Chapter Eight
SUMMER LOOKED OUT THE WINDOW AS THE PEA POD RUMBLED past a slant-roofed barn, then out onto the farmer’s field. She couldn’t believe Alice and Tiernan had just forced her to come to this freakapalooza, especially after the day she’d had. It wasn’t as if she needed their sympathy, but a shred of ordinary human compassion would have been nice. Then again, this wasn’t the place for ordinary anything.
High school and college kids milled around the field decked out with rainbow clown wigs and glow-stick necklaces. Older people in Grateful Dead T-shirts and Indian-print skirts sat in lawn chairs swilling microbrews. In the middle of the field was a bonfire surrounded by the largest drum circle Summer had ever seen, with dancers flailing and twirling all around it, hypnotized by the steady rhythm.
Not exactly like the last time she’d gone camping with Alice and Tiernan back in sixth grade at the Girl Scout jamboree. Unless you counted the two-hundred-pound bearded guy in the Girl Scout uniform.
Alice followed Toad and Phred’s beat-up Honda Civic to a quiet area at the far edge of the meadow. In the campsite next to them, two bikini-clad girls stood in an inflatable baby pool, painting their bodies blue.
“Welcome to the neighborhood,” Toad said, hopping out of the van and nodding at the blue girls. Apparently he and Phred had appointed themselves their personal tour guides for this circus sideshow.
“You guys wanna check out the bonfire?” Phred asked.
“Hells yeah,” Tiernan said, pulling her camera from her bag. She was never one to miss a party, even if it meant hanging out next to a raging inferno in hundred-degree weather.
“I need to make a quick phone call first,” Alice said.
“No worries,” said Phred. “We can wait.”
Alice shook her head. “That’s okay. I’ll catch up with you.”
“I think I’m just going to stay in and read,” Summer said, getting back in the van. She would have given anything to be back home in Walford right now, curled up in her bed, alone with her thoughts. But since she was stuck here, she figured she might as well nab the top bunk before Alice or Tiernan got the chance. It was her old spot, after all.
“You don’t mind if I pop the top, do you, Alice?”
“Go for it.” Alice said, using her hands to sweep the crumbs from Tiernan’s seat onto the grass.
“Well, I guess it’s just us then, eh, boys?” Tiernan stood between Toad and Phred, linking her arms through theirs. Then the three of them skipped off into the night, with Tiernan leading them in an obnoxiously bad rendition of “We’re off to See the Wizard.”
Summer tugged on the metal bar to release the pop-top, just like she remembered, but the roof wouldn’t budge.
“Alice, I think it’s stuck.”
Alice let out a sigh, tossed a Hostess Snowball wrapper into her trash bag, then came around to the back of the van. With one forceful tug, she pulled down on the bar, instantly transforming the Pea Pod from regular old van into a two-story living space.
“Thanks,” Summer said as Alice snapped the pop-top into place. “And if I’m asleep by the time you get back, then I guess I’ll see you tomorrow.”
But Alice just stood there looking at her. “You know . . . if you want to talk about it—”
“That’s sweet of you,” Summer said, smiling, “but I think I just want to sleep.” It wasn’t a lie. Everything about this day had completely exhausted her. Not that spilling her guts to Alice was ever an option.
“Okay, then,” Alice said. “I’m heading out after I check in with my parents.”
Summer smiled just thinking of the Millers and the way they’d always doted on Alice. A total contrast to her own parents, who, when Summer had asked them if they wanted her to call them from the road, had basically just laughed in her face.
Alice hopped outside to make her call and finally, blissfully, Summer had the van all to herself. She placed her right foot on the well-worn groove next to the sink, then hauled herself up to the top bunk. When they were kids, she’d clocked hundreds of hours nestled away up here, listening to Level3, or talking with Tiernan and Alice, even though all they could see of her was a pair of dangling legs. The top bunk had always been her special place, her cocoon.
Summer unzipped the screen window in the unlikely event that there was a breeze somewhere in this stagnant West Virginia night. It also gave her a perfect view of the bonfire with its frolicking tribal dancers. There was one girl—long flowing dress, unruly tangle of hair—whose entire body was silhouetted by the fire as if she were the flickering blue heart at the center of the flame.
Summer had never danced like that, not even in the privacy of her bedroom. And here was this girl, dancing so freely in front of hundreds of strangers. Summer stared at the fire, surprised by the sudden onset of hot tears spilling down her cheeks, tingeing her lips with salt. She buried her face in her arms in case Alice was still close enough to the Pea Pod to hear.
Yesterday, when Jace had dumped her, she’d felt nothing but anger. But now that he wanted her back, it was as if those other feelings she’d held inside burst open. So why was she crying now? If Jace truly wanted her back, that was a good thing. Wasn’t it?
Summer wiped her eyes and lay back on the scratchy plaid padding. Life had been so much simpler the last time she’d gone camping with Alice and Tiernan, when the closest any of them got to boys was in their fantasy world. She could picture it all so clearly in her mind, the three of them staying up past lights out, whispering their Level3 dream dates to each other in the darkness. In Tiernan’s fantasy, she and Luke usually spent the night club-hopping in New York while Ryan whisked Alice away to a romantic dinner in Paris on his private jet. Or was it London?
But unlike Tiernan and Alice, who were constantly coming up with new scenarios and exotic locations for their fantasies, Summer’s dream date with Travis was always the same. She could still remember every detail; she’d lived it so many times in her head. The date started with the two of them meandering down Main Street in Walford, arm in arm, laughing, talking, window-shopping. And at the end of the night they’d wind up back at Summer’s house on her porch swing while Travis serenaded her on guitar. Then after he was done, a kiss. Never a full-on make-out session—just a sweet solitary kiss and a whisper, nose to nose. I love you.
I love you. She and Jace had said it to each other a million times. But never once had it felt like it did in that silly daydream.
Stupid Jace. Summer wanted to believe him. She really did. But she couldn’t get over the feeling that there was something he wasn’t telling her. Some detail he was leaving out. According to Jace, the reason he hadn’t mentioned going to Melanie’s party on graduation night was because he hadn’t wanted to make Summer feel bad about the fact that he was out celebrating their breakup while she was home, crying in her pillow. But for some reason Summer couldn’t shake the aftertaste of her initial doubts. It was like the way a bad dream could ruin her whole day, no matter how many times she told herself it wasn’t true.
Summer pulled her journal from her purse. It was the only chance she had to sort out all the turmoil in her head. She flipped past her diary entries, poems, fragments of poems, and random doodles looking for a blank page. To a stranger, her journal probably looked like the ramblings of a lunatic. But Summer liked the way her mind spilled out onto the page in all its unedited messiness. It didn’t have to be prettied up for anyone but herself.
She wrote feverishly, until her hand hurt, filling ten pages by the time she was done. Most of what she’d written was about Jace. But the lines she liked best were the ones about the girl by the fire.
Her eyes are closed,
But she is open.
Spinning, Smiling, Alive,
Burning as bright as the fire at
her back.
Dancing, just for the joy of dancing.
Dancing for no one but herself.
“Knock, knock,” said a voice from below. Summer peered over the edge of the bunk just as the back door slid open. Outside the van, Tiernan stood next to the motorcycle dude they’d seen back in the parking lot of Lucky’s. A shark-tooth necklace hung off his collarbones. They both had beers in their hands.
“Good. You’re awake,” Tiernan said.
Summer closed her journal and tossed it back in her bag. If Tiernan was hoping to get busy in the Pea Pod, she was sorely mistaken.
“This is Michael. Michael, this is Summer.”
“Hey,” Summer said, sizing him up. She had to hand it to Tiernan, Michael was pretty hot for a biker—skinny but muscular, with broad shoulders and a devilish smile.
“Hey,” Michael said.
“Guess where we’re going?” Tiernan didn’t wait for an answer. “Michael knows about a secret swimming hole a couple miles from here. He says it’s the most pristine water you’ve ever swum in.”
Summer wrinkled her nose.
“Aw, don’t say no, darlin’,” Michael begged. “It’s a night destined to be spent swimming under the stars.” He pointed to the sky—as if Summer didn’t know where the stars were—his eyes lit up in the moonlight.
“What about Alice?” Summer asked. “Is she going?”
“She sure is,” said Phred, ambling up to the Pea Pod, his arm slung around Alice’s shoulder. “We gotta find some way to cool off from this heat.”
Toad trailed behind Alice and Phred, shooting Summer a hopeful smile. In your dreams, kid, Summer thought, quickly extinguishing his grin with an icy stare.
“I think it would be fun for all of us to go for a swim,” Alice said perkily. She and Phred were wearing matching green glow-stick headbands, like halos. “But I don’t think we should leave anyone here by themselves.”
“I don’t mind,” Summer said. “I was just about to go to sleep anyway.”
They probably all thought she was a big old stick-in-the-mud, when in reality it was more like, Been there, done that. Summer and her friends back home partied at the Walford quarry zillions of times. She didn’t need to tag along for amateur hour.
“But you have to come.” Michael frowned at Summer, then Tiernan. “I thought you said this could be our party bus.”
“Wait a minute.” Alice looked concerned. “You didn’t say anything about taking the Pea Pod.”
This was the Alice Summer remembered. The girl didn’t let just anyone inside her precious Pea Pod.
“Well, how else are we gonna get six people to the swimmin’ hole, darlin’?” Michael asked. “On the back of my bike?”
Summer’s throat loosened. If Alice shut down Michael’s plan, Summer didn’t have to be the bad guy. And Alice would never agree to pile everyone back into the Pea Pod after she’d spent all night complaining about how sick of driving she was.
“It’s only a couple miles away, right, Michael?” Tiernan asked in that sugary high-pitched voice she used whenever she was trying to get her way. The sad thing was, the girl spent so much time being ornery that people fell all over themselves whenever she showed the tiniest ounce of sweetness.
“Come on, Alice.” Phred gave her a pitiful-looking pout. “You know we’ll have fun.”
“Well . . .” Alice was wavering. “If it’s okay with Summer.”
Now everyone was staring at her, making it impossible to say no without seeming like a total bitch. And even if she did, Tiernan and Alice would probably just overrule her anyway. The dynamic duo had already shut her down once today in the oh-so-democratic vote that had brought them to this hippieville.
“Dude, you’re either on the bus or off the bus,” Toad chimed in. Of course the two stoners of the group were on their side.
“Fine,” Summer said, against her better judgment.
“Alrighty then,” said Tiernan. “Let’s load her up.”
Summer stood on the grass as they piled into the van—Alice behind the wheel, Michael in the passenger’s seat to navigate, Tiernan on a milk crate in the back, which left Summer stuck sitting between Toad and Phred on the bench seat. Joy.
By the time pavement turned to dirt, Summer knew she should have stayed in Walford, where there were streetlights on the roads and cars drove in straight lines instead of twisting and turning in all directions. Her friends had lectured her all afternoon that coming on this trip was a bad idea. But, of course, she’d refused to admit it.
“Are you sure I shouldn’t have taken a left back there?” Alice asked.
“Nope, you’re doing fine.” Michael pointed to some pine trees at the top of a hill. “It should be just down past there.” He sounded so confident, despite the fact that they’d been driving around the woods for the last fifteen minutes and he’d said that exact same thing three times so far.
“Hey, I’ve got an idea,” Tiernan said. “Let’s give ol’ Coach Quigley a try.”
“Who’s Coach Quigley?” Phred asked.
“He’s our GPS,” Tiernan explained. A few miles back, she’d been defending Michael. Now she was trying to overthrow him.
“We don’t need any technology, darlin’. I grew up in these woods.”
Summer couldn’t help but grin watching Tiernan bristle at the word “darlin’.”
“Spent three weeks campin’ out by that swimmin’ hole back when I was your age,” Michael added.
“That must have been fun,” Alice said.
“Not really.” Michael shrugged. “Only reason I did it was ’cause the cops were lookin’ for me.”
“You were a fugitive from the law?” Tiernan gasped with delight, as if someone had told her she’d just won the lottery. “What did you do?”
“I didn’t do nuthin’.” Michael’s voice was suddenly angry, defensive. “But I’ll tell you one thing. Don’t matter what the truth is. After that, people ’round here ain’t never treated me the same.”
Summer’s breath quickened as she reeled through a list of potential crimes in her head. Was it a drug deal gone wrong? Rape? Kidnapping? Murder! A half hour ago she had been nestled away on the top bunk, perfectly content. Now there was a high probability she was going to die at the hands of this psychopath, with no one to help her but her ex–best friends and two ridiculously named strangers.
“Crap,” said Tiernan. “No signal.” Coach Quigley’s display was TV screen blue, the words “Searching for Satellites” blinking in the center like an error message.
This entire fiasco was Tiernan’s fault. She was the one who’d brought this lunatic into their lives. The one who’d encouraged Alice’s flirtation with that loser Phred. But did anyone ever listen to what Summer wanted? If they did, by now they’d be in an air-conditioned hotel room twenty miles up the road instead of trapped in this hillbilly hell.
Or maybe she was overreacting. After all, this wouldn’t be the first time Summer let her imagination get the best of her. She glanced over at Toad and Phred, hoping their mellow, glazed-over expressions might offer a bit of reassurance. But the looks of sheer terror on their faces only fanned the flames of Summer’s fears. Either all that pot they’d smoked was making Toad and Phred paranoid, or coming out here with Michael Crazy-Eyes was starting to seem like a really bad idea.
“I think we ought to just turn around,” Alice said, her usual self-assured tone betrayed by only the slightest quaver.
Summer looked out the window into the blackness. Next to her, Toad was shaking his head back and forth, as if to say, Not good, not good at all.
“Hey, Michael,” Tiernan said, trying desperately to keep her voice light and airy. “You’re not, like, taking us out to the woods to, like, kill us or anything, are you?” Then she gave a short chuckle just to show everyone that she wasn’t genuinely scared or anything, that she was just being her usual brash, irreverent self.
Michael spun around to the back, his mouth stretched in a wide skeletal smile. “I ain’t gonna kill ya.” He laughed, his sharp collarbones heaving up and down under his tank top. “In fact, I’m probably the safest guy you could be out here with.”
He twisted his torso some more, pointing to the tattoo on his right bicep. “You see that?” Summer leaned in to see an image of a winged man with a sword in his hand hovering over the devil. “I got it when I was in jail. That’s me—Michael the Archangel. Prince of Light.”
Well, Summer thought to herself, that makes me feel so much better. As if the nasty prison tattoo wasn’t bad enough, it was now obvious to everyone that the man was certifiably insane.
Summer was in the midst of trying to figure out if it were possible to lean over, open the passenger’s side door, and push Michael out of the van while it was still moving when the swimming hole came into view.
“Look!” Summer shouted, even though they were all within three feet of each other. “There it is!”
A wave of relief flooded through her body as she noticed the silhouettes of at least a dozen other cars parked along the road, and further on down the hill the glimmer of their headlights in the water. Summer had no clue where they were, but in all of her life, she couldn’t recall a moment she’d been happier to arrive at a place that she’d never wanted to be.
“TIME, TRAVEL”
WE WENT TO ANCIENT ROME AND 3018
IN MY BROKEN TIME MACHINE.
THE LANDSCAPE CHANGES
BUT THE PAST STAYS THE PAST
THE FUTURE’S MECHANICS
SAY MY PROBLEMS WON’T LAST.
BUT I KNOW MY TIME MACHINE IS BROKEN
’CAUSE I SEEM TO BE STUCK IN RIGHT NOW.
—from Level3’s second CD, Rough & Tumble