

"I'm thinking of taking a few classes this semester. Classes start next week."

"You're driving all the way to Globe?"

"Of course not. They have extension classes at the high school here on weeknights. Didn't you read the schedule?" :

Janine shook her head. "No. But it doesn't matter. I wouldn't go back to school anyway. I'm over, done, and through with that crap. I promised myself on the day I graduated that I would never set foot in another classroom again." Sue smiled but said nothing. Her friend's attitude was not entirely foreign to her--it was an attitude shared by most of her ex-classmates---but she still thought it terribly shortsighted. Credits from the extension courses were accepted at Arizona State University, Northern Arizona University, and most of the community colleges throughout the state. There weren't many classes being offered right now, but there would be, and she knew that she could earn nearly enough credits to get an AA degree without leaving Rio Verde.

Of course, she had always planned on going to college. Her parents had wanted her to go to college too, but there simply hadn't been enough money. She'd received two partial scholarships based on her academic achievement and SAT scores, one from ASU and one from Pitzer College in California, but the key word had been "partial." Each of the scholarships would have paid for half of her tuition, but she would have had to come up with the other half herself, as well as money for books, food, lodging, and transportation. On the advice of her high school counselor, she had applied for a student loan, but for the past few years both the state and federal governments had been cutting back on the number of loans made available, and her application was rejected. When she'd called the Financial Aid Office at ASU to ask why, she was told that her parents had too much equity. They owned both their house and their restaurant, and although her family barely managed to eke out a living each month, on paper they had assets in excess of $100"O00--which made her ineligible for financial aid.

She had been doing everything she could over the past two years to save money for college: living at home, working full time, allowing herself only an occasional movie for entertainment. But while she still wanted to go to college to learn, her parents' priorities had shifted a bit.

They now thought of college as a place where she could look for a good husband.

Janine looked at her. "Night classes, though..." Her voice trailed off.

"I don't want to think about it," Sue said quickly.

Janine shivered. "They said his body was totally drained of blood.