49

Ethan had never been upstairs in Professor Cranmer’s house before. Three doors led off the carpeted landing, and he wasn’t sure where he was supposed to go. He shouldn’t be here. Mick was playing around his feet, and when he leaned down to give him a scratch, the cat grabbed at Ethan’s hand, digging his claws in a little, and rolled over onto his back. A bedroom with a lot of books was facing Ethan, and he spotted Keith in there getting up off a pillow and doing a stretch. Ethan hurried into the bedroom, and Mick followed, jumping up onto the bed after Ethan sat on the edge. Both cats pushed onto Ethan’s lap. They were very, very friendly, and their fur was so soft.

After a little while, something caught the corner of Ethan’s eye. When he looked up, he saw Jonathan, standing in the doorway, which made him jump a little. With the carpet he hadn’t heard Jonathan come up.

“Great cats, huh?” Jonathan said.

“Yeah.”

“I love them.” Jonathan stepped all the way into the bedroom and closed the door behind him.

This was bad. Ethan stopped petting the cats and asked, “Where’s Professor Cranmer?” Jonathan leaned against the door. He had one hand kind of out of sight behind his back.

The cats were pushing at Ethan, but he ignored them. This was really not good.

Jonathan shrugged. “I don’t know.”

“He’s not here?”

“Nah, I was fooling with you.” Jonathan nodded over at the cats. “I wanted to show you some new tricks.”

“Okay, but I better go.”

“Why? You don’t need to.” Jonathan was a lot bigger than Ethan, and the room was not very large. The windows were high up, and the curtains were pulled across. No one would be able to see through them.

Ethan, still sitting on the bed, looked around the room. “You said Professor Cranmer was up here.” There was a closet, but he wouldn’t be able to hold the door closed. “You said there were brownies.”

“I was just fooling around with you.”

Ethan stood up. Maybe, if he moved fast, he could roll under the bed. Ethan noticed he was breathing hard. His hands were shaking a little.

“Do you know what a blow job is?” Jonathan asked. The smile came and went again. It was awful.

“Yes. Sort of.”

“Have you ever given one?”

“No.”

“Ever had anybody give one to you?”

“No. I don’t … I don’t want one.”

“Why not? They’re fun.”

“I need to go now.” Ethan took a step forward but stopped. He couldn’t get closer to the door without getting closer to Jonathan, which was something he didn’t want to do. “My mom will be worried. She’ll be calling and stuff.”

“Your mom won’t be wondering about you for a while.” Jonathan was breathing hard, too, but not as hard as Ethan was. “She won’t think you’re here. You’re not even supposed to be here.” Jonathan still had that one hand behind his back. He lifted the other hand, the free hand, and wagged a finger at Ethan. “You’ve been a naughty boy, Ethan, and there’s nobody here to help you now.” Jonathan slowly pulled the hand behind his back out. It was holding a gun. “Do you know what this is?”

“Yes.” Ethan’s heart was beating like crazy. The room was getting funny. He couldn’t think.

“It’s Sid’s. He got it in Vietnam.”

“Okay.”

“If I shoot you with this, it will hurt a lot and you’ll die.”

“I know.”

“You’re scared, right?”

“Uh-huh.”

“I don’t really want to shoot you.” Jonathan looked down at the gun, then lifted it and pointed it at Ethan. He had his finger on the trigger, and he smiled. “Well, to tell the truth, I do, sort of.” He closed one eye, aimed, and said, “Bang.” Then he dropped his hand and pointed the gun down. “But I promise not to shoot you if you help me with something.”

“People will hear if you shoot me.”

“They might, but they won’t think it’s anything. They’ll think it’s, like, a car, or something falling off a truck or something. They won’t care, and I’ll be a long ways away before they find you and figure out what happened. They won’t even know who did it.”

“I don’t—” Ethan began, but he couldn’t think of how to finish.

“You don’t, what?”

Ethan just shook his head.

“Okay, here’s the deal. If I shoot you, you’ll be dead. You won’t feel anything then. But your mom, wow. Think how she’ll feel.” Jonathan raised his eyebrows and nodded at Ethan. “If you just help me with one little thing, you can go home, and everything will be fine. Don’t be an asshole.”

“What do I need to help you with?”

Jonathan stared at Ethan. His eyes went up and down Ethan’s body. A car went by outside, then another.

“My zipper’s stuck.”

“Your zipper’s stuck?”

“Uh-huh. My zipper’s stuck.” Jonathan looked down, tugged at his fly, and then looked back up. “I’m not kidding.” He gave that awful smile again. “It’s really stuck. I think it’s because my dick is so big. I need you to come over here and help me unzip it and …”

There was the sound of the front door opening and some lady laughing downstairs. Right away, the cats jumped up off the bed and dashed to the closed door, mewing loudly.

Ethan called out. “Hello! I’m up here!” He should have yelled louder, but his voice was not working that well. He started to clear his throat.

“Shut up!” Jonathan whispered fiercely. Ethan took a step toward the door. Jonathan pointed the gun at him. “Stay right there.” When Ethan looked uncertain, Jonathan pointed the gun down at the cats, still hissing. “I’ll shoot Mick and Keith. Then I’ll shoot you.”

Professor Cranmer’s voice came up the stairs, getting closer. “Hello?”

The female voice called out. “I’ll put on the kettle.”

Jonathan stuck his finger up to his lips and pointed the gun at Ethan. His eyes, all of a sudden, were wide and bugging out. He looked almost crazy.

Professor Cranmer was halfway up the stairs. “Ethan? Is that you?” The floor creaked as he turned up from the landing. “Jonathan? I’m home early.”

Jonathan hurried over to Ethan, got behind him, and grabbed him around the waist. He pressed the barrel of the gun against Ethan’s ear. Ethan’s heart was pounding twice as fast now. Jonathan’s breath smelled really bad, like old cheese. The barrel of the gun was cold, and it was scraping against his ear so hard it hurt. It felt like it was cutting him.

The door to the room opened, and Professor Cranmer stepped inside. When he saw Ethan and Jonathan, he looked surprised, his mouth dropped open, and his face looked confused and then just—Ethan couldn’t think what—sort of scared, but also something else.

Jonathan broke in, using a low voice so the lady downstairs wouldn’t hear. “Don’t say a fucking word, Sid. Not one word.”

Something happened then that was very surprising to Ethan, something that made him a tiny bit less frightened. After only a few seconds, Ethan could see that Professor Cranmer didn’t look surprised or whatever anymore. Or maybe he was frightened underneath, but something bigger covered it up. His face just got very serious. He had his eyes on Jonathan as though he was sick and tired of everything, as though he hated Jonathan and everything all of a sudden. He stepped inside the room and closed the door behind him, not making a sound.

He spoke very quietly. “Let the boy go, Jonathan.”

“Oh sure.”

“Let Ethan go. You and I can settle this.”

“Shut the fuck up.”

The barrel of the gun was grinding into Ethan’s ear so hard it felt like it might be bleeding. He gave out a little cry. He couldn’t help it.

“You don’t have to let him out of the room, Jonathan. Just let him come over here to where I am.”

“Shut the—”

“You’ve got the gun. We won’t go anywhere.”

“You’re fucking right.”

“I promise we’ll cooperate, Jonathan. You’re hurting him.”

“You’re not the—”

“Come on. I’m worried you’ll shoot him by accident. We’ll do whatever you want.”

A voice called up, the lady’s voice. “Everything okay up there?”

Professor Cranmer called out. “Be down in a sec.” You couldn’t tell from his voice that anything was wrong at all.

“Black tea or herbal?”

Cranmer looked at Jonathan, very steady. Then he got close to smiling, and he called out, “Tension Tamer.”

“You got it.” Footsteps downstairs went off to the kitchen.

Jonathan gestured with his head over to the corner of the bedroom, farthest away from the door. “Get over there.”

Professor Cranmer walked right over to where Jonathan pointed. He held his hands partway up and sort of out to the side, with his fingers sticking out, to show Jonathan he wasn’t going to try anything.

The gun slid away from Ethan’s ear—it was stinging like crazy—and Jonathan shoved him toward Professor Cranmer.

“Go over there and shut up.”

There was a clatter downstairs in the kitchen. Nobody said anything. Jonathan had the gun hanging down at his side now, almost as though he’d forgotten about it, and he was breathing hard.

Professor Cranmer put a hand on Ethan’s shoulder. “Jonathan …” Professor Cranmer began.

“Man, this sucks.”

“Jonathan, listen …”

“Shut up. I’m trying to think.”

“Okay.”

Jonathan’s eyes were going from side to side. “Is the basement unlocked?”

“Yes.”

Jonathan looked like he was out of breath. “Okay, here’s the deal. We’re going downstairs, okay? You, me, the kid, and whoever the fuck that is in the kitchen.”

“Whatever you want.”

“Right. Whatever I want.” Jonathan seemed to notice the gun. He turned it to the side and stared down at it, thinking. “That’s your friend Claire, isn’t it?”

“Yes.”

“The judge’s girlfriend.”

“Well, I don’t know about that.”

“Bullshit.” When Sid just kept looking at Jonathan without saying anything, Jonathan got angry. “You talk. I have ears. I’m not stupid.”

“I know you’re not stupid.”

It seemed like Jonathan couldn’t figure out what he wanted to do. After a little while, he said, “Looks like we may get a chance to go out big.” When Professor Cranmer didn’t say anything, Jonathan made up his mind. “Like I say, here’s the deal: We go down to the kitchen and collect your friend Claire.”

“Okay.”

“Then, we all go in the basement.”

“Okay.”

“You tie the two of them up and put some tape over their mouths.”

“Fine. Whatever you—”

“Then you and me will go for a drive in your car.”

“Okay. Sounds good.”

Jonathan went quiet, and his eyes started searching sideways. “When we go downstairs, you go first.”

“Okay.” Professor Cranmer took a step toward the door.

“Not yet.” Jonathan pointed with his chin at Ethan. “You come here.” Ethan looked up at Professor Cranmer, and Professor Cranmer nodded.

“Go ahead, Ethan. We’re all going to be fine.”

Ethan walked toward Jonathan. When he got close, Jonathan said, “Turn around.”

Ethan turned around, and Jonathan put his left hand, the one without the gun, on Ethan’s shoulder. “Okay, listen up.” Jonathan was mostly talking to Ethan but loud enough for Professor Cranmer to hear. “As long as my hand is on your shoulder, you’re fine. But if you try to run away, or jump somewhere, and my hand comes off your shoulder, you’re dead, okay?” Ethan didn’t say anything, and Jonathan shook him, not too hard. “Okay?”

“Okay.”

Jonathan looked at Professor Cranmer. “If you try to run, you probably won’t make it, but even if you do, the boy here is dead. And so is your friend in the kitchen. You understand?”

“I’m not going anywhere, Jonathan.” Professor Cranmer looked at him. “You’ll be fine, Ethan.”

“Just walk right in front of the boy, just a couple steps in front.”

“Whatever you say.”

“Don’t say ‘whatever you say.’ It’s bullshit. I’m not fucking stupid, Sid. You’d screw me the first chance …”

“Of course I would. But you’re not going to give me a chance.”

“Damn straight.”

“So I’m going to do whatever you tell me to do.”

“Damn straight.”

“I have an idea that might help. Can I say something?”

“No, you fucking can’t.” There was a long silence. Ethan couldn’t see what Jonathan was up to, but he could feel him, standing there, and as he breathed, his stomach bumped the back of Ethan’s head. Finally, Jonathan just said, “Shit. I’ll never …” Then he let out a big shaky breath.

Professor Cranmer was standing there with his arms folded, not moving, as though he could stand there forever. He nodded over his shoulder toward the bedroom door. “Listen. When we get downstairs, and we’re in the living room, I’m going to call out something to Claire before she sees us, to let her know we have a situation, so she won’t be too startled, okay? If we just walk in on her like this, she might be really surprised, and we don’t want any surprises.”

Jonathan still didn’t say anything. Professor Cranmer was looking past Ethan at Jonathan behind him, very hard. “Come on. I’m not going to say anything that will make things harder, Jonathan. I want the same thing you do. A nice, calm walk to the basement. Then you and I leave, and whatever happens after that, happens.”

There was another pretty long silence, where Ethan wasn’t sure what was going on, until finally Jonathan said, “I used your computer and screen name.”

“I figured you might have.”

“You didn’t say anything to the cops.”

“I wasn’t sure. I didn’t want to get you in trouble.”

“Most of that shit was mine, but some of it was yours. You liked it, too.”

“I know.”

“And I wasn’t the one who went in the chat rooms. That was fucking stupid, Sid. The cops watch them.”

“You’re right. I didn’t know that.”

Downstairs the teakettle began to whistle. Ethan could hear the lady moving around down there.

“This is all your fault.”

“I know.”

Another silence followed. Again, Ethan could feel Jonathan breathing. His fingers squeezed Ethan’s shoulder, not too hard. “Okay, fuck it. Let’s go.”

They walked slowly down the stairs, Professor Cranmer first, maybe two steps in front, then Ethan with Jonathan’s hand on his shoulder. The cats crowded down with them, and once, as they were jostling past, Jonathan stumbled a little. The barrel of the gun clunked the side of Ethan’s head, and Jonathan said, “Sorry, man.”

“It’s okay,” Ethan whispered.

When they got down into the living room, Professor Cranmer called out. “Claire. Just stay where you are in the kitchen, will you? Don’t move. I have a little surprise for you. We have a kind of situation here. A couple people are with me. So, as the students like to tell us, just chill, will you, please?”

Professor Cranmer said, in a lower voice, to Jonathan. “Was that all right?”

“Just keep walking.”

The lady, Claire, was standing by the island in the middle of the kitchen when they came in. She had the kettle in her hand, like she’d just been pouring the tea water, and when she saw Sid and Ethan, she started to smile, and then stopped.

Jonathan said, “Put the kettle down and walk over to that table. Away from the window.” The lady’s face dropped, but she didn’t freak out. Ethan remembered seeing her once, talking to his mom.

“It’s okay,” Professor Cranmer said. “It’s not as bad as it looks.”

“Shut the fuck up.”