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CADE, LISA, AND TRISTAN were standing over me.
“Look at all the blood.” It was Lisa’s voice that I heard. “There’s so much. What if he needs stitches?”
I tried to sit up, but I was stopped short by the pain.
Lisa knelt down next to me. “Help me get him to his feet.” She was talking to Cade. She stepped around so that she was behind me.
Following instructions, Cade moved so that he was facing me, reached out his hand, and I extended my hand to his. From behind, Lisa’s hands were on each side of my waist. “On the count of three,” she said. “One, two, three.” Cade pulled and Lisa lifted. Then, I was standing.
Lisa let go of my waist, but I immediately wanted her hands back on my body. She lifted the back of my shirt all the way above my shoulders. I could feel the cool air on my bare skin. I heard Lisa gasp. “It’s pretty bad,” she said and dropped my shirt.
“I’ll get my truck,” Cade said and was already going back through the front door of the brewery.
“And then what?” Lisa questioned Cade’s motives.
“County ER is open all night,” he told her.
Lisa shook her head. “They’ll need proof of insurance. We’ll have to get his dad.” She turned her attention from Cade toward me. “Where is your phone?”
Shit, I thought to myself. I am going to be in so much trouble. Sneaking out of the house, taking the keys, drinking... I did not want to call my dad.
I shook my head. “I can’t...”
“You’ve got to get to the doctor,” Lisa said and reached into the front pocket of my jeans. Her hand came out with the phone. She scrolled through my contacts and dialed Dad’s number.
There was a long moment of silence. I knew Dad was sleeping. It was nearly two in the morning. I imagined him stumbling from the bed to get his phone. Then he answered.
“This is Lisa Tanner. Blake had an accident. I think he might need stitches. We’re at the brewery.” Lisa disconnected the call and slipped the phone back into my pocket. “He’s on the way.”
Dad was there within ten minutes. When he got out of the truck, I was relieved to see that the expression on his face was more of concern than anger.
“My God, Blake,” Dad said when he saw the blood. “Get in the truck.”
From the passenger seat, I watched as Dad locked the brewery and sent Cade, Lisa, and Tristan on their way.
“What happened?” Dad wanted to know after getting behind the wheel.
“I thought I saw somebody and I... I started to go back inside, but I tripped.” I leaned forward. “I don’t want to get blood on your seat.”
I knew there were other questions that hung between us. Thankfully, none of that was brought up. But I knew that it was only a matter of time before it would be. Soon I would have to come clean about what I had done.
There was nobody else in the emergency room that night, and I was able to be seen right away. After a tetanus shot, the nurse gave me pain meds that made me feel loopy, and the doctor stitched the gash with thick black sutures.
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I WOKE TO A BARE ROOM full of moonlight.
No. I realized a moment later that all of the light wasn’t coming from outside. Across the room, on top of the desk, my laptop was open. I stood from the bed, went to the computer, and saw that The Reading Buddy site was up.
I placed my finger on the power button and was about to shut the computer down when I heard a thud against the hardwood floor.
The sound had come from inside the room right behind me. I stood up straight, spun around, and found myself facing someone in a black rain jacket. Because of the hood, the figure’s face was covered in shadow.
My hands fumbled behind me searching for something that I could fight with, and I bumped into the computer. The whole thing fell backward and landed so that the monitor was at the perfect angle to shed light onto the intruder’s face. It was my stepdad. I had seen dead fish with eyes that looked like his. I could see the purple veins that ran underneath his skin. I realized that the thud that I had heard had come from the axe that he was holding in his right hand.
He lifted the axe, swung it over his shoulder, and brought it down toward me.
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I SHOT UP IN THE BED and found myself kicking at the sheets and blanket. Realizing it had all been a dream, my heart rate slowly began to ease back to normal. I looked around my room and it was the usual, junky space I was used to. The walls were not empty like they had been in the dream—all of my posters were there as well as the progress chart that Mrs. Reynolds had given me.
Eventually, the sound of a tractor caused me to get up. I went to the window that overlooked the hop yard and pushed the curtain aside. What I saw was breathtaking.
The tractor was making its way down one of the rows. Some sort of equipment was attached to the back that had two extended arms that seemed to be stripping the hops from the vines and dropping them in a waiting trailer.
The man on the tractor was wearing a red and black plaid button down shirt. A straw hat was on his head. I knew that the man that I was seeing must have been Mr. Tanner, Lisa’s father.
My attention to the process was broken by a black double-cab truck that pulled up to the edge of the field. A man that I had never seen before got out of the truck and left the door standing open.
Once the tractor reached the end of the row, Mr. Tanner shut off the equipment and climbed down from the seat. A minute later, Dad appeared from around the corner and went over to the pair of men. After a brief exchange with the man from the truck, Dad placed his hand on the man’s shoulder, but the man shoved Dad’s hand away and shook his head.
I had no idea what was going on or who the man was, but it was obvious that he was upset with Dad. As the man walked back toward his truck, he stopped and looked up to where I was standing. I felt my heart skip a beat, and I dropped the curtain. A second later, I heard the front door slam shut.
By the time that I got downstairs, Dad was standing at the bottom of the staircase.
“Is something going on?” I asked.
“Cade Williston had a wreck last night.”
“Is he okay? I mean, he’s not hurt or...”
Dead, I wanted to add, but I left the final word hanging between us.
Dad shook his head. “He got banged up pretty bad, but he’ll be fine. Riley needs some help cleaning up your mess.”
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OTHER THAN RILEY, THE brewery was vacant.
Riley was behind the bar wiping down pint glasses with a bright yellow dishrag. I noticed that he wore wide, leather cuffs around each wrist. He placed the clean glass on the shelf and turned it so that the logo was facing the same way as the others.
“Dad said you might need my help.”
“You can wipe down the tables.” He tossed me a rag.
The two of us worked in silence for a few minutes before Riley spoke. “That was a really stupid thing you did.”
“What do you mean?” I decided to play dumb.
“C’mon Blake, I’m twenty-one, not a hundred-and-one. I know you let Cade and those guys in here. Anybody with a brain can see that.”
I hadn’t been expecting to get called out on my stupid behavior. “Does Dad know?”
Riley nodded. “I’m sure he does. Rest assured that I haven’t told him, but don’t forget that he’s not that much older than us. He’s probably been around the block a few times himself. Look here.” Riley leaned on the counter. It was one of the rare times that I had seen his hands become idle. “I know what you’re going through.”
I kept working. “You do?”
“Here, let me give you something. Riley reached both of his hands behind his neck and began to unclasp one of the three necklaces that he wore. The black leather cord dangled from the end of his fingers. “I want you to have this,” he said.
I took the necklace from him and looked at the pendant that the cord was looped through. It was a silver square about the size of a stamp. It had the emblem of a tree etched into it.
“The oak tree is a symbol of truth. Somebody special gave it to me several years ago.”
“Why are you giving it to me?”
“When I was your age I had a girlfriend whose parents moved away. We were only sixteen, and she had no choice but to go with them. We tried to stay together and make it work. Every Saturday we met in North Augusta at the river. Usually I got there first, but one day she tried to beat me. When I arrived, it was already too late. They were in the process of pulling the car from the water. She’d had a wreck on the bridge and drowned.”
We both sat in silence for a long while.
“So what does this have to do with me or the necklace?”
“Her sister gave it to me. After the accident was a terribly dark and sad time of my life. She said that anytime I had doubts about anything, to just hold the pendant in the palm of my hand.”
I put the necklace around my neck.
Riley continued. “And now, here I am, working for your dad and collecting tips so I can buy an engagement ring for somebody else.”