Two Days Ago
The island had always felt idyllic and safe, yet the towering trees now seemed malevolent, a canopy of wooden bars keeping us contained. “Just drive us to the ferry,” I said. “Doesn’t matter if it’s not running. We’ll start it ourselves.”
Sasha asked, “Can you drive it? Can anyone?”
“I’ve been on it enough to know how it works. All we need is the key.”
“What about the ferryboat operator? He’s not just gonna hand it over.”
I wasn’t ready to kill anyone, not if there was hope for a cure. But I wasn’t against hurting someone if they got in our way. “He will, Sasha.”
We were fleeing. Max, Renzo, and Sasha hadn’t had to face the impossible choice by encountering their parents. They were lucky that way, and I envied them.
I asked Sasha, “What about your dad?”
She shut her eyes. “Part of me can’t believe the man who looked out for me my whole life would try to end it. And then I saw what happened at your house.”
“No one’s ending anything,” Theo said.
I became aware of how exhausted I was, bone tired. The only thing keeping me awake was adrenaline. I could catch a nap on the boat. I wouldn’t shut my eyes till then. Not until I could look over the side, the island behind us and see a pod of dolphins escorting us to safety.
“By the way,” my brother said sarcastically, “Thanks for helping us back there.” He stared at Renzo from the rear-view.
Renzo fidgeted uncomfortably next to me. “Didn’t see your girlfriend lifting a finger, either.”
Sasha stared at the dash.
“You’re a guy, Renzo,” Theo said.
“Some might say a smart guy,” Renzo replied.
“How ’bout I stop the car and let you out if you’re so smart?”
“Sorry I freaked, okay? I didn’t mean to,” he pleaded. “I know I’m a sack of shit. Want me to say I’m a coward? I’m a coward, all right? Just don’t leave me.”
Theo turned back to the road and didn’t slow down.
“Sorry about your Mom,” Renzo said, trying to make amends. “I couldn’t have done what you did. I don’t know what my parents are doing right now, but I’m glad I’m not sticking around to find out. Hell, even if they went all normal, how can you ever forget they wanted you dead?”
You couldn’t. Not ever.
That saddened me even more. I was holding onto hope of everything going back to the way it used to be, but I didn’t realize until that moment there was no going back. Even in the best-case scenario, I would always hold the knowledge of what had happened, no matter how much time passed, and the sickening dread that this unraveling might return.
I said to Max, “What about your parents?”
“They were normal last I saw ’em. Doesn’t mean they are now.” He squeezed my hand. “I can tell you one thing. No more islands after this. Not even Hawaii.”
I smiled in spite of myself. “Me, neither.”
Suddenly, the windshield shattered. It went from being clear one second to cracking into a million pieces the next. Someone screamed. Theo swore. “What the hell happened?” He tried to see through the broken glass and ordered Sasha, “Kick it out!”
She awkwardly positioned herself and jammed her foot into it and the entire windowpane splashed onto the road. A breeze blew onto our faces.
“What fell on us?” I asked.
“Nothing,” he said. “I don’t know what—”
Before he could finish, Theo’s front tire burst with a loud pop, and he swerved, losing control of the car.
Renzo screeched, “I’m gonna be sick!”
“Hang on!” Theo yelled as he slammed on the brakes, a tree zooming closer and closer, the bark so close I could see its grain, until we hit it head on, lurching to a stop. Seatbelts caught Theo and Sasha, but Renzo, Max, and I collided into the back of the seat.
We were lucky we weren’t driving faster.
Though we stopped, I felt the sensation of motion, my brain swaying like a gyroscope.
Everything went very quiet.
Theo turned to us, “Everyone okay?”
Renzo lifted his head, blood trickling from a cut on his forehead. Max blinked his eyes, trying to find focus.
I didn’t want to be stranded. I wanted to move. Being trapped here, in this car, felt too constricted, too claustrophobic. I said stupidly, “Can you start it?” before I noticed the hood crumpled, accordion-style, a tree as a hood ornament. We weren’t going anywhere.
Max woke from his haze. “What happened?”
Theo checked his side-view mirror. “Tire blew. No idea why.” On any other day, Theo would’ve been furious at the loss of his beloved car. But this was no ordinary day.
Theo sighed. “Don’t know how this day could get any worse.”
Never, ever tempt Fate.
We heard what sounded like a firecracker off to our right. Seconds later, there was another, and then the back window shattered.
Theo swore a storm and we all ducked down. Renzo, Max, and I layered over each other, heads down, me in Max’s lap, Renzo’s head in mine.
“It’s a gun!” Renzo yelped.
The natural question would’ve been who was shooting it? But it didn’t matter. Some adult, somewhere, wanted us dead.
“Max, get your head down!” I’d looked to see Max peeking over the side door.
“It’s Mr. Johnson.”
“Our principal?” Renzo asked.
“He’s on top of the water tower. With a rifle.”
Another firecracker.
The side window Max was looking out of exploded. Safety glass rained down on us.
“Max!” I screamed.
“Point taken.”
Our world was reduced to the inside of the car, sardined next to each other.
“We’ve gotta get out of here,” I said. “We’re sitting ducks.”
“Sure,” Renzo said. “You first.”
“No!” said Theo. “We flip a coin or something.”
Renzo said, “Screw that. I say we all go together. At least the odds of someone catching a bullet’ll be the same. We take off and run into the woods. All for one and one for all and all that crap.”
Theo argued, “Why don’t you go first, Renzo? Pull your weight around here.”
“By going on a suicide mission?”
“You wouldn’t be alive if not for us!”
“You don’t know that. I could’ve hidden in the woods. I could’ve done a million things.”
“I swear,” said Theo. “If you don’t open the door and run, I’ll use your body as a shield.”
“I’ll go.” It was Max.
“Why?” I said.
He put his hand on the latch. “I think he’s reloading.”
Another shot. This time the other tire popped sharply, and I winced.
“Guess not.”
I said, “You don’t have to be the hero, Max.”
He took a deep breath. “Actually, I do.” Then he opened the door and before I could grab him, he was gone.
A burst of shots followed.
I never prayed so hard before.
“Go!” I shouted and scampered out of the back seat, my feet hitting dirt, and I directed my legs to run. Max headed for the woods and I focused on the back of his head, watching his hair, knowing every strand. There were the woods, and there was me, and only air between, thick and heavy. Though it was several yards away, it felt more like a marathon.
I may have heard gunshots, maybe even heard them whistle past my ear, seen the puffs of dirt on the ground as they hit around us, but I stopped for nothing.
Ahead of me, Max disappeared over a small ridge.
I passed branches and tree trunks and then hopped over a mound of dirt and dove, the ground welcoming me in a dirty embrace. I caught my breath, trying to yoga it calm and checked my body. I could’ve been hit and not known it for all the flight-or-fight endorphins coursing through me. Strangely elated, I thought Screw Superman! I could take on an entire army. I laughed inwardly, for I knew in a few minutes, maybe seconds, the feeling would fade and I would feel truly thrashed.
I was okay. No, not okay, but not hit. Not shot. That counted for something.
Theo, Sasha, and Renzo fell by my side. I leaned to my right. “Are you hit?” They were breathing, hard and fast. “Are you hit!?” They shook their heads.
“Max!” I shouted.
He appeared from behind a tree. “I’m here!”
“I saw Mr. Johnson up there,” Renzo said. “He’s got a six pack of Coors. He’s up there drinking.” He rolled over on his stomach, facing the road. “I say we charge his ass. I want a piece of him.”
“Be my guest,” Theo said, gulping breath. “We’re not going anywhere.”
“Theo, we have to,” I said.
Sasha asked, “Why can’t we stay. Just for a minute?”
“He might come down,” I said.
“Then let him!” Renzo said. “He’ll be on our turf. It’ll be five to one.”
Max said, “I always knew you were stupid, Renzo, but not this stupid.”
“We’re heading to the ferry,” I said. “We’ll stay as long as we can in the woods, and then we’ll make a run for it.” My body was starting to betray me. I knew I had to get up or I wouldn’t be able to move. “C’mon, let’s go.”
I pushed myself up, wiping dirt from my clothes. In the background, I heard the principal using the Roadmaster as target practice. Bullets rang against metal in an off-kilter cadence.
Theo rose from the ground and helped Sasha up. He took one last look at his car through the trees, giving it a salute, and then he turned and walked with me.
Renzo stood, still considering making a last stand against the principal. It didn’t take him long to change his mind. We soon heard his footsteps behind ours.
“Next stop,” I said, “is the dock.”
I knew these woods almost by heart. I passed trails my father had taken me on years earlier, small edens crisscrossed with the barest of paths, remote and quiet, the air replete with the scent of pine. My dad didn’t take Theo as often; Theo liked sports, I liked nature. The match just made more sense.
I wondered if every child had a favorite parent. My father was mine; my mother was Theo’s.
We trampled over leaves and I saw the occasional littered water bottle, and I was tempted to pick them up to throw out later. My father made picking up trash an archeological adventure, feigning delight in finding buried treasure. I asked him, “Why should we be responsible for other people’s mistakes?”
“Because,” he’d said, “If we don’t, who will?”
Theo peeled away from Sasha and caught up with me. He whispered, “Thanks for back there.”
“For what?”
“When Mom…changed, I couldn’t make a choice. I didn’t want to make a choice.”
It was strange looking at him until I realized how different he was without his perma-smile. He was still handsome, still my brother, but there was a seriousness to him. He said, “You really think this all might pass, like the flu?”
I had no idea, really. But I could tell Theo needed hope, and after all that happened, I wouldn’t take that away from him. “Anything’s possible. At least she’s safe in the cellar.”
“It’s not your fault, you know.” He must have seen my confused expression, and he added, “I wondered if there was something that triggered them. That made them change.”
“And you think Mom changed because I humiliated her?” His silence was my answer. I wasn’t going to take the blame for that. “There’s no trigger, Theo. It just happens.”
We were silent a long time. We walked, my footsteps falling into a rhythm.
Theo said, “About what you said earlier. You know, about Sasha choosing me over you? I never knew you felt that way.”
I almost laughed.
“What’s so funny?”
“Maybe tragedy needs to happen more often in our household. Cheaper than therapy.”
“Sad what it takes to get people talking, isn’t it?” He added, “I never meant to steal your friends. I never looked at it like that. I thought it was more like….”
“Borrowing?”
“Sharing.”
“Theo,” I said. “It’s okay.”
“No, it’s not,” he said. “There’s a lot of wasted time behind us.”
If I was being honest, I could’ve said the same thing. I was relieved I wasn’t the only one who felt that way. “Then let’s not waste any more time.”
“It’s a deal.”
We kept walking, all in a single file like a trail of ants. I led the way while Renzo took the rear. Given their history, Max and Renzo found an uneasy truce. A little tragedy, I thought, might be the antidote for lots of things.
“Hold up.” It was Sasha. “I’ve gotta use the bathroom.” We stopped and she walked ahead of Theo, approaching me.
“No peeking,” she said to the guys, as she grabbed my shoulder and we walked a few feet behind some bushes. I smirked, as if seeing her pee was somehow more horrid than everything else. I acted the guard while she squatted. Seconds passed and she said, “My body’s all messed up. I almost couldn’t hold it two seconds ago and now nothing’s happening.”
“Take your time.”
Theo called out from the trees. “Everything all right?”
“Yeah,” I said. “Just give us a minute.”
Sasha cursed softly under her breath and then I heard her cry. I said, “There’s no rush, Sasha.”
“Call me Fitzie.”
“What?” I asked.
“Fitzie. Like you used to do.”
“All right…Fitzie. There’s no rush.” It felt good to say the name. I hadn’t spoken it in years. Not since we were girls. It brought back memories of selling lemonade, sleepovers and applying make-up for the first time.
Hearing the name must’ve relaxed her enough because after a few seconds, she was finished, and she stood up, buttoning up her jeans. “We’re ready,” she called out and we started walking again.
Time passed and the trees thinned out, the denseness of the forest giving way to larger and larger pockets of space, big trees to smaller ones, and I knew we were approaching the edge of the woods.
Sasha walked by my side. “Ruthie,” she said. “There’s something I want to say to you. Something I’ve been meaning to say.”
“Sure.” I waited and she opened her mouth, about to speak, when Theo ran up to us.
“There’s the road,” he said. “The town’s just on the other side.”
Sasha said to me, “It can wait.”
Unfortunately, she never got the chance.