Danny ate a silent dinner with his mom. He knew she’d grown used to his bouts of quiet. She’d told him so before. He wondered if she’d spoken to Mr. C about it, and if he’d told her it was normal.
That set him to wondering how Mr. C could ever want to be around someone as rigid and grouchy as Rait.
His mom cleared her throat. “Anything I can help you with?”
He looked up, startled. “No. I’m good. I’ll help you clean up. Janey’s coming to study, and I think we’re going to a bonfire after.”
“Bonfire?”
“Just some guys on the team, behind the old concrete factory. It’s like a celebration.”
She frowned at him. “There’s no beer, right?”
“Mom, we’re football players. Everyone goes.”
Her face softened. “I used to go to bonfires with your father—” She looked at Danny, stricken. “I didn’t mean to say that. . . .”
“It’s okay, Mom. I miss him too.” Danny felt his eyes tear and he looked down and wiped them on his sleeve. “Dad would be so proud to see how you’ve quit drinking. And made a start on quitting smoking, too.”
“Oh, Danny.” His mom circled the table, pulled up a chair, and hugged him to her. She was crying softly too, and Danny let his own tears go. The bones in her arms cut into his shoulders and back, but somehow it felt comforting.
They sat that way for several minutes, just breathing, with the late-day sun slanting in through the window, before there was a knock at the back door.
Danny jumped up, wiping frantically at his face. “It’s Janey.”
He stopped with his hand on the knob and looked back at his mom, who was wiping her own eyes. “Okay?”
She sniffed and nodded and he swung the door open. “Hi.”
“Hey.” Janey peered past him. “Is everything okay?”
“Yeah.” He motioned her in. “Just talking about my dad, so . . .”
“I can come back,” Janey said.
“You come right in.” Danny’s mom hopped up from her chair with a smile. “We’re just fine. Aren’t we, Danny?”
“Yeah.” Danny smiled because it was true. He took a breath. “Nothing wrong with being sad. Come on. We can study in my room.”
Danny tried, but whether it was his emotional day or just being burned out from all his mental exercise with Ms. Rait, he just couldn’t get his brain engaged. After an hour and a half, he stopped faking it.
“C’mon,” he said, pushing back his chair from the desk. “I can’t do it anymore. I just can’t. Maybe tomorrow, but not now.”
Janey looked at him doubtfully. “I’m okay, but are you sure?”
“Yeah.” Danny looked at the time. “It’s dark out. That bonfire’s probably already going. Let’s eat something and go hang out, and then I can walk you home.”
His mom fed them a pasta casserole. They said goodbye and set out for town, walking along Route 222 with only two vehicles passing by to disrupt their nighttime walk. In town, they took to the sidewalks until they ran out on the far side, and then they walked on the shoulder for the remaining quarter mile to the abandoned concrete factory.
The factory rose up, an inky fortress against the starlit sky. The chain-link gates sagged open. They passed through, and even before they rounded the corner they could see the orange glow and hear the thump and twang of country music from a boom box.
Dark figures milled about around a huge fire with ten-foot tongues of flame licking the night. Danny saw Cupcake’s massive shape, and he tapped him on the back.
“Hey!” Cupcake turned Danny’s way, then turned back toward the fire. “Hey, everybody! Danny’s here!”
A cheer went up.
Danny saw the smiling faces of his teammates as well as the faces of other boys and girls flickering in the orange light. Many of them he recognized from school. Cupcake reached into a cooler and took two cans of Coke from their icy bath, handing them to Danny and Janey.
“Janey!” Cupcake bellowed and gave her a hug.
Danny cracked his can open with a hiss. He swapped it with Janey’s and opened that one for himself. He liked the way she went along as if she expected him to open one for her.
Jace appeared, wearing a Crooked Creek Football hoodie. “Dan-eee! This your girlfriend?”
Danny laughed. “No. My friend. This is Janey. Janey, Jace. The quarterback.”
“I know,” Janey said.
“Well, if she’s not your girlfriend, maybe she’ll be mine. Kelly and I are on the rocks.” Jace laughed.
Danny thought he was more serious than joking, but he relaxed when Janey said, “Thanks, but no thanks.”
She looked at Danny with a glowing smile that made his heart gallop.
“Too late, I see,” Jace said. “Just like I was too late for the de-Rait.”
“De-what?” Danny asked.
Cupcake laughed. “De-Rait, as in Ms. Rait. Bug and some of the guys left about ten minutes ago to hint that she might want to make Crooked Creek part of her past.”
Danny chuckled. “Ugh. She was pure evil to me today. What are they doing? Egging her windows?”
Jace laughed. “Naw. You know Bug, Firebug. Evidently she’s got some old abandoned chicken coop in her backyard. Man, I guess Bug was like a dog in a butcher shop when he saw that old, broken-down thing. . . . It’s the ultimate prank!”
Jace grinned around at them all. The flicker of orange light and black shadows gave him the look of a madman.
Danny’s mouth fell open. “What?”
“Yeah,” Jace said, still grinning, “they’re gonna burn it down.”
“No!” Danny screamed, and he took off running.
“Hey!” Jace screamed after him. “There’s nothing in it!”
But Danny knew there was.