Domingo lay on the dock, the sun drying him off. Carmen sat next to him, her feet dangling over the edge. He stared at his phone and his conversation with Andy.
Domingo had texted to ask: What do you mean about Carmen? He’d sent the text a few minutes ago and there was still no response.
“Is that a threat?” Carmen asked, “because it sounds like a threat.”
Domingo didn’t know how to respond. Even though he was out of the water, he felt like he was sinking, a weight growing in his stomach. He kept playing a memory in his head, one of Andy from a few summers ago.
Domingo used to go to a park near his house and run from one side to the other, timing himself. One day, when he arrived, he had found two kids doing something similar. Andy and another boy, whose name he never learned, were huffing and puffing after just sprinting across.
“You two racing?” Domingo had asked.
“Yeah … you got … a problem … with that?” Andy said between breaths. He had just lost the sprint, but clearly not without putting in effort.
“No problem,” Domingo responded, “other than the fact that you two are pretty slow.”
“Hey!” the other boy shouted.
“No way you are faster than me,” Andy said, puffing up his chest.
“You want to put your money where your mouth is?” Domingo said. He fished through his pockets and held up two five-dollar bills. “Ten dollars says I can beat you, there and back.”
“Nice try,” Andy laughed, “we just ran a whole race. You’re fresh.”
“Whatever,” Domingo said, putting the cash back in his pocket.
“Wait—gimmie a head start and I’ll consider it,” Andy responded quickly. He pulled out a wallet, and from that a ten-dollar bill. “A twenty-second head start.”
“Fifteen,” Domingo responded.
“Fine,” Andy said. He turned to the other boy. “You want in?”
The boy looked between the two of them. “Do I get a head start too?”
“Sure,” Domingo said, “you’ll need it.”
The boys stashed their cash, all thirty dollars, under a rock by the fence. Then they each lined up.
Domingo counted them down. “Three, two, one!”
Andy and the boy took off. Though they’d just raced, both whizzed ahead of Domingo as he counted down.
Fifteen … Fourteen … Thirteen …
Already the other boy was pulling ahead of Andy.
Nine … Eight… Seven …
Domingo’s foot bounced. He was eager to run.
Three … Two … One …
Domingo pushed off the fence and bolted forward. As far behind as he was, he enjoyed a challenge, but the other boy was fast and didn’t show any fatigue from the first race. So even though Domingo was gaining ground, he was in trouble.
Domingo watched as the boy touched the opposite fence and turned around. But the boy didn’t see Andy right behind him. The two collided, then stumbled into the fence. It wasn’t pretty. But Domingo pressed forward, reaching the fence and passing his opponents as they struggled to get back up.
“Hey—stop!” the boy shouted.
“Not my fault you wasted your head start,” Domingo said, crossing back across the field. He’d reached the money in no time and turned around to see the boy and Andy screaming at him. Then he’d pocketed the cash, hopped the fence, and kept running.
“Hey, Domingo!” Carmen’s voice cut through his daydream. “Domingo!” she said again. “Hello? You in there?”
Domingo’s mind was brought back to the dock and his sister.
“You going to help me figure out why Andy is threatening me?” she said. “Or are you just going to daydream?”
“Are you sure it’s a threat?” Domingo asked, even though he still had a pit in his stomach.
“It is absolutely a threat,” Carmen responded. “And we have less than an hour to figure out what it means!”
The siblings sat in silence for a few moments. Finally, Domingo spoke.
“Maybe he’s just telling you to be careful of the puddles in the forest,” he offered. “It would be tough to try and push another person into those puddles. You’ll be on the lookout.”
“Yeah, I guess. And it’s not like I’ll be racing against Andy,” Carmen said. “Do you really think he did it on purpose?”
The pit in Domingo’s stomach grew. He had to tell her the whole story, even if he was embarrassed. It might keep her safe.
“A few summers ago, I used to run at Meadow Park,” Domingo started.
“What does this have to do with anything?” Carmen said, irritated.
“Please, just listen, okay?” Domingo sat up and looked out across the lake. Carmen must have noticed the shift in his tone, because she went quiet. Domingo continued.
“Sometimes I would challenge other kids to races. Well, Andy and I would. But we would act like we didn’t know each other.”
“Okay, I’m listening,” Carmen said, “but I don’t understand.”
Domingo took a deep breath and let it out slowly. There was no point talking around it.
“Andy and I used to con other kids at the park. He would race them and let them win. Then I would show up and bet money that I could beat them. Andy would convince the other kid to take the bet, and we would race. But the thing was, the first race was always supposed to tire them out and make it easy for me to win. Then afterward, Andy would meet up with me and we would split the winnings.”
“Okay,” Carmen said.
Domingo didn’t dare look at her. He was too embarrassed.
“That’s cheap, and we’re going to talk about that later,” she said. “But I don’t exactly get what that has to do with today. You think Andy cheated? He also lost the race.”
“I think he’s helping someone else win,” Domingo answered.
Carmen just blinked at her brother, unbelieving.
He continued, “Sometimes, when we were running our con, if there was a chance I would lose, Andy would take on the competition by tripping or knocking into them. Anything to win the bet. I think that’s what he did today.”
They sat on the dock in silence.
Carmen kicked at the water. “It still doesn’t add up. The kid who won is from a different camp.”
“And why warn you about the girls’ race?” Domingo added.
“Unless some of the girls are planning on cheating too,” Carmen said.
“And there’s one other thing.” Domingo sighed. “This scam only works with a few runners. Andy can’t bump into everyone, so why bother risking it?”
“Maybe he had more help . . Carmen said, trailing off and picking up her phone. She tapped a few things on the screen, then held it up to her brother. She had brought up a recording.
“The pileup at the start of the race took out most of the competition. And I caught it all on camera.”