Chapter 34

Melting & Moonlight

Adam lived in an old neighborhood with small houses, large yards, and a great oak tree in his front yard. Ruby disappeared onto the other side of the street, but Heather did not worry: Ruby knew the neighborhood well. Besides, it would give her time alone with Adam.

Adam’s house glowed with light. His parents were home from the game and probably expected their son soon. But still, Heather and Adam stood holding hands. They walked underneath the giant oak. Every year, it bloomed early in the spring, and in the fall its fiery yellow leaves blazed long after the other trees had gone bare. It offered them privacy to finish their conversation.

The great oak’s leafy branches also protected the area beneath, shielding it both from snow and from dried autumn leaves. Sitting beneath the oak, with the heat of their bodies, it seemed—nearly—like summertime.

“This is nice,” Adam whispered. He led Heather to a large, knobby root that twisted itself into the shape of a bench. They sat down together but would not release hands. Ever since they started walking, Adam seemed to be gaining energy—as if he drew it from Heather’s deep pool of strength.

“They’ve been trying to talk me into transferring to Hawthorne Academy,” Heather said.

“Who’s they?”

“Practically everyone.”

“And?”

“I’ve been thinking about it. Wouldn’t it be nice to live somewhere away from my stigma? I could start fresh and be recognized solely for my achievements. I could focus on academics again and even make a few friends.”

“It’s expensive,” Adam said. “How would your mother afford it?”

Heather shook her head. “The School Board offered to pay my tuition. I guess they feel bad. Or responsible—probably afraid of being sued.”

“Sounds like you should go,” Adam said, looking downward.

“I don’t know.”

“Why not?”

“One of the things keeping me here was you.”

Adam cast his eyes downward again. “I’m not worth it. You should just go and be happy.” He hand trembled ever so slightly in Heather’s.

“Come with me. Start fresh.”

“I don’t know.”

“Is it the money?”

Adam shook his head. “My family could afford it, but what would I tell my parents? They’re so proud of me. Becoming team captain. Rising to popularity. I’m like my dad’s dream. I’m everything he wanted to be in high school. He’s right in there,” Adam said, motioning to his house, “ready to congratulate me as soon as I walk in the door. How can I disappoint him like that? How can I tell my parents I’m a fraud?”

“Just tell them the truth.”

At the suggestion, Adam’s trembling intensified.

“They already know you’re stressed out, Adam. They’ve taken you to the doctor for the ulcer. It won’t be a stretch to explain to them about—” Heather looked at his covered arms. “—the other things. They’d want what’s best for you.”

“I don’t know. I think I need to stay. Take what I deserve, you know? You’ve paid your price. You’re free to go. Me? No. The more I think about it, the more I think that maybe I did orchestrate the whole thing. Maybe I did all this just so I could rise to captain. Don’t you think? Burton seemed to think so…”

Heather dropped Adam’s hand and rose in anger. “Burton? Burton! You can’t listen to a thing Burton says. He tells you things while you’re a brainless victim of his herbal teas. I know you, Adam. Most of what you’re going through—I’ll bet it was caused by Burton’s terrible herbs. Who knows what kinds of hallucinations they cause?”

Adam rolled up his sleeves. “You think his herbs can cause—this?”

Heather tried not to grimace at the wounds he had inflicted on himself. They were raised and scarred and bloody and raw. Even in the darkness of the tree, Heather grimaced at the sight. “I—I don’t know, but I wouldn’t put it past him. Wasn’t it just a few minutes ago that you were questioning whether I was even real? And besides, we’ve all heard the rumors about his ear. Who knows what drug possessed him to desecrate his own ear?”

Adam considered the possibility Heather suggested. Could it be that most of the terrible thoughts and actions he’d gone through were the result not of his own horrible mind—but of Burton’s drugs? Could it be that Adam was not the terrible person he’d made himself out to be? The answer put a smile on his face.

“My mom has been kind of suspicious lately. She’s been asking me all kinds of nosy questions. She’d probably be happy if I decided to transfer. Anyway, I’ll talk to my parents. I’ll explain everything, and I’ll tell them you’re transferring there, too. And maybe you can come inside with me. They haven’t seen you since—”

Heather averted her eyes. “It’ll scare them, won’t it?” She rubbed her scar. It tinged with heat.

Adam nodded.

“Maybe…” Heather reached into her purse. There was the compact of makeup a girl had given her in the library in exchange for tutoring. It was supposed to be able to cover up even the most unsightly scars—the one Heather had decided never to use. Heather opened the compact and dabbed it onto the scar. She watched in the compact’s mirror as her stigma disappeared. Then she took out her raggedy ponytail and smoothed her long, flowing locks over her shoulders. She breathed a sigh of relief. It was as if a great weight had been lifted. She finally felt like—herself. Heather studied her reflection in the compact mirror. She looked like she had stepped back in time to the summer, to the time before their worlds unraveled.

Adam stood up to greet the new Heather.

“You look beautiful,” he said. He was trembling again, but his smile suggested this was for a different reason. He took her cheek in his hand and brought his face to hers. The space under the tree ignited, decimating the wintery chill around them. After he kissed her, he stared into her eyes for an eternity. “You have healing eyes, and I’m going to transfer to Hawthorne. We’ll start over together.”

The couple emerged from beneath the tree hand-in-hand. They looked around them, and the world had changed. The air had warmed, and the ground was now wet with melted snow. Not a snowflake remained. Trickling water dripping from rooftops and trees softened the night; and above, the moon had emerged into a cloudless zenith.

The pale moonlight bathed the couple, and Adam turned once again to Heather. “In this light, and with the makeup, I can’t see your scar. Not at all.”

Heather smiled. She felt her whole face flushing with color that radiated into her body and limbs, giving her an energetic aura she had not felt in months.

“Let’s talk to my parents together,” Adam suggested, pulling her towards the door. “Right now.”

Heather’s face blossomed again, and he kissed her. She floated in a dream; it was surreal, the way her former sorrows seemed to melt away with the snow.

Heather turned to the yard. “Ruby! Come on, we’re going to Adam’s house.”

The couple searched for Ruby. Heather’s smile faded. “Ruby!” She turned to Adam. “I don’t understand. She was so looking forward to seeing you. She knows her way around; I just hope she hasn’t gone too far.”

“Ruby!” they called together.

Finally, a tiny figure emerged on the other side of the street. She was streaked with mud and stared skeptically at her sister and Adam.

“Ruby, what have you gotten yourself into?”

“I was trying to build a snowman, but someone melted my snow!”

“Well good grief,” Heather said, dropping Adam’s hand. “We’ll have to get your hands washed.”

At this point, Ruby became less concerned about her melted snow and more worried about the amorous couple that watched her from across the street. Moving without taking her eyes off them, Ruby took two steps into the street and stopped in front of a puddle of water. She looked down at her reflection. Behind her, the full moon rose. She lifted her hand to examine it in the mirrored water. When she saw how muddy it was, she smiled down at herself, and her reflection smiled back. Then she knelt down and dipped her hand in the puddle, dissolving the mud and the reflection.

“Good, Ruby,” Heather said. “Now come on, we’re going into Adam’s house.”

Ruby crossed her arms, and so did the rippling reflection in the puddle.

“Ruby, come on!” Heather pleaded.

Then Ruby squinted up at her sister, and her face elongated, her eyes filled with terror. She opened her mouth, and a tiny squeak crescendoed into a long, wailing shriek. It seemed to echo off windows and rooftops and reverberate to the moon.

“Heather! All the neighbors!” Adam leaned closer to Heather. “I’ve long feared that Ruby would give me away, and now it seems my fears were justified.”

But Ruby’s finger was pointing at something she had grown accustomed to recently, something that wasn’t there anymore.

Heather lowered her head. “It’s my scar. She doesn’t understand why she can’t see it anymore.”

Ruby’s screech continued, a terrible siren. Across the street, a light went on.

“Heather! Stop her!” Adam cried.

“Ruby, hush!”

Ruby quieted for just a moment, and Heather tried to calm her tone as she spoke to her sister. “You remember Adam. Remember yesterday, you were so excited when I promised you’d see him again?”

Ruby crossed her arms once more. “Not him.”

Adam’s ruddy face melted once again into pallor. Even as Heather watched, the color drained from his lips. “You see, Heather? It’s like I said. I’ll never be forgiven. Not by Ruby, and not by the kids at school. My friends at school.”

Heather pulled up her hood, covering her face in shadow. She stepped up to the puddle and stood opposite Ruby. Heather kept her eyes locked on her sister, whose eyes were locked in the glass surface of the puddle. The globe of a moon still reflected, and Ruby watched the world through its light. She watched as Heather’s hooded form appeared in the watery world.

“Take your hood off,” Ruby whispered.

“No.”

Ruby’s lip trembled, and her eyes flashed hysterical. “Take. Your. Hood. Off!” The last syllable she shrieked.

“For goodness’ sake, Heather, do as she says,” Adam cried, his voice trembling once again. “She’s waking the neighbors. And if they recognize me—recognize me with…”

“With who?” Heather asked.

Adam did not answer. “Please,” he said instead. “Please quiet her!”

Heather frowned and obeyed. Already she felt the weight of the world coming back down. She watched Ruby as Ruby watched in the mirrored surface, watched the hood fall, watched the revelation of something that should have been there but wasn’t.

The child shrieked like a demon, pointing at the puddle and jumping up and down. She shrieked hysterically, a murderous scream that raised goose bumps and nerves.

“Heather, please!” With deft movement, Adam opened his football bag and found a t-shirt. “Here!” He brought it to her and stared across the puddle at Ruby, but she wouldn’t make eye contact.

With a resigned look fighting a frown, Heather pulled her hair back in a careless ponytail and dipped the t-shirt into the puddle, dabbing it on her scar and rubbing away the makeup. Her action disrupted the surface of the puddle, so Ruby looked up to see her sister’s face. The girl’s scorn melted into acceptance and joy. Here was the sister she recognized!

Ruby reached up, and Heather knelt down. Ruby reached up to the scar, tracing it. Then she turned to Adam. But before she could say anything to him, a front door slammed, and a neighbor waved a flashlight around his front lawn.

“Who’s there?” the old man asked, directing his flashlight at the back of Ruby’s head. Adam swallowed an expletive and ducked his head. Heather looked up, and the flashlight beam found her newly-revealed scar. Heather’s eyes found the old man’s even in the darkness. It was only Adam who broke the trance.

“Come on,” he said, pulling Heather by her sweatshirt. Heather followed without thinking. They ran under the giant oak, ducking behind the girth of its trunk. With a squeal, Ruby jumped over the puddle and joined them behind the tree.

“Is this a game?” she cheered.

“Shhh!”

“Stay out of the streets, punks!” the old man shouted. He flashed the light once more in the direction of the tree before returning inside.

Adam breathed heavily.

“Who was that?” Heather asked.

“Mr. Timbers, my neighbor. Do you think he recognized me?”

“Who cares? We have every right to be out on the street. We weren’t doing anything wrong.”

“I’m pretty sure he saw your scar,” Adam murmured.

“So?”

“So, if he saw me—with you…”

“Adam! It doesn’t matter anymore. You’re going to tell your parents everything and come to Hawthorne with me. Remember? You do want to do this—don’t you?”

The fear left Adam’s eyes slowly. “Yes. You’re right,” he said finally. “It’s just so hard to let go—I’ve been so tightly-wound for so long now.” He dropped onto the gnarled tree-bench and smiled at Heather. It was a weak smile, but it wasn’t forced. “But everything will be different now, won’t it?”

“Why will everything be different now?” Ruby asked.

Heather dropped down next to Adam. “Adam and I are going to a different school soon. Together.” She smiled up at Ruby. “We’ll be happy again.”

Ruby considered this, looking carefully from Heather to Adam in what shaded light the night afforded.

“And you aren’t going to hide your scar anymore?” Ruby looked from Heather to Adam and back again. “The way you did tonight?”

Heather turned to Adam, but she didn’t respond.

Ruby tugged at her sleeve. “And now that you’re together again, will we walk home from school together the way we used to, just the three of us?”

Adam cleared his throat. “Not yet, Rue. There are some things I must do first. But once Heather and I start at the new school, we can be together all the time.”

“When we’re home,” Heather added.

Ruby raised an eyebrow.

Heather reached for Ruby. “It’s a boarding school, a sleep-away school.”

Ruby pouted.

“But it will let Heather and me be happy.” Adam offered a half-hearted smile. “And I’ll visit you during holidays, Rue. It isn’t that far away.”

Ruby crossed her arms. “So it’s not any different. It hasn’t changed. There’s not going to be any truth here, is there?”

Heather shot her a look that said you just don’t understand. But Ruby would have none of it.

“What about T is for Truth? You aren’t being honest. All you’re doing is running away!” Tears streamed down her face.

Adam and Heather exchanged glances. Slowly, Adam reached out and took Ruby’s hands. “Everything will be better, Rue. You’ll see…” But a hint of the old pallor had already returned to Adam’s face.

To this, Ruby frowned. She couldn’t help glancing at the scabby T’s that peeked through Adam’s right sleeve, which was still partially pushed up. When Adam relinquished her hands, Ruby rushed out from under the tree and washed them in the puddle. She made quite the show of it and muttered, “They are not true!” as she rubbed Adam’s invisible touch from her skin.

“Don’t worry,” Heather whispered to Adam. “She’ll come around. You talk to your parents, and as soon as the transfer papers are ready, our lives will start all over again. Just imagine how happy we’ll be.” She took his hands, and once again he fed off of her strength. His pallor ripened again to ruddiness, and his lips curled in the semblance of a smile.

Yes, soon they would find happiness at Hawthorne Academy. Heather imagined the possibilities as she watched Adam skip up the steps to his front porch, ready to tell his parents enough to insure his future with Heather. In the meantime, Heather took Ruby’s hand and started for home. As they continued their journey home, the only evidence that they had been there at all was the rippling of the puddle gently disturbing the bright reflection of the night’s full moon.