While Derek had not volunteered to be the guy in the trunk, he had stepped up to be the designated driver on the way home, and everyone was fine with that. One or two beers for him, and that’d be it. He’d get everyone back safely.
And after that, Derek didn’t know when he would see any of them again. Canton and Tyler would be heading home to Pittsburgh and Bangor, respectively. George Lydecker, like Derek, was a local, but Derek didn’t see himself hanging out with him. Derek was reminded of a phrase his own grandfather used to say about people like George. “He’s not wrapped too tight.”
The words that came to mind for Derek were “loose cannon.” George was always the one who acted first, thought later. Like turning over a professor’s Smart Car and leaving it on its roof. Slipping a baby alligator from a pet shop into Thackeray Pond. (That little guy still hadn’t been found.) George had even boasted about breaking into people’s garages late at night, not just to help himself to a set of tools or a bicycle, but for the pure thrill of it.
As if George could read Derek’s thoughts at that moment in the car, he decided to do something monumentally stupid.
George dropped the passenger window, allowing cool night air to blow in as they sped down a country road that ran around the south end of Promise Falls. Next thing Derek knew, George had his arm extended out the window.
There was a loud bang. And an instantaneous PING!
“Jesus!” Derek said. “What the hell was that?”
George brought his arm back in, turned around in the seat and grinned. He showed off the gun in his hand.
“Just shooting at some signs,” he said. “I fucking nailed that speed limit one.”
“Are you out of your mind?” Canton shouted, glancing over. “What the fuck!”
“Put that away!” Derek screamed. “Asshole!”
George grimaced. “Come on, lighten up. I know what I’m doing.”
“Where did you get that?” Tyler asked. “You steal that out of someone’s garage?”
“It’s mine, okay?” he said. “It’s no big deal. I figured, I could take a couple of shots at the screen. I mean, they’re going to be knocking it down in a week or two anyway. Who cares if it’s got a couple of holes in it?”
“Are you really that stupid?” Canton asked. “You think you can fire that thing off with hundreds of people there, lots of them with little kids, and they won’t call in a goddamn SWAT team and arrest your stupid fucking ass?”
“Promise Falls has a SWAT team?”
“That’s not that point. The point is—”
“I figured when the Transformers are knocking over a bunch of skyscrapers, nobody’ll even notice. It’ll be so loud anyway.”
“You’re unbelievable,” Tyler said.
“Okay, okay, okay,” George said, lowering the weapon, resting it in his lap. “I wouldn’t really have done that. I just wanted to shoot some signs, maybe a mailbox.”
The other three shook their heads.
“Idiot,” Derek said under his breath.
“I said, okay,” George said. “God, what a bunch of pussies. I’m glad to be getting be getting the hell out of here.” George had already told them he was off to Vancouver the day after tomorrow.
They traveled the next few minutes in silence. It was Canton who broke it. “How about here?”
“Huh?” Tyler said.
“This is a good spot. No one around. Derek, this is where you get in the back.”
“Are we still doing this?” he asked. “It’s stupid.”
“It’s tradition, that’s what it is. When you go to the drive-in, you smuggle someone in. It’s expected. If you don’t do it, the management is actually disappointed.”
Derek felt resigned to his fate. “Fine.”
The car pulled over to shoulder, gravel crunching beneath the tires. Derek got out on the passenger side, gave George a withering look, then went around to the back of the car. Canton had popped the truck from the inside, pulling on the tiny lever by the driver’s seat, but had gotten out so he could close the lid once Derek was inside.
“It’s not exactly huge in here,” Derek said, standing there, staring into the gaping hole.
“You getting in or what?” Canton asked.
Derek nodded, turned around, dropped his butt in first.
“So it’s not an Oldsmobile,” Canton said. “Stop whining. Once we get inside, you can get out. It’ll be, like, five minutes.”
Derek said, “I hate this.”
“What’s the big—” Canton stopped himself in midsentence. “Oh shit, it’s about that thing that happened, isn’t it? When you were hiding in that house?”
“It’s okay.”
“No, I’ll do it. I’ll get in, and you get back in the car.”
“I said I would do it.”
Derek noticed, with some relief, the emergency lever inside the trunk that allowed it to be opened from the inside. He got his head in, then brought up his legs. He lay on his side, the case of beer tucked behind his knees.
“Okay, so don’t start screaming or anything,” Canton said, and slammed the lid shut.
It was nearly pitch-black in there, save for some red glow from the back side of the taillights. Derek felt the car veer back onto the pavement, then pick up speed.