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Subject: {ASSM} Wynter and Brinkly Pt 3 of 3 {Hoisington}
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WYNTER & BRINKLY
Part 3/3
************************************************************
This is an erotic fantasy. It is the sequel to "Wynter and Hailey." The
characters and the situation are purely imaginary, and this story
is *NOT* intended to be a guide for actual behavior. Any
similarities between this story and actual people or actual
events you should be ashamed of are purely coincidental. If it
is illegal in your part of the world to access and read erotic
fiction, or if you are underage, or if you don't like underage
sex stories, then you should stop now.
This story is copyright 2009 by Russell Hoisington. Please do
not remove the author information or make any changes to this
story. You may post freely to non-commercial (free) sites, or in
the "free" area of commercial sites. That does *not* mean that
these stories are in the public domain, nor does it mean that I
give permission for you to use them in spam advertising. I
reserve the right to determine what is "spam advertising" by *my*
definition, not yours or anyone else's.
Thank you for your consideration.
My sincerest thanks to Denny Wheeler for editing this story and
for his contributions and also to Uncle Sky, Wizard, the Night Hawk, and
Old Man Ted for their input and for keeping the characters in
character.
************************************************************
Chapter 23
Saturday morning. Cinnamon's unblinking eyes narrowed, and she tilted
her head slightly to one side when she noticed Possum's eyes suddenly
darting about the Denver recording studio. She's looking for an escape
route. Fear, approaching panic. She moved next to the frightened girl
and put her mouth near Possum's ear. "It's okay," she whispered. "I've
already spoken to Mister Berry. We're laying down all the instruments
and voices one at a time, anyway. We will record you separately, with
nobody but Finnegan and me listening, if that's what you want. Okay?"
"Please," Possum said, tears creeping into her eyes. "Cinnamon, I'm so
sorry. I thought I could..."
"Don't be. It's the way recording is usually done, and it's what we were
planning, so it's no bother. The only difference is that nobody else
will watch you, either. We record the voices after we've recorded the
music. Okay?"
Possum sniffed and shyly nodded.
~ ~ ~
Saturday morning, same time. Suzie double checked her clock as she hung
up her phone and leaned back in her bed. "Huh," she said ever so
quiet like to herself. It was time to add up all the clues she'd just
been given. She thought about what Mister King had said. "Gone to see
Grandpa Wolfe with Sisters Cinnamon and Hailey," she said to her bedside
clock. "And Huntly's mom said he's gone to Denver with his dad. And Mrs.
Reed says LaMarcus is helping Reggie with his job or something. That's
the same excuses everyone had when they recorded Cinnamon Sticks for
Sister Cinnamon." Her eyes flipped to her calendar. It was exactly one
month until her birthday, but she'd bet the bottom of her last dollar
that everyone was in Denver recording her birthday present.
Well, not everybody. Somebody had to stay back to distract her. There
was only one logical choice. She dialed his number. Maybe she could have
a snowball fight with him and Charlie and then disappear to his room
together to warm up afterward.
~ ~ ~
Late Monday afternoon. Wynter sure thought it was like riding a boat in
a storm the way she bounced around while Jimmy twitched and gasped for
air, occasionally kissing the insides of her thighs and her split.
"Drat! Here's another drop I missed," she said, trying to sound
irritated and failing miserably. She was just too happy. She slipped
his now soft penis?his dick, she reminded herself for the fourth
time?back into her mouth for another good vacuuming.
When Jimmy jerked and groaned she immediately released it. "Sorry," she
said. "I thought I'd waited long enough. I really and truly do love you
with all my heart."
She didn't understand his mumbled words, but she understood his meaning
and his forgiveness. "Well," she said, mischievously, "I guess that's
what happens when you're about to get old. Next time we make love,
you'll be a teenager."
His right hand, which, like his left, had been curled around the
junction of her body and thigh, holding her open for his tongue,
suddenly released her. A moment later it slammed down, spanking her bare
butt. "Respect your soon to be elders, Missy," he said in his John Wayne
imitation, which sounded worse than usual because he was still trying to
breathe.
She yelped and pinched his hip. It was a couple of minutes before they
were able to get dressed, gather Jimmy's homework out of the library,
and rush to Jimmy's house for dinner. She was eating there before the
rehearsals because Daddy had taken Mother out for dinner and dancing to
celebrate her tenth anniversary at her job.
~ ~ ~
Monday evening. Cinnamon stopped in the doorway to the practice room,
put down her bag, and scooped back her long hair with both hands,
letting it fall down to below her butt. She was in a good mood because
Donnie had said that the first phase of distracting Brinkly with
Destruction's Pinnacle had been a success. Sis, sharing Jimmy's bench,
saw her first and lifted her head from his shoulder, causing him to open
his eyes, see her, and stop. "Keep playing," she said. "I love that one."
Cuz appeared beside her a moment later. "Hey! Sounds like church music,"
she said.
"That's because Doug Ingle's background before he founded Iro..."
"Who?"
She sighed. "Later. Sit down. I'm joining in." She put her bag next to
the couch, pulled out a CD, and took it with her to her throne, where
she set it on her clipboard.. She drew hickory rounds, thought about it,
and then replaced them, reaching instead for her hard maple ovals, her
feet already working the bass drum and high hat pedals.
She wondered how long Jimmy had been playing that one. Not very, she
guessed, because he'd made two minor mistakes. It was possible that this
was the first time he'd attempted it. It seemed that Jimmy's mind for
music was almost as photographic as Sis's for medical texts and was
steadily improving, as was his ability to recreate music by ear like his
father.
A couple of minutes later Jimmy raised an eyebrow at her in question.
She nodded, then watched his head for the signal. When he gave it and
stopped playing, she immediately switched to playing every beat with the
bass drum and started on one of the floor toms.
She was in the middle of the drum solo when Huntly entered, gave her a
smile that made her wet, and went searching for Hailey's non-existent
tonsils. When Cuz finally released him, he removed his guitar from its
case, kissed it, and slipped the strap over his head as Finnegan
entered. He'd stopped to leak the lizard and had "accidentally" left his
pants unzipped, something Cuz spotted immediately. Cinnamon shook her
head and concentrated on her drumming while they went at each other.
She had a different version that she liked, but, afraid that it might
confuse Jimmy, she stayed with Ron Bushy's recorded version of the solo.
She switched to bass drum, high hat, and striking the rim of the large
snare drum as Jimmy's parents entered with the punch bowl and cookies.
Both smiled with pride as Jimmy picked up the organ part again, and
Mister McCauley said something to his wife, who gave Jimmy a look of
both surprise and admiration. He must have told her this was the first
time Jimmy had played it.
When he handed off to Huntly, shithead went back to the first guitar
solo. Though he was giving the wah wah pedal a commendable workout, he
wasn't as polished overall as Jimmy, and had no doubt been working on
the guitar part at least a week longer than Jimmy with the organ part.
If Jimmy had been doing any work outside his head.
Jimmy gave her a questioning look and drew a circle with his index
finger pointed at Huntly while his other hand continued the organ's main
phrase. Go back to where Huntly is now? was what he asked. She nodded.
When her drum solo came around again, she did a modified short version
and handed it back to Jimmy as the rest of the group arrived. After some
whispered questions to and shrugs from Cuz, they asked Jimmy's dad,
then, smiling, took seats to watch.
Jimmy made no mistakes this time and brought it around to the main theme
while she maintained the beat with the bass drum and rim shots. Cinnamon
thought they would end it there, but Huntly signaled her to do the
transition and then picked up on the bass solo on his low E and A
strings. Jimmy provided the organ without hesitation. When Huntly got to
the screaming guitar part, he dropped the bass and flowed into it with
no noticeable hesitation. Jimmy smoothly picked up the bass, then handed
it back to Huntly at the end like they'd rehearsed it for weeks.
The main theme came around again for the last time. Huntly stepped
forward and got out "In a Gadda da Vida, honey," before Cinnamon sprang
to her feet and shouted for him to stop.
The room went deathly quiet.
"Is that the best you can do with your voice lessons after a month,
shithead?"
Huntly shrugged. "I told you they'd be a waste of money, bitch."
She cupped her left elbow with her right hand, then held her pointed
chin and tapped her jaw with her left index finger, Wynter style. "Get
better." She didn't need to add the "or else."
Huntly shrugged again and nodded.
"Kenny, I think that this would work for you. It's short vocals at the
ends with long solos in the middle."
Kenny checked the nods from Sis, Jimmy, Huntly, and Mister McCauley,
then Sister Suzie before nodding. "Okay," he said.
"Mark? Are you okay with adding it?"
"Sure," he said. "Just get me the music."
"Good," she said with a smile as she reached for the CD. She'd have to
thank shithead, and possibly Jimmy, later. She should have thought of
that one herself.
"Now, before we get started, I got this from Alex O'Connor today. It was
released thirteen days ago. He said we'd love it, and I know he's right.
I do. Sis, it's perfect for your group instead of The Twins. Let's
listen to the cuts I have in mind and then I have an idea."
When it was over, Sis was beside herself. "Yes! I agree!" she said, her
eyes sparkling. "Jimmy loves it, too!"
"Well, yeah," Jimmy said, "but it would be nice to be able to speak for
myself."
When the laughter and wisecracks died, LaMarcus, Huntly, and Ted all
said they were game for Cinnamon's choices. So was Jimmy's dad, who
would be backup for Ted.
There was, however, one question: "By the way, bitch, just what is your
idea?"
"Isn't it obvious, shithead? I'm going to get the principal to let Sis
perform for the last basketball game before the Christmas break."
"Well, excuse the hell out of me for being stupid. But as long as I am,
who's going to do the vocals? Boy Blunder?"
Her eyes narrowed as her widening smile pushed up her round cheeks. "No
offense to Kenny, but there's only one voice in the school who can do
that part: Mister Tyrone Hayes himself."
"And you've spoken to him, of course."
"Heck, no, dude!" LaMarcus said. "Ain't no need for her to do that. I
just now volunteered him. That'll teach him to make me lose a sure bet."
LaMarcus had been grumbling about a lost bet for a week, but neither he
nor Tyrone would specify the nature of the bet.
Cinnamon was sure she wasn't the only one who expected Wynter's
objection because Sis got just three words out about volunteering
someone without his permission. Then it seemed that every voice in the
room chimed in with, "WYNTER!"
She giggled at the startled expression on Sis's face. "He can always say
no, Sis, but I have a hundred dollars at twenty to one that says he
won't. And, by the way, the music is in the mail. Okay! Places,
everyone, for The Waiting."
~ ~ ~
Wynter opened the bathroom door to find Sis One waiting, scribbling
notes on her rehearsal session clipboard. Sis looked up and smiled.
"Gotta drain the swamp, too," she said, sliding her pen into its holder.
"But while it's just us, how do you think Jimmy will handle the kissing
contest tomorrow?"
"Well," she said with a grin that said it all, "tomorrow he may still be
too exhausted to care. But I don't know. I still don't know why he's
like Huntly or Kenny one minute and pre-prudectomy the next. I have no
idea what triggers the changes, much less why."
"Huh. Boys sure are strange," Sis observed with a slight frown.
"Yeah. And they have the nerve to call us weird!"
~ ~ ~
Tuesday afternoon. The second floor hallway in the Taylor home was an
ell. The door to Kenny's room was at the southwest inside corner of the
ell. The outside corner also had a door, one that led into the large,
irregularly shaped "rumpus room" over the three car garage at the
house's south end. The room served a variety of uses since the house was
the only one on the block that did not have a finished basement, though
Kevin had been saying it would be finished "soon" since the day he and
Candis had moved in alone. By Tuesday afternoon, the room's storage
items had been moved to the fourth bedroom. This freed the entire floor
area for the party.
Marti was surprised that none of the people attending the party had
homework from any of their classes, which meant, essentially, that the
seventh and eighth grades had a homework holiday. She suspected Lyndon
Shelby had a hand in that. She wondered if Lyndon had used up a huge
number of favors for her son and his friends, or had merely scraped the
tip off an iceberg. With Lyndon, one never knew.
Mrs. Holland did a great job of decorating for the party. I guess all
those years as a grade school teacher paid off, she observed as she
threw open the door and escorted the early arrivals in. But I'll bet
Candis had to supervise to insure that she didn't decorate the room
for a first grader party. She made a quick inspection of the room, then,
satisfied, turned to leave. It was time to help deliver the refreshments
to the room.
Wynter met her at the door and asked her to wait while she put Jimmy's
and Kenny's presents on the gift table, then went down with her to help
her Future Mother and Candis while Mrs. Holland finished the cooking and
baking. True to form, her son insisted on helping, too. When Wynter
explained that it was his birthday and he was a Guest of Honor, he said
that he wasn't helping with his half of the party, just Kenny's part.
That earned him a kiss from both his Future Wife and his mother.
Marti wasn't surprised when Jimmy asked, "What was that for?"
~ ~ ~
By mutual consent, Jimmy and Kenny flipped a coin to see who went first
in each round of opening presents. They were down to the final two
presents, Jimmy's from Wynter and Kenny's from Suzie, when Kenny flipped
the quarter. Jimmy, still stunned by the second synth from Cinnamon,
which she said she was giving him as an investment in the band as well
as an excuse for Wynter to take one of her keyboards home occasionally,
failed to call Kenny's flip while the coin was in the air.
"In that case, it's yours, Boy Blunder," announced Huntly. "Do you want
to ask for it, or just take the only one left with your name on it?"
Kenny rose to his feet and smiled down the long table before turning his
eyes to the giver beside him. "For my final present, I would like the
one from my best friend ever, the sweetest girl I know, and the winner
of next year's state swimming championship!"
Huntly opened his mouth, but all that came out, thanks to a hard
backhand by Cinnamon, was a screeching yelp. That brought Jimmy back to
Earth. He looked around and said, "Hunh?"
Wynter's hand massaged a circle on his back, and she spoke to him in a
quiet voice while Huntly, rubbing his arm, handed Suzie's present to
Kenny. "You missed your call, so Kenny got to go first. One member of
the Hargus Four said something very sweet about another member. One of
the Plus Two was about to make a smarty pants retort about it, but the
other Plus Two stopped him. You're caught up now."
"Oh." He gave her his grin and nod in apology. She flashed her perfect
white teeth and rubbed his back again.
Kenny unwrapped a small bottle of Lagerfeld cologne.
"It's what Doctor Brees wears," Suzie said. "I love it ever so much, and
I think it's good enough for all OB/GYNs, present and future." After
Kenny kissed her, she opened the bottle and used a fingertip to put a
dab on either side of Kenny's neck. Then she whispered something in his
ear. Anyone who knew Kenny had no trouble deciphering what she'd told
him from the look of lust on his face.
"Jimbo," Huntly said, handing him a long, narrow box, "I think Doctor
Cutie got you a colonoscope."
"Unlikely," Jimmy said, "since you're the asshole."
"Actually," Wynter said, "it's an endoscope, not a colonoscope."
"Oh. I see. Well, it gets shoved up the same spot, doesn't it?"
"Oh, sure," she said through a dazzling smile. "Only the name is
different. The mission is the same, so bend over, please."
As the spectators roared, Huntly released the box into Jimmy's grip and
threw up his hands. "Aw, man! Well, I hope it's as enjoyable as
Finnegan's present." Finnegan had given Jimmy a modified talking alarm
clock. It had four alarm choices: Wynter saying, "It's time to rise and
face the morning," Hailey ordering in a louder voice,"Get up,
pickledick!" Cinnamon with the Let's Go drum routine followed by "WAKE
UP!" and Suzie screaming, "WAKE UP, YOU DOLT!" Finnegan explained that
it could be set for whatever strength Jimmy thought he would need the
next morning.
The long box was heavier than Jimmy had expected. He raised his eyebrows
at Wynter and quipped, "You're giving me the parts to build a car by the
time I'm sixteen? Is it a crankshaft for a BMW?"
"Unh uh," she grunted, her ponytail lashing as she shook her head. "I'm
not telling. You have to open it to find out what it is."
He unwrapped the fancy cardboard box, which was printed in a pattern of
intricate Celtic knots, and removed the lid. Inside, on a bed of
luxurious shimmering white silk, lay a magnificent two-handed sword, its
guard a graceful downsweep with the same Celtic knot design, the grip
a beautifully patterned fine grained wood in a deep red and black, the
pommel a pale blue crystal sphere with lightning bolts and... well, it
sort of looked like snowflakes through the center, the fuller of its
gleaming blade engraved with...
"This is the Daedric alphabet from Morrowind!"
"Uh huh. Huntly found the font on the internet for me. I printed out the
word and gave it to the engraver."
"I... I can't read it. What does it say?"
"It's your Wynterblade," she said.
"Actually," Huntly interrupted, "it says 'Winterblade'." When Jimmy
frowned at him, he said, "The Daedric alphabet doesn't have a 'Y' so I
substituted an 'I' in the name."
"It doesn't? You did?" He'd had no idea.
"They're interchangeable," Wynter said after reading his face. "That
character means both letters, like 'U' and 'V' in the Roman alphabet, okay?"
"Oh. Uh, sure. Other alphabets do that, don't they? Yeah! I... I guess
I'm just stunned."
"So, are you going to show the rest of us what it looks like?" asked
Buzz Marks in an impatient tone but with a smile.
It was so beautiful that Jimmy didn't want to mar it with his
fingerprints. He raised the handle end of the box so that people could
see it lying on the silk, with the vertically engraved name properly
oriented.
When everyone had finished applauding, he returned the box to the table
and tried to keep tears out of his eyes as he asked his beloved, "How
much did you spend for that?"
Coral lips curved and spread to reveal the perfect white teeth below the
pert nose and the sparkling blue green eyes. "Far less than its
recipient is worth to me. I understand now what Sis meant about money."
"What?" The tone said she'd piqued his natural curiosity. Jimmy the
Inquisitive had asked.
"About how I can get more pleasure buying something for others than for
myself."
"But..." The rest of his question was slain by the pressure of her lips
on his and a writhing invader on a seek and destroy questions mission in
his mouth.
The kiss lasted until Katie Wilson asked, "Does this mean the kissing
contest has started? I didn't get to announce the first contestant."
That caused Wynter to break away, laughing.
As far as Jimmy was concerned, the contest was over and he was ready to
name the winner.
~ ~ ~
Cinnamon spoke in a warning growl, emphasizing her stabbing finger.
"You'd better mind your manners with Snoopy and Possum."
Kenny's face mixed anger and incredulity. He turned it to Suzie.
"Huntly's right about your sister," he said, a feral savagery in his voice.
"Sis, it's okay. I trust him ever so much to do the right thing. No way
would Kenny hurt either of them."
"His big head wouldn't," Cinnamon agreed. "I'm afraid his little head
might start thinking for him."
"Hmmm." Suzie's hand cupped her chin and she tapped her jaw with a
forefinger and hummed again. "You're right. They should go before Sister
Hailey. Rig the stupid order or something. Cheat."
That was so unexpected from Sister Suzie that Cinnamon gaped in
disbelief for a moment and then doubled over in laughter.
~ ~ ~
"Listen," Jimmy whispered so that nobody else could hear, "if you don't
want to participate, I won't be offended. Or if you want to fake it but
not kiss me, that's okay, too. Nobody else has to know."
Snoopy's response was the same as Possum's: "Thank you for being so
considerate, but I think... well, that I'd like... if you don't mind,
that is, I'd..."
Jimmy stopped her with a smile. "Mind? It would be my privilege and
certainly my honor."
~ ~ ~
"Well," Wynter said with a glance at the two sisters on either side of
her, "what do you think?"
Sis One spoke loud enough to be heard above the cheering crowd that was
clapping in unison, "Five more seconds, Cuz, and we fetch a bucket of
cold water."
"And a crowbar or something," Sis Three added.
Wynter rarely had difficulty translating anything Jimmy did, but when
Hailey pulled her face away from Jimmy's, she wasn't sure if his sigh
was one of frustration, anger, disbelief, lust, or near hypoxia.
Sis Two traced a slow finger down the front of Jimmy's shirt until she
reached his abdomen. Then her hand shot downward like a striking
rattlesnake. "Shit!" she muttered. "What does it take to get you up?"
~ ~ ~
"So," said Katie Wilson, who had assumed the role of the moderator of
the kissing contest, "tell us, Kenny: who was the best kisser?"
Kenny rose to his feet and motioned for silence with his hands, not that
there was any noise to quiet. "As much as it pains me to say this, and
I'm sure it will be painful later, the winner was not Suzie."
Katie glanced at Suzie, who was grinning and nodding to herself. Katie
didn't know if Kenny had discussed this with Suzie beforehand, but it
was obvious that she either knew of or guessed what was coming and
approved. Otherwise she'd have looked like a nuclear fireball having a
bad day. Of course, it wasn't too late for her to change to that if
Kenny surprised her.
Some of the others didn't realize that because they were nervously
glancing at Suzie like they wished they'd brought earplugs.
"The best kisser in the kissing contest was... Possum Watkins."
Possum turned a deep red as she stood and acknowledged the
congratulations of the crowd. Katie filled that time wondering if Possum
and Kenny were becoming... she wasn't sure what word she wanted. But
Possum had been Kenny's surprise date to the Homecoming Ball. And Possum
was known to attend a lot of band rehearsals at Jimmy's when Kenny was
there and Suzie wasn't. But Snoopy was there because of Ted. Maybe
Possum was just keeping Snoopy company, as always.
Maybe. She'd have to think about that, later, when she had time. "And
now it's your turn, Jimmy. Do you agree with Kenny?"
Jimmy stood and surveyed the anxious faces staring at him. "As much as I
hate to admit it, Kenny was almost right for a change. But I gave Possum
second place by one one thousandth of a point. I determined the best
kisser in the contest to be her twin cousin, Snoopy. I'm sure that had
he been in my place, Ted would have agreed with me."
After everyone had congratulated the red faced but grinning cousins,
Katie held up her hands for silence. "And now, girls, who was the best
kisser of these two, Kenny or Jimmy?" She called out each name and
counted the show of hands.
"We have a tie," she announced.
Snoopy gave Ted a questioning glance and then said, "Well, I suppose the
only thing we can do is repeat the contest until we have a winner."
~ ~ ~
Tuesday night. When Wynter giggled, Jimmy found enough strength to lift
his face out of the hollow of her neck and shoulder to focus on her
face. Mixed with the look of what Kenny crudely called "fresh fucked
fulfillment" was a mischievous look of... well, heck, he was too tired
to think of the word. He managed to grunt a rising note, and she, as
expected, knew what he was asking.
"I was just thinking of last year. It was about this time that we were
interrupted by the banging on the door."
"If they do that again tonight..."
"You won't do anything," she said, "because you, my beloved physical
train wreck, are worn out. If your bladder starts to overflow, I'll have
to get daddy's urinal out of his medical closet because you couldn't
crawl to the bathroom if you had to."
He purred happily. "And it's entirely your fault," he said. Or, at
least, he tried to say. He wasn't sure he had enough strength to make
the words entirely comprehensible.
She kissed a fingertip and pressed it to the arrowhead around his neck,
kissed it again and pressed it to his lips, and then wrapped her arms
around his neck and pulled him down for a direct kiss.
He moved his lips a fraction of an inch away from hers. "Well, maybe I
have enough strength to yell at them."
"It doesn't matter. He's seen my tits and everything else several times
since then, so he won't be dreaming up an excuse to barge in. Besides,
Sister Suzie said she won't let him..."
The rest of Wynter's sentence was cut off by a hesitant knocking at her
door.
"Damn it!" he muttered. "Lemme get the sheet."
"I got it." She pulled it up with her foot, grabbed it in her hands, and
covered them from the waist down as Dragon rose from his rug and shook,
turning to face the door.
Jimmy took a deep breath and tried to shout, "What do you want, Putz?"
He thought it was probably intelligible, but he wasn't sure it could
have been heard on the other side of Wynter's bedroom door.
Suzie opened the door and entered two steps, with Kenny following
behind. "It's me," she said. "It's not Kenny's idea or something. Are...
are you sure about your parents?"
Behind her, where she couldn't see what he was doing, Kenny looked at
Jimmy, then rolled up his eyes and lifted his hands to indicate it
wasn't his doing, it was something the female of the species had dreamed
up to disrupt his "action." When Kenny looked at him again, Jimmy gave a
brief nod of understanding.
"It's okay, Sis. They're spending the night at Doctor Brees's house as a
special birthday gift for Jimmy." One hand slid around to its place on
his back and rubbed a circle. "They won't mind you and Kenny spending
the night, too, as long as they don't know about it. That way they won't
have to lie to your and Kenny's parents about them being here with us.
Not as long as we make it to school on time tomorrow."
Suzie rolled one shoulder and stared at the carpet in front of her toes.
"But what if Doctor Brees says something to Doc..."
"Sis! He won't say anything. Sister Cinnamon will see to that."
"You're sure he won't?"
"If he does, then Cinnamon will be cross with him. Would you want that?"
Suzie smiled then and lifted her head. "I guess you're right. I'm sorry
I bothered you over something stupid."
"Suzie," Jimmy said, "you are never an interruption. Unlike your pet
putz. Be sure you get a good grip on his leash and take him with you
when you're ready to leave."
Kenny shot Jimmy a murderous glare as Suzie reached down for his "leash"
with one hand and stroked Dragon's head before reaching for the doorknob
with her other. "Goddamnit, Jimmy..." The closing door cut off the rest
of what Kenny had to say.
Wynter kissed him again. "Are you ready to go to sleep, or...?"
Exhausted as he was, that was a question with no right answer. His body
needed sleep, but his person needed his Future Wife. He looked at the
clock. "I guess it doesn't matter what we want, tomorrow's a school day."
She kissed him again. He rolled off to her left side. Sort of. It was a
little bit more of a roll than it was a collapse, but not much.
Wynter rolled onto her side and reached for the bedside light, switched
it off, and wished Dragon good dreams. Then Jimmy cuddled against her
backside, making her feel warm and loved. She thought how naturally he'd
found just the position to make her feel safe and protected. "Who'd have
thought I'd be sleeping with a teenager," she purred.
He pulled the long blonde hair away so that he could nuzzle her neck.
"Well, if you like it and it's that good, I might have to try it myself
soon."
Mischief crept into her voice. "Sis One and Sis Two are both teenagers."
He pretended to think about it for a moment while struggling mightily to
keep his eyes open. "Tempting, but that's okay. I can wait until December."
He had no idea what her reply was because the next thing he heard was
her alarm.
Chapter 24
On Thursday, Brinkly was holding court in the cafeteria with her latest
incarnation of the Pack, Courtney Brown, Cori Sikes, and Danni Rochet,
when Billy McKeown approached with a strange look on his face. He sat
down without asking for Brinkly's permission, and the girls eagerly
grinned in anticipation of the ass chewing to come. Cori had said that
she needed a warning flag she could raise at times like these, a flag
that said, "Major Chewing Out In Progress. Watch Your Ass." But
Brinkly's rebuke died in her throat when Billy said just loud enough for
Brinkly to hear, "I just saw the weirdest stuff with McCauley."
Anything to do with the redheaded bitch and her sycophants was Brinkly
Ward's top priority. She'd let McKeown sit in her lap if he were
bringing her bad news about The Irish Idiot. Or news about the bitch's
toadies that she could use against her. Brinkly placed her silverware on
the tray, sat back, folded her hands, and said, "What?"
Billy ignored his food, his hands unconsciously making fists at the
corners of his tray. "He just ate Donnie for breakfast."
"I always thought he was a faggot," cracked Danni.
"Shut up!" Brinkly snapped, no doubt whom she meant even though her eyes
never left Billy. "McCauley beat Smith in a fight?"
"No! Well... Look, it went like this." Billy lowered his voice a little
more and leaned forward until his shirt was almost in his chili mac.
"Donnie was humming some stuff while digging stuff out of his locker,
you know, when McCauley walked past and heard him. McCauley stops and
turns around and goes real low and angry like, 'What the f...'," Billy
raised his head, looked around for teachers, then lowered his head and
voice even more, "fuck do you think you're doing?' you know. He goes,
'People can hear you!' and then he slapped the back of Donnie's head and
stuff, and then he went on with some stuff I didn't hear 'cause he was
talking too quiet, you know, but his face was red and he was like
snarling and stuff, and then he hit Smith in the back of the head again.
Hard. It was loud!"
"Smith took it? He didn't break McCauley's neck or promise to do so
after school?"
"Smith took it. In fact, I couldn't hear what he was saying 'cause he
was talking real quiet and stuff, too, you know, but he looked like he
was begging McCauley to forgive him!"
The silence at the table grew uncomfortable while Brinkly digested those
facts and compared them to something else. Then: "You're sure that's
what happened? You didn't leave anything out? You didn't add anything to
make it a better story? You swear it on the nuts you'll lose if you're
lying to me?"
After a hasty "Yes," "No," "No," and "I swear!" from Billy, Brinkly
leaned back in her chair. The others began looking at each other like
they were wondering if Brinkly had gone to sleep, had a seizure, or just
died. But Brinkly was just adding together clues. Finally her lips
moved, and the two seated closest to her heard a soft, "That fucking
Boston baked bitch."
The others looked at each other, hoping someone else had a clue.
Brinkly pulled her chair back and turned it, pointing at Cori with her
free hand and saying as she drove away, "Take care of my tray. I gotta
go think about this."
~ ~ ~
Wynter sure wasn't happy at the assembly on the next day. Sis One
looked... disappointed.
Sis Three leaned around Jimmy and whispered, "These stupid dolts don't
recognize talent or something!"
Wynter had to agree. She thought the seventh graders, at least, would be
more supportive. Amy Katzmarek was singing beautiful a capella songs,
ranging from sad ballads to very humorous ditties, but people were
quietly complaining because she didn't have a band. Then the boy in
front of Cinnamon said none too softly to his companion, "This sucks
worse than Karaoke."
Sis One backhanded his shoulder. His yelp brought Amy to a dead stop.
"Sorry, Amy," Cinnamon called out to the stage as the boy clutched and
rubbed his painful injury. "I think he got stung by a bee. I'll swat any
more that cause problems, even if I have to chase them outside."
Wynter saw Principal Peters on the other side of the auditorium suddenly
cover his mouth with his hand and turn toward the wall. She also saw his
shoulders shaking as he tried to smother his laughter.
But, "The bees got the word to bee hive," as Grandpa Wolfe would have
put it. Sis didn't have to smack any more for the rest of Amy's performance.
~ ~ ~
Wynter opened the door of Daddy's truck and floated out into the garage.
It had been her best Sunday afternoon in almost ever! She removed her
cased .22 rifle from the rack and looked for her targets, but her father
had them in his free hand. She thought he might frame them before she
could show them to anyone. Which could take a while. The last time Daddy
framed something, his pneumatic staple gun drove a staple into a finger.
He checked everything in his hands and asked, "Ready?"
"YES!" she gushed, unable to control her giddiness. She carefully closed
her door, while Daddy, his hands full, slammed his with a thrust of his
hip. Well, at least he can't slam his thumb in the door again if he
closes it that way.
She had to open the door into the family room since she had a free hand.
She had just ordered Dragon to give them room to enter and registered
the distant sound of the hot tub pumps when Daddy shouted, "WOMAN, GET
DOWN HERE AND SEE WHAT YOUR DAUGHTER DID!"
Mother's voice floated up the basement stairwell. "We're a little bit
damp at the moment!"
"We?" Daddy and she asked each other at the same time, since there had
been no cars in the driveway. They laughed about that and dumped their
coats and rifles and Daddy's pistol and gear in the family room. Wynter
guessed that Jimmy was also in the hot tub, while Daddy said he'd put
his money on one or more of his adopted daughters.
Then Daddy, beaming like he'd just been named the AIPG Geological
Engineer of the Year, snuggled her with one arm, clutched the targets
with his other hand, and led her to the top of the stairs.
Where she reminded him in no uncertain terms of the last time he'd
tumbled down the stairs because he'd tried to descend them in an unsafe
manner. He released her and used the handrail.
When they were at the bottom, he again snuggled her close and led the
way into the laundry, made a right turn while marching in place, and
then took her down the short hallway to the hot tub room, where they
were surprised to find not just Jimmy and Suzie and Huntly in the tub
with Mother but also...
"Jennifer!" Wynter gasped.
"Hi!" she replied with a wave, one that carefully did not lift her elbow
out of the water. Wynter diagnosed that Jennifer had mild anxiety
disorder, but otherwise she was handling the situation well.
"Jennifer's sore from her workout this morning, before we did my
dyslexia lessons, so I thought the hot tub might relax her or
something," Sis Three explained.
"Sure," Wynter said, then gave Jimmy a questioning look.
"They decided to stop by my house first and see if any other sisters
were there."
"And it was just you and Huntly."
Huntly cleared his throat. "Well, no, Doc..."
"We found this dolt limping up your street," Suzie said.
Wynter made her face suspicious but not stern. "Limping?"
"There's ice on the big flat rock," Huntly explained. "I tried my flying
act, but I couldn't get lift quickly enough and crash landed. So, I had
to walk back."
Wynter crossed her arms and frowned at him. "So why didn't you call 911?"
Huntly snapped his fingers. "I should have thought of that! Hey, Doc,
would you run back to the rock and fish my phone out of the deep pool?"
"You lost your phone." She shook her head.
"Oh, it's not lost. I know exactly where it is. I'm practicing for this
summer's adventure, when I can lose my own in the sunken boat."
"Unh uh," grunted Jimmy. "That's like the mine: been there, done that,
ain't doin' it again."
"I see." Huntly faked a disappointed look. Well, she was sure he was
faking it. Probably.
"So, what's Wynter's good news?" Mother asked.
Daddy blinked once, then said, "OH!" He checked the notes on each target
and explained as he held them up, announcing which were seated position
and which were kneeling supported, and which were bench rest at each
distance. Every one had all shots in the center of the bull's eye. "I
told her it would happen any time now. And today, she did it!"
Everyone congratulated her. Then Huntly, raising one finger, cleared his
throat, and she knew what was coming. "I notice we seem to have mislaid
the standing position targets."
"Shut up!" Wynter said, though with a smile that said she was teasing.
Jimmy made a phony fearful face. "Since Huntly can't ask, I will. Did
any of the missing targets have any of the shots in the black?"
"Of course," Daddy said. "There's black ink in the writing around the
edges."
Wynter frowned up at him, put her fists on her hips, and pushed her lips
to one side as she glared at him. "Smarty pantses don't get any help
cleaning their weapons, even though they have four and their sweet
adorable daughter has only one."
He blinked at her. "Sweet adorable daughter?"
Huntly raised a hand. "Uh, hey, yeah, Mister K. I taught her that line."
Daddy looked disdainfully at Huntly. "Remind me one more time why we let
you in our front door."
"Temporary insanity," Jimmy said.
"Pity," Suzie said.
"Today's Halloween," Huntly replied, ignoring the other two. "Magic
tricks that are treats."
"Oh. Yeah. Well, 'sweet adorable daughter,' are you ready to go clean...?"
"Not yet," she said, suddenly switching to professional mode as she
turned to Huntly. "Did you hurt your knee again?"
"No! It's still doing fine since you did whatever it was you did when it
moved that night. That thingamabobbywhacker hasn't slipped back to the
way it was. I guess Doctor Henderson was right and you are a genius." He
sighed. "No, I twisted my ankle. It's not bad, but walking here from the
rock didn't help it any."
"Is it near the jet?"
"Right in the stream, Your Doctorness, for the past," he looked at the
clock, "twenty one minutes."
"Okay. Keep it there. I'll be back after we've cleaned the weapons.
Wait: show me first."
She palpated the swelling. "Jimmy, if it gets painful before I get back,
I want you to put your thumb here like this and press in this way," she
showed him, "until the pain goes away. Then release it and let him put
it back in the jet. PRN. Okay?"
Jimmy gave her his grin and nod. "I'll do it for you, if not for Huntly."
Huntly threw up his arms. "Aw, MAN!"
"Awww," cooed Suzie, patting Huntly's arm. "It's not easy being a dolt,
is it?"
Wynter took Daddy's arm and together they left the room as Jennifer
resumed her story of Principal Peters' reaction to Cinnamon's "bee
swatting" on Friday.
Daddy momentarily pushed sideways in a hug. "Are you sorry you didn't
make rounds with Kenny today?"
Her ponytail lashed as she shook her head. "Nope. Sometimes he does
better when I'm not there. I think he compares himself to me and gets
discouraged. Um... I hope that didn't sound boastful or..."
"No, it sounded like a doctor giving an accurate diagnosis because the
truth was required rather than giving an inaccurate diagnosis because of
unwarranted modesty."
She smiled up at him. "I love you, Daddy."
"I love you, too, honey."
"Oh, just a minute!" she said as they reached the bottom of the steps.
"I want to check on," she looked back toward the corridor to the hot tub
room and then lowered her voice, "Suzie's painting." Sure, Sis knew what
that birthday present was. Sis hadn't seen it, but she had to know what
Wynter was giving her. Wynter didn't want to remind Sis that she had the
painting sitting here until her birthday. After she'd finished it much
sooner than she'd expected, given how long Jimmy's and Cinnamon's
paintings had taken, she'd moved it down to the storage room where it
would be out of the way while the oil paint dried.
"Holy shit," Daddy whispered as she uncovered the painting and gently
tested the dryness of the paint. He said the same thing every time he
saw it, which made Wynter's heart feel too big for her chest.
"It's thanks to you and Jimmy that it's this good," she said. "I'd have
gone with a different pose, and I see now that I wouldn't have liked it
half as much as I do this one."
"Yep," Daddy said. "I can't see how it could get any better than that.
Just like today. It couldn't get any better, either."
She smiled at him. "I love you."
He grinned. "Except for the standing targets."
~ ~ ~
Curtis Santiago turned off the shower, reached for his towel, dried
himself, and fastened the wet towel around his narrow, muscled waist.
Curtis worked out every day and was as strong as most men half a foot
taller than he was. He gathered his things and whistled as he returned
to the locker room. Curtis had won the Pima County Fair's whistling
contests for the past sixteen consecutive years, a record he was proud
of. The previous record holder had been his father with fourteen years.
He was surprised to discover the locker next to his was open. Jerry
Rivera was rapidly changing into his uniform. "Geraldo!" he said, using
the nickname that the inmates had given Rivera, one that Jerry
passionately hated. "You're late. I guess you wanted to be sure you
could give me my twenty tonight, eh, man?"
Jerry looked at him. He was in his early forties, pissed off about
losing his hair, and a gambler. "Hey, man, I paid you back that loan,
and you're too old for trick or treating. I don't owe you shit."
"Nope," Curtis agreed as he searched for the aftershave and deodorant he
wanted. "You don't owe me shit. But you do owe me twenty."
Jerry sagged and looked at him while tugging up his pants. "DeRamirez?"
"Uh huh. On his way out of services at the chapel this morning." He
sprinkled out some aftershave and slapped it on. "Punched out Evanston
in one right cross from the blind side. Got at least two teeth, too.
Lost his good behavior time that gave him only three days to walk. Now
he's here until after New Year's. Come on, come on! Gotta hot date with
Charlene." He gave out a sharp wolf's whistle. "I could use the extra
money."
Jerry grudgingly pulled the billfold out of his civilian pants and
opened it. "All I got's four fives."
"That's twenty. Fork 'em over. That'll teach you to bet against sure
things."
Jerry sighed and withdrew the money. "Now what'm I gonna do for snacks
or dinner?"
Curtis put the money on the shelf of his locker while he applied the
deodorant. "Why don't you ask DeRamirez for a loan? It's not like he's
going to be needing any money this week, after all."
"Goddamnit."
~ ~ ~
Kevin's arm jerked, almost spilling coffee across his desk. Fortunately,
it was half empty and only lapped at the rim. "Jesus H. Christ!"
"No, Renaldo Angelo Lopez. Though I can see how you'd confuse the two of
us, especially at your advanced age." His hand stroked the chair arm
beneath it. "Say, you'd better treat this leather, Doc. It's getting
tougher than you are." Which was Ron speak for, "You're getting soft."
They hadn't played any one on one for almost three weeks.
Kevin reached for the drawer with the peppermints. "So what the hell
brings you here this time? More doom and gloom?"
Ron snatched the flying candy from the air with a deceptively lazy move
of his arm and unwrapped it with one hand. "Doc! That's not very nice!
Maybe I should go visit with Candis since you're such a grumpy gringo."
Kevin's eyebrows lifted. "You mean you have good news for a change?"
Ron tossed the candy two feet in the air and caught it in his open
mouth. "Going to the football game tonight? Cinnamon's performing at
half time. Should be a great show, as usual."
"Yes. I'm looking forward to it. Now, what the fuck brings you here?"
Ron grinned and scratched his head. "DeRamirez's brother lost all his
good behavior time. He's in for the rest of the year."
Kevin relaxed and grinned. "I'll let Candis know."
Ron lifted himself out of the chair with the grace of an acrobat, looked
down at him, and eyed him critically. "Don't bother. I'll tell her.
Y'know Doc, not only does she have a nicer disposition than you, she's
much easier to look at."
Kevin shrugged. "You got me there."
~ ~ ~
Thursday evening was the set up for the next day's assembly performance
of Junior and the Twins. She watched in silence from the crack of the
barely opened girls' room door. The longest part was the set up of
Brees's drum kit, something the redhead insisted on doing herself,
though she let Sheridan do a few minor things. The set up could have
gone faster, but people kept slowing Brees down by talking about her
performance the night before.
Finally they were finished. On their way out, Brees suddenly said, "I
have to drain the swamp or I won't make it home."
She rushed to a stall, one that she'd already equipped with an "Out of
Order" sign, just in case, slipped inside, and locked the door. Then she
sat on the toilet and pulled up her feet where they wouldn't show,
resting her head on her knees.
Brees entered with King. They took adjoining stalls and kept talking as
if no wall separated them. Some bullshit about one of Brees's
great aunts who lived in Arizona. They flushed, washed their hands, and
left, but not before Brees sniffed, then stopped in front of the "Out of
Order" stall for a moment.
She hugged her arms around her drawn up legs, her face still lowered to
her knees, and let her dark parka hood shield her head and hair. She
waited for three minutes after they left and then unlocked and slipped
out of the stall. Silence. She eased the door ajar, listened, opened it,
and listened some more. Silence, and the lights were off. She crept
through the semi darkness to the parking lot wall and peered through a
window. Brees's SUV was turning toward King's and McCauley's houses on
Seabridge Trail. The van that had transported the drum kit and amps and
lighting was long gone.
She waited five minutes in case anyone returned, simultaneously letting
her eyes adjust to the darkness, then pulled on her wool gloves and
crept down the center aisle of the darkened room, her path lit only by
the exterior lights shining through the windows. At the stage, she
turned toward a stage door and felt her way through the darkness to the
stage itself, since the wings had no windows.
The curtains were open, giving her barely enough light to see. She
popped the end caps off the base of Brees's electronic drum stand, slid
out the weights that kept the drums from tilting over, and replaced the
caps. She used a couple of small pieces of scrap wood to tilt the stand
slightly forward, making sure that the stand and drums didn't quite tilt
over onto the throne. She dragged the weights into the windowless stage
right wing, reluctantly pulled a tiny flashlight out of the pocket of
her parka, and hid the weights under some backstage junk. She stuck the
flashlight in a parka pocket before slipping off the front of the stage
to the floor.
She used the key she'd stolen from the janitor to unlock the door. She
closed the door behind her and locked it like she'd had every right to
be in the building with the rest of the set up crew, though she kept her
head down so that her face was invisible inside the hood of her parka,
just in case anyone noticed. She turned, descended the snow dusted
steps, and vanished into the darkness.
~ ~ ~
Wynter agreed with Sis One's order to check all the equipment to insure
that nothing had been tampered with. The only instruments that had been
left overnight were Sis's drums and the school's Clavinova. Well, and
Finnegan's control panel, but it was electronically locked and then
covered with a locking panel. But it sure was possible that somebody
might have shorted out the amps or Finnegan's lights--who knew what?
They checked everything, then the Twins stayed in the auditorium as
guards while Kenny purchased lunch tokens for them and explained their
absence to Mister Shelby. Hailey bought her own lunch token in Ms.
Beard's home room and then joined them, changing into her grass skirt in
the wings, standing where Jimmy could see her.
Wynter chuckled and shook her head when Jimmy totally ignored her.
Everyone was in place and the curtains had been closed as the students
began filing into the auditorium. When everyone was in, Principal Peters
appeared from the stage left wing and asked if they were ready. Sis gave
him a thumbs up, and everyone switched on headsets, setting them to the
intercom position.
The principal slipped between the closed curtains and made several
announcements. Then he said, "And now, ladies and gentlemen and
teachers," and paused for cheers from the students and boos from the
teachers, "the moment you've been waiting for. Today's performers are
led by the person responsible for Wednesday night's half time show that
rallied the Knights to come from behind and win..."
Wynter thought the screaming and cheering probably drowned out
everything after "rallied."
"...Griffin Middle School's own JUNIOR AND THE TWINS!"
The curtains drew back. Principal Peters withdrew stage left, and Sis,
drumsticks in one hand, rose from her throne, thrusting her arms upward
in a "V".
Once again Wynter was glad that she didn't have to describe the scene
because she just knew she'd stumble over the word "pandemonium." She
swept her eyes over the audience. Brinkly and Cori sat together in the
eighth grade section, looking as if they were going to vomit. She smiled
to herself and saw Jimmy's head suddenly twist to look at the pair, like
he'd just read Wynter's thoughts. He turned his head and gave her his
grin and nod.
Sis finally got the crowd to quiet down by telling them that the Twins
couldn't perform until they shut up. Then she introduced the band,
including its "special guest performer" and its "sound and light
engineer." Wynter's heart felt too big for her chest when Finnegan got
as much applause as the others, herself included.
"THANK YOU! As you know, Junior and the Twins dedicates all its
performances. This performance is dedicated to the champion Griffin
Knights football team! Ladies and gentlemen, Walk, Don't Run!" Sis
remained standing while her left arm rose vertically and held its stick
parallel to her shoulders. Her right hand rose to strike the beat and
then, as Finnegan hit her with a spotlight, she dropped onto her throne
and began the drum routine that opened the 1960 version of the song.
Wynter had nothing to do during this number and would have waited
off stage until the second song, but Sis had wanted her on stage for the
introductions. Neither did Jimmy for that version of the tune, so the
two of them sprang from their benches and danced to the music. She
supposed nobody was paying attention to them, since Sister Hailey was
shaking her hips at full speed across the stage.
The song reached the drums that bridged the two halves together. Sis
played a couple of measures and then stopped as a spotlight suddenly
illuminated Mark and LaMarcus as they did the opening gliss of the 1964
version. She and Jimmy quickly sat down because he had the organ part in
this version. The audience--well, with a few notable grumpy
exceptions--exploded, and Sis Two's hips found an even faster dance speed.
After the applause died, Sis said, "You're our audience, and we're here
for you! Any requests?"
Among the shouted titles, Wynter heard a plaintive voice from the eighth
grade section begging, "Marry me!"
Sis quieted the crowd and indicated someone with her drumsticks.
"That wind song," she said. "I don't remember the name of it."
"That's not one of our songs," the little drummer replied. "It belongs
to that UNNAMED band of hers." She lifted her right arm and pointed to
Wynter, who flicked her headset to loudspeaker.
"We're playing next week," Wynter said. "We'll add Zephyr to our
playlist just for you, Ginger."
Sis indicated someone in the eighth grade section, who said, "Let's Go!"
"If you can wait just a little bit, we're going to close with that one.
Unless you want us to stop now?"
After the howls of protest died, she said, "How about one of the
teachers? Mrs. Smith?"
"Misirlou!" she replied.
"Ladies and gentlemen, for our next number, a Greek song about an
Egyptian muslim woman, up tempoed to a rock and roll rhythm by the
American son of Lebanese immigrants when he was challenged to play an
entire song on only one guitar string, MISIRLOU!"
The music had a piano part for Wynter, who almost had trouble
remembering her part as Huntly did a smarty pants routine while playing
the main theme. The audience loved it. When it was over, David Corman
requested Diamond Head, to which Jimmy had added an electric piano to go
with the organ. Then Ginger Collier requested Pipeline. Jimmy had Wynter
play the electric piano for that one, saying it was proper since she was
a guest performer and therefore should perform.
"THANK YOU! We are running out of time, and the rest of our show is
pre planned." Sis then announced the history of the actual spacecraft
and the tune named for it, Mariner No. 4. The crowd went wild again when
Huntly and his guitar started dancing with Sis Two. After it was over,
Sis finally calmed them down with another reminder that they were eating
up the remaining time.
"THANK YOU!" Sis said again after she switched to her favorite mallets
and rose to her feet. "But let's not stop at the planet Mars, let's take
a Journey to the Stars!" She tapped the beat, which Wynter recognized as
a theatrical event for the audience because Sis would set the beat when
she began playing, then turned to the electronic drums and hammered out
the opening that four bars and two beats later was echoed by LaMarcus.
Mark hit the whole chords, and then Huntly wailed the introductory high
notes. As he finished, Sis dropped to her throne, dropped her mallets,
caught two rising sticks from her stick launcher, and slammed out the
snare roll.
That was when Wynter noticed the electronic drums and their stand were
shaking violently. Then, with what seemed agonizing slowness, the whole
assemblage rocked forward, the drum pads in their metal case coming down
toward the back of Sis's head. Huntly noticed and lunged for the stand,
but he was one step too far away and blocked by an amplifier. His hands
closed on empty air.
As slow as it seemed, Wynter barely had time to scream, "SIS!", though
her voice was drowned out by screams from the audience, before the drums
struck Sis One in the head with the explosive sound of a couple of
electronic kettledrums and the rattle of floor toms and cymbals being
scattered about the stage.
Principal Peters shouted for Mister Tilman to close the curtains as
Wynter rushed to her unconscious sister. She directed Mark and Jimmy to
slowly, carefully lift the electronic drums away.
Wynter gasped in horror when she saw that not all of the red in Sis's
hair was its natural color.
Chapter 25
His eyes so full of tears he could barely see, Huntly pushed aside
whatever it was in his way and took Cinnamon's limp left hand. "Bitch?"
he moaned piteously in a tiny voice while he pushed up the microphone
and kissed her hand over and over as the stage lighting died and the
background hum disappeared from the speakers.
"Bitch?" Tears cascaded down his face in a torrent. "Just open your eyes
and say, 'Yes, shithead?' and everything will be okay. Just one little,
'Yes, shithead?' for me. Please? "Bitch?" The word was a high pitched
squeak.
He heard Kenny rush in from the stage right wings, obviously talking to
911 on his cell phone. "Vitals as we know them. Stand by."
Huntly felt Kenny lean over him for a closer look. He didn't move. He
wasn't going to leave Cinnamon's side or release her hand.
"The patient has a scalp laceration maybe five centimeters in the left
parietal region..."
"Approximately along the inferior temporal line," Wynter said.
As Kenny repeated it, Huntly heard Hailey ask, "How's Cuz?" Huntly
didn't know how to describe the sound of her voice, but he knew he
didn't like it. In fact, it scared him, and he shivered as his blood ran
cold.
"I think she'll be okay," Kenny said, lifting the phone away from his
mouth. "I think it looks worse than it is because head wounds bleed a
lot." As Wynter began relaying more information through Kenny while
holding the cut closed with her fingers, the school nurse, Mrs. Jessen,
arrived with Principal Peters. Somebody, maybe Jimbo, took Huntly's
shoulders and gently pulled him back to give the nurse access. Huntly
hoped that Mrs. Jessen wasn't an interference for the Doc.
At the same time, the wahine shrieked a savage animal like noise that
froze his blood, said something that must have been native Hawaiian,
turned, and disappeared between the curtains in a wild streak.
~ ~ ~
Willis Ames was helping the other teachers try to maintain order while
filing the students out of the auditorium by rows. He heard a strange
sound muffled by the heavy curtains. Then Hailey Kennedy flew out
between them, leaping barefoot off the edge of the stage to the concrete
floor, and rushed to the right aisle. Kennedy skidded to a stop at
Brinkly Ward's wheelchair, grabbed the crippled girl's clothing at the
shoulders, and lifted her up until they were nose to nose.
"YOU FUCKING BITCH! YOU CAUSED THIS! I'M GONNA GET PROOF THAT IT'S SO
YOUR FUCKING FAULT AND THEN I'M, LIKE, GONNA MAKE SURE YOU NEVER GET
INTO THIS FUCKING CHAIR AGAIN BECAUSE YOU'LL BE IN A BED THE REST OF
YOUR FUCKING LIFE!"
Ames reached them as Kennedy slammed the Ward girl back into her chair.
"MISS KENNEDY!"
Her glare froze him in his tracks, except for his wobbling chins,
despite his being over three times her size. "Hey! Excuse me, but, like,
I gotta go to the office to be suspended now!" She started to stomp
around him, then stopped and said in an almost conversational tone,
"Hey, would you, like, have someone bring my clothes to me there? This
grass skirt isn't that warm."
As Ames ran his palm up his high forehead and across his close cropped
hair, the Ward girl wiped sprayed spit off her face, looked at all the
angry faces glaring at her, and shrieked, "No! It wasn't me! I swear it!
Honest! No! Mister Ames? Ms. Beard? Help!"
Ames, with Cori Sikes' help, quickly evacuated the Ward girl as the rest
of the students became increasingly angry, threatening to turn into a
modern day lynch mob.
~ ~ ~
Finnegan froze in horror as the electronic drum stand rocked forward. He
didn't regain control of his senses, reflexes, and manual control until
the crash of drum pads reverberated through the sound system. Then his
fingers flew, killing the main power relays which thereby killed the
sound and lighting, killing the power to his mixer and control station,
engaging the electronic lock on all controls, slamming down the
plexiglas lid, turning and removing the key.
He sprang out of his chair, flew off his left rear corner dais, raced
for the stage left door, shouted, "MOVE, GODDAMNIT!" at some teacher who
stepped in his way, side slipped around her, watched another teacher
move his ass between seated students to give him room.
It's my goddamned fault! It's MY goddamned fault! raced through his
head. She wanted the curved chrome tubular ells for legs and I came up
with the removable weights to make them stable. Only they WEREN'T! I
fucked up the calculation. And I fucked up by not adding some kind of
short projection to the front of each leg. It wouldn't be seen anyway!
GODDAMNIT, IT'S MY FAULT!
The nurse and the principal got to the steps first. They were going
through the door as he reached the bottom step. He slowed to climb the
steps, ducked inside. Where the fucking janitor stopped him.
"I'VE GOT TO CHECK THE STAND!" he shouted, pointing through the side
curtains.
Argument. No time to argue! Dash around the roadblock. The janitor
grabbed his shoulder. Finnegan slammed a hand up, catching a finger just
below the tip and forcing it up and backward. The janitor grunted in
pain and released his grip.
Finnegan was through the side curtains in an instant, in time to see
someone--grass skirted, therefore Hailey--disappear through the front
curtains. He skirted around the people helping Cinnamon, dashing to the
far side. The electronic drums had been shoved aside. Now Mark was
trying to push them back into an upright... What the fuck?
They moved wrong. They were well past the point where the weights would
have pulled the whole stand upright, but Mark was still pushing, not
holding them back. "Hold it there," he said, pointing so Mark would know
who the order was for. Mark stopped. Finnegan popped off an end cap off
a foot and looked inside as McCauley joined him.
"No weight!" he said, reaching for the other end cap. That foot was also
empty. "YOU IDIOTS FORGOT THE FUCKING WEIGHTS!" he shouted, ignoring the
presence of the Principal.
"No, they didn't," McCauley said. "I watched Huntly and LaMarcus put
them in."
"That's right," said Reed. "I put the weight in that one, and Huntly in
the other. I put both caps back on," he added as Hailey began screaming
out front.
So. I should have put locking caps on the feet! Goddamnit! My design let
that bitch sabotage the equipment and try to kill Cinnamon! He forced
his fury under control with a tremendous burst of willpower.
The equipment. Hailey was taking care of the bitch. Wynter was taking
care of Cinnamon. He'd take care of the equipment.
He heard the scream of a siren. Ambulance. The station was close by.
Cinnamon was being taken care of by the best, and the EMTs would be here
in less than a minute. The people were being seen to. It was his job to
see about the equipment. He wasn't going to fuck up and forget about the
equipment the way Ron did with his homing device on the lake. No fucking
way!
Where was it sitting? He stood up. "Lean it against the back wall so it
doesn't tip over again." Where was it sitting? He brought up the picture
in his head and compared it to what he could see. Where was it sitting?
"There," he whispered. He dropped to his hands and knees, ignoring
something McCauley said.
He found it as the EMTs came in. They told him to move. He jerked a
permanent marker out of his shirt and made two quick marks on the floor.
"KENNY!" He grabbed McCauley's and Reed's shirts as Kenny appeared
before him. "We've got to keep people off these scratches. I think
they're evidence."
He'd thought about having the ends of the cylinders rounded rather than
leaving them as flat right angles. He didn't, and now he had scratches
on the floor. Faint scratches, yeah, but somebody had put fingers
through the eyebolts used for leverage to pull the weights out of the
stand and had dragged them together across the floor to Stage Right. The
marks would disappear and he'd have to find them again, but he did.
Officers Lopez and Hlavacek arrived as they were about to wheel Cinnamon
off the stage.
"HEY!" he shouted at Ron's dad. "C'MERE! I FOUND SOMETHING!" He
explained the situation as the marks became easier to follow and led to
a pile of scenery and other junk against the back wall.
~ ~ ~
Kenny let Wynter precede him into the hallway, then closed the treatment
room door behind them. "Your patient, Future Doctor," he said.
Wynter smiled at him, then swept her eyes over all the people swarmed in
a huge semicircle around them. "She's sleeping. She's in no danger.
Except for being a little higher, the wound is remarkably like Daddy's
head wound when he fell down the stairs, which means that she should
recover with no side effects. She's younger, so she will likely heal
faster."
"She's okay?" Huntly's piteous whine sounded much like Kenny thought
he'd sounded after Suzie was shot with the spear and Wynter had saved her.
"She will be. The concussion is mild. The MRI shows no indication of
brain trauma. The worst is the cut, and they had to shave a little
around it for the stitches. If I know Sis, she'll be more worried about
what hair styles she can't use until it grows out some. She'll need a
few days in the hospital and at home, but you know how hard headed Sis
is. She'll be unconscious until morning at the earliest. Only her
parents, sisters, and you in her room until noon tomorrow. Then the
doctors will decide a new visitation schedule."
Tears streaming from his eyes, Huntly kissed Wynter, shook Kenny's hand,
and asked if he could see her.
Kenny looked at his watch. "They should be moving her upstairs by the
restricted corridors now. Mrs. Erland can give you her room number. The
rest of you might as well have lunch and try to enjoy what's left of
your day off." Principal Peters had canceled classes for the rest of the
day, probably to prevent a lynching or a riot, which meant a long
weekend with no homework.
Suzie's eyes were red, but she was no longer crying. She took Kenny's
arm and asked, "Would you take me to her or something?"
Hailey began making threats toward Brinkly. Snoopy tried to intercede.
"Hailey, revenge isn't a very Christian attitude. You should find
forgiveness..."
Hailey's look stopped Snoopy cold. "Hey! She wants a Christian attitude.
How about I, like crucify her? How Christ-like can you get?"
Kenny put his mouth next to Suzie's ear and whispered, "She won't know
if you're not there if you're delayed. Would you like to give me a hand
with another sister first?"
Leigh Ann suddenly appeared, crying heavily and wrapped her arms around
Suzie, as much for her own comfort as for Suzie's. Since Wynter was busy
answering Ron Lopez's questions, Leigh Ann turned to Kenny. "She's going
to be okay? No sugar coating? That's the real truth?"
Kenny had to tell her yes three times before she was satisfied. Then it
was Evi Lopez, who Suzie suggested should listen to the answers her
brother was getting. They edged toward Hailey, only to be stopped by
Shamisa and Monique, then Brin Kwan, Trish Fenton, and Katie Wilson,
then Donnie Smith and Chad Sparks.
Kenny drafted Donnie to help with Hailey. The three of them tried to get
her to stop making threats and listen. As Hailey continued to ignore
them, Suzie's face grew redder. Kenny saw the moment arrive, stepped
aside, and braced himself.
Suzie's right foot lifted, slammed down, and she screamed, "SIS, SHUT UP!"
Kenny thought Suzie's apology to everyone in the waiting area was
somehow... sweet.
~ ~ ~
Rick Ward paced the room, hands in his pockets. "So help me, God, if
you're behind this..."
"Rick!" Lynne said. "We don't know anything about this!"
"Then why are we getting threatening phone calls? Why are people driving
by and throwing things in our yard? Why...?"
"Well, I guess they're blaming us because of... you know."
"Goddamned right, I know! You two pulled that first stunt, and now they
believe you're behind this. Only this one involves an injury! We can be
sued, for Christ's sake!"
"Daddy..."
"You wait your turn, young lady. Well?" he asked Lynne. "Did you expect
her to get hurt? Did you ignore the possibility of a lawsuit?"
"Rick, we had nothing to do with it! I told you! Are you saying you
don't believe us?"
He jerked his hands out of his pockets throwing them wide. "Well, let me
think! You terrorized a girl who was already under some kind of mental
trauma, pissed off the whole town, involved people who work for me in
industrial sabotage, and did all of this without my knowledge.
"Now we have the whole town pissed off AGAIN because someone caused a
girl to be physically assaulted AND FUCKING INJURED! The SAME girl who
was the ultimate target of the terrorization AND of the industrial
sabotage! The TOWN believes it. No doubt my BOSSES will believe it, and
I'm still on probation because of your last goddamned stunt! Who gives a
shit what I think? We've already been tried, convicted, and sentenced by
the community!"
Lynne shook her head and spoke to him like a mother to a first grader
with his facts wrong. "Rick, there's no way those people..."
"It didn't occur to you the first time that your actions could have
future consequences, did it?" He stopped talking and turned to the
living room window as a rock bounced off it. The glass held. He pointed
at the window and said to Lynne, "They'll just come back with bigger
rocks. Or artillery. That glass ISN'T BULLETPROOF!"
"Now, Rick..."
"Not only that, the police have made this a CRIMINAL investigation! I
swear to God that if I find out you're behind this--EITHER ONE of
you--the two of you are headed back east ALONE! Now, leave out any
bullshit and START TALKING!"
~ ~ ~
Craig knocked on the bedroom door and politely asked permission to
enter. He waited until she invited him in, then entered and closed the door.
"You just get off work?" Brinkly asked from her bed. She was lying atop
the covers in her Vermont Teddy Bear pajamas. She looked a frightful
mess. Her short brown hair was wet from her tears.
"Yeah. I still have homework to do, but my favorite sister comes first."
Tears trickled down from the corners of her eyes, following the trail to
her ears laid down by their predecessors. She held out her left hand to
him. "Have you heard?"
He took her hand and kissed it. "Binky, everyone in the town has heard.
I want you to tell me the truth, pinky swear, did you know anything
about this, no matter how small, before it happened?"
"NO!" She began sobbing in earnest. "Craig, I didn't know anything until
it happened. Daddy doesn't believe me. I don't think Mother believes me,
either."
"Pinky swear?"
She raised her right hand and extended her little finger, waited until
he hooked is own around it, and then said, "Pinky swear. It wasn't me."
"Then I believe you."
The phone rang. They ignored it while he asked for details.
She was in the middle of the story when her mother said over her
intercom, "It's for you."
"I need to go clean up," he said. "And I have homework. I'll tuck you in
when you're ready."
"Promise you believe me?"
"I promise."
~ ~ ~
She looked at the caller ID, picked up the phone, and said, "What do you
want?"
"You said nobody would get hurt." Near panic in the voice.
"Nobody did. Nobody important, anyway."
"She's in the hospital! She's going to be there for a few days!"
"So?"
"The police are asking questions! I might be arrested!"
"Can anybody hear you? Are you sitting in the living room with your
parents while you blab..."
"No! I told them I was going for a walk. There's nobody around. I can
see a hundred feet in all directions."
"Then I suggest you go home and get some sleep."
"You said nobody would get hurt. I think I should confess. They'll find
out it was me. If I tell them first..."
"If you tell them first, I'll see to it that those pictures get scanned
and released to the internet. And copies sent to the police."
"You promised that if I did it..."
"Yes, but now you're threatening to involve me."
"NO! I'll say it was just me. It was just my idea. Please? You said
you'd give me the pictures."
"Yes, but now I think I'd better keep them as insurance. As for you,
shut up, clean up your face, go home, and keep your mouth shut if you
know what's good for you."
"What if the police question me?"
"You'd better make goddamned sure that my name doesn't come up."
"DAMN IT! You said..."
She hung up and went back to her roiling thoughts.
~ ~ ~
Wynter looked up as Nurse Carter eased into the room. She was early for
her shift in the ER. They greeted each other with warm hugs. Then Nurse
Carter threw a quick glance at the monitor and scanned Wynter's notes.
"Nice," she said in a low voice. "I trained you well. No deviation?"
Wynter, in full professional mode, shook her head. "Everything is as
anticipated. Doctor Sharp was here two hours ago. He agrees that we
won't know anything else until she wakes up."
Nurse Carter indicated the couch with a tilt of her head. "When did he
go to sleep?"
Wynter looked at her watch, then at Huntly. "Approximately one hour
and fifty seven minutes ago."
Nurse Carter glanced at the recliner, scanned the times of the entries
in the notes, and asked, "When did you sleep?"
"Which time?"
"What's the longest?"
"A little over an hour at one and at three."
"She'll be here for a couple of days. You can't go to school Monday on a
string of catnaps..."
"I know. After she regains consciousness and we know there's no
neurological damage. But until then, I'm here in case there's an
emergency in the middle of the night."
"Wynter, I hardly think there's much chance of an emergency..."
"I agree," she said, cutting her off. "I'm sorry for being rude. But how
would you feel in my place if one happened and you weren't here?"
Nurse Carter gave her a long look. "Maybe I trained you too well," she
said, making Wynter's heart feel too big for her chest. "Look, you can
probably get another twenty minutes before things get busy in here. I'll
go check on Meg Isringhausen." She was one of Nurse Carter's close
friends. "She came in with stomach cramps last night."
"Mister Rhodes is back from San Francisco, isn't he?"
Nurse Carter returned her sly smile. "He got back around ten last night."
Wynter nodded. "I'm not the only one who looks like she's had a mostly
sleepless night."
~ ~ ~
Her eyes flew open at the first soft "beep" from her watch, and her
finger quickly shut off the alarm. Huntly was still asleep on the couch,
his position unchanged. She reached for the recliner's lever and turned
her head toward Sis. "What are you two bozos doing here?" she whispered.
"Bozos?" Jimmy released Sis's hand and rose from his side chair. "You
know, Kenneth, this hospital could use higher quality indentured
servants. Why, they're hardly better than the riff raff sleeping under
the loading docks."
Kenny, in his white lab coat, looked up from scribbling a note in Sis's
records and frowned at her through his crooked glasses. "I quite agree,
James. You bring them breakfast and they call you pejorative names. It's
really rather revolting."
"Breakfast?" she said, pushing herself out of the recliner. Then her
nose drew her attention to the bags from McDonald's sitting on the side
table.
"Well, Suzanne generously brought me my morning repast after I was
evacuated from the mine. I appreciated it tremendously and thought
perhaps some of the lowly health staff would appreciate the same gesture
of compassion rather than being abandoned to the hideous diet of pat, of
ruptured spleen and grilled slime mold garnished with chancres braised
in bile that is so favored by food service. Not to mention orange juice
in lieu of eau de specimen. Clearly I was operating under a
misapprehension."
"Clearly," agreed Jimmy as she stopped before him, fists on her hips. He
waved a hand sideways at Huntly while speaking to Kenny. "She's
undergone a drastic change in attitude since she started sleeping with
teenagers. Perhaps that is causal. I recall the time when she was
supportive of visiting family members and had a sweet disposition."
"Suzanne has been sleeping with a teenager and it hasn't changed her
attitude. Perhaps it's the environment. Surely this is the only hospital
in the country that disapproves of people checking on the condition of
their Future Sister in Law. I really should do rounds elsewhere this
morning in protest."
"Quite. We also should demand that our Future Sister in Law be evacuated
to a higher class joint."
Kenny slipped his pen into his breast pocket in a way that was strongly
reminiscent of his father's movement. "Should we take the food with us
while we do that?"
"I rather think so."
"What about Huntly?"
"Huntly? The bloody bugger's been sleeping with the staff. He deserves
no compassion. Fuck him."
"James! He's not my type!"
The banter died when Sis suddenly moaned and turned her head slightly.
Wynter brushed Jimmy aside and reached for her wrist, not trusting the
pulse count on the monitor when she could use her fingers. Kenny checked
her pupils. When she looked up from her watch, she arched her blonde
eyebrows at Kenny.
He nodded. "Sedative's wearing off early."
Wynter grabbed the phone and notified the desk, saying that Doctor Delvy
should be notified when he came in. She listened, said "Yes," listened
some more, said she'd report any changes, then hung up the phone.
Jimmy was emptying the contents of the McDonald's sack on the table.
"Kenny, you want to wake Huntly?"
"I'll do it," she said, smirking at Jimmy. "After all, I'm the one who
was sleeping with him."
She leaned over Huntly and kissed him on the lips. When the brown eyes
popped open and gave her a puzzled frown over an ecstatic smile, she
whispered, "The other Two Stooges brought breakfast."
He looked around her, grinned, and whispered, "I don't normally get
dessert before breakfast. Thank you."
"Thank Jimmy. He was making smarty pants comments about my sleeping with
a teenager."
"I most certainly will!" He rose to his feet and extended a hand.
"Thanks, Jimbo! Say, any time you're too busy to sleep with her, just
give me a call. That's what friends are for."
Jimmy ignored the hand. "You asshole," he snarled, causing Wynter to
giggle. Jimmy noticed that. His face said he was thinking, "Payback is a
bitch."
Huntly was suddenly all business. "How is she?" After Wynter updated
him, he quietly slipped to the side of her bed, took her hand in his,
and gently kissed her. "Your shithead loves you, bitch," he whispered in
her ear.
The others busied themselves with breakfast, giving Huntly a moment of
privacy.
~ ~ ~
Rounds over, Kenny decided to check with Dad before going back to
Cinnamon's room. He met Ron coming around a corner. The older boy
skipped the preliminaries. "Got a few minutes?"
"Sure."
"Let's find Mitch."
He knows something, Kenny realized. "This way. I just saw him."
They waited outside a patient's room, then ambushed Doctor Brees when he
left, dragging him to an empty room. Ron again skipped the
preliminaries. "Facts: Finnegan and Dad found the weights from the stand
buried under scenery in the stage left wings. No question that they'd
been dragged to the spot and hidden there. Whoever did it wanted to be
sure that the weights weren't found and placed back in the stand before
the performance. He cost himself an argument in his defense when we
catch him.
"Smudged fingerprints indicate that he wore gloves. From the sizes of
the unsmudged prints, I'd bet they are yours, Huntly's, hers, Jimmy's,
LaMarcus's, Keith's, and perhaps Mark's. No help.
"Bill Tilman is missing a spare key to the auditorium. It's possible
that someone entered after the setup. I'm also alert to the possibility
that someone was already hiding in the auditorium when the Twins set up."
Kenny knew Ron's words indicated that the police gave lower priority to
the second possibility and said so.
Ron nodded. "They think anyone would have been noticed. I don't. Either
Kenny or I could have hidden there after school and sabotaged the stand
after set up. If we could do it, so could someone else. I'm not saying
that's what happened. I'm just saying that there's no reason yet to
suspect that subsequent entry is a higher priority."
Doctor Brees nodded and thought for a moment. "You said 'he.' Does that
mean you have reason to think it was a boy or a man?"
Ron grinned and scratched his head. "Let's just say that the team of
Lopez and Taylor, like Huntly the Magician, wants to keep a few cards up
its sleeves until the right time in the act."
Kenny watched the gears turn in Doctor Brees's head. He was weighing
Dad's opinion of Ron and his daughter's opinion, along with what Kenny
had told him, against his natural inclination to let the police handle
everything. He saw the decision arrive.
"Okay. What's next?"
"Next we wait until Cinnamon can talk to me. In the meantime, there are
two other people I haven't questioned yet. Fortunately, they're
co-located nearby."
~ ~ ~
Cinnamon was awake but groggy from the painkillers. Ron was out of the
room, questioning Sister Wynter. Shithead was holding her hand,
occasionally kissing it and murmuring words to her she couldn't
understand, but she couldn't ask him to speak louder. Not that it
mattered. She understood their meaning. Sis had said that he'd spent the
night, much of it holding her hand, until Sis ordered him to get some
sleep. That said far more than his words did.
Cuz was there, looking ready to kill except when she spoke to her or one
of their sisters. Or Kenny. He was monitoring her signs, and Cuz treated
him with the same respect she gave Sister Wynter. But she was curt with
everyone else.
That was when David Corman entered. He patted her free hand and made
"get well" noises, watching everyone but her while he spoke. When no one
was watching, he raised a hand to scratch his shoulder and tapped his
shirt pocket twice enroute.
She gave him a slow blink since she couldn't nod. "Shi'ed?"
Huntly's face was next to hers in an instant. "Yes, bitch?" he murmured.
"Ever'n out bu' Dav'd. Pl's. You, too."
Huntly blinked at her in confusion for a moment, then realized that she
didn't want witnesses for some reason. He wouldn't have argued if she'd
been well. He wasn't about to argue now.
"Okay," he whispered. "I love you."
She greatly appreciated his attempt to avoid loud noises. "L'v 'oo, t',"
she managed to get out in a harsh whisper.
Naturally, one person wanted to argue, but Huntly explained that it was
important to the mystery of what happened. He didn't understand that he
was one hundred percent correct. He was just trying to get Cuz to leave.
When they were alone, her Agent Green pulled a square of dark gray paper
out of his pocket, one that had been folded twice into a smaller square
and had a certain corner crimped a certain way.
"You 'eed?" she asked.
"Of course not," David replied. "I don't need to know unless you tell me."
She smiled at him, and he understood. She was teasing him. He held her
hand for a moment before releasing the paper into it.
She opened it and tried to focus on the words in silver ink. Damned
drugs, she thought. Finally she handed it to David. "You 'eed."
He read it. "Convinced 100% Brinkly not involved. Call two when can
talk." David refolded the paper. She fluttered one hand in a shooing
motion to indicate she didn't want it back. The paper disappeared into
its original hiding place. Then he took her hand, waiting for her next
orders as he gently squeezed it.
So. Silver had good reason to believe Brinkly was innocent. "Call two"
meant he could explain a lengthy reason by phone, since it wasn't safe
for them to be seen together, if she'd call his work number.
Cuz's voice exploded out in the hall. She was arguing with a man whose
voice Cinnamon didn't recognize--at least, she didn't recognize it
through the door. She pointed at the door and beckoned.
David nodded, kissed her hand, and went to the door.
Cuz entered backward, facing and still arguing violently with Mister
Rick Ward.
Cinnamon winced in pain and pointed at her head. David understood and
told Cuz to shut up because she was hurting Cinnamon.
The argument stopped. Sort of. Cuz did a one person stampede over to the
bedside and began, in a loud whisper, explaining why that pickledick had
no business in her room.
Cinnamon quieted her with a fingertip to Cuz's lips, then beckoned her
down and whispered soundlessly, "Shu' up. I ne' ta'k to 'im."
Cuz glared at her, glared at him, and stormed around to the other side
of the bed where she wouldn't have to stand next to her object of hatred
but from where she could protect her cousin.
Mister Ward approached when she beckoned, apologized, and then began
apologizing for Brinkly and her mom, saying that they wouldn't get away
with it if they were guilty. She stopped him with a finger to her lips,
then beckoned both him and Cuz down where she could whisper.
"Brink'y no' guilt'. Brink'y in'cent. Tell her I kno' she in'cent.
T'anks f'r c'ming. Cuz, stop. 'Kay? Not Brink'y. I nee' s'eep now."
When she opened her eyes again, the shadows had changed, along with the
room's additional occupants. Huntly was holding one hand, Ron the other.
"Welcome back, bitch," Huntly murmured. That triggered a gathering
around her bed: Mom, her sisters, her backup personal doctor, Mister
Shelby, Jimmy, Donnie, Trish, Leigh Ann, Katie, and the Watkins cousins.
"There are two other larger groups waiting down the hall," he said.
As each expressed condolences, best wishes, get well wishes, what have
you, she held out her arms for a hug or kiss. She accepted each with a
gentle inhale and with narrowed, unblinking eyes.
~ ~ ~
Ron closed the door and returned to the bedside after the last
well wisher had departed and he'd cleared the room. "With all these
flowers crammed in here, this place is a botanist's paradise and a hay
fever suffer's nightmare," he said. Then his smile disappeared. "Are you
ready for the rundown?" His voice was barely loud enough to hear so that
it didn't aggravate the headache that the medication didn't fully block.
Slow blink: Yes.
He gave her a detailed rundown, the information he'd told Kenny, which
was more than he'd told anyone else including Huntly and Mitch. Then:
"You told Brinkly's father it wasn't her?"
Slow blink.
"No bullshit--you and me: is that right?"
Slow blink.
"Do you know who did do it?"
Pause, like she was deciding. Then a slow blink.
"Who?"
Index finger elevated from right fist and waggled side to side. No.
He thought he understood. "Certainty?"
She raised her right fist, rapidly flashed a five, then a four, paused,
then curled her fingertips around in a circle to meet her thumb tip.
"Ninety percent? Is that why you don't want to tell me? You're waiting
until you're one hundred percent sure?"
Waggled index finger.
"No? You have a purpose?"
Slow blink.
"Anything I need to do?"
Hand out flat, palm down, thumb and little finger extended, then wobbled.
He chose a translation that seemed right. "Not now but later?"
Slow blink.
"When?"
She pointed at the window, then made two circles with an index finger.
Two trips of the sun around the earth. "Monday?"
Slow blink.
"Okay. Anything else?"
Slow blink, then puckered lips.
That was easy enough to translate.
Chapter 26
The door crept open at six. Wynter looked up from transcribing Sis's
vitals and smiled. Sister Hailey entered, followed by Jimmy and Kenny
carrying backpacks that emitted smells of Egg McMuffins and biscuit
sandwiches and hashbrowns and the sweetness of maple syrup on pancakes
and the faint sharpness of orange juice. All three were wet from the
freezing rain that had begun falling in the last hour.
Hailey saw Wynter first and gave her a wan smile that reminded her of
Dragon when she had first found him. "Hey, Sis. How's Sis Cuz today?
Like, better, maybe?" she whispered, slipping out of her parka as the
boys smiled at Wynter and carried breakfast to the side table by the
recliner and moved flowers off the table to make room for food.
"She awoke around two. Her headache was better, but she had another dose
of morphine then. Let her sleep until Doctor Delvy arrives. Or Doctor
Sharp, but I don't think he'll awaken her."
Sis Two gave her sister cousin's hand a gentle pat and a kiss, then
sighed. "Hey, no prob. Listen, I, like, brought some 'corks' in case you
two start early. Tomorrow's the day, you know."
"Good. I was going to ask you to bring some for us. I have just the one
for emergencies. Jimmy gets embarrassed if I ask him to get me some."
Sis threw up her hands, fingers spread, her eyes wild with disbelief.
"Hey! Guys will eat your coozie non stop for hours, but they are, like,
so the weird when it comes to feminine hygiene."
Wynter grinned and nodded significantly as Kenny and Jimmy joined them.
She kissed Jimmy and then murmured, "I guess we'd better wake up Huntly
for breakfast before it gets cold."
Hailey brightened. "I'll do it," she whispered with a wicked grin. All
three shook their heads.
"It's probably already cold, even though it was wrapped in the space
blanket," Jimmy said in her ear, looking to see if his voice was
bothering Sis. "That was a wicked front. The freezing rain should turn
to snow in the next half hour."
"The radio said it would move through quickly, though," Kenny whispered
as he took Cinnamon's chart and scanned it, frowning behind his crooked
glasses. "Does this mean what I think it means?" he asked, pointing at
Sis's two o'clock temperature spike.
While they were discussing it, Huntly suddenly emitted a muffled grunt
and thudded on the couch as if he'd been lifted and dropped. Or had
jumped from a prone position.
Kenny glanced in that direction, then said to Jimmy, "Would you go tell
Miss Electrolux that she's going to wake up Cinnamon, and that her
breakfast is sausage patties, not mini links?"
Jimmy sighed. It sounded to Wynter like one of resignation by someone
who knew he couldn't avoid an onerous task. "Yeah. I got it."
Huntly, after zipping his jeans, joined them, heavy eyebrows raised in
question. "The same," Wynter said. "She's resting quietly. Or as quietly
as she can with Sis Two in the room."
"Hey!" Hailey hissed in indignation. Everyone ignored her.
Huntly nodded and gave Sis One the gentlest of kisses. "Your shithead
loves you, bitch," he whispered in her ear. Wynter thought she saw a
hint of a smile curve Sis's lips. She swept the others toward the
breakfast table with her arms so that Huntly could have a moment with Sis.
They sat down while Jimmy apportioned the food.
"Hey! We, like, also brought you two something special," Hailey murmured
as they finished.
"Clean clothes," said Kenny. "We thought you'd like to take a shower and
change."
Both thanked her, and Huntly suggested she go first. "That way you'll be
ready when the day starts," he said, looking at the clock.
"I'll watch her for you," Kenny said.
"Okay." She kissed Jimmy, then took the bag he handed her from his pack.
As she opened the bathroom door, she heard Sis Two say in a soft, broken
voice, "She looks so tiny and helpless in that bed."
"Doctor Cutie's dad made it with no problem," Huntly reminded her, "and
she's twice as tough as he is."
That warmed Wynter's heart as she closed the door and began undressing.
~ ~ ~
It was her father's soft knock on the door, not Craig's. She sighed.
"I'm awake," she said, arranging the covers about her as he stuck his
head through the door.
"May I have a moment?"
As if I have a choice. "Come in."
He looked surprised to see her still in bed and said so. After she
explained that she felt a little feverish, like a cold or something was
happening, he kissed her forehead and noted that she did feel a little
warm. Then he pulled a chair beside her bed and sat down. "Your mother
said you weren't feeling well last night. Craig and I were worried when
we got home and you were already asleep."
Best to get it over with. "You wanted something?"
"Yes. I went to the hospital to see Cinnamon Brees yesterday. She told
me you were innocent and had nothing to do with what happened."
"Daddy, I told you that myself!" She tried to hold back the anger, but
it escaped anyway.
"I know you did. But, honey, after what you and your mother did before,
I naturally believed the worst. This has to stop! Rivalry is one thing,
and can be a good thing as long as it's kept under control."
The anger slipped a little more. "You're saying you don't believe her or
me?" Craig had believed her. Of course, she had to pinky swear with him.
But he believed her afterward.
"No. I'm not making myself clear. I'm saying that I believe--that I know
that you didn't have anything to do with it. But I'm also explaining
that your past actions make it difficult for people to take what you say
or do at face value now. There's doubt because of that. It's a variation
on the little boy who cried wolf.
"I'm still having trouble getting that through your mother's head. You
are smarter than her, Brinkly. I want you to understand my message. I
believe you now. The first time things made this harder for me to
believe. This will make it easier for me to believe you the next time
something happens, but that first time will still cause me doubts,
whether I want them to or not. This is a lesson you need to learn and
apply it in your future life. Don't give people a reason to doubt you,
and they'll always find it easy to believe you."
He stood up and kissed her forehead again. "That's all I have to say. I
don't want to wear you out, especially if you're not feeling well. Do
you want to join us for breakfast, or should we bring you a tray?"
"Could Craig bring me a tray?"
"I'll send him in with one as soon as he's out of the shower. Maybe four
or five minutes. Okay?"
She nodded. "Thank you."
She smiled at him as he closed the door, then let her head fall back and
her face relax. Parents!
~ ~ ~
To give his bitch some time alone with her parents and Hailey, Huntly
organized a raid on the snack bar with the two Future Docs and the
blonde one's lab monkey. He noticed the tall, slender, cute faced,
endowed brunette in the blue uniform staring at their table as she
waited for the cashier and wondered if she were staring at him or Jimmy.
Surely it wasn't at Boy Blunder, unless concern about a possible mental
escapee had piqued her concern. As she paid, he finally realized she was
staring at the two white lab coats and stethoscopes on two middle school
students. You didn't see that around the University Hospital and its campus.
"Who's the new CNA?" he asked, using his chin to point.
Everyone looked. "Must be Dana Michaels," Kenny said, showing the
advantages of having the Human Resources Manager as your mother. "She's
not certified yet. She graduates from CU this year and is doing a
rotation in Orthopedics starting today. Her parents are doing missionary
work in southeast Asia. Her father was a preacher in Canon City or maybe
Salida until she went to Nursing School."
"Yes, she's very attractive, and I hope she's equally competent," said
Jimbo, who then resumed an ongoing discussion with Doc Cutie.
"Orthopedics? Say, maybe I need to be admitted for observation of my
knee," Huntly observed. Then he grinned at Kenny and indicated Jimbo
with a twitch of his head. Boy Blunder understood his intent.
"Preacher's daughter, huh? Well, I guess that explains that great set of
Pastor Baiters."
"You mean those Pearly Weights?" Boy Blunder added, his eyes darting
sideways to Jimbo.
"I mean those First and Second Mammalonians."
"Ah, yes. The Beelzeboobs," Kenny added as Jimbo's shoulders slumped and
he turned to glare at them.
"Those certainly are Heavenly Canteens, right, Jimbo?"
Jimbo was on fast smoulder. "Do you two jackasses have to pull this
silly crap in front of Wynter?"
"Jimbo!" Huntly shook his head in feigned vexation. "Wynter's not
self conscious about her inability to quote from the book of Pamela
36:D, so what's the problem? Are you ashamed of your own Future Fiancee?"
Boy Blunder squinted in disbelief through his crooked glasses. "Huntly's
right! Wynter has her own Daughters of Lactiticus, and there's not a
damned thing wrong with them, medically or aesthetically, even if they
aren't Sweater Undulators like that aide's. You should apologize to
Wynter right now!"
"ME APOLOGIZE?" Success! They'd blown his cool.
"I will not sit here and let you disparage my good friend's Mini Mounds
of Mammalian Mystique! Good God, man! Do you plan to bad mouth Suzie's
Sweater Snacks next?"
Huntly rapped his knuckles on the table to get Jimmy's attention, then
pointed at him. "Look at it this way, Jimbo: it's good practice for
marriage. You'll be groveling and apologizing for anything and
everything then, anyway. Now, you tell Doc you're sorry for insulting
her Rack of Lambs of God in a fit of jealousy and blatant size
discrimination, and Boy Blunder and I will forgive you and go back to
contemplating Hooteronomies."
They turned their attention away from the irate Jimbo and the giggling
Doctor Cutie to admire the way the Nurse's Aide bobbed toward a table.
"That," said Kenny, "is one heck of a set of Communion Woofers."
As Jimbo sighed, "Goddamnit," Doctor Cutie broke up in a gale of laughter.
~ ~ ~
Cinnamon understood the frown on Sister Wynter's face. It was one of
suspicion.
"All right," Wynter said with a grim nod. "As you wish."
Good. She realizes it's for a reason.
"Okay, listen to me!" Sis said with the voice of a doctor taking charge.
Everyone quieted and waited. "Sis says her headache is worse. She wants
just one person at a time in the room with her, but she does want to see
everybody here. Everyone, please, out in the hall. You can wait down in
the visitor's room. Each visitor, please let the next person know when
you're finished. Amy, we'll start with you. The rest, out, please.
Medical necessity."
Jimmy looked down at her and frowned for a second, then gave her the
grin and nod he usually reserved for Wynter. Fingertip to chest, eyes,
the people. I'll watch them. Then walking fingertips across his hand.
He's going to do crowd control and send them here.
He realizes, too. And so does Mom King. And Suzie. And Finnegan. She
rolled her head to her right. "Shithead," she whispered.
He squeezed her hand and leaned over her. "Yes, bitch?"
"Door guard," she whispered. Whispering didn't hurt. Soft vocalizing
didn't hurt, either, but she saw no reason to reveal that yet. "Only one
at a time. Nobody else. Clear?"
"Including doctors, including those who might be a parent?"
"You clear with me first. Knock, wait five seconds, then come in. Okay?"
"Standing on my feet, or on my head?"
Her smile pushed up her round cheeks, narrowing her eyes. She thought
that might hurt, but it didn't. "I love you."
"That's understandable. After all, I love you, too. It's only fair." He
kissed her again, so gently and sweetly it made her heart sing and her
goodie box tingle, and straightened. When Mister Sweetness released her
hand, Mister Smartass took over the evacuation, saying that their
numbers decreased the air volume in the room and that they risked
catching hay fever from concentrating the pollen from all those flowers
in such a tiny amount of air.
Cinnamon didn't think she could love anyone as much as she loved Jimmy.
But Huntly was so close in second place that a photo finish couldn't
tell the difference. It was unbelievable, as they were such different
people in temperament and action. She'd never fallen for one of her
social improvement projects before. She was sure she'd never fall for
another one. Therefore, logic dictated that she should keep this one.
Sounds like a good plan to me.
First, Amy. She wished Cinnamon well, thanked her again for her "bee"
support at the concert, related the latest gossip on the love life of
members of the swim team, and left.
Then it was Possum's mother. Then Donnie. Then Neil Gray, Finnegan,
Snoopy, and Mister King. She didn't know if Jimmy was assigning an order
or if they were choosing among themselves. She didn't ask. She wanted to
work out her own answer and then ask Jimmy at the end.
Finally the one she was waiting for entered.
"Are you better?" Her voice quivered and tears threatened to spill from
her darting eyes.
"Yes," she whispered, causing the girl to move closer to hear. According
to plan.
"I'm so very sorry you were hurt."
"It's okay," she replied. "All my friends have come here to see me. It's
a good reminder of all the friends I have. You can never have too many
friends."
"But..." A brief pause to wrestle with voice control. "What if one of
them is a false friend? What if one of them deliberately hurt you? What
if one if them is here to see if they succeeded?"
Cinnamon rolled her head gently from side to side. "Nobody who's come to
see me today is a false friend," she whispered. "Nobody."
"I wish that were true."
"It's sweet of you to worry. Maybe you're the one who needs cheering up
instead of me," she whispered, holding her short arms wide in
invitation. "How about a hug to help both of us," she added as her head
tilted slightly to the left, as if protecting the injury. She noted with
narrowed, unblinking eyes the hesitant approach. The gathering tears.
The arms opening to hug her as she lay in the bed, wired to the monitor.
The erratic breathing that was trying to contain sobs that so
desperately wanted out. The breath spiced by garlic, oregano, tomato,
onions, root beer, and peppermint Tic Tacs.
The perfume that she had noticed in the air two nights earlier. The
perfume that should have dissipated, thanks to the ventilators in the
auditorium's girls' room. Should have, but hadn't because it was being
replenished then as it was being replenished now, emanating from the
neck before her.
As the longer arms pincered her sides in a squeeze, she unobtrusively
looped her right arm through the bed rail and then wrapped her arms
around the other girl's neck. She called the maneuver The Velvet Vise.
They squeezed their cheeks together. She rotated her right cheek in a
caress until her lips were next to the other girl's ear. "You are a dear
friend who I love very much," she whispered into the ear. "I know you
are a true friend to me. You would never hurt me if you had a choice, so
obviously you were blackmailed into doing it. Tell me, and I'll see to
it that the problem is fixed. I promise, one friend to another."
With a gasp, she tried to straighten, but she was held in an iron bound
grip anchored to the bed rail. She was pulling against the weight of the
bed and Cinnamon's much lesser weight.
Cinnamon ignored the explosion above her left ear and spoke in a gentle
voice. "You don't want to hurt me, so please relax. I feel like
lightning is striking my head when you pull me."
Leigh Ann stopped, hesitated, and tightened her arms against Cinnamon's
sides. Wracking sobs exploded from her throat, and tears burst forth to
soak the round cheek that again rubbed against hers while the little
redhead stroked her back and told her in a soothing voice that
everything would be all right.
That, of course, was when Huntly knocked at the door. Five seconds later
it opened and his head poked around the side to look at her. "It's..."
was all he got out, like he was opening a Monty Python show.
The situation called for using her voice. "I don't care if it's the
Pediatrician, the Pope, or the President, keep them the fuck out!"
Huntly's head disappeared. His hand re appeared long enough to give a
thumbs up, then it, too vanished. The door closed. They would not be
disturbed. Shithead knew how to take orders.
~ ~ ~
Cinnamon motioned for her new visitor to leave the door open and come to
the right side of the bed. She looked to her left. "Why don't you
sisters take shithead and Jimmy down to the cafeteria for some more road
kill and buzzard juice?"
Sister Suzie pointed. "You don't want us to take this dolt, too, or
something?"
"He doesn't get time off for good behavior because of that sick joke he
told. Shoo!"
The five kissed her goodbye, told Ron it was good to see him, and left,
Huntly closing the door.
"I presume Monday arrived a few hours early," Ron said as Kenny moved
beside him.
"Would you rather stand there until midnight?"
"Could Kenny stand here for me? Maria hasn't seen that new movie at the
Aspenleaf Center."
The green eyes narrowed in suspicion. "Which movie?"
Ron scratched his head and grinned. "Whichever one has the smallest
crowd in the back."
"This hurts, so shut up and listen up."
Without moving they went from genial friends bantering to soldiers
awaiting orders.
"Close hold. Nobody outside this room knows. Clear?"
"Clear," they said together.
"Cori blackmailed Leigh Ann into sabotaging us. She dug through her
closet and found some old photographs that aren't just embarrassing,
they could cause Leigh Ann serious troubles, probably legal ones, if
they surfaced. We protect Leigh Ann. Period. She's a victim, too.
"Brinkly knows nothing of this. No actions against her, and we make sure
everyone understands Brinkly's innocence. Even though indirectly she was
responsible, she was not directly responsible and would not have
approved, which is why Cori hasn't told her. Brinkly is as much in the
dark as everyone else, though if she's smart as I think she is, she
suspects Cori."
Neither said a word. They were waiting for her to tell it her way at her
speed under her terms. She wished that their counterparts in Boston had
been even half as good as Ron and Kenny.
Ron had trained Kenny well in martial arts. He'd also trained Kenny in
some of his other talents as a result of his actions at the mine and
under fire on the lake. She couldn't make Kenny one of her official
agents because they were too close. She was almost too close to Ron, but
the age difference was enough that he was effective as her Agent Gold,
her deputy, in Colorado.
She glanced at the clock. Another thirty minutes before she could have
more medication for the pain in her head. She sighed, ignored it, and
forged on, explaining the three photographs as a sobbing Leigh Ann had
described them to her.
Neither reacted in the slightest to the pictures' contents. I am so
lucky to have these two.
"Cori used Leigh Ann because she wasn't bright enough to do it herself.
She knew she'd make a mistake. Leigh Ann is the smartest of the original
Pack. It would have worked if she'd been burglary smart, but she wasn't.
Unlike Cori, she doesn't think that way.
"I told Fuzzy about the electronic drum set up. Brinkly or Cori must
have overheard him talking about it to someone else. If Cori didn't get
it from Fuzzy, then she apparently got it from Brinkly in conversation.
"Cori told Leigh Ann the collapse would be embarrassing, but nobody
would be hurt. I doubt Cori believed that, but I don't know it as a
fact. But Leigh Ann believed. She even looked up the weight of the set
on the internet. She didn't know about all the additions Finnegan made
inside the case. It is possible, though unlikely, that Cori might have
known. No way to tell. Clear?"
Both said, "Clear." Cori's involvement was certain, but the magnitude of
her culpability was questionable. She would get a small break because of
that.
"If you stay around a smell long enough, your senses block it out. Leigh
Ann didn't notice her perfume and didn't think about it when she added
more out of habit when school let out Thursday afternoon.
"She hid in a janitor's closet until everyone was gone, then used the
stolen auditorium key to slip in about forty five minutes before we
arrived for the set up. She had made an Out of Order sign for one of the
stalls in the girls' room in case she needed a place to hide during
the set up.
"Because I had to drain the swamp before we left, I noticed the perfume
in the girls' room where the ventilators should have cleared it out. She
was sitting on the toilet with her feet pulled up to the seat and her
face down on her knees, hugging her legs so she wouldn't move. That's
why she missed another important item.
"The doors close and lock, but they don't seal. There's a gap of almost
a quarter inch around the door. I could see someone inside. I said
nothing because I thought she was there to pull some kind of chickenshit
stunt like changing the tuning of my drums or shorting out the
amplifiers or loosening bulbs in Finnegan's lights--something we could
find and fix the next morning. Now I know why we didn't find anything.
She didn't think to throw a red herring into the pot.
"The perfume isn't too unusual. A dozen girls in the school use it,
perhaps more.
"Only four girls have parkas like the one I saw in the stall, the dark
blue ones with the pale blue fake ermine trim around the hood. Only two
of those wear the same Nike shoes.
"One of those wears that scent."
She watched their eyes as they processed the information. She didn't
have to wait long to see that she again had their full attention.
"Priority One: we get those pictures away from Cori. Leigh Ann doesn't
know where Cori keeps them, but she knows of a few places Cori hides
things from her parents. She said she will give one of you the list.
What you do with it is up to you. I will not see the list, so I will not
know with certainty that it exists. You will not show it to me or
discuss your strategy with me. I will have no knowledge of any actions
you take. Clear?"
"Clear," they replied.
"Priority Two: we make sure that Cori is rendered ineffective after you
have the photographs and are certain that she does not have a backup
set, physical or electronic. I may have orders for that, or I may leave
you on your own. Cori gets a small break, but only a small one. Clear?"
"Clear."
"Priority Three: we make sure that the photographs and negatives and any
electronic backups are destroyed. Totally. That includes knowledge of
their existence. Once they are gone, we don't speak of them, we don't
even think about them. Clear?"
"Clear."
"Questions?"
"The time frame is immediately?" Ron asked.
"Yes."
He looked at Kenny. Both grinned.
Good! She kissed them both goodbye and said she would tell Sister Suzie
that Kenny was on an errand for her. "And on your way out, find that
damned nurse with the medication cart and tell her to get her butt down
here. Tell her I'm suffering."
~ ~ ~
Kenny said nothing until Ron headed southeast on Cheyenne Road. "Night?"
Ron checked his mirrors. "Have to be."
"Yeah. Just checking your thoughts. It's a home game Thursday. She'll be
with the band."
"Do her parents normally go to the game?"
Kenny thought about that. "No. Half the games, maybe a little more."
"Fifty fifty. Not good enough. We need to get them out of the house if
they don't go to the game."
"Yeah. Hey, head up the peninsula to the marina snack bar. I'll treat."
Ron looked at him. "You want to plan this trick in the middle of the
snack bar?"
"Since we have no ideas to plan at the moment, yeah. No reason not to.
If we somehow hatch an idea, we'll get it to go."
"You know, Kemo Sabe, I've got a date in an hour and a half."
"So? You need food to boost your stamina with her."
Ron hit his left turn signal. "Works for me."
~ ~ ~
Hailey sat forward in the chair, her hands gripping the seat's front
edge at her hips, her head and mouth corners down. She sighed and said,
"No, sir. I won't, like, start anything."
Principal Peters sat with the wrists and fingertips of both hands on the
edge of the desk. He raised his joined fingers at a slight outward
angle. "I'm willing to believe that your actions were of someone
overwrought with distress at her sister cousin's sudden injury, that you
acted without thinking, that you no longer mean Miss Ward harm, and that
you are sorry for your actions. Am I correct?"
She sighed again and studied the fading of her jeans at the knees. "Yes,
sir."
"So, tell me in your own words what you will do if you are reinstated
today."
"Nothing, sir. Hey! Sis Cuz says she's, like, innocent. She won't, like,
tell me who did it, but she said it so wasn't Brinkly and that I should,
like, apologize to the... uh... to her."
"Since you attacked her in public, would you be willing to apologize in
public?"
"Yes, sir. Sis Cuz says I should. So does Sis Suzie and Sis Wynter." She
wasn't sure which of the last two was more upset with her for trying to
protect Cuz!
"Very well. Home room starts in," he looked at the clock, "seven
minutes. I want you to go to each home room, starting with your own,
then the rest of the eighth grade, then work your way down: seventh
grade, sixth, then fifth. Speak to as many as possible, and apologize
for your actions and your words Friday. I would prefer that you speak to
every home room class, which means don't dawdle."
Her brow furrowed in confusion. "Doddle?"
"Don't goof off. Show this," he shoved a paper across his desk to her,
"to the teacher when you enter. It says they must let you speak
immediately and then let you go to the next class. It will also clear
you with the hall monitor. Any questions?"
Another sigh. "No sir."
"Then take that and go. And I'd better not hear of any retaliatory
actions against Miss Ward on or off school property, with or without
your name attached."
Her head sprang up and she smiled. "Hey! I can, like, go now?"
Principal Peters sighed. "Yes. And report back to me when you're finished."
She bounced out of the chair. "Hey! Like, no prob!"
She closed his office door as he put his head down on his hands and
muttered, "Hell of a way to start a Monday."
Chapter 27
Jimmy gaped in disbelief as Mister Shelby took his queen. Mister
Shelby's smirk changed to a question when his eyes suddenly lifted and
focused behind Jimmy.
With a hint of spearmint preceding it, Wynter's head appeared over his
shoulder as she leaned forward for a better look. "I wasn't gone that long."
Mister Shelby grunted a soft little laugh. "I don't know if it was
because he missed you or because he's worried about Cinnamon, but
Jimmy's game has been terribly awry. Maybe now that you're back from the
office, it will improve."
"You missed Hailey," Jimmy said after Wynter pulled a chair to his side
of the lab table. "She came in and apologized to the class."
"Principal Peters told me," she said. "He also said that we could leave
Sis's drums here for our practice sessions."
"Practice sessions?" Mister Shelby asked. "She'll be back by Friday and
will be able to play for the assembly that soon?"
"No," Wynter said as a warm spot appeared on Jimmy's back and moved in a
quick circle. "But Principal Peters spoke with Principal Kent and called
in a favor. Guy can play since it's an assembly and not the talent show.
And Guy has already agreed. It seems someone has been deviously taking
advantage of her injuries behind her attending physician sister's back."
"That's all well and good," Mister Shelby said, "but the police have
marked the whole..."
"They are probably in the auditorium right now, removing the tape,"
Wynter said as Jimmy looked at his king, knight, rook, and four pawns.
Mister Shelby is down three pawns, a sacrificed red bishop, and...
That's all?
"Sis has convinced them that... Well, I'm not sure what she and Ron have
convinced them. But they have released the evidence. Finnegan will get
the electronic drums back tonight or tomorrow and will redesign their
stand."
Jimmy shuddered. "She's not going to pitch another argument with him
over the design this time, is she? My ears are still ringing from her
insisting that the first one have those unsafe feet because of her
tom toms and stick launcher."
"Finnegan says it's easier to ask for forgiveness after it's done than
to..." She stopped talking, and both of them looked at Mister Shelby,
who was laughing with, well, gusto.
"That boy truly is a genius," he said, removing his glasses and wiping
his eyes. "I wondered who'd be the first to realize that method was the
only way to get around her objections to anything. But speaking of
arguments, I hear you and she had... words about something."
Wynter tried to pass it off with a casual, "Oh, it was nothing."
"Bull!" Jimmy said, leaning forward a few degrees. "It seems that one of
Cinnamon's doctors refused to do any of her stitches, and now my
Future Sister in Law is severely, and I mean severely, ticked off that
she lost the opportunity to have a designer scar like another sister and
a Future Brother in Law have because Wynter refused to do even the final
stitch. It was almost the mountain version of Desert Storm."
Mister Shelby used the web of his thumb and index finger to smooth down
his mustache, an indication that he was totally surprised. He blinked at
Wynter. "Why?"
"Well..." she pinched Jimmy's back, causing him to jump in pain, before
finishing her answer. "It's on her head, where everyone can see it. I
didn't want to make a mistake and leave her with an ugly scar."
"I'm must admit, I'm confused. Both Kenny's and Suzie's are where you
can see them when they wear swimming attire, and Suzie's will also be
visible when she wears shorts. I thought Cinnamon's was well back on her
head where her hair would cover it when it's down."
"And," Jimmy added, "when it's up, she'll use a style that covers the scar."
Wynter sagged and dropped her head. "But I never thought of that at the
time," she mumbled. She sounded so sad and miserable that Jimmy wanted
to hold her and kiss her. "That's what Sis tried to tell me. Well, no.
It was what she tried to make me see for myself, but I didn't. Not until
hours later. I didn't even do that right. What kind of doctor am I going
to be? I can't even see the dratted simple things." Her voice grew
higher until it broke during the last sentence.
Mister Shelby, who missed little and understood plenty, suddenly said,
"What was that sound?" and turned his back, keeping up a running
commentary to indicate it was going to stay turned while he tried to
determine the source of the mysterious "noise" he had "heard."
Jimmy gave her a long kiss. At the end, she pulled back and started
crying anyway.
Huntly heard her, got up from his Parcheesi game, and came over. He eyed
the chessboard and shook his head, incredulity engraved on every facial
feature. "Jimbo, I knew you were a lousy chess player, but you gotta be
really bad to make your girlfriend cry like that."
~ ~ ~
Fortunately, Cori's room was partially illuminated by a bright clock, a
stereo set left on, and an LED plug-in night light. She had also closed
her shades before leaving for the game. It reduced the need for and the
risk of using the miniature one cell medical flashlights that had to be
kept from shining toward windows. Reduced, but not eliminated. They
still had to be used with care.
Kenny didn't know how Ron got a key to the Sikes' house. He didn't ask.
He also wasn't sure whether Ron or, more likely, Cinnamon, had pulled
strings to get Cori designated as the featured half time performer at
the football game. He didn't ask. It had succeeded in getting her
parents and little brother out of the house and the two of them in.
That was all he cared about as he removed the push in lining in the top
of Cori's flip top jewelry box. His practice in doing procedures while
wearing surgical gloves had made his task easy. Nothing behind the
lining except a love letter from Craig Wilson that described what he
planned to do with her--again--in excruciating erotic detail. Might be
something we can use to hose her, he thought as he replaced the lining.
Ron had an earpiece wired to a small portable radio in his pocket. He
paused and listened for a moment. "Five minutes, ten seconds left in the
half," he said. They operated under the assumption that Cori's parents
would return home after her performance. They probably wouldn't, but it
was safest to assume they would. Unfortunately, they'd not been able to
enter until after the second quarter began because of something going on
at a neighbor's house.
As Kenny checked the underside of drawers, Ron scanned a printed paper
hidden behind a painting on the bedroom wall. "Nothing but a handwritten
list of items and costs. A shopping list of jewelry and MP3 players and
cell phones," he said and resealed the Velcro that held the paper
backing in place. "Nice work," he added. "When it's in place, it looks
like the paper is glued on. This took talent." He rehung the painting
and gave it the slight tilt that it originally had while Kenny carefully
noted the time.
Those were the last of the hiding places that Leigh Ann knew of. "Now
what?" Ron asked as he re hung the painting. "I don't want to break in a
second time. Look, you take that side of the room and I'll take this
one, I guess, and we'll search..."
Kenny snapped his gloved fingers. "Remember what Cinnamon said? Cori
'dug through her closet.' If she was quoting Leigh Ann..."
"Yeah. Like I said, you take that side of the closet..."
"Asshole."
Ron found it. A set of cubbyhole shelves holding shoes looked like it
fitted flush against the back wall of the closet. The thick particle
board back contained a routered out pocket behind a thin
three quarter height cover. The pictures were in the pocket, along with
a CD labeled LAW 3 02. Ron translated, "Leigh Ann Weyr, March, 2002," as
Kenny looked at the pictures with the aid of his flashlight.
"Damn, shit, and fuck! No wonder Leigh Ann did what Cori wanted! It's
even worse than she told the Boss. You gonna leave the other CD here?"
"No. She might look here and find it. We don't want it destroyed until
the authorities find it. Uh oh. The half is over. We gotta hurry, kemo
sabe." He pushed the shoe shelves back into place.
"You want me to search her hard drive?"
"No. She's not dumb enough to keep a copy on there. Wait. Not unless
it's encrypted. I'll check for encryption programs." He pulled the
incriminating CD from his jacket pocket. "Switch this case for one of
Cori's and hide it somewhere."
"Does she move that desktop computer?"
Ron flicked his miniature flashlight around it. "No. She doesn't even
dust under it."
"Let's hide it inside the case. It's like mine. There's room to put a CD
with a thin case in the bottom." Kenny found some empty CD cases with
fingerprints on them in the desk drawer, next to an iPod. He put the CD
in one of them, careful not to smudge Cori's prints, as the Phillips
head screwdriver in Ron's Swiss army knife opened the computer's case.
"This thing's filthy," Ron said when he slid open the case. "We'll blow
some dust over the CD case to make it appear to have been there a while."
Kenny hit the power button as Ron closed the case, then Ron checked for
the most common encryption programs, and said, "None. Uh oh. Cori is
performing now. Let's get out of here." He powered down the computer and
the two did a quick visual check to see if they'd left any clues of
their presence.
Satisfied, Ron switched off his radio. "Let's go. Her performance just
ended."
It wasn't until Ron pulled into the parking lot at McDonald's that it
hit him. "Wait. That doesn't make sense."
"I know," Kenny said with a grin as he checked the elapsed time. He'd
been wondering if Ron would ever realize it. Wait until he could brag to
Cinnamon that he thought of the discrepancy thirty-seven minutes before
Ron! "Why would she hide a list of items and their prices? Maybe it's
not what they cost. It's what she got for them. Or gets."
"Stolen items?"
"Maybe we didn't need to frame her after all."
~ ~ ~
Ron sat beside Cinnamon on the reclining loveseat in her family's den
and quietly reported the list to her while Kenny distracted Mitch,
Rosita, Hailey, and Wynter. Jimmy and Huntly were at the school
auditorium with Guy, replacing and tuning the eighteen inch tom tom that
had been ruined by the collapsing electronic drums with one that had
arrived in time for the next day's assembly performance.
"I agree," Cinnamon said just loud enough for him to hear. "How much of
the list do you remember?"
"Hey! This is Renaldo Angelo Lopez the Great you're talking to, woman!'
She gave him a skeptical smile. "Well, write down the two or three you
do remember and have your dad compare them to what's been reported to
the police. I'll have Principal Peters send me a list of what's been
reported stolen to the office. Principal Kent, too."
"You think she's been stealing at the high school?"
"I don't think she's smart enough to operate on her own. She may have
contacts with thieves at the high school. You couldn't think of that on
your own?"
Ron grinned and scratched his head. "Oh, I agree. I just wanted to see
if your head knock left your brains scrambled. I've already called
Mister Kent. He'll have a list ready for me tomorrow afternoon."
"I could kiss you for that."
"Go ahead," he said. "I won't tell Huntly."
~ ~ ~
"Today's assembly performance is by Wynter King and her band," Principal
Scott Peters said, and then he stopped and scratched his head with one
finger. He turned to look at Wynter while keeping his mouth near the
microphone. "You were supposed to have a name by today, but nobody's
told me what it is."
"Well, sir," Wynter said through the PA setting on her headset. "Yes, we
had one. For a little while. But we subsequently decided that we needed
a different name, maybe something to honor Cinnamon since she was hurt
while performing on this very stage. Nothing has come up yet, so... we
still don't have an official name."
"I see," Scott said. "Mister McCauley, how many people are included in
that pronoun, 'we'?"
"No, sir," Jimmy said, violently shaking his head and holding his hands
palm out in front of his body. "I'm not talking. If I answer that
question, Wynter might have ONE of her sisters get upset with me." As he
said that, he held up one index finger to reinforce his answer.
He waited until the laughter in the audience subsided. "As I suspected.
Very well, I'll accept your excuse this time, Miss King. Ladies and
gentlemen, I give you Whomever and their substitute drummer, Guy Malone,
Dunne High School's counterpart to our own Cinnamon Brees, to whom we
wish a most speedy recovery!"
The applause quickly turned into "CIN NA MON!" repeated with hands
clapping in time with each syllable and a foot stomp at the end of the
word, a variation of the "GRIF FIN KNIGHTS!" cheer, as he exited stage
left and returned to his left front corner chair in the auditorium.
Scott was not surprised that Huntly Sheridan had started the cheer. He
was even less surprised that Wynter was now cheering harder than any of
the others. She was the most selfless person he'd ever met.
He glanced at the teachers he'd stationed near the Ward girl as
protection--just in case--and then watched the cheering still underway
on the stage, with Wynter now out front, leading everyone, students and
teachers. He happily joined in.
When he grew up, he wanted to be Wynter King.
~ ~ ~
Jimmy closed the front door and helped Cinnamon out of her coat. The
clock read a quarter past ten. "You're early," he said. "The rest won't
be here until eleven thirty for lunch."
"I know. I hope I haven't inconvenienced you, but I wanted some time
with just the two of us, and we couldn't have that after the rest
arrive. I need to talk."
"Sure." He translated that to mean she didn't want Wynter around for
some reason. Which might indicate that Wynter had a problem or maybe she
was hiding a problem of her own from Wynter or... Well, he didn't know
what the heck it might indicate. But if his Future Sister in Law needed
help or support, then he'd do it because she was Wynter's sister and
because she was his friend.
She carefully removed the knit cap from her head. He helped to make sure
that the bandage wasn't disturbed.
"How's your head?" he asked as he took the cap and she manually checked
her bandage.
"That's why I'm here." She didn't expand that statement.
Ooookay. I guess I'm supposed to think like a girl to understand that
answer. He hung her things in the closet and escorted her to the
kitchen, where Mom was on the phone having her usual Saturday
conversation with Aunt Nancy. Mom had Aunt Nancy wait while she welcomed
Cinnamon and asked how she was feeling and whether she was ready for her
return to school on Monday. Jimmy poured lemonade for both of them and
asked Cinnamon if she'd rather talk in the family room, the living room,
or his room.
The green eyes flicked to Mom for an instant, then back to him. "How
about in the practice room? I can start re-assembling the kit."
His forehead wrinkled in a worried frown. "Are you sure you're up to it?
The stairs? And the re-assembly? Physically, I mean?"
Her smile pushed up her round cheeks, narrowing her eyes further.
"That's why people love you," she said. "Me included. You're always
worrying about the welfare of everyone else. I'll be fine. I have a
second floor room at home, remember? As for the kit, I may work a little
more slowly than usual, but if you'll help me, I won't have any trouble."
She was going to allow him to touch her sacred drums during assembly?
Well, maybe not "sacred." Though she did treat them like they were
religious relics and she was their curator. But she was bestowing a
singular honor upon him. "Sure. I'll go down the stairs ahead of you, in
case you have unexpected vertigo."
"Jimmy?" she said as they reached the basement floor. When he turned,
she reached up and put her arms on his shoulders. "Please accept this
for the honor it is. This is a thank you for the concern you just
displayed." She pulled him down to her level and gave him a gentle kiss,
not too short but not too long, either, without tongues or thigh
masturbation. It wasn't exactly sisterly, but it was only one notch more
intense. It was, as she said, a thank you gesture.
&&& L3?I really don?t like ?honor? in that spot. ?manner? or ?please
accept this as it?s meant?an honor? or such.
"You're welcome," he said as she released him. "But I didn't do anything
special."
She shook her head. He noticed that it didn't seem to adversely affect
her balance. "That statement shows just how special you are. Sis is so
very lucky to have you."
He offered his arm and escorted her on to the practice room. "I keep
telling you that I'm the lucky one to have her."
She said nothing until they were in the room, then abruptly halted,
causing him to turn to her. "WE are the lucky ones to have her."
He gave her his grin and nod. "We are."
She sighed. "Can we sit on the couch for a minute? I need to confess."
Jimmy looked first at the couch, then back at her. "That doesn't look
much like a confessional, and I'm not much of a priest. I'm not even
Catholic."
She gave him a playful backhand, a symbolic gesture rather than the
action that normally would bring tears of pain to his eyes. "You spend
entirely too much time around shithead."
"Jealous?"
"Of course not. Well, not of shithead. Now, of Sis, well, that's another
story."
He noticed the emotion in that last sentence. She'd tried to choke it
back, but hints snaked forth and coiled around the edges of her words.
And it wasn't jealousy of Wynter that she was trying to mask. This was
something seriously wrong with Cinnamon. What Wynter had started calling
his "worry gland" kicked into high gear. "Have a seat."
She sat. Both sipped lemonade, then she put her glass on the end table
and indicated with her eyes that she wanted him to do the same. Then she
took both his hands in hers.
He was acutely aware of the differences in temperatures of the hands
that had held the cold glasses. "Whenever you're ready," he said.
Tears welled up and overflowed her green eyes. "I am such a bitch."
"No," he said with a gentle smile. "Maybe you did something in a bitchy
manner, but that doesn't make you one. Don't go believing Huntly. He's
wrong about a lot of things. That's one of them. You're nothing like
You Know Who?"
She smiled briefly at his feeble attempt at humor with his reference to
shithead and the veiled reference to Millie, the bitch who had spawned
her. "This time he was right. I had an argument with Sis. I actually got
mad at her because she didn't make any of the stitches in my head. I
can't believe I got mad at her over something so silly."
"Well," he said, relaxing because he now understood the full problem,
"I've never had any siblings, but I know lots of kids and adults who do.
It's been my experience that that's what siblings do: they have
occasional fights over silly things. Then they make up and go back to
being family until the next silly fight."
She sniffed, tears still running down her cheeks. "But I should be
better than that!"
He pulled his handkerchief out of his back pocket and handed it to her.
"Well, I blame the knock on your head for this problem. It did one of
two things."
He waited for her to ask. He wanted her to stop thinking about the
argument and focus on something else. When she finally asked, he said,
"It either knocked you out of your senses, or it knocked some sense into
you."
He watched her process that. He'd give anything to be able to tap into
her mind and observe her fascinating thought processes. Well, anything
except Wynter.
Finally she spoke, her voice a little steadier. "What the hell are you
talking about?"
"It's simple," he said. "One, you uncharacteristically had an argument
with her over nothing because the blow to your head caused some
temporary mental condition. You'll need to speak to one of the Future
MDs about whatever that's called and how it works. I'm no expert. In
fact, I'm not even an educated layman in psychology.
"Or two, you had some sense knocked into you that made your subconscious
realize that the situation called for tough love. You know. Like what
she gave her father in the hospital after he fell down the stairs, or
what I gave her when she had her cold and she... well... she got bitchy
with everyone."
Confusion spread across her face and down her body. It was an amazing
sight that he knew he'd never be able to describe, but that was
precisely what had happened. "What?"
"She had another moment of self doubt about her abilities, and she let
that overwhelm her common sense again. You've seen Suzie's leg. The
worst part of that scar was caused by Doctor Malenkov removing Wynter's
stitches to disinfect and clean out the wound and putting in his own.
You saw his stitches, and you saw hers. I'll bet she could do freehand
needlepoint on plain cloth like Snoopy's mom, better than ninety percent
of the people using the grid cloth and a pattern.
"Instead of thinking, 'Sis will be happy to have stitches from me like
Suzie and Kenny have,' she thought, 'I might make a mistake and leave an
ugly scar that people will see because it's on her head.' When I
mentioned Suzie's scar to her, she actually said, 'But that's on her leg
where nobody will notice. Cinnamon's is on her head, where people look.'
How many guys can you think of who wouldn't look at Suzie's legs when
she's wearing shorts or her swim suit?"
"Two."
The immediate answer surprised him. His curiosity meter went to a
hundred percent. "Who?"
"Jeremy Lefave, if he is gay, and James Evan McCauley, who has eyes only
for Wynter."
Jimmy shrugged. "What if I sometimes look at them because I admire
objects of natural beauty, such as rainbows, waterfalls, baby animals,
and Suzie's legs?"
Cinnamon shook her head in surprise. "I never expected that argument
from you, Jimmy McCauley. You're finally maturing emotionally, the way
Sis and I wanted you to before we told you about... you know." She
wouldn't speak of the physical relationship between Wynter and Mister
King aloud. "Why, the next thing I know, you'll be looking at my tits."
He shrugged again. "When I do, it will be to admire their natural
beauty, not to lust over them like a demented dwarf who lives down your
street."
"Too bad we don't have time or I'd let you look now." Her thumbs
caressed his hands and fingers. "If Sis is ever stupid enough to dump
you, remember that I want you to consider me first as her replacement."
She sighed and grew serious. "But, Jimmy, almost nobody will see the
scar on my head anyway because..."
Jimmy nodded and cut her off. "Exactly. THAT is the point! She gets so
wrapped up in her self doubt that she creates either self fulfilling
prophecies or no win scenarios. She's so afraid of failure that she
fails to try, and she convinces herself that it was the right decision
by convincing herself that black is white despite the logic. You've
heard Huntly and Suzie both say that you can't win if you go in
expecting to lose."
"I've said it myself," she replied. "But Wynter doesn't listen to any of
us. Not even you."
"Well, maybe now she will. You got her attention because you used tough
love. She concentrates so hard on her self doubt that she fails to
consider what difference a mistake would actually make. In your case,
none. The scar's where nobody will see it. You know, she's best in cases
like that Miller kid's accident or in Fishhook Cove, where she doesn't
have time to think about anything except the problem. Maybe Emergency
Medicine is her true calling."
She had turned her head slightly to one side, narrowed her eyes, and
stopped blinking for a dozen seconds as she stared into his eyes. Her
head suddenly straightened and the smile pushed up the round cheeks
again. She pulled on his hands, and he leaned forward. She gave him
another quick kiss of thanks.
"Sometimes you have to use tough love. That's great advice." She gave
him a quizzical look. "You know," she said, sounding as if the thoughts
were solidifying in her mind while she spoke them, "when I have a
problem, talking to you is almost as good as talking with Sister Suzie."
Jimmy smiled and squeezed her hands. "Why, Miss Brees, I think that's
the nicest compliment you have ever given me. I am truly honored."
She gave him a final quick kiss, released his hands, and took their
lemonade glasses off the table. "Come on," she said. "I'm going to let
you help me assemble my kit. That's an honor I don't even give to shithead."
~ ~ ~
Cinnamon had a reason for insisting on a seat at the outside end of the
aisle. When Principal Peters introduced the Brink of Disaster for the
assembly's entertainment, the applause was lackluster, and more than a
few boos were scattered throughout the auditorium. Brinkly opened with
I'm Just A Singer In A Rock And Roll Band. Even more boos followed,
despite what Cinnamon thought was a very creditable performance.
"Goddamnit," she muttered under her breath as she rose from her seat and
marched toward the stage left door. She stopped at the end seat of the
first row and spoke to Principal Peters, who escorted her up the steps
and into the wings while the Brink played some teen pop song she'd never
heard before.
More half assed applause and boos came at the end of that. Principal
Peters walked onto the stage, asked Brinkly's permission to make an
announcement, and then stepped to his microphone. Brinkly saw Cinnamon
standing in the wings and glared daggers at her the whole time. When he
announced that Cinnamon wanted to say a few words, she thought Brinkly
was going to foam at the mouth, especially when the audience began
cheering and clapping when she walked out to the microphone. She waited
for him to adjust the stand to her level and leave. She looked over the
sea of controlled chaos.
"QUIET!" No "Thank you!" No "Please take your seats." No politeness
whatsoever. Just a sharp direct order barked at them through a ferocious
scowl.
The shock effect had its desired result. "I am ashamed of you." She
watched the faces turn to each other in puzzlement and surprise. "This
band," she said, pointing to the center of the stage, "is part of
Griffin Middle School. It is part of you. You are treating a part of
yourselves with abominable disrespect. The Brink and The Twins have our
disagreements, yes, but those affect only us.
"They. Do. Not. Affect. You." She glared at a different segment of the
audience as she spoke each word.
"The Twins played two weeks ago to entertain YOU. The Brink is up here
now to entertain YOU. Neither of our groups are here for ourselves. The
Brink has played two songs so far and has done a very good job on both.
How do you show your appreciation? You gave them the same disrespect you
gave Amy three weeks ago. You treat them like winos on a street corner
singing drunkenly into their armpits. That's how you treat one of your
own? You attack NOT someone from a DIFFERENT school but someone FROM
YOUR OWN? You're like a dog biting itself in the butt! I used to say
with pride that I was part of Griffin Middle School. I don't say that now.
"Are you mad at Brinkly because of past issues? They're in the past.
It's time to let go and move on. There is strength and wonder and magic
and fulfillment in forgiveness. Are you mad at Brinkly because of THIS?"
She lightly tapped her finger against the bandage on the side of her
head. "I'm going to say this one more time. Get this through your thick
heads, people.
"Brinkly. Ward. Is. Not. Responsible. For. The. Sabotage. To. My. Drums.
Period." Her eyes again glared at the entire audience as she spoke,
emphasizing her point to every row, column, nook, and cranny.
"Now, either you treat The Brink of Disaster the way your fellow Griffin
Knights deserve to be treated or you can kiss Junior and the Twins
goodbye. We will not perform for organizations we are ashamed of, and
that includes Griffin Middle School's Saturday talent show. The Twins
and The Brink will settle our own differences our own way. Alone! We
don't need you to be uncivil while we do it. We need you to support BOTH
of us. Starting. Right. NOW!"
She turned to face the center of the stage. "Brinkly, I sincerely
apologize for cutting into your playing time. Please continue. No, wait!
This is for your first two songs." She applauded vigorously. Within two
seconds, applause began in the audience. Her ears told her by location
who first picked up on it: The Hargus Four Plus The Other One. Then it
scattered across the auditorium until everyone was applauding.
Principal Peters smiled at her as she left the stage and joined him in
the wings. She looked up at him and said, "Sometimes you have to use
tough love."
Chapter 28
Cinnamon opted to use the afternoon of the Friday school holiday for the
Twins' talent show set-up day. Her kit and the amplifiers and such would
be placed on the low, wheeled platforms in the stage left wings and
rolled out onto the stage immediately before their act. They wouldn't
set up the guitar stands until Saturday evening. The synth stands and
the cables would also be placed on a platform, but the instruments and
the midi computer would be brought in and set up before tomorrow's
performance. The Clavinova was the school's and would stay on stage for
the entire show, though it could be moved around as necessary. It, too,
could be tied into the system with a midi cable.
Finnegan's station, the screen, the rear projector, and the lights were
also set up on Friday, as was the rigging for The Waiting. The final
step was filling the rigging with the bags of dead leaves, pivoting the
screen up out of the way on its top hinge, and then posting one of Ron's
friends as security. Several teachers were taking shifts as guards, but
Ron insisted on providing personal security. "Nobody touches their stuff
but one of them, Mister Tilman, me, or my guards," Ron told Mister Ames,
who was the first shift guard. "Pass it along."
The Brink of Disaster had left its equipment set up on a platform on the
stage after the assembly performance. That platform had been moved to
the stage right wings, where Cori had appointed herself guard. Everyone
ignored her.
Cinnamon rode back to her house with Ron. When one person was told she
couldn't ride with them, she contained her disappointment and
immediately opted to ride with Guy, sitting next to him to keep him in
fondling distance, while the rest piled into the remaining seats of his
car and the van that had delivered the equipment.
Ron checked the mirror before they pulled out of the lot. "Looks like
Hailey's already making moves on Guy," he said with a chuckle. "I hope
she doesn't rip his pants off while he's driving."
"Sister Wynter will keep her under control. How much can you tell me?"
Ron scratched his head. "Possible matches on the list from Griffin. One
or two from Dunne. But they could be from Aspen, Denver, or Toledo. Same
with the town list. Nothing traceable to one owner."
"So your next step is..."
"Bait. Did you know Kenny has a new iPod? Not only does he have the
serial number, he has a message scratched inside the case."
She grinned at the thought. "I guess Kenny will have to piss her off."
Ron gave her an incredulous look. "MORE?"
~ ~ ~
This was another time Cinnamon wished she didn't have to keep Sister
Wynter in the dark. She listened patiently to the argument on the other
end of the phone. "I agree with you, Sis. After my lecture, I also had
second thoughts about executing the plan tomorrow night. But I've
learned from my sources that Brinkly hasn't learned her lesson, despite
my support yesterday, so we go with it."
Sis wasn't happy, but she accepted the answer without asking how
Cinnamon knew. They exchanged love and hung up.
Silver's message had said, "Brinkly not changed by your support.
Suspects Cori of atk, so not incl C in new schemes to make Twins look
bad. I tried, too. Failed. Sorry." Agent Blue's message had been
similar. So had Agent Three's.
"Hey," Cuz said, leaning against her in the love seat as Cinnamon tried
to get interested in the television movie again. "Do you think
Brinkly's, like, ever going to get it through her head that she's, like,
so her own worst enemy?"
"Yes," Cinnamon said, giving her sister cousin's hand a squeeze. "But
I'm beginning to think I underestimated how long it will take."
~ ~ ~
Wynter thought that Principal Peters sure had made some interesting
faces when Sis gave him the list of additional acts, and Tyrone wasn't
listed. He looked across the stage at Tyrone, already wearing a headset
in the right wings, opened his mouth, but closed it without saying
anything. Sis, of course, merely smiled sweetly and turned to watch the
fifth grade guitarist who was giving a very credible performance for his
sixth grade sister's flamenco dance. The dance, while very good for a
sixth grader, still wasn't up to her brother's overall quality.
Finnegan distributed the headsets to the rest as the dance act finished.
Both Wynter and Huntly had asked Finnegan about the mysterious
'surprises' he'd hinted at, but he was as closed mouth as Sis with a
secret. Next up was The Fallen Leaves, which was the name Josh Carter,
David Corman, and Miranda Ochoa called their act with Shane Cantrell,
who had replaced Billy McKeown.
Billy was now with Brinkly's group. Wynter suspected Billy was feeding
information to Sis One, but she didn't actually know that and, truth be
told, didn't really want to know. If she didn't know, she couldn't
accidentally tell anyone.
They all wished the Leaves good luck as they were introduced. David and
Miranda both commented on how beautiful Wynter looked, though she didn't
think she looked better than any other members of the group, especially
Sis, who'd arranged her hair to cover the remaining bandage on the side
of her head. The girls were wearing colorful party dresses; the boys,
casual slacks and jackets similar to last spring's performance. They had
chosen clothing suitable for the performances by both Wynter's group and
the Twins.
But for The Waiting, where they'd be closest to Suzie, the string
players had donned an over layer of loose smocks airbrushed to look like
tree trunks. Sis One was wearing a dark red dress, while her dress and
Jimmy's jacket were a dark blue. With help from Finnegan's lighting, the
three of them would blend into the stage darkness while Suzie performed.
Only Josh said something nice about Suzie, who was dressed in jeans and
a woodsy blouse and carried a fall jacket to add for her performance,
the same attire she'd worn when they were filming. Suzie blew him a kiss
as he ran out on stage, checked her pocket for the cell phone, then
crossed to the right wings behind the rear curtain. Tyrone would protect
her from The Pack over there.
Wynter thought the Leaves' performance of Hilary Duff's Jericho was
good, though not as good as the group had been with Billy playing
guitar. Halfway through their performance, Possum broke into tears and
pulled Cinnamon aside.
Wynter's heart sank to her shoes. She had really and truly thought
Possum would sing backup for Kenny. Fortunately, Cinnamon, Shamisa and
Monique were prepared in case this happened. "Hope for the best, plan
for the worst." That sure was good advice and not just in medicine.
When the Leaves finished, Cinnamon left Possum in the care of Sister
Hailey and Snoopy. The Leaves received nice applause, causing Huntly to
note that the break in the weather must have put everyone in a good
mood. The auditorium was over three quarters filled, a little more than
when they had performed in the spring talent show, and that group had
been so dead that several performers had suggesting calling Maurer's to
come collect the cadavers.
Principal Peters, the emcee, walked out on the stage and thanked each
member of the Leaves by name. Then he said as stage hands wheeled out
the loaded carts and lowered the screen, "Our next act still doesn't
have a name, despite dire threats by the apparently ineffective school
principal." He waited for the laughter because most of the audience knew
what he meant.
"Ladies and gentlemen, the performers of this still anonymous band, on
lead guitar, Mister Huntly Sheridan!" The audience murmur grew when
Huntly rushed out in his tree suit, lifted his guitar from its stand,
kissed it, and slipped the strap over his head, all in one fluid motion.
"On rhythm guitar, Mister Ted Muller!" When Ted, in his tree suit, was
halfway to his guitar, Huntly suddenly played the music to a verse from
Z. Z. Top: "The ladies go crazy for a sharp dressed man!" The crowd
broke up.
Principal Peters restored order and introduced LaMarcus. This time
Huntly played Autumn Leaves.
For Jimmy, Huntly played L'Enfant, for reasons Wynter could not fathom.
Next was Cinnamon Sticks, assisted by Ted, Jimmy, and LaMarcus, for Sis
One, who received a standing ovation.
"And finally, the leader of the group, and thank goodness SHE has a
name, Miss Wynter King!"
They all played the main theme to Wynter's Song. It was another standing
ovation, just like Sis had received, as she sat on the synth bench.
Jimmy stood behind her. Everyone else stopped playing, and she and Sis
played Steve Haun's brief but lovely Victory, which Wynter had decided
would open all the performances of... well, whatever the band would be
named. Eventually.
"Thank you very much," Wynter said, rising from the bench, scooting
sideways to the Clavinova, and motioning for everyone still standing in
the audience to sit. Jimmy took his seat on the bench.
"Tonight, we want to do something different. Something never before done
in Griffin Middle School. We are going to perform a live action music
video to a song we have discovered. Our star will be on video with her
boyfriend, Mister Kenny Taylor...," she waited for the cheers to die
down, "...and will also be live on our stage. Ladies and gentlemen, the
holder of multiple swimming records for Griffin Middle School and the
winner of the 2004 State Swim Meet, the lifesaving heroine of Fishhook
Cove, and my adopted sister, Miss Suzanne Middleton!"
She said all the words, but she sure as heck didn't see how anyone
sitting more than five feet away from a speaker heard anything after
"multiple swimming records."
While everyone was cheering, Finnegan did a monitor check. A small
monitor sat in front of the strings, on Cinnamon's bass drum, and atop
one of the synth keyboards where both Wynter and Jimmy could see it.
They connected to a small television camera that showed the stage, so
that they could time the music to the action. It was one of Finnegan's
"just in case" solutions.
"Ladies and gentlemen!" The crowd finally quieted. "We give you, The
Waiting."
Finnegan's stage lighting came on. The overhead rigging began shaking
loose dead leaves that fell a few at a time in front of the rear
projection screen, which lit up to show leaves falling in a forest. Sis
counted the beat, which was actually marked by soft beeps in the
headsets from timing marks on the videotape, and Jimmy began the chimes
and bird calls. One of Finnegan's surprises was birds flying across the
curtains in back of the stage, courtesy of a second projector in the
light stands. As Wynter's fingers began walking through the notes, Suzie
entered from stage right. She walked head down, looking at the cell
phone clutched in her hands, stopping on her mark in front of the screen.
As the music turned harsh, she turned her face up, as if thinking. The
rear projection screen behind her switched from showing falling leaves
in a forest to Suzie's thoughts of Kenny and Suzie arguing in the
forest, and Suzie's face twisted to show the pain of the argument.
Huntly transitioned to the beautiful acoustic guitar theme, accented by
Jimmy's ringing chimes and violins, as the scene shifted to thoughts of
Kenny and Suzie walking down the trail, holding hands and exchanging
brief kisses. Suzie smiled as the lights sparkled off her tears. She
hugged the phone to her breast and looked down at it as if expecting it
to ring.
Then falling leaves again, followed by the transition back to the
argument, with Kenny pulling out his phone and throwing it away. Then
the happier times repeated. For the close, the projected image switched
to the falling leaves and Huntly outdid himself on the acoustic guitar.
Jimmy, while playing the ringing chimes with one hand, moved the main
theme to the strings with the other. As Wynter brought up the piano,
Suzie stared expectantly at the phone and sank to the ground, leaves and
tears dropping around her as she waited for the phone to ring. Jimmy
softly stretched the closing measures of the strings as the acoustic
guitar and ringing chimes softly faded to a close.
When Finnegan faded to black the silence was almost deafening. The
applause started on one side of the audience and then became deafening
itself as it exploded across the room. Finnegan brought the lights up.
Suzie rose to her feet, and the whistles and cheers increased in volume
to the point that Wynter began wondering if the decibel level was safe
for human ears.
When Kenny, dressed in slacks and a jacket like the other boys, came out
to join her, many of the cheers suddenly changed to boos until he
brushed away Suzie's tears and she kissed him. Wynter glanced stage
right and watched Brinkly throwing some kind of fit. It looked as if she
were lecturing the rest of her band, but the lights and shadows made it
difficult to be sure.
Suzie and Kenny, holding hands, made four curtain calls before finally
dashing off to the stage left wings and staying there. The stage crew
removed the screen and projector and swept away the leaves as Huntly and
LaMarcus removed their tree bark suits. Ted took his guitar and
disappeared stage left as Mark raced out and plugged his guitar into the
circuit.
This time Wynter heard Brinkly's voice complaining but couldn't
understand her words.
Principal Peters came out to his microphone. "That was incredible. Don't
you agree?"
The audience exploded again, giving the work crew time to finish and
disappear off the stage.
"Our next act is a last minute addition. Literally. It was added about
twelve minutes ago. Ladies and gentlemen, with the replacement of Ted
Muller by Mark Williams, you now see before you JUNIOR AND THE TWINS!"
He waited for the cheering to subside. "Junior and the Twins," he
repeated, "with four special guest performers. On piano and keyboards,
we get to keep Miss Wynter King." Another pause for the applause. "And
on vocals, in addition to the drummer whom I'm sure you all know,"
another pause for applause, "we have Miss Monique Larue and Miss Shamisa
James, the Sistah Sisters, as backup," Huntly played Pretty Woman as
they rushed out to applause, cheers, and three marriage proposals, "and
the Twins' special guest vocalist, whom Miss Brees will introduce!" The
crowd cheered what they thought was going to be a Tyrone Hayes
performance as the principal disappeared stage left.
Sis rose to her feet and held her sticks out at arms' length in a "V"
formation. "THANK YOU! I know you're expecting Tyrone..." she had to
pause until the crowd quieted. "Simmer down. You're expecting Tyrone
Hayes, but we have another guest performer, a very special guest
performer making his first public singing appearance. Ladies and
gentlemen, KENNY TAYLOR!"
Well, that sure was good for confusing everyone, but everyone applauded
anyway as Kenny raced onstage, wearing a headset. Everyone but The Pack
and its leader. Wynter could see Brinkly's face in the wings when the
spotlight hit Kenny. The girl's look of astonishment was priceless. The
astonishment turned to a rapidly cycling mixture of emotions that
finally turned into a look of cold fury when Mark played the
introduction to (Don't Fear) The Reaper while Kenny dashed to stage
center, bowed to the audience, and waved. If Kenny was going to sing,
then that meant they wouldn't be playing Destruction's Pinnacle, which
was an instrumental piece.
"A few people have heard Kenny's attempts at singing in the past. They
have responded well to treatment and should be released from the asylum
sometime next decade." When the laughter and clapping stopped, Sis
continued. "He's improved since his voice changed. Most of you tonight
can probably manage as outpatients."
While the crowd laughed and Kenny bowed several times to various parts
of the audience, Cinnamon switched to intercom. "Anyone see Brinkly's face?"
Tyrone whispered, "I got her, Little Momma." He wasn't more than a dozen
feet from her, possibly closer. "She's givin' her players all kind o'
what for!"
"I can see her," said Suzie, who was standing in the wings at stage
left, out of the spotlights, and looking across the stage. "I think she
needs dry undies or something."
"She's realized that you bozoed her with your plan," Wynter added.
The little drummer's left arm shot up, drumstick horizontal and parallel
with her shoulders. When the crowd quickly went silent, her right hand
rose to count the beat. She quietly counted the beat into the headset
for Kenny, who repeated it aloud. To the audience, it looked like
Cinnamon was following Kenny's instruction. Kenny's hand knifed into the
air, then came down in a fist as Cinnamon dropped her arms and Mark
again began The Reaper.
"Wynter, you better stand by, 'cause I think she gonna have a heart
attack," Tyrone whispered before the singers began.
The song went without incident, though at the end of the musical bridge,
when Huntly had to hold the long series of sixteenth notes, he leaned
back until his guitar was pointed straight up. Wynter had a mild anxiety
attack about the strain that placed on his injured knee as Mark resumed
the music, and then Kenny finally resumed singing, but when he
straightened and continued playing with no apparent difficulty after the
second verse, she relaxed.
During the cheers and applause at the end of the song, as Shamisa and
Monique stood like mismatched bookends while kissing Kenny's cheeks,
Tyrone turned his microphone on and wandered near Brinkly. They could
hear her telling the Brink to get ready to move out sharply and to look
like a professional group rather than like amateur cattle as usual. She
was using language Wynter thought might embarrass Sister Hailey.
Brinkly suddenly shut up after a "Now what?" as Principal Peters
returned to his microphone and nobody moved off stage.
"Ladies and gentlemen, another last minute addition to our show tonight,
Mister Kevin Kenneth Taylor, Junior with a singing act!" He swept a hand
toward Kenny and then vanished stage left.
Kenny switched on his microphone. "Thank yuh verra much!" Kenny said in
what Wynter thought was a reasonable imitation of Elvis Presley. Then in
his own voice he said, "I'd introduce all the members of my back up
group, Kenny's Cruisers," causing Wynter to wonder just when he'd come
up with that name, "but I think you already know them, and you'd rather
hear me sing than introduce them."
Kenny grinned and waved off the mixed applause and good natured boos. He
turned his back to the audience, lifted his right fist overhead, and
extended his index finger. He waggled it back and forth as Cinnamon
actually counted the beat and then jerked his fist down. Cinnamon
slammed the snare and top hat once as the staccato opening chord blasted
forth and then instantly vanished, leaving only Jimmy's eighth notes to
begin Blinded by the Light.
Wynter heard Tyrone's sudden laugh from the right wings before he
switched on his microphone and whispered, "You could park an airplane in
her mouth."
"Yeah," giggled Suzie. "I think she definitely needs clean panties or
something!"
That made Kenny laugh, and he missed his cue. He had to wait another
measure to begin. The first half of the song went without incident,
though when the spotlight shifted to Huntly for his guitar solo, Kenny
had Tyrone had turn off his headset microphone because Brinkly's cursing
was a distraction.
Kenny picked up again at the end of Huntly's solo. As he sang, "Mama
always told me not to look into the eyes of the sun," Finnegan hit him
with a brilliant yellow spotlight, something Wynter hadn't heard about.
As Kenny pointed at it and sang, "But Mama, that's where the sun is!"
Wynter glanced at Sis. That was obviously another of Finnegan's
surprises, too, but Sis was grinning with pleasure and delight.
Wynter couldn't stop smiling as she played her Chopsticks segment, then
faded out to Jimmy's four chord transition to Kenny's final stanza.
While Kenny sang, Shamisa and Monique entered and stood beside Mark.
After Jimmy's gliss, Kenny began repeating, "Blinded by the light.
Revved up like a deuce, another runner in the night," while the chorus
of Shamisa, Monique, and Cinnamon ran through all the verses.
On the third verse, as LaMarcus picked up the bass line, a fourth voice
cut in, a clear, brilliant soprano. Cinnamon's voice didn't hesitate,
but her head whipped around to the wings at stage left. As Wynter's eyes
followed, Monique immediately dropped her lines and sang harmony with Kenny.
There in the wings, one foot tapping the beat, out of the audience's
sight but singing into a headset as she read the lyrics, and with
Suzie's arm around her waist from one side and her cousin's from the
other, stood Possum Watkins.
~ ~ ~
Cinnamon tried to keep everyone from crowding and embarrassing Possum as
their instrument platforms were wheeled off the stage and the Brink's
were wheeled on by the stage crews. Thus she was unaware of the argument
Kitty was having with Brinkly because Tyrone's microphone was off.
When Brinkly introduced Kitty, the drummer rose from her throne and
leaned down to speak into her microphone. "I have an announcement!"
Kitty said.
The harsh tone of her voice grabbed not only Cinnamon's attention but
also everyone else's. They crowded around the entrance curtain and
watched as Kitty said, "Maybe, as Cinnamon said, you weren't responsible
for her injury in that attack. I believe Cinnamon. But you've done
nothing but belittle her since we arrived here, despite the support she
gave you at the assembly. Furthermore, you've personally insulted and
belittled every one of us, nonstop, since Wynter's group started its
performance. Well, I've had enough. So they sang the songs from our
playlist? The way you've acted, we've deserved to be ripped off!" Kitty
turned her head to look at the stage left wings. "Cinnamon? You go,
girl! As for me, I'm going, too."
With that, Kitty straightened, marched to the edge of the stage, and
dropped gracefully to the floor, then strode deliberately to an outside
door.
Fortunately, Finnegan was still at his console. Cinnamon slid on her
headset, wincing a little because she sacrificed comfort for speed, and
hit the intercom position. "Finnegan! Give me loudspeakers!"
She switched to loudspeaker position and waited for the soft pop in her
headphones that said she was live. Kitty had reached the door. "Kitty!
Wait, please!" she said as she scurried to the stage corner, where she'd
lectured the assembly two days earlier.
Kitty turned to Cinnamon, her hand on the doorknob. Everyone heard
Kitty's words because the auditorium was as quiet as a tomb. "I'm sorry,
but my conscience won't let me play now. I hope you understand because
Brinkly never will." And with those words, Agent Three was gone.
Shit! "Brinkly, wait," she said because the wheelchair was now moving to
the stage right wings. "Please! Give me just a minute."
The chair spun around. Brinkly looked like she could spit fire. "THIS
WAS YOUR DOING!"
"No, it wasn't. We need to speak privately. Shi... uh, Huntly! Come here!"
He raced out to her, his question on his face if not his lips.
"Entertain the audience for a minute while we talk. Do some magic
tricks. Whatever." She made shooing motions with her hands at him, then
hurried over to Brinkly, switching off her headset.
"If your people will stay put, I think I see a way out of this for you."
Brinkly snarled at her. "What? Some way you can embarrass me more?"
"No! Remember what I said at the assembly?"
"Hell yes! Was this what you and Kitty had planned when you gave that
bullshit speech..."
"Shut up! We don't have much time. Let's talk in private in the wings."
When they were out of sight of the audience, she said, "You were going
to do the Moody Blues' I'm Just A Singer first."
Brinkly gaped at her. "Kitty told you that, like she told you about
Reaper and Blinded?"
"I have independent sources, the same as you do. Your sources are why
you thought we were going to do Pinnacle and were surprised when we
didn't. Don't play dumb, Brinkly, and don't play martyr with me. It
demeans you. If you are planning to do the recorded version of Singer, I
can drum for you."
"Yeah? Why?" she snorted. "So you can embarrass me and make me look like
an idiot?"
Cinnamon shook her head as the audience laughed at something shithead
had done. "If I wanted you to look like an idiot, I'd still be standing
in the other wings, laughing at you. I'm serious. I'm doing this for
Griffin Middle School first and foremost. Besides, if I fuck with you
while I'm on stage, then I make myself look bad. I don't like to make
myself look bad any more than you do. I'm giving you a chance to avoid
looking bad."
"And everybody can talk about how the great Cinnamon Brees rescued poor,
helpless Brinkly Ward."
"Only if that's what you want it to look like. It could also look like
Cinnamon Brees was helping a friend."
Brinkly looked like she was having apoplexy. "A FRIEND?"
"You can never have too many friends, Brinkly. I wasn't the one who
started this so called feud of ours. From our first meeting at the
Aspenleaf Center, I've responded only when provoked, by your attacking
either me or my friends. I did it at first out of fun, then out of
revenge for Possum. I protect my friends. That includes you, if you
want. Haven't you noticed that I get much farther with friends than you
do with enemies, sycophants, and slaves who fear you? Maybe you should
try my way and see if it works for you. After all, you can't do any
worse than you're doing now. You're out of time, so what's your answer?
Do we have a deal, or do you want to be seen as a loser?"
Brinkly stared at her long and hard, then turned to look at her
remaining musicians on the stage, then turned back to Cinnamon. "All
right. Deal. What do we do for encores?"
~ ~ ~
"Damn it," Brinkly said when her pen stopped writing. She loved that pen
because it fit her hand better than any other she had. She didn't want
to switch to another pen because of the comfort, and she didn't want to
have her letter to Grandmama to have two different types of ink.
Craig had a pen like hers in his desk. Ordinarily she'd never look in
Craig's desk without his permission, but it was late, he was still
working, she was sleepy, and she wanted to finish the letter tonight,
while the performance was still fresh in her mind. Besides, she was
Craig's favorite sibling. He loved her and would forgive her.
She wheeled herself into the hall and next door to his room. She let
herself in and wheeled to his desk, where he kept his pen in the center
drawer. She opened the drawer and took his twin pen. That was when she
noticed the funny looking pen next to it. She tried it and discovered it
had silver ink. She had no idea why Craig would have a pen like that.
She shrugged at how boys did the weirdest things imaginable, even her
own favorite brother. She replaced it next to the squares of dark gray
paper and closed the drawer.
Chapter 29
Wynter closed her locker door and turned to the dark, pleading eyes in
the dark, pleading face. Doctors have to tell patients all kinds of
things they don't want to hear. This is just practice for when I will
have to do that. "Absolutely not! Your grades are too important, Tyrone.
Sis's rules and mine say that schoolwork always comes first! Besides,
you know we usually work on getting the music right before we bring in
vocals. Look, Thursday is the big game. No more football practice after
that. If your homework is finished, you can join us for rehearsals
beginning this Saturday afternoon. If your homework is completed. That's
when we start vocals, anyhow. Okay?"
Tyrone glanced at Jimmy, found no support, then acquiesced, another new
word she decided she liked, as Sister Suzie and Kenny arrived. Sisters
Cinnamon and Hailey with Huntly were right behind them. They "exchanged
pleasantries" as Grandpa Wolfe called it, and then Tyrone left to find
LaMarcus.
"He's not happy," observed Sis One.
Wynter's ponytail lashed as she shook her head. "Not about tonight, but
he's planning to join the Saturday afternoon rehearsal. I explained that
tonight is just music rehearsal, anyway."
"Okay," said Sis with a nod. "Actually, that's the truth. Tonight is the
last music only rehearsal. Hey, did you see Mister Sillerman's article
this morning? He did what I asked and didn't say anything about my
taking over for Kitty."
"Yeah," said Jimmy as Wynter's hand found its home, creating the
familiar warm spot on his back that she found comforting to herself,
too. "He's been really super about doing us favors like that, as long as
we don't ask him to compromise his journalistic integrity. All he said
was that The Brink had minor initial difficulties, but that didn't keep
them from giving a splendid performance, to include its two encores."
Sis shrugged. "It was a good thing I knew Smoke on the Water and
Somebody to Love and they were prepared to do them. Otherwise they'd
have to have done The Reaper or Blinded By The Light for encores after
all, and they had modified versions that could have been a problem for me."
"Hey!" said Sis Two, suddenly coming alive. "Their last one would be
like, so the great for Shamisa and Monique!"
Kenny nodded thoughtfully. "She's right. Shamisa has a better voice for
it than Brinkly. Which reminds me: I watched The Shadow last night. Its
closing theme song... um... it was... ahhh... Damn it!"
"No, not Damn It, Boy Blunder," said Huntly with a slight shake of his
head, "but you're close. Original Sin. Now, let me see if I got this
straight: you want Shamisa to take on Grace Slick and Taylor Dane?"
"Why not?" asked Wynter. "She has the voice for it. For both of them.
Right Sis?"
Sister Cinnamon smiled at her and nodded before shifting her attention
to Sis Three. "She does. Sister Suzie, it seems your boyfriend actually
knows what he's talking about for a change."
"Well, of course the dolt does, Sis," Suzie said, giving Kenny's arm a
squeeze and pressing her head against his shoulder. "He likes to do his
being right early in the week and get it out of the way quickly or
something."
"Hey!" said Sis Two. "Now the pickledick can, like, go back to normal
for the rest of the week."
Huntly chuckled when he saw the look Kenny gave Sister Suzie. "Relax,
Boy Blunder. I constantly put up with worse than that. Why, sometimes I
wonder why I even bother to keep bitch around."
Sis One smiled up at him sweetly and in a soft voice moaned, "Ohhh,
Godddd!" like she was orgasming.
Huntly's thick brows pushed wrinkles into his forehead and he looked
like his lights had just come on. "Oh. Now I remember."
"Shithead."
Huntly wrapped his arms around her and squeezed. "I love you, too."
"We have company," Wynter murmured as Brinkly drove her wheelchair
toward the gathering and stopped among them. Wynter and Cinnamon greeted
her warmly. The rest followed their example, though Sister Hailey's
attitude toward Brinkly seemed a lot cooler than the others'.
Brinkly skipped the pleasantry exchange. "I saw the paper this morning,"
she said with a smugness in her voice that matched the one on her face.
"My father showed it to me. Your little publicity stunt didn't get
mentioned."
Before Sis One could speak, Sis Three's face exploded with a deep red
color and her right foot slammed down onto the asphalt tile. "Are you
dismental or something? Do you sit up at night practicing to see how
stupid you can be?" Suzie demanded. "Mister Sillerman has been our
friend and sorta like our protector since the stupid mine thingy! He's
always doing us favors when he can! The reason he didn't say a stupid
thing about your stupid problem with Kitty in the stupid paper was
because Sister Wynter and Sister Cinnamon asked that he NOT do it as a
stupid favor or something!
"They were trying to do something nice for you, you stupid witch,
because they think you are worth being a friend to! If you were worth
being a stupid friend to, you should be thanking them or something, not
acting like Miss Stupid High and Mighty whose stupid feet don't stink! I
offered to be your stupid friend, too, but if this is how you treat
people who are nice to you or something, MAYBE IT'S A GOOD THING THAT
YOU DON'T HAVE ANY STUPID FRIENDS INCLUDING ME! MAYBE THEY SHOULD CALL
MISTER SILLERMAN AND ASK HIM TO PRINT THE STUPID REST OF THE STUPID
STORY TOMORROW! WHY SHOULD THEY CARE IF YOU DON'T, YOU STUPID WITCH?"
Sister Suzie slammed her foot down again with the final word, turned,
and stormed off toward Mister Shelby's classroom, watched by a silent
hall filled with students and teachers who quickly moved out of her way
as she approached.
Jimmy leaned to whisper in Wynter's ear. "I wonder if that's what she
was like with the judge."
"Maybe," she said. "I still wish we could have heard that one."
Brinkly, ignoring Wynter and Jimmy, knew that Suzie's locker was behind
Wynter. "She forgot her books," she said, shaking her head like she had
observed something hopelessly pathetic. Her voice sounded very
disdainful to Wynter.
"I know," Huntly said with a smile, his quiet voice sounding
surprisingly gentle after Suzie's stormy tirade. "We'll take them to
her. Suzie's our friend. That's what friends do. We watch out for each
other."
Brinkly's eyes dropped to her lap, where her hands fidgeted for several
long seconds. Finally she said, "I guess that I wouldn't..." She sighed.
"Look, Brees, I didn't thank you for helping me Saturday night and for
talking Kitty into rejoining the Brink yesterday." She looked at Sister
Cinnamon, then sighed again. "Thank you."
Sis's smile pushed up her round cheeks. "That's okay. I was just
watching out for you, like shithead said we do our other friends. After
all, you can never have too many friends."
Brinkly sighed a third time. "I guess that I wouldn't know about that."
~ ~ ~
Tuesday after school, Suzie froze in the doorway and gapped in
surprise--or whatever that stupid word was--when she saw the size of the
crowd in Sister Cinnamon's basement games room. "I invited a few extra
people," Sis explained as Suzie realized that the entire Griffin swim
team was among the people crowding the room, to include its newest
member, Leigh Ann. Not only that, Trish was there, too! She turned a
red faced frown to her dolt.
Kenny held up his hands, palms toward her, looking ever so scared or
something. "Wait! Don't blame me! You know how hard it is to stop her
when she sets her mind to something."
She crossed her arms under her boobies and frowned at him. "You could
have warned me."
He shook his head. "If I did, she'd backhand me, and then your other
sisters would hurt me, and I'd be in the hospital--or Maurer's--and
you'd be here all alone. Well, except for all of them."
Eyes suddenly wide or something, she quickly changed the subject. Her
dolt had doubled over without warning with an attack of his stupid
mysterious illness in history class earlier that day. Even though it
went away in a couple of minutes, she didn't want to be reminded of
that. "I see a band has set up." She pointed. "With a video screen. Are
we doing The Waiting?"
The band's gear was almost hidden by a forest of flowers--or whatever
the stupid things were called when they grew in huge bunches that spread
across the north end of the room. It looked like there were almost as
many flowers as had been crammed into Sister Cinnamon's room at the
hospital.
"No, we aren't. It's my sister's birthday," Sister Cinnamon said. "She
deserves live music at her party, especially since she wasn't here for
the live music at my party because she was teaching Amber Vallarta to
act civilized."
She grinned at the memories of swim camp. "Yeah, but I don't think I had
any more luck with her than you had with Brinkly."
"I think I had more luck with Brinkly than she realizes." She gave Suzie
a grin that was slight as a fox or something. "Maybe you did with Amber,
too." Before Suzie could decide what the heck that meant, Sister
Cinnamon spoke up louder as Suzie heard feet coming down the central
staircase.
"Ladies and gentlemen! And shithead. The Birthday Guest of Honor, the
Unpacker of The Pack, the motivational speaker at the Griffin Middle
School Spring 2004 Talent Show, the star of the Griffin Fall 2004 Talent
Show, the holder of more swimming records than I can possibly remember
without the cheat sheet I left in my room, the first Student Coach ever
from the 11-12 Age Group at the Colorado Swim Camp, the Colorado 2004
Swimming Champion for the 11-12 Age Group on points, the winner of the
Colorado 2004 State Swim Meet in the 11-12 age group, the Future
Colorado State Swimming Champion for the 13-14 age group, the Future
Winner of all the swimming gold medals in the 2012 Olympics, the Heroine
of The Hargus Mine Incident, the Heroine of the Fishhook Cove
Catastrophe, the town's Plan B replacement for the emergency siren, and
my newest Adopted Sister, Miss SUZANNE MIDDLETON!"
After that introduction and the way everyone cheered and applauded,
Suzie suddenly felt a little embarrassed, especially when everyone began
clapping in time with "SU U ZIE!" and stomping after the word like the
Griffin Knights cheer. She saw Finnegan stop clapping long enough to
reach down and do something, and then Darth Vader's march filled the
room or something.
The room got blurry, but fortunately her dolt took her arm and led her
to her seat at the head of the main table so that she didn't have to
find it on her own while blind.
~ ~ ~
Carolyn stood at the bottom of the central staircase with Rosita, Angie,
and Candis, listening to the introduction of her daughter and the
crowd's enthusiastic response. Angie wrapped an arm around her shoulders
and gently said, "I don't mean to belittle your older daughter, Carolyn.
I know she's had a rough time and is now improving herself. But how can
you listen to that response to your younger daughter and think that
she's following in Caroline's footsteps? When did Caroline ever receive
a greeting and a welcome like that? Do you think those kids in there are
so stupid, so ignorant, so irresponsible that they would welcome Suzie
like that if she were in any way turning into another Caroline, or at
least, the Caroline that used to be?"
Candis took one of Carolyn's hands in both of hers. "I wish I could add
to that, but Angie said it all. I can't do anything but repeat her
words. Listen to her, for your younger daughter's sake. Maybe I'll be
lucky enough to be what most people consider her mother in law some day,
but as far as I'm concerned, I'll be like Angie toward Jimmy: Suzie
won't be my daughter in law, she'll be my daughter. And I will be the
one honored to call her so."
Rosita gave her an odd smile and took her other hand. "Our families have
known each other since our parents were children. I know that I can
speak to you from what your mother calls an 'honest heart.' From my
honest heart, I tell you now that Father Vogler made each of us mothers
of four daughters. That is the way my heart feels: I am a mother, not
a step mother, to each and to all four.
"As a mother, I am supposed to love all my children equally. But as a
human being, I find it difficult at some times not to feel a little
favoritism toward one. You know that feeling yourself because you feel
it for your first born. We can't condemn you for that, and we don't
because it's human nature and it happens to all parents.
"I trust you to keep the words of my honest heart to yourself, the way
your mother respects and keeps the trust of the honest hearts spoken to
her. My honest heart says that on those occasions when one daughter
stands slightly higher in my opinion, my admiration, and my love for my
four daughters, that one daughter is always Suzie. Not Cinnamon, but
Suzie. I have seen some of the horrible things Cinnamon had to overcome,
yet I feel that Suzie had greater challenges in her path."
Carolyn looked at all three, blinking as they became blurry images. This
time the words, especially Rosita's, penetrated deeper than they ever
had before. Somewhere in the core of Carolyn Binns Middleton, the words
linked, relinked, kindled thoughts of her own, opened her own honest
heart for a look inside, blossomed, and grew.
Somewhere deep inside of Carolyn Middleton, a light flickered on.
~ ~ ~
Suzie just couldn't possibly believe it. She had thought the high point
of her day was going to be having Leigh Ann and Trish serving her
together because, they said, neither one wanted to deprive the other of
the honor. Then Sister Cinnamon pulled a cord or something and dropped a
curtain that hid a panel on the west wall, one covered in birthday cards
and letters from all the coaches and staff at Swim Camp, to include
Mister Berger, the Director! And she was ever so flabberblasted to
discover that one of the cards was from Amber! That was an even bigger
surprise than the card from the Governor.
She was ever so glad that the whole swim team was there and that
everyone was having an awesome time eating pizza and Buffalo wings and
drinking punch and lemonade and soft drinks while telling stories about
Suzie at different swim meets and the girls saying why they voted for
her to be their Team Captain.
Jennifer showed up right in the middle of it to announce that Suzie
would be returning to Swim Camp as a Student Coach again and to present
her with her 2005 coach's cap. She stayed long enough to tell a few
stories about Suzie that the others hadn't heard before, like the night
everyone in their cabin got silly over something Josh's sister said
about spice cake making him fart like a horse, and everyone spent the
time until lights out making whinny and fart noises.
Then Huntly stood up and said, "As much as we enjoy these sterling
anecdotes for their exceptional humor and exceedingly good taste, Coach
Jackson, the fact remains that this party is for persons of the teenage
persuasion and slightly thereunder. Therefore, it is with great remorse
that I must insist that you leave now, or Jimbo will throw you out."
Suzie almost blew punch out her nose when Jimmy choked and shouted, "WHAT?"
Jennifer gave her a kiss on the cheek, swim team style, and a hug and
whispered in her ear to enjoy the kissing contest. She then told
everyone to enjoy Suzie's party and left.
She almost hated it when the cake and ice cream were over and it came
time to open her presents because everyone, herself included, was having
such a good time talking or something.
She stood up and thanked everyone for coming. "I'm ever so sorry, but I
didn't expect the whole team, so a lot of you aren't on the presents
roster I did," she said. "I'll just open your presents in alphabetical
order or something."
Things went ever so well until she announced, "Jimmy next."
Instead of Sister Wynter handing her something from the table, Huntly
stood up and went over to the intercom. He pushed the button and said,
"Hey! Listen up! Those of you up there sipping wine and enjoying
yourselves by telling embarrassing stories about your husbands! It's
time. No one will be seated after the performance begins, so get your
buns down here now before I lock the door, or you can just go home and
write in your diaries how you missed the event of the century."
He turned to everybody in the room and said, "There will be a delay, but
it will be a short one. They aren't that old and decrepit. Yet."
She was surprised to see that not only her moms and her Future
Mother in Law and Jennifer come in but also her dads and her Future
Father in Law. She looked at her watch. It's that late already? Time
really does fly when you're having a good time or something!
Sister Hailey handed her a small package that could only be a wrapped
CD. As she took it, everyone in the band rose. All but Jimmy moved to
the bandstand. Jimmy's hand said she should open the present. When she
saw the CD, with the official picture of her on the winner's stand at
State and the words Suzie's Victory printed ever so nicely on it at the
top, her eyes suddenly flooded.
"I wanted some way to tell the world what I thought of you," Jimmy said.
"Although it's primarily my composition, everyone in the band, including
Dad and Tyrone, had a hand in polishing it into something that we hope
is worthy of you. That's why they are listed as composers, too. We've
also added something special for live performances, like you're about to
receive. It's my way, and the band's way, of telling you how much we
love you."
She was ever so glad he kissed her on the lips instead of her cheek. If
he'd kissed her cheek, his lips would have drowned or something. If she
was crying like this now, what would happen when they started playing
the music?
~ ~ ~
Wynter watched the monitor screen as Sis One's left fist and its stick
flew up, the right hand with its stick rising to hit the beat. Finnegan
killed the lights and hit the button for the video projector. The screen
showed the artwork for the CD as soft beeps in the headsets told Sis
when to strike the tempo. Her hands shot down and Jimmy's synthesized
horns played the opening fanfare. The monitor showed Suzie leading the
girls' team to the doorway of the dressing room at the State Meet, which
was the same scene everyone in the audience was seeing on the projection
screen. Then came the march with everyone joining in as the girls' team
marched out in step for introductions. Jimmy had cut together the team's
marching out for several meets, then cut back to the state meet.
The march built to a crescendo that abruptly changed into a long, single
note from a sampled violin as Suzie, on the starting block, leaned
forward, threw her hands back, and held as Jimmy's right hand moved over
the keyboard that was the horns, his index finger rocking back and forth
to count the beats. The screen flashed multiple shots of Suzie taking
the position. The people Wynter could see in the audience were leaning
toward the screen, looking as tense as Suzie.
As Jimmy reached the right count, his hand slammed down on the trumpet
G major chord as Wynter did the same on the piano. Sis simultaneously
slammed sticks into her two largest cymbals and hit the bass drum, while
LaMarcus plucked a G note high on his D string and slid his finger down
the neck. The starter's gun had fired.
Suzie leapt into the water and swam down the lane. Minor chords rising
in volume and intensity built the tension. The video, with slowly
building but ever increasing speed, began cutting between shots of Suzie
and of the other swimmers. Now the people in the audience looked like
they were straining, trying to help Suzie along, as if they thought she
just might lose without their help.
Suzie was on the final lap. The music was reaching its peak as the movie
cuts suddenly became a series of still shots of Suzie and other swimmers
reaching for the end, the cuts moving faster and faster until the images
blurred into on confusing mess and then...
Silence for two beats, then...
A loud G major chord as Suzie's arms went up in victory. It was the
opening chord of the glorious victory celebration, with Sis crashing the
cymbals each time Suzie's arms went up in the different shots of her not
only at the State Meet but others where Suzie had set new records,
sometimes breaking the ones she'd set herself. The music switched to
Jimmy's strings and LaMarcus's bass, with Sis and her felt mallets
slowly bringing up the cymbals as Suzie mounted the First Place Winner's
Stand.
Silence for two beats, then...
The final recap of the main victory celebration theme, with Wynter using
Finnegan's chimes mini keyboard to add large gongs and long chimes as
highlights while the first place medal was draped around Suzie's neck.
Suzie raised her arms in victory, and the final chord ended the music.
Finnegan immediately brought up the lights. People rose to their feet,
applauding and cheering as the band took a bow, and then Wynter left her
spot and went to help a bawling Suzie to her feet. She escorted her
newest sister to the central spot before Sis One's drums as Huntly
snapped an index finger toward the back of the room.
Jennifer came forward and draped Suzie's State Championship Medal around
her neck. She took her left wrist as Wynter took her right and together
they raised her arms in victory.
Down the hall, in the room next to the bathroom, the room where Huntly
had talked to Sister Suzie about the Studman episode, Ghost suddenly
added his voice of approval to the abruptly louder clamor.
~ ~ ~
The party took a short recess as the Guest of Honor went to the bathroom
to fix her makeup. She was more flabberblasted than ever. She just
couldn't believe how much work everyone had done for her! For just ever
so plain old Suzanne Middleton. Not just the song, which was ever so
much more beautiful than she'd ever expected, but for all the work Jimmy
had done with the video. It was ever so much more complicated than the
editing he'd done for The Waiting.
And Jimmy had done that for her! Despite how she'd been such a witch and
had tried to take him away from Wynter back when he'd crushed his nuts
on the stupid bicycle bar and she'd stupidly tried to give them a stupid
massage and...
Fuck!
Now she had to re do her stupid mascara and eyeliner again!
~ ~ ~
Suzie had decided that the only smart way to choose the order of
presents from her sisters was to take them in order from the one she'd
known the shortest time--Hailey--to the one she'd known the longest--Wynter.
Sister Hailey's gift was a nightie that Suzie just knew her parents
wouldn't let her wear until she was sixty and had twenty kids and a
dozen grandkids. If then. Sis shrugged. "Hey! I guess it's, like, more
of a present for Kenny than you, anyway."
That brought the crowd to where they sounded louder than she did when
she screamed at the stupid judge.
Sister Cinnamon's gift was a set of ever so beautiful emerald earrings,
sorta like Sister Wynter's diamond ones. She hugged Sis and gave her a
sisterly kiss, telling herself that whatever she did, she wasn't going
to go back to the bathroom to fix her stupid mascara and eyeliner again.
Two presents remained on the table. "Next to last is my longest friend
and my sister even before Father Vogler made her one officially, Sister
Wynter."
Instead of Sister Wynter handing her a package, she said, "I'm going to
need some strong back and weak mind assistance for this. Jimmy, since
you have a strong back, would you give Huntly a hand?"
Everyone laughed except Huntly. No, that wasn't right. Everyone roared
except Huntly! He looked at Sister Wynter until the room got quiet and
then pretended to pull a knife out of his chest. He raised a hand over
his head and extended the pointing finger, his eyes wide like he'd just
stuck the finger in a light socket or something. "Et tu, Cutie?"
Suzie was pretty sure that was Latin. Or maybe Greek. Maybe she ought to
pay more attention to Western World history, like she always did to
Western US history, so she could tell the difference.
The boys went to the audio visible room behind Finnegan and brought
out... No! It was an easel and a loosely wrapped thingy with a ribbon
hanging down. It could only be a framed painting.
She turned her head to Wynter. "Sis?" she asked in confusion. "Is that..."
Sister Wynter nodded. "Uh huh."
"But... you already did me. You gave me that large drawing back when you
came to change the bandage on my leg."
Sis took her hands and squeezed. "Sis, that was a colored pencil drawing."
"But... But it was ever so detailed, like one of your paintings. I
thought that counted for the same as my painting, like you did for Jimmy
and Sister Cinnamon."
Sis's blue green eyes sparkled like her perfect white teeth. "No, Sis.
If it had counted as your painting, then it would have been in oil. Like
this one. Come on." Sis helped her to her feet as the boys put the easel
beside her and the painting on it.
She took the loose end of the ribbon and pulled. The paper tore away and...
Suzie wasn't the only one who said, very softly, "Holy shit!"
She looked at herself, standing on the Winner's Stand wearing... well,
sorta wearing her team swimsuit, but sorta wearing something different,
almost like it was a dolphin's skin or something that made her feel like
she should have a fin on her back. She wore her State gold medal around
her neck, and her fists held pieces of a broken spear beside her legs.
Her weight was very slightly shifted to her left foot, like she was
thinking about lifting her right one to stamp it. Her face was friendly,
yet it showed a hint of a warning, too, a feeling that was emphasized by
the way her chest was pushed a little forward.
She didn't look like a swimming champion but more like... like... like a
sea goddess or something, daring the world to do something she didn't
like. Her suit and arms and legs were wet, but her hair was flowing back
like it was dry and in a breeze or something. Wait! The Winner's Stand
wasn't at a pool, it was in the lake, surrounded by water. It looked
like it was sticking up from a submerged rock. And the dark background
wasn't a wall, it was the cliffs of Fishhook Cove!
Sister Wynter hugged her with one arm and said, "I call it Suzanne
Middleton: The Protector." Sis smiled at her. "I decided 'Heroine' was
accurate enough, but it had been overused and I wanted something more
descriptive anyway."
Fuck!
Now she had to fix her stupid mascara and eyeliner again.
~ ~ ~
Cinnamon knew that Kenny's present was an emerald pendant that matched
the earrings she had given Sister Suzie. And she, alone, knew about the
mysterious final present and who it was from.
Naturally, Wynter had an anxiety attack when she discovered that a
present was missing a tag. She was sure that she'd lost the tag somehow
and someone's day would be ruined and she'd be blamed and it would be
her fault. Cinnamon finally had to tell her that the tag was
deliberately missing and that she wasn't supposed to say anything about
it until the end.
She gave Sister Wynter a small, silent nod as a signal. Sis made a fuss
over an extra gift, one apparently from a secret admirer since it had no
tag. When Sis handed the present to Suzie, Johnny Stone noted that it
looked like a ring box and suggested that it was an engagement ring from
Kenny.
"It is a ring!" said Sister Suzie in surprise. "And a note!" She pulled
out the note and held up the ring so that everyone could see the emerald
and setting that matched her pendant and earrings.
Cinnamon thought she was going to wet her panties when Suzie unfolded
the note and read, "Thank you for offering to be my friend. I would like
that. I hope you have a happy birthday. Brinkly." It wasn't the words
that shocked Cinnamon. It's that they were written in silver ink on a
familiar square of gray paper. Was Brinkly sending two messages?
~ ~ ~
Suzie just knew her eyes had jumped open as wide as dinner plates.
"WOW!" she gassed when she could draw a breath. She guessed it was
called 'gassed' because your breath was sorta like gas escaping from
somewhere or something. But she had more important things to think about
right now than what words meant. She gave Ted a quick second kiss, just
a sorta swim team kiss except on his mouth, and said, "No wonder Snoopy
likes having you around!"
She thought he looked kinda cute when he blushed and said, "Well, we do
more than just kiss." Then his eyes got bigger than hers and he turned a
deep red. "I didn't mean that we... I meant we just... We don't ever...
You know. We don't..."
He was kinda cute when he stammered, too. "You mean that besides
kissing, you do things together like go to the movies or just hold hands
and talk or do homework stuff. Things like that, but together because
it's more fun than doing them by yourself."
He was also kinda cute when he took a deep breath and signed in relief.
"Yeah. I do."
She grinned at him and looked around his shoulder. "Snoopy? Don't lose
this one! He's a keeper."
Snoopy gave her a shy smile while she nodded. "I know."
She decided they made a good couple as Katie Wilson, who, it seemed, had
made herself the permanent hostess for all kissing contests, said,
"Jeremy Lefave."
Jeremy seemed to ignore the giggles and whispered comments as he
approached Suzie. She held her arms open and he moved forward.
Her eyes did that jump open thingy again. When he pulled back, she
looked around him and said, "Possum? If you're looking for someone as
good as Snoopy's, I think I just found him for you."
Did that ever shut everyone up! But now Suzie was convinced that
everyone had been wrong about Jeremy. No way could he prefer boys to
girls. Not after a kiss like that! Jeremy thanked her for the pleasure
and the honor, then was replaced by Huntly.
"I don't know about you, Your Championshipness, but I'm certainly going
to enjoy this."
She grinned at him. "I'm sure I am, too."
When he pulled back, she smiled and said, "I may have to have second
thoughts about sharing with Sister Cinnamon."
Huntly grinned and said, "Damn, I hope so! As long as I don't have to
kiss Kenny."
At the end, she couldn't decide. "We'll have to have a play off match,"
she said. "Ted, Kenny, Jeremy, Huntly, Jimmy, Josh." She frowned in
thought or something. "And the class president, if someone can pull him
off Evi for a minute."
That got a laugh from everybody, as did telling Larry he could go first
so he could get back to Evi. When this round was over, she was down to,
"Ted, Jeremy, Huntly. And... Jimmy."
The championship round was, "Jeremy and Huntly."
"All right, gentlemen," Katie said. "And you, too, Huntly. This is
it. Winner take all. The loser goes home with thrill of happy lips and
the agony of defeat. Give it your best shot or give up now and save
Suzie the difficulty of making a choice. You have ten seconds to prepare."
As Katie counted down, Suzie heard Jimmy tell Ted, "I thought the
playoffs were a great idea until I got eliminated."
"Yeah," said Ted. "Me, too."
Sister Wynter just shook her head, but Snoopy giggled and poked Ted in
the arm.
"Time is up, and so is Jeremy. Give it your best shot!"
By the time he'd finished, Suzie was ever so breathless and starting to
worry about what her dolt might say. But when she looked at him, he was
grinning and giving her thumbs ups or something.
"Okay, Huntly," said Katie, "you're up. It's your last chance to beat that."
Suzie decided that Huntly had been taking lessons from Sister Hailey.
Katie stood between Huntly and Jeremy, holding a wrist of each and
giving Suzie fifteen seconds to decide. "Okay, Suzie, the time is up.
The winner is?"
Suzie stood up and looked at everyone. "Two years ago I lost the State
Swim Meet to Amber by a one hundredth of a second. This contest was
closer than that. Both finalists were ever so good. By the way, you
girls might want to invite both of them to your birthday parties or
something.
"Both Jeremy and Huntly are friends, and Jeremy is also a fellow swim
team member. I tried ever so hard not to let friendship or other
personal things like that interfere with my decision. I didn't think
about anything except how good each one kissed. It was so close that if
we did it again, the gold and the silver might switch places. But,
this was Winner Take All.
"The bronze medal for Best Kisser goes to Ted Muller." She waited while
everyone cheered and Snoopy gave him a congratulations type kiss.
The silver medal for Best Kisser goes to..." She looked at the two boys,
at Katie, and at everyone in the crowd. "...Jeremy Lefave!"
Everyone whistled and clapped and stomped or something as Katie held up
Huntly's hand and Suzie said, "The gold medal winner is Huntly Sheridan!"
~ ~ ~
Carolyn sipped her refilled coffee cup and watched over the rim as Don
suddenly stood up. "That's got to be a kissing contest going on," he
said. "Maybe I'd better go down there and..."
"Sit down," she said quietly.
Don looked at her and pointed out the door of the den. "But..."
"She'll be fine, honey. It's a kissing contest, not an orgy."
"She's right about that," Mitch said as he took a cookie from the tray
Rosita was offering. "It's nothing they haven't done at birthday parties
before, and it's nothing, apparently, that any of the kids in this town
take advantage of."
Don didn't sit. "That's not true. When Caroline turned fifteen..."
"That," Carolyn said, adding a little edge to her voice, "was Caroline.
This is Suzie. She's not her sister."
"But, Carolyn!"
She glanced at Angie, who smiled back over her own coffee cup. "Don,
Kevin and the others have tried for a year to make us understand
something that we were too pig headed to see because we thought nobody
else could understand. Rosita and Candis and Angie and the kids
downstairs finally got through to me today, especially the kids, and
most especially Wynter. You should have heard Cinnamon's introduction.
You saw what all of them did for Suzie, the work that went into Jimmy's
music and his video. Even the governor sent our Suzie a birthday card!
We've done her a great disservice by not looking at her as an
individual. I think maybe we did her harm."
She put down her cup and rose, speaking as she crossed the room. "We've
lumped her and Caroline into one person and treated both the same. We
never considered that they were different, and we didn't consider what
made Suzie different. I had been as hard headed as you, but now I
understand. You need to understand, too. Our older daughter is who she
is, and maybe part of the fault for that is ours. I'm afraid that it
most likely is. She's changing now, and I hope for the better. But
still, she's Caroline, her own person."
She stopped at the easel supporting Wynter's oil painting. Her eyes
danced over it, her gaze a loving caress as a tear escaped down one
cheek. "This is our younger daughter. This is Suzie."
Chapter 30
The big Thanksgiving Day Football Game was a success, with the lead
singer of the Rockin' Mountains CD, which finally had been released the
day before, scoring one of the touchdowns in Griffin's 13 - 7 game. The
Griffin margin might have been higher had strongly gusting winds during
its game not prevented two field goals and one extra point. No only did
the Griffin Knights win against Parkman Sidewinders, but in the second
game, the Dunne Warriors beat the Tabor Bulldogs like a redheaded
stepchild, fifty-six to nothing. It was the largest win in the
sixty-three year history of the school rivalry.
Tabor tried to blame the loss on the condition of the field after the
Knights/Sidewinders game, but nobody with any sense was buying that. The
field was frozen for both games. The sun came out with the firing of the
starter gun for the second game, bringing the temperature up to a balmy
and windless twenty-five degrees Fahrenheit--balmy considering the
location of Horace Tabor High's football field and the time of year--but
not high enough to thaw the field for the second game. However, the
weather was nice enough for Angie's father to join them at Tabor's field
for the two games.
The highlight of the day, if the winning margin wasn't the highlight for
Dunne, was the half time show which traditionally featured the marching
bands of both teams during each game. Wynter was overheard observing to
her grandfather, "Nobody will remember their bands performed," because
the performances of both the Griffin Knights Marching Band and the Dunne
Warriors Marching Band included dual feature drummers: Guy Malone and
Cinnamon Brees.
None of the Hargus Four Plus The Other One could imagine when Cinnamon
and Guy could have possibly found time to rehearse together, yet their
routine was flawless, both when performing together during the middle
school game halftime and when performing a Dueling Banjos type of act
during the high school halftime. The closest anyone could get to a
definitive answer was Guy saying, "Oh, you know." Cinnamon, of course,
smiled sweetly and said nothing. Even Hailey was totally clueless about
how they had accomplished their rehearsals.
After the game, the Kings, Taylors, Sheridans, and Henry Wolfe assembled
at the Brees house for Thanksgiving dinner. Much of the cooking had been
done by Rosita's family for her--she still considered Pete's family to
be hers, and they all agreed with her. The remainder was completed in
short order by Rosita, Angie, Candis, and Ro with help from the shorter
members of the family, including Kenny and Charlie. Mitch, Richard,
Henry, Kevin, Wally, and Ghost were ordered to the den, where they were
told to watch football and to not break or spill anything or pee on the
carpet.
The tradition in the Brees family, one shared by a few but not most
factions of the Kennedy side, was for everyone at the table to note what
he or she was most thankful for over the past year.
Mitchell, as the head of the household and of the table, started, noting
that he was most thankful for being sabotaged out of positions with
University Hospital and Swedish Medical Center, allowing him the
privilege and honor of having Rosita, his three other daughters, and
good friends like those at the table.
Rosita was most thankful for being accepted as the Brees housekeeper and
the stepping stone it provided to the happiness surrounding her at the
table.
Cinnamon said she was most thankful for her mutual adoption with Wynter
because it opened the door to having three sisters and four sets of
parents. Four complete sets of parents. She did not mention the thing
for which she was truly the most grateful: getting Millie out of her
father's life so that he could find happiness and true love with Rosita.
It was a nice dinner, and she didn't want to spoil it with horrible
memories of that nagging drunken bitch.
Whitney Gwyneth was most thankful for having Uncle Mitch and Aunt Rosita
and Cousin Cinnamon to take her in so that her father could fulfill his
dream of getting his doctorate degree.
Kevin and Candis were most thankful for having Suzie to save Kenny's
life again.
Kenny was most thankful for having Suzie to save his life again and to
make his life better with her presence. And to have Wynter to help him
be a better Future MD and to diagnose his appendicitis so that he
arrived at the hospital before it ruptured. And to have the rest of the
Hargus Four Plus Two to make his life... interesting. And to have his
singing voice improve when his voice changed so that he could pay back
Cinnamon for all that she had done for him. And to have Dad support
Wynter's and his attempts to learn as much as they could about medicine
before medical school by letting them observe procedures and make
rounds. And... he guessed that was it.
Which caused Huntly to announce, out of turn, that he was thankful that
Kenny finally shut up.
Cinnamon backhanded his arm, causing him to announce, still out of turn,
that he was thankful for the opportunity to shut up, too.
Charlie was most thankful for having Suzie to keep Kenny too busy to
bother him and to play catch with. He'd have been even more thankful if
she'd been there to play catch today with instead of having dinner at
her Grandma Binns' house. He wasn't very thankful for having to wear
glasses, though.
Waldgrave was most thankful that he didn't have to sell a new truck to
Richard over the past twelve months because that meant Richard had
avoided another potentially serious accident, though he wasn't pleased
that Richard had replaced his vehicle accident with a tumble down the
stairs.
Rowena was most thankful that her mother had gone a full year with only
relatively mild emphysema attacks and was in otherwise good health.
Huntly was most thankful for Wynter because she not only helped him
tremendously after he stupidly screwed up his knee, she also was
responsible for keeping Ron and Suzie alive, and best of all, she was
responsible for his "having Cinnamon as my squeeze."
Richard couldn't decide whether he was more thankful for having Dragon
to find him at the bottom of the stairs or Wynter to provide first aid
until the EMTs arrived.
Angela was most thankful for having Dragon to find Richard and alert the
rest of the household.
Wynter was most thankful that Richard, Ron, Suzie, Kenny, Cinnamon, and
all the others she'd treated or medically interacted with were safe and
sound and that she didn't make anyone worse.
Henry was most thankful for "four perfect granddaughters and a
grandson." Only Wynter and Angie truly understood the phrasing of his
words because he'd delivered the words so smoothly..
After dinner entertainment was delayed while the overstuffed diners, as
Henry said, "rested and digested" in the family room until they felt it
was safe to attempt the stairs to the former birthday party room where
the keyboards, Cinnamon's main drum kit, and Huntly's guitar awaited.
Hailey danced while Wynter and Huntly covered all parts but Sis's drums
on L'Etoille Rouge, but she was so stuffed that she was almost
lethargic, even for the slow song. She spent the rest of the
entertainment moving from Mitch's lap to Richard's to Henry's, where she
remained until the end, snug in the arms of her big bear of an Adopted
Grandfather.
Before everyone left for the night, Cinnamon scurried up to her room to
retrieve some sheet music and CDs for Wynter, Jimmy, Huntly, and Kenny.
"You'll see Jimmy before I will," she said to Wynter as she handed two
sets to her. Jimmy's family had departed for Fort Collins after the game
to spend the holiday with Jimmy's Uncle Evan and Aunt Susan and were due
back by noon on Saturday. "You'll like these. They're simple but quite
good."
Wynter said she thought she'd heard of Booker T and the MGs before. Her
parents and grandfather looked at the titles. "Oh, yes," said Richard.
"I love all of these." Her mother and grandfather said they did, too.
That was all that Wynter needed to know. She had her father and
grandfather load her keyboards and stand into the Jeep. She'd leave
Jimmy's at Cinnamon's for the time being, since she didn't need them and
he was away until Saturday.
~ ~ ~
Friday's breakfast was late. Wynter wasn't the only one who had slept in
that morning. It was her turn to cook breakfast, but even though she
didn't arise until half past eight, she was the second one up. She'd
been awakened by Dragon returning from what Grandpa Wolfe called his
"morning constitutional."
That thought caused her anxiety disorder. What if Grandpa's sitting in
the kitchen, wondering if anyone will show up to prepare his breakfast?
Which, of course, was a silly worry. Grandpa had been making his own
breakfast for the past six years. Or longer, since he'd always made
breakfast when Grandma Wolfe was sick. He knew his way around their kitchen.
She slipped into her robe and grabbed a scrunchie, fixing her ponytail
enroute to the door. Grandpa's door was closed, and she could hear him
softly snoring through the door. Mother and Daddy's door was also
closed. She decided to use the downstairs bathroom to void her bladder
so that the flushing would be less likely to wake the others.
She brought in the paper, sat in Daddy's recliner, and checked the
entertainment news as Dragon made a second expedition out his doggie
door. Rockin' Mountains was turning into a success. Mister Arnold had
played the whole CD during his morning show Wednesday and Thanksgiving
Day. Cold Rain and Black Diamond were getting a lot of requests. White
Water Canyon also appeared to be popular with the local audience.
YESSSS! she thought. Sis One certainly knew talent when she heard it!
Who would have thought that Tyrone Hayes, worst rap singer in the state,
could be so popular? Sis One was as big a miracle worker as Sis Three.
Speaking of music...
She folded the paper and left it in the recliner for Daddy before moving
to her synthesizers. She plugged the headphones into one, patched the
second one in, shut off the built in speakers, and set up the music Sis
had given her. She'd listened to the CD the night before, with her
parents and Grandfather telling her how popular the songs had been. She
really and truly liked Green Onions. She guessed that was what they
called "funky." She set the controls to sound like a guitar and an
organ, practiced it a couple of times, and then did Soul Limbo, which
sounded better on the CD with the cowbell percussion. Finally she ran
through Hang 'em High, which she sorta remembered from when Daddy and
Mother watched the movie a few weeks earlier. That will sound great when
Jimmy and Huntly play it!
Sis One called at nine, thinking everyone would already be up. Wynter
grabbed the phone on the second ring, but while they were talking she
heard sounds of people moving upstairs. She had been called at eight by
Ian Jaeger's mother, who wanted to know if the Twins would play at his
birthday party. "It's a week from tomorrow. Do you think Jimmy would do
it? His phone is off, and I don't know the home number of his uncle."
"Sure," said Wynter. "He's available, and he'll do it for you. He won't
mind if I volunteer him. Especially if it's for you."
"Our first professional appearance! We're on our way up! By the way,
Daddy says you're supposed to come over Sunday for the football games. I
think he wants to get rid of the leftovers."
"If you'd invited LaMarcus, you wouldn't have any leftovers."
"Yeah," said Sis. "Hindsight is always twenty twenty."
~ ~ ~
Saturday's rehearsal went well for the first time with the vocals.
During the first break, Cinnamon passed out sheet music and CDs while
Green Onions played. Hang 'em High brought several comments about how
the local audience should respond favorably to it. Sister Wynter noted
during Soul Limbo that she'd practiced it and thought it sounded much
better with the cowbell.
When Sister Wynter went to drain the swamp afterward, Cinnamon took the
other redhead to the corner by the refreshment table. "I'm glad you're
here, Sis."
Suzie shrugged. "Well, Kenny wanted to take notes for his idea for the
second Christmas number, and I sorta tagged along or something."
"That's fortunate for me, because I need help. I can do the cowbell
Sister Wynter loves for Soul Limbo if I have to, but it keeps me from
doing a couple of drum riffs that I'd rather do. Since your boyfriend is
already a guest performer with the Twins, how would you like to be one,
too?"
"ME?" She couldn't decide if Suzie looked surprised, shocked, or
concerned about Cinnamon's mental health. "Sis, I can't read music."
"Neither can Jimmy's dad, and he plays a lot more than one note. That's
all you have to play on the cowbell. You just have to know when to play
it, and you can, as Sister Wynter says, feel the music with your fingers
as you play. Besides, I've already told you that you can't be a
championship swimmer without a sense of rhythm."
"But... what if my dyslexia makes me play the wrong note at the wrong
time or something?"
"It's percussion. It'll just seem like a syncopated rhythm. Nobody will
notice or care."
Suzie's face went from concerned to curious. "What's 'simply cated' mean?"
"Syncopated." She spelled it. "It means having a beat at odd times
instead of always at the same time in the measure. It gives music
variety, makes it come alive. I sometimes do it on the drums just to add
that variety."
Suzie still looked skeptical. "What about Kenny? Why couldn't he do it?"
"Because I have an idea for him, too. You'd both be on stage together."
Her face lit up. "Both of us?"
"Both of you. He'll jump at the chance to act like a fool, especially if
he knows you'll be on stage with him."
Suzie shrugged and nodded. "Yeah, that's my dolt. You're sure I won't
mess it up or something?"
"I'm sure you'll be perfect. Hey! Sister Wynter is back. Let's ask her
and Sister Hailey."
The four sisters gathered and began discussing the issue, shifting to
Sister Suzie's ability, Sister Wynter's contribution, Sister Hailey
possibly joining Kenny in his proposed act, and Sister Cinnamon's
expansion on the subject of syncopation, with each asking other sisters
for her thoughts as she presented her ideas.
After a few minutes they heard Kenny observe, "The way they keep calling
each other Sister This and Sister That, you'd think they were a
religious order."
"Yeah," said shithead, idly scratching over an ear with a fingernail.
"That's okay, as long as they don't take vows of celibacy--though maybe
vows of humility would be good for them."
Family warfare erupted, with the family of the four sisters siding
against the family of the two jackasses who didn't have the sense to
crack wise in voices that wouldn't be overheard. The four lectured as
they advanced, driving the two back until they were against the concrete
foundation wall and were trying to push through it.
As if of one mind they suddenly broke off the attack and returned to the
corner to finish their conversation. In the immediate silence Cinnamon
heard Jimmy whisper to the jackasses, "Obviously they haven't taken the
optional vow of silence."
~ ~ ~
Angie stretched under the covers and purred. "I am so content and
relaxed," she said to Richard as he switched from the bathroom to
their walk in closet.
He glanced at her smiling face peeking dreamily over the top of the
blanket. "The leftovers or Mitch's hot tub?"
"Both," she sighed. "I'm stuffed, I'm relaxed, and I'm still warm."
"We should have bought a city sized tub so we could invite others over
for a gathering like that. I guess we could..."
"No, sir! We're not tearing ours out, for piss sake. I'm not going
through weeks of trying to get another one to work right again."
"Huh," he grunted. He undressed, tossing his clothes into the hamper in
silence.
"Why so quiet?"
"I was thinking of Rosita."
"Oh, yeah?" She changed to a sly, suggestive voice. "Looking for a
replacement since Wynter cut you off?"
"NO!" he said, defensively. "It's just that since she lost Pete and his
mother..." Her tone finally registered on him. He shrugged and dipped
his head as if admitting a secret. "Well, you might have noticed that
she does have bigger tits."
"Of course hers are bigger than Wynter's."
"I meant bigger than yours."
She gave him a dark frown. "How would you know? We look the same size to
me."
He walked out to the foot of the bed and stared down at her. "Tit men
notice these things about women. And I am a geological engineer, highly
skilled in analyzing mountains. I calculate hers are 2.235 cubic
centimeters larger than yours."
"Two point..."
"Each."
Her arms lifted the covers from beneath and she looked down at her body.
"Are you sure?"
"It's my job to be sure."
She lowered the covers. "Does this mean you'd rather go back to Mitch
and Rosita's rather than stay here with me?"
He looked at the window for a long moment. "No. The weather's too crappy
to drive back over there. I'll manage with you."
"Remind me to thank the weatherman."
"Sure. What should I wear to bed?"
"Same as me," she said, lifting the covers aside to show him her
birthday suit.
"Why not?" He slid into the bed and kissed her passionately. The tingle
of need grew into lightning bolts as she felt the Beast stiffen and
press against her hip, rubbing occasionally.
She bit his ear and murmured into it, "So, while you're fucking me, are
you going to fantasize Rosita or Cinnamon?"
"Hailey," he said, smugly, "thanks to the way she stuck her bare ass in
my face again tonight."
She moaned softly as his hand stroked up her left leg, across her mound,
and down the inside of her right thigh. "Just because she shaves her
snatch and I don't?"
"Actually," he whispered in her ear as his lips teased her earlobe
before his teeth nipped it, "I think Cinnamon is the one who shaves hers
and in return, she shaves her cousin's."
She moaned again as his lips moved down her neck and then around to the
hollow of her throat, the maneuver that most effectively aroused her. As
if she weren't wet enough to begin with. "You'd give everything you have
to see that happen, wouldn't you?"
He paused in nibbling to her right breast. "Nah," he said. "I'd keep
Wynter. And Dragon."
"What... oh, God!" His left middle fingertip had slid between her nether
lips, risking drowning as he moved up to torment her tingler. "What
about... unh... me?"
"Depends on how good you do me tonight."
She let her lust color her voice. As if she had a choice. "Fuck my
brains out and I'll do yours."
He nipped her left nipple with his teeth. "I'll keep you."
~ ~ ~
The MP3 player disappeared from Kenny's locker during the sixth period
Monday. That makes sense, of course. I should have thought of it
earlier. Hello? Earth to Kenny! DUH! He pretended not to notice, in case
Cori was watching from somewhere, swapped books, and headed to his next
class. He told Suzie he needed to syphon the python and had her hold his
things while he ducked into the boys' room. He slipped into a stall,
closed the door, and pulled out his cell phone. He sent a terse text
message to Ron and returned to Suzie.
When school let out, he told the others he would be late because the
principal wanted to see him and that they should go on without him. He
knew Ron's dad had contacted Principal Peters because Mrs. Erland said
he should go right in, the principal was expecting him.
Ron arrived with his father ten minutes later, while Kenny was
discussing his act during Wynter's performance at the Christmas Show, as
Wynter and Cinnamon were calling it. Principal Peters had already
decided that the basketball arena could use some stage lighting and
improved sound for these performances and had made a note to discuss
ideas with Finnegan the next day.
Officer Lopez was carrying the videotape from the surveillance locker.
They adjourned to the conference room, where Officer Lopez put the
videotape in the VCR. He fast forwarded to just before sixth period,
then hit the play button. They watched students open their lockers, swap
books, and go, including Kenny. When the hallway emptied for the start
of class, he hit fast play. Nobody had opened Kenny's locker but Kenny.
He dropped back to regular speed play when a figure appeared.
Cori, the sixth period hall monitor.
She walked past the locker four times. On the fifth pass she stopped,
checked the hall again, and popped the locked door open in one try.
"She's better than Huntly," Kenny observed.
"Maybe. But not as good as me, Kemo Sabe," Ron said. Which was true.
She felt through the pockets of his coat until she located the MP3
player, checked the hallway again, and slipped it out. She closed the
locker door and pocketed the player.
"Got her," Ron said, sounding pleased. He should. The surveillance
camera was his idea, something he and his dad had worked out with
Finnegan's input. Before he could say anything else, they had a
surprise. Cori popped open another locker, just on the edge of the
camera's field of view. As they watched, she pulled out something,
possibly a cell phone, and pocketed it.
"Whose locker is that?" Officer Lopez asked.
"I'm counting," said Kenny counting down from his locker. "I think that
one belongs to Peyton Williams. Makes sense. He never uses his phone
because he doesn't have many friends. His mom gave him the phone for
emergencies. He might not know it's missing."
"Well, we have enough to go for a search warrant. I'll need a statement
from you, Kenny."
"Just a minute," he said, opening his pack. "It's almost done. I'll need
to add a couple of things while you see if she opens any other lockers."
The only other time anyone appeared on the camera that period was when
Mister Tilman pushed the dust mop down the corridor.
Kenny signed his statement, had Ron and Principal Peters witness it, and
then handed it to Officer Lopez, who was placing the tape in an evidence
bag. As Kenny was leaving, he heard Ron say, "Dad, when you execute the
search warrant, I have an anonymous tip for you."
~ ~ ~
Kenny was changing for bed when Ron called. "Thanks to an anonymous tip,
they found a fencing price list behind a painting," Ron said. "They'd
found it anyway. They were thorough, finding an empty hiding place in
the closet and a CD in the computer case. She claimed not to know
anything about it. There were no fingerprints on the disk, but hers were
on its case. They checked the CD's files and found documents with
details about Cinnamon's electronic drums, along with information on the
weights and a list of places that they could possibly be hidden."
"Amazing," Kenny said, his voice dry as the Sand Dunes National
Monument. "Anything else?"
"She resisted for a couple of hours, then finally confessed. Seems she
was working for Brad Nicholson, an eleventh grader. He's following Daddy
in the family business. Daddy is the guest of the state for at least
another year and three to ten months thanks to a burglary conviction.
Brad fences through a Dahmer LeClerc in Vail, she thinks. Vail says
they've had an eye on LeClerc for months, but they never could get
anything positive.
"Cori was released to her parents about fifteen minutes ago. Brad asked
for a lawyer first thing. His mother said she couldn't post his twenty
thousand dollar bond. He told her where to find two thousand cash in his
room for the ten percent to a bondsman. She repeated that to Tim Jackson
before she left. He used that and Cori's statement to get a search
warrant. The money will be confiscated until it can be determined that
it's not income from the sale of stolen property.
"Your MP3 player is being held as evidence, as is Peyton's phone. You
were right. He had no idea it had been stolen."
Kenny chuckled. The sound made his own spine shiver. "I suppose I
shouldn't look for Cori at school tomorrow?"
"Just long enough to be expelled, or Scott could do that telephonically
before she comes in."
"Good. And does... She... know?"
"Why do you think I called you fifteen minutes after Cori was released?
I called... Her... first."
Kenny knew that. He was just yanking Ron's crank. "I guess the world is
a safer place tonight."
"It would be if DeRamirez Number Two wasn't about to finish his sentence
and come after us, Kemo Sabe."
Kenny sighed. Ron sure knew how to fuck up a good feeling.
~ ~ ~
"Comfy?" Craig asked as he tucked the covers around his sister.
"Snug as a bug in a rug," she said. It had been years since she'd said
that. The change in her over the past week was almost a miracle. Maybe
he should risk it.
"Binky, can I ask you something?"
She stopped smiling and stared at him like she'd never seen him before.
"Right. But sometimes it's polite to ask because it's an unusual question."
The smile returned. "Okay. I guess that's a good reason. You can always
ask me anything."
"I'm glad that hasn't changed. Have you been in my desk recently?"
"Well, yeah. I didn't think you'd mind." She told him about her favorite
pen running out of ink. She said she'd found a funny pen with silver ink
and that she decided to use it to write a note on a birthday gift to
Suzie Middleton. "If I upset you by using your stuff, I'm sorry. I just
thought it was a little different, and I didn't want to do like everyone
else. I also found some gray paper that made the silver stand out, so I
used a piece of that, too. Did I upset my favorite brother?"
Craig breathed a sigh of relief, though he was careful to make it sound
like a laugh to Binky. "No, you didn't upset me. It's just that things
had been moved in the desk. I thought maybe Mom had been snooping. You
know." It was a reasonable excuse for him to know and to ask. Binky and
Mom had thrown one humongous fight when Mom had snooped through Binky's
closet and dresser once. He'd have to drop a note to Cinnamon tomorrow
and tell her to stop worrying, tell her that the incident was innocent.
Binky could never know that their father had suggested that he pass
information about her to Cinnamon. He had agreed to do it because
neither of them wanted Binky to turn out like her mother. Both still had
some concerns, but Binky appeared to be reverting to her old self. He
guessed he shouldn't have been so surprised that Cinnamon had such an
efficient intelligence network, the type Brinkly had dreamed of but had
never achieved. Again he had the image of a spider with long red hair
sitting in her web, a hand on each strand of silk radiating from the
center, feeling and interpreting the vibrations going on in the world
around her.
You had to admire someone that capable and yet that seemingly innocent.
Brinkly would never have been able to run the behind the scenes action
at Griffin. Someone else already had that job.
"I have a question for you," Binky said with a sly smile.
He noted her face. Uh oh. Maybe the pen and paper incident isn't so
innocent. "What?"
"Well, I have a date with Chad Friday night, and I want to know
something about dating boys."
Relief again flooded him. Sort of. As long as Chad didn't try to take
advantage of his sister.
Chapter 31
The birthday party performance for Ian Jaeger went flawlessly. Cinnamon
pronounced their first official for hire performance "a commercial
success." That, of course, prompted a puzzled Sister Cuz to ask if that
meant the Twins were going to perform on other people's radio or
television commercials or make their own commercials advertising the
Twins. Cinnamon needed Jimmy's help answering that one.
Since it was Sisters' Night at her house, she hosted a hot tub party
afterward for her sisters and their dates. That, of course, prompted a
horny Sister Cuz to ask if she could have the football team as her date.
She wasn't a hundred percent sure that Cuz was joking, but Cuz did
settle for center Steve Hampton as her only date.
With her long red hair pinned up on top of her head, Cinnamon placed
the now empty drink tray on a bench and climbed into the tub while the
others discussed Friday's assembly performance by the Fallen Leaves and
Brinkly's date with Chad the night before. Shithead opened his eyes long
enough to watch her climbing over the edge, then observed, "You've got
the best looking ass and the second best legs in the whole school,
bitch." Since Huntly considered the best legs to be Sister Suzie's, that
earned him a kiss that left him purring with his eyes closed.
She eased down into the bubbling hot water, sipped her apple juice, let
the headrest support her head, and went limp, listening to consistent
reports of Brinkly and Chad holding hands at the movie and conflicting
reports on whether they'd kissed in the Elk Crossing Sundae Shoppe
afterward.
"Aaah, this feels great," she murmured as the rest slowly fell silent.
Then her eyes popped open. "Oh! I forgot. Ron called while I was
upstairs fetching more juice. Vail arrested LeClerc, the fence. They
finally got enough on him that they felt they could make a charge stick."
Steve grunted, swallowed his mouthful of orange grapefruit juice, and
put his glass on the edge of the tub by his head. "I know Nicholson. We
were sorta friends until a few years ago, when he tried to get me to
shoplift him something. He's just the kind who would hang out with scum
like that fence. And he's the kind who'd attract someone like Cori. He's
a sly bastard. He could train her to be a good thief if she was willing
to learn. It would take something like that video camera to trap her if
she was paying attention to his teaching, something she wouldn't expect
in the school."
Sister Suzie lifted her head off the headrest and frowned at Steve.
"Kenny said that it took her a week or something to steal his MP3 player."
"Unh uh," grunted Kenny without lifting his head. "Ten days. Ron said it
was probably because she thought it might be a trap. The daily tapes
showed that every time she walked past my locker while she was hall
monitor, she'd slow down--not stop, just slow down--and look at it, then
look around."
Steve jumped as Cuz did something under the water. He kissed her
smirking face and said, "Yeah. That's also what Nicholson would teach
her. He learned from his dad's mistakes. Always assume there's a trap
and look for it first. The old man didn't and now he's doing time. And
now so will his son. Green's gonna try him as an adult. He also had Nick
Velasquez, a classmate, stealing, too, but apparently Cori pled guilty
to theft as a juvie, since somebody convinced them to drop the assault
charge. Nick's gonna plead as a juvie on theft, too."
Cinnamon glanced at Kenny, but he remained as stoic and inscrutable as
she would have been. Nicholson wasn't the only good teacher. She made a
mental note to reward Ron somehow.
Steve stretched, then said, "Hey, Sheridan?"
Shithead jumped slightly. He'd almost fallen asleep. "Yeah?" he asked.
Or maybe it was "What?" Cinnamon wasn't sure because it sounded like "Mmma?"
"What's this slot machine trick Hailey was telling me about?"
He opened one eye and aimed it at Cuz. "You wanna do it again?"
Cinnamon thought about backhanding his shoulder, but she was too relaxed
to use the muscles. "Good Lord, shithead! You have to ask her? The only
person in this tub who needs less encouragement than Kenny to make a
spectacle of herself?"
His look was a scan for brains. "Hey! I was almost asleep, bitch. I'm
not thinking clearly yet."
Kenny switched on his weird voice. "Wake up, World! Kenny to Earth! News
flash! Attention everyone! Huntly Sheridan publicly admits he wasn't
thinking! World leaders astonished. UN to hold an emergency session!
President consults his cabinet, recalls Congress for an all night
session! Film at ten!"
Jimmy spoke without opening his own eyes. "You putz."
Sister Wynter hummed agreement with Jimmy, her eyes remaining closed.
Huntly sat up and drained his apple juice. "I'll need the gizmo.
Luckily, I keep it in my pack."
Steve frowned at him. "You defense squad guys are weird. You keep some
contraption for a magic trick in your pack all the time?"
"Yeah," he said, pausing to yawn before stretching and continuing. "I
like to keep it handy so I don't have to hunt for it."
"Oh yeah? Well, doesn't that sorta make your name... I dunno... need
changing to Handily?"
The stunned look on his face made Cinnamon, Sister Suzie, Steve, and
Sister Cuz burst out laughing simultaneously, with Kenny raising his
head and joining them a second later. Sister Wynter and Jimmy were
another second behind Kenny. The noise brought the sleeping Ghost to his
feet. He trotted over to the tub to see what was going on.
Huntly looked at all the laughing faces and reached out to scratch
Ghost's ears. "Well, at least I have one friend who isn't laughing at me."
Ghost sniffed his hand, turned, and raced out of the room.
"Aw, MAN! Not again! I'm really getting tired of that!"
~ ~ ~
The following Friday was another assembly, this one featuring Tyrone. A
Tyrone who was shaking a finger at Cinnamon as the sounds of students
beginning to file into the auditorium chairs filtered through the
curtain. "You listen to me, Little Momma! Hailey is right! We gonna
check every piece of equipment in here including," his finger moved from
her face to the end of his extended and raised arm, "what's up yonder."
He looked over his shoulder. "Do it," he said to the others. "I'll check
the rigging." He began climbing while LaMarcus, Mark, Jimmy, and Huntly
took the left and right wings, behind the back curtain, and around the
instrument stands as ordered.
He was climbing down from the rigging when the principal entered from
stage left and gave him a startled look. "Makin' sure there ain't gonna
be no repeat," he said.
The principal gave him an understanding nod, then said, "Looks like we
still need to work on our English lessons."
"No, suh," he said with a wicked grin. "You's be jes' fiiine."
The principal gave him a look like he'd been sucking on lemons. "You've
been spending too much time around Mister Sheridan, I see."
Huntly threw up his arms. "Aw, MAN!"
Little Momma threw a drumstick and hit Huntly. He hollered like he'd
been shot. LaMarcus shook his head and said in a stuffy British accent,
"Oh, I say! This is not the ruddy time to be a candy ass, old chap!"
"Wot the deuce?" Tyrone added in the same accent. "You're singing
soprano now? Have you become a girl or just a bloody swish?"
The principal lost it for a moment, then signaled the janitor to open
the curtains. He managed to do the introductions with a straight face,
then Little Momma slammed out the opening for Black Diamond, Shamisa and
Monique wailed the intro:
Listen carefully to his story,
Johnny's cost for fame and glory
Was his death on the Black Diamond run.
and the show was on!
After the screaming applause, he followed with White Water Canyon and
then Cold Rain, the one that was being pushed as a hit single. He almost
lost it when a couple of front row sixth grade girls started flashing
him panty shots.
As Little Momma started her solo that would have improved the CD a
thousand percent, Huntly switched on his intercom. "Dude, I think that
front row action proves you're a star."
Tyrone glanced at the front row display again. "Sweet Jesus!" He'd never
expected that. Suzie was a star. Did the dudes do something similar to her?
Next, he wound it down with the slow love ballad, Starlight on Spruce,
which brought more panty shots and a standing ovation, and then shook
rust from the rafters with Downhill Run and Cross Country. That left
(Lady of the) Frozen Lake, the last one that the band knew well, and
Shamisa did a phat job as the other half of its duet. Shoot, he thought
Shami sounded better than the CD's teenage studio singer who'd just
signed a big contract with Disney! He told her so during the scripted
hug at the end of the song and got himself an unrehearsed kiss on the
rebound.
When the principal indicated they could do one more, he consulted with
Little Momma via headset, then announced that they would close with
Dancing on the Ceiling. He walked to the edge of the stage and pointed
into the audience. "Kenny, Suzie, get yo' buns up here! I cain't do this
without you. Besides, I might need Suzie to wake up the audience again!"
~ ~ ~
"Well, shithead?" Cinnamon asked as she removed and packed her last
cymbal, closed the lid, and pushed the case to the edge of the stage.
He shook his head and brushed snow off his parka. "Bitch, I give up! The
gym door is locked. Everything is inside and they're setting it up.
Finnegan gave orders that not even you can get in. They're all listening
to him like he was George Washington leading the crossing of the
Delaware. He's serious about it being a surprise. We're not going to
find out until halftime Thursday night."
She shrugged. "Fine. I like nice surprises anyway. Those are ready to go
out to the van."
"It's cold out there."
Still bent forward, she lifted her eyes and looked at him from under
her cinnamon red brows. "What was it LaMarcus told you yesterday? It's
not the time to be a candy ass?"
"It's cold out there, and it was a long walk from the gym."
"Sixty feet is a long walk?"
"It is when it's that cold."
She pointed at the case. "You want me to carry that out myself?"
"No, I want you to warm me up."
"Oh!" she said, pretending she only now understood. "I see. Well, Mother
and Daddy have gone skiing all day with Sister Hailey and Sister Suzie.
After we drop all this off at Jimmy's, we don't have to assemble the
kit. We could go warm up at my house, just the two of us. Or I could
just..."
Huntly threw up his hands. "So what the hell are you doing standing
there talking, bitch? Wiggle that cute little butt over to those drums
and unbolt them! Let's haul ass, now! Let's move out double time! Let's
get this road on the show! I've got this crap to take out to the van."
She did her Darth Vader imitation. "Yes, my shithead."
"Where the hell's the useless driver, anyway?" he asked as he grabbed
the cymbal cases. "Good help is so damned hard to find."
"He ran across the street to the restaurant for three hot cocoas to go."
"Okay," he said as he headed for the door with his load. "Maybe he's not
so useless after all."
As the door closed behind him, her phone rang. It was Sister Wynter
trying to control her excitement. Anyone else wouldn't notice it, but
she did. "So, what's the big news, Sis?"
Sis paused for a moment. "I can't keep anything from you."
"Sis, there may be no such thing as a dumb question, but after Cinnamon
Sticks at my birthday party, there are such things as stupid statements."
Sis giggled. "That's true. I had a call from the Smiths at Slopes and
Fields." They lived across Seabridge Trail from Sis. "They want us to
perform at a Christmas Eve party at their house."
"You aren't going to your grandfather's this year?"
"Nope. Uncle Bozo and Aunt Dumb are bringing Baby Christopher to his place."
"The poor man." She shook her head. "I see why you're staying here.
Okay, I've never been in their house. Do we have room to set up?"
"As long as you use that practice kit and not the one at your house,
yes. There's room for the electronic drums, too. We'll be in the family
room, and the party will go on throughout the first floor. Sort of like
at your parents' wedding announcement."
"Then I'm for it. Hang on and I'll ask shithead." She did, and as he
carried out a tom tom case she said, "Him, too. What about LaMarcus and
Jimmy's dad?"
"Mister McCauley can't make it, and I can't reach Ted yet. He's supposed
to go over to Snoopy's some time today. LaMarcus is out with his mom
this morning, and Reggie says he accidentally left his phone at home. I
tried calling you first, but I got your voicemail."
"Must have been when Cuz called. I need call waiting on this thing.
About ten minutes ago?"
"Yeah. So how much longer before you bring your stuff to Jimmy's?"
"Half an hour, maybe. But we won't be staying. Shithead needs warming up."
"I see." Sis paused dramatically. "And nobody's at your house?"
"I love having smart sisters."
"Then I won't keep you. Get back to work! You have more important things
to do than talk on the phone!"
Before she could reply, the door opened. "Good grief, bitch! Get back to
work! You've got more important things to do than talk on the phone!"
She got back to work. She couldn't argue with a unanimous opinion.
~ ~ ~
Few things felt better than having his arms around bitch. Having her
around Little Huntly was just about the only one. But she was no longer
around his alter ego, and couldn't be for several minutes more, so he
was content to hold her. She was no longer panting as she lay on her
right side, facing him, a sea of red hair spilled across the sheets
behind her, the sweat mostly evaporated from both of them. He slid one
hand down and then up her back and sighed with his contentment. The soft
white towel that kept cum stains off the sheet felt like coarse
sandpaper compared to her luxuriant skin.
"Shithead?" she murmured into his neck.
"Yes, bitch?" he murmured back, dredging up enough strength to squeeze
her to his chest.
She squeezed him in return, coursing a thrill down his spine. "Sister
Suzie was right about you being best kisser. But there's one thing you
do better."
"Whazzat?"
She kissed his neck. "Get it up again and you'll find out."
"I can't. You killed it. First degree murder. Ron's on his way."
"It's not dead. It's just deflated."
He yawned. "Says you."
"I'll bet I could blow it back up."
"Almost sounds like a great idea, but not yet. I like holding you and
don't want to let go."
She purred and kissed his neck again."Why, Mister Sheridan! You do say
the most romantic things, sir!"
He stroked one hand down her back and over the bubble of her butt. She
was at least four inches shorter than him, but clutched in his arms like
that, she seemed even smaller. Vulnerable. Defenseless. In need of his
loving shelter and fervent protection. Which didn't stop him from
saying, "I practice a lot with Hailey."
She was quiet for a moment as he stroked her again. Then: "Asshole."
"That's where you want me to put it next time? Fine, but can you wait? I
still want to enjoy holding you a little longer. It's more fun than
winning a shutout football game."
She grunted happily, a special little sound she made when she was most
content, and one that made him tingle when he heard it. "I love you."
"That's because you have good taste."
She kneed him in the thigh, high enough that he flinched and squeaked in
fear. "What did you say?"
"I said you taste good."
"That's what I thought."
He stroked her again, not believing that human skin could feel so
wonderful. "I love you, too."
She kissed his neck again. "That's because you have good taste."
"Bitch."
"Shithead."
He didn't care if he put it back in her or if he just spent the rest of
the day holding her. As long as he didn't have to turn loose of her, he
was content.
~ ~ ~
"I suppose Kenny is with Suzie?" Stitch Watkins asked as she handed the
blouse on the hanger to Candis Taylor.
"No, he's in our basement, training with Ron this afternoon. Suzie is
with Mitch and Rosita, teaching Hailey to ski." She checked the
embroidery with a critical eye. She couldn't believe that it had been
done freehand. "Stitch, this is beautiful! I wish I had your talent."
"Oh, I just make do as best as the Lord lets me," she said in her usual
quiet, self deprecating manner. "Now, there's no need to change the
washing instructions for it. The thread is colorfast and won't shrink,
same as the blouse itself."
"I am certainly pleased." That was a major understatement. "How much do
I owe you?"
A squabble broke out in the kitchen. She turned to her sixteen year old
daughter, who was dusting the tops of the living room shelves. "Clover,
would you please tell Duck to leave his sister and Ted alone so they can
play their game in peace?"
"Ted's here?" Candis asked as Clover carried her duster wand like a
weapon through the dining room and into the kitchen.
"He is. He's quite taken with Snoopy, and she with him. He's been quite
the blessing, helping her through her dark time. I was worried about him
a bit at first, but he's been quite the young gentleman, just as
Cinnamon said. She could have done much worse for her first crush."
Duck yelped, then fled through the dining room toward the bedrooms.
"Yes, I'm certainly proof of that," Candis said as her oldest returned
to her dusting. Stitch had known Candis when she was dating Jerry Lake
in the ninth grade.
"Actually, I was worried that he might be something like Jerry at first.
Fortunately I was wrong."
"Fortunately," she said, removing her billfold from her purse. "How much?"
"Oh," Stitch waved a hand between them, "twenty dollars should be enough."
Candis looked at her like she'd gone dotty, then laughed. "You had me
going for a moment. Seriously, how much?"
"For you, twenty," she said.
"Nonsense! That would cost me at least fifty anywhere else." She pulled
out two twenties and a ten. "Here you go."
"Candis, I can't overcharge you! It wouldn't be Christian!"
"It's also not Christian to cheat yourself, and thereby cause your
family to suffer. Now, Stitch, this is worth at least fifty, and I
insist you take it, if not for yourself, then for Beak and your
children. When you do high quality artistic work like this, you deserve
to be paid for it. You need to raise your prices, Stitch. You're
charging what you did when Clover was born. Inflation has doubled the
cost of your materials and the cost of necessities, meaning you have to
work twice as hard to meet the same basic needs for your family.
"Now, you take this and don't argue with me. Then, after I'm gone, I
want you to see what others are charging for the same quality work you
do. Then you work out a new price schedule. If you don't want to
implement it all at once, that's okay. Raise it gradually every two or
three months. But do it and stop cheating your family."
Stitch eventually gave in, knowing it was best for her family after
Candis pressed her case.
~ ~ ~
Candis took the blouse home, punched the basement intercom button to
tell Kenny she was back, and carried it up to her closet. As she started
to hang it on the rod, she examined it again and was suddenly struck by
the idea that perhaps she had underpaid Stitch after all.
~ ~ ~
With one minute to go until halftime, Wynter signalled everyone in the
gymnasium hallway to turn on their headsets and check in with Finnegan.
Sis One, Huntly, Wynter, and Jimmy spoke their names into the headsets
softly and in rapid succession. LaMarcus joined them after the buzzer
sounded the end of the half. Still trying to catch his breath after a
series of hard charging plays that had tied the score at the buzzer, he
gasped his name into his headset.
None of their new headsets connected to the loudspeakers for some reason
Finnegan couldn't determine. He'd discovered that problem during a
routine check moments before the doors had opened to let in the crowd,
and Finnegan was still diagnosing the problem, thinking it was in the
gymnasium's console, but finding no cure.
Fortunately, he had four old headsets, working on a different frequency,
which hadn't been scrapped for parts yet because his attention had been
diverted by another project. His dad made an emergency trip home to
retrieve those while Finnegan ran fruitless tests on the new console.
Three old ones went to Tyrone, Monique, and Shamisa, who had no trouble
checking in and linking to the loudspeaker circuit. Wynter insisted Sis
take the other working one since Sis also sang chorus. That meant Sis
would have to double as the band's announcer.
Wynter's fingers flexed, massaging Jimmy's back when the excited noise
in the gymnasium grew while the crew rolled out a series of protective
rubber carpets onto the basketball court. It grew even louder as they
rolled out the platforms with Sis's kit and the Clavinova, synthesizers,
and guitars. One special platform stayed behind, waiting its turn.
"Stand by," Finnegan replied. "And... go!"
The crowd erupted in applause as Sis led them single file to the
instruments, with Wynter bringing up the rear.
"Ladies and gentlemen!" the announcer said. He wasn't the usual
announcer, Mister Marx, Buzz's Dad, who was home with the flu. He was a
guest announcer from some radio station in Colorado Springs and was one
of Principal Peters' friends. "Instead of the usual halftime performance
by Griffin Middle School's excellent stage band...," he paused while the
crowd hooted, screamed, and cheered, "...we're going to send you off for
the year end break with a special holiday treat."
More cheering. Wynter felt a slight lump in her throat as she sat at the
Clavinova and checked the settings to see that they hadn't changed.
"Wynter, ready." The others reported ready as the announcer continued.
"Tonight's holiday performance features the new lighting system designed
by Griffin's own Finnegan Burke and built by Finnegan and the fine
people at Sparks Electric, the only stop for all your electrical needs!"
Wynter was thrilled by the response that Finnegan received. Maybe it
would take away some of his anger at the failure of his new headsets.
"The first number features Finnegan Burke on sound and lights, on drums,
Cinnamon Brees..." the announcer had to wait for the cheers to fade,
"...on strings, Ted Muller, Huntly Sheridan, and tonight's scoring
leader, LaMarcus Reed..." he paused again for the screaming to
subside,"...and on keyboards, Jimmy McCauley and Wynter King in her
band, The Wizards of Wynter!"
OH NO! Wynter thought she would have a myocardial infarction! The
announcer had confused the title of the music, Wizards in Winter, with
the band! People would think it was her name for the band! It sounded so
conceited! Since Sis had the only microphone that connected to the
loudspeakers, Sis would have to correct the announcer! But... she wasn't
reaching for her switch. "Sis! Cinnamon!" she hissed into her
microphone, trying carefully not to let her voice carry to anyone not in
the band.
The lights dimmed and spotlights came on, highlighting the band. They
moved slightly as Finnegan aimed them from his control panel. Wherever
that was. Wynter wasn't sure. At the moment, that wasn't important. What
was vitally important was having Sis correct the error in the
announcement! "CINNAMON!"
"Okay," Finnegan reported.
Sis's left arm shot up, holding the drumstick horizontal and parallel
with her shoulders. The crowd noise quickly faded.
"Cinnamon, wait! You have to..."
The right arm rose with its stick. She tapped out the beat and snapped
her arms downward.
Winter's hands moved in an autonomic reflex, pounding out the staccato
introductory phrase. She did the arpeggio into the repeat of the phrase
by raising her thumb and extending her index finger, six shooter style,
and plunking the seven keys in a shooting motion, the way Chico Marx
did. She gasped, but didn't stop playing, when a spotlight isolated her
hand as the other lights dimmed. Given the way she was sitting, facing
Sis, the bleachers to the right of the band could see her hand. They
came back to full brightness, only to isolate her again when she played
the arpeggio into the first theme.
Huntly and Jimmy took over with the theme as she hammered the rhythm,
backed by Cinnamon and LaMarcus. Finnegan put bright white spotlights on
the Huntly and Jimmy lead and red and blue lights on the rest of the
band, except when he highlighted Wynter's arpeggios with the narrow
white spot.
The bright whites shifted to her as she carried the second theme, then
back to Huntly and Jimmy as Huntly, his arm wheeling and legs jumping as
he struck the chords, led the way back into the main theme. A series of
arpeggios, starting out with a fist with its index finger pointing down
but quickly reaching the point where she needed the index finger of both
hands alternating up and down, and Huntly's arm-wheeled chords led to
Jimmy's sampled voices cooing the second theme.
She loved the way Jimmy's eyes sparkled in the spotlights as he swayed
and played, his face seeming to be in danger of a smile induced rupture
even when he wasn't looking at her. She had to remind herself to play
and not get lost in his eyes.
She needed both hands stabbing the index fingers in a run down the keys
for the sixteenth note arpeggios leading into the grand finale. At the
end, Huntly yanked his guitar over his head and struck the final
counterpoint notes and the last chord.
The band went quiet as all the lights died. The darkness exploded with
cheering and applauding. The spotlights came on again.
"Sis, you've got to explain!" Wynter said as the little redhead put her
sticks in the holder, switched her headset to the PA system, and rose
from her throne. She turned on a smile that was brighter than the
spotlights.
"THANK YOU!" Sis cried as she raised her arms and motioned for silence.
"I need to explain something, or our other two numbers will be performed
without a piano player, because Sister Wynter will have a heart attack
if I don't."
She waited a second for the laughter and then said, "The announcer
almost got it wrong. The name of the SONG is Wizards IN Winter. However,
I think he got it right, too. Without Wynter and Ted, you're looking
at three quarters of the surf band, Junior and the Twins. With them, we
have an entirely different band, ONE WITHOUT A NAME!" Most of the crowd
laughed, aware of the long history of the nameless group and Sis's
constant editorializing. "Band, I nominate The Wizards of Wynter for our
name. Let's vote! LaMarcus?"
Wynter's mouth fell open as LaMarcus played Shave and a Haircut on his bass.
"Huntly?"
Huntly played the opening riff of Bad Moon Rising on his guitar.
"Ted?"
Ted played the main theme of Can't Look Back.
"Smallest but definitely not least, Finnegan?"
The colored lights cycled kaleidoscopically while the white spot zoomed
off Cinnamon, made three big circles, and stopped on Wynter.
The crowd laughed and the spot returned to her when she said, "I suppose
it's a waste of time asking how you vote, Jimmy." When the laughter died
she said, "Okay. I guess to make it formal you have to vote."
Jimmy played the first measure of the main theme of Wynter's Song.
"As for me...." She dropped to the throne, fired sticks up from the
launchers, and went to work on the piccolo snare and bass drum. One!
Two! One two three! One two three four!
"LET'S GO!" screamed the crowd, and she gave the cymbals and bass drum a
five second workout.
"In order to make the vote unanimous," she announced, "Sister Wynter
doesn't get a vote. The band is now christened!"
Wynter wasn't sure which would kill her first: embarrassment or her
heart exploding from her chest.
"THANK YOU! I need to explain something else. I'm acting as mistress of
ceremonies for the band because of a minor electronic glitch with the
headsets. Finnegan will have it fixed by our next performance, but I
think it's incredible that out of all the amazing and difficult work
done by Sparks' people and Finnegan this week, this was the only thing
that went wrong. If that doesn't qualify for miracle status, nothing
does! So, how about a hand for Sparks Electric and a very big hand for
the miracle worker who keeps both the Twins and the Wizards from
being a three legged horse in this race, Mister Finnegan BURKE!"
As the crowd roared, a sudden jump in the headset noise indicated that a
microphone had been activated somewhere in the stands. "Thanks,
Cinnamon," Finnegan said, and then the noise went back to its previous
level. Wynter thought Finnegan sounded a little emotionally overcome.
"THANK YOU! Our next number is based on the works of composer Franz
Liszt and is called, appropriately enough for the season, Wish Liszt.
Its alternate title is Toy Shop Madness!"
Sis counted the beat and Wynter's fingers danced over the keys. The
melody, based on Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody, sounded very nice until
Huntly started the distorted chords on the one and three beat in the
eighth measure. They were joined eight of measures later by Jimmy's
shrill strings on the two and four.
That was when Kenny, dressed as a Christmas elf, pushed out a platform
filled with toys and boxes and began a routine of trying to fit toys
into wrong sized boxes and the boxes into Santa's sack, where they kept
falling out.
The audience roared as the music switched between classical and rock and
the elf's problems grew. Wynter found time to be amazed at the way
Finnegan kept a tight spotlight on Kenny no matter what he did. Near the
end, as Huntly took over the with his distorted guitar, the
cheerleaders, dressed like elves wearing tinsel wigs with tree ornaments
in their silver "hair," ran out, saw the mess, started waving their arms
like they were yelling at him, and at the end, chased him off the court
while beating him with rolls of Christmas wrapping paper.
The crowd exploded with a standing ovation that somehow got even louder
as Kenny and the cheerleaders came out for their bow, then pushed the
platform and its contents back through the doors to the hallway.
Sister Cinnamon rose and held up her arms to quiet the crowd. "THANK
YOU! But we're not the main entertainment tonight. We're merely the
warm up act and back up band for the real performer. He's a little under
the weather because he's trying to catch a cold, but he insisted on
doing one song--actually a medley of two songs--for you tonight." She
pointed to the corner entrance as Finnegan brought up another light on
Tyrone Hayes in a tuxedo.
The audience went wild as Tyrone, flanked by Shamisa in a Christmasy red
formal and Monique in a Christmasy green formal, moved swiftly,
silently, and graciously to a spot in front of the band.
"One final thing," Sis said, over the crowd noise, "and this is very
important."
Her words cut though and the noise level dropped.
"This is our school. It belongs to us, the people who live here, NOT to
some peabrains in Denver and in Washington. WE decide what we want to
hear and that's what we play."
Wynter saw faces in the relative darkness of the bleachers turning to
each other in confusion.
Sis's voice grew angrier. "If we want to play Christmas music, we're
going to play Christmas music. Well, we want to and we are going to! We
don't spout ideologies. We play music that we like for its own musical
sake. If you want to hear The Dreidel Song or Hava Nagila, ask. I love
both of those and don't mind having the band learn them at all because
there are some really great arrangements of both. If Sis's band doesn't
want to play them, the Twins will. The same goes for any other music
appropriate to the name for your particular holiday season. If you don't
like it," she lifted her arms and pointed, "there are the doors. Don't
forget to donate to the school on your way out. And if you don't like
it, don't go complaining to Principal Peters about it. He thinks that
after those two wonderful songs, we're going to let you down and end
with Jingle Bell Rock. This is a surprise to him, so if you want to
complain, you come see ME! Finnegan!"
Finnegan lowered the lights on the band, leaving Tyrone, Shamisa, and
Monique in the bright spot as applause rose from the crowd.
Cinnamon dropped to her throne and drew sticks. The trio stood immobile,
their heads down. The applause died as her left arm shot up. She tapped
out the slow beat. Wynter began the staccato 3/4 time bass notes and
treble whole note chords that formed the introduction and background for
the first stanza of What Child Is This? Tyrone's head rose, and he began
singing in a strong, resonant voice despite the rhinovirus infection
that was settling in. The other instruments came in on the chorus,
maintaining the minimalist staccato background, with Huntly's guitar
overlying Wynter's treble chords. Finnegan, sitting where he could hear
what the audience heard, carefully adjusted balances to ensure that the
instruments stayed strong but didn't overwhelm Tyrone.
At the end of the second chorus Wynter burst forth to introduce the
second half of the medley as Tyrone again stood with lowered head.
All three heads lifted as Tyrone spread his arms and sang with a new
resonance and power Wynter hadn't heard at the rehearsals. His force,
his feeling, his heart surged into the music and left her spellbound. It
was as if he'd had spontaneous remission of the rhinovirus, leaving his
voice unblemished. She sure was glad that her fingers were on autopilot
because she was too astonished to think about moving them on the keys.
In the dead of the night
As his life slips away,
As he reads by the light
Of a star far away,
Holding on,
Holding off,
Holding out,
Holding in,
Could you be this old
And have your life just begin?
The sweep of one arm gave him away. With a shock that almost made her
fingers stop anyway, Wynter suddenly realized what was happening. The
gymnasium had almost five hundred people in it, but Tyrone wasn't
singing to all of them. He was singing to only one person: his father.
Her head jerked around to Cinnamon. Sis was watching her while she sang
the refrain with the chorus. She smiled and nodded, obviously pleased
that Wynter had realized the truth by herself.
Wynter concentrated on playing while watching the audience's awed
response. She wasn't the only one who couldn't believe that this was the
same Tyrone Hayes who finished dead last in rap competitions.
The audience remained spellbound as he reached the closing:
Could you be this old
And have your life just begin?
The chorus responded.
Reading by the light of a lost Christmas Day.
It begins.
Reading by the light of a lost Christmas Day.
The exchange between Tyrone and the chorus repeated until he spread his
arms. The chorus stretched the last three words. Cinnamon softly worked
one ride cymbal with her felt mallets as Tyrone sank to a knee, his body
turned toward his family, seated off to Wynter's side
It be...
Silence, and then Wynter and Huntly hit the final chord. Tyrone's voice
was soft and plaintive.
...gins.
Finnegan killed the lights as Tyrone bowed his head. Stunned silence
suddenly erupted into more pandemonium. The lights came on to reveal a
standing ovation. Many people were wiping at tears.
Wynter couldn't believe that her heart didn't explode from her chest!
She turned to look at Tyrone's family. Two of his brothers looked bored,
but his parents and sister looked like they were in a contest to see who
could look the proudest. She decided that his father took first place by
a mile.
Chapter 32
Huntly hit the pause button on the VCR and rose from the couch. "What
the heck are you doing here?"
Kenny accepted a steaming cup of cocoa and thanked Mom, then carefully
turned into the family room. "Suzie's teaching Hailey and your
girlfriend to ski, Wynter & Jimmy are out Christmas shopping with their
parents, Finnegan's doing something with his dad, LaMarcus went with
Reggie and his mom to Fairplay, Tyrone is sick, Josh..."
"Got it. So you decided to spend the first day of the Christmas break
with me instead of going skiing with your girlfriend. Have you checked
your IQ lately to see if you still have one?"
Boy Blunder gave him a disgruntled look. "My guts are acting up again. I
didn't want to be up on a ski lift and suddenly need to take an
emergency dump, so it was a toss up between you and Charlie. Charlie
lost. Barely."
"I'm not sure who was the loser here."
Kenny tested the temperature of his cocoa. Too hot because he winced
when it burned his lip. "We're on a two week break and you're watching
football tapes? I know who the loser is."
"You haven't seen this tape. My cousin Quincy in Redmond sent it. While
you were having fun in the emergency rooms, I discovered an old People
magazine article that mentioned a girl who plays high school football in
central Washington. You know where Wenatchee is? That general area.
Quincy taped a couple of her team's games off local cable for me."
"Another Katie Hnida?"
"Unh uh. She doesn't kick, but that's about all. She tackles, punches,
judo throws, karate jabs, passes, and catches, but she doesn't kick,
except maybe shins. And she also plays baseball."
Kenny frowned. "Offense and defense? A girl?" The tone of the last two
words implied that Huntly's IQ owed points.
"Yeah. Sit down." Kenny did, and he punched the play button. "Number 31.
Watch her."
"That's a girl?" His tone was clearly skeptical.
"Robbie Tate. One of the opponents nicknamed her 'Monster Girl.' They
don't make miniskirts with pads, so she wears a uniform like all the
others. I've watched this tape once already. There'll be a sideline shot
of her in a couple of minutes. Oh! Watch her do this tackle! They'll
carry the guy off."
"OUCH! Was that helmets clacking or bones cracking?"
The scene finally arrived. She took off her helmet. Long coppery red
hair tumbled out.
"Holy shit! She's beautiful!"
Huntly hit the pause button and pointed with the remote. "You like that,
huh? Just imagine her in the showers."
Kenny's dreamy voice said that he was in love. "She could tackle me any
time!"
"Right. In your dreams, Feckless Fumbler. In your dreams."
~ ~ ~
The calendar said it was the first day of Winter. The birthday guest of
honor's boyfriend said it was the 4749th day of Wynter. But that wasn't
why she was speechless and quasi catatonic.
Wynter was so stunned by her birthday present from Doctor Taylor via
Kenny that she could hardly concentrate on the kissing contest. He had
pulled some strings and got her enrolled in an EMT course! Her heart
felt WAY too big for her chest. She was surprised that it hadn't
squeezed all the air out of her lungs, leaving her comatose from
asphyxiation!
She almost didn't notice Ted Muller's kiss and almost forgot to rate him.
"Nice try, Ted," said Katie, giving him a sympathetic pat on the
shoulder. "You almost brought her back to Earth, which is still much
better than Finnegan and Josh did. Next up is Huntly!"
Huntly approached her, looking like he'd just discovered the cure for
cancer. "Are you ready for the winner?" he asked.
She was still too stunned to think of a smarty pants retort. "You think
I'll rate you as high as Sister Suzie did?"
"Maybe higher. I've been practicing since then."
"So has Jimmy, and he hasn't had his turn yet."
"Yes, but he practices with you, and you already know what to expect
from him. After me, you can cancel the contest and send everyone else home."
"Well, that wouldn't be fair, would it?"
"Fair?" He assumed the posture of Mister Shelby, one finger raised and
waggling in the air, and imitated his voice. "Fair is what I say it is,
and all is fair in love and war, Miss King!"
"Emergency news bulletin! Stop the presses!" Kenny squawked in his weird
voice. "Kenny to Earth! Astounding news flash! Huntly Sheridan declares
war on Wynter King! The Nobel Committee cancels his Peace Prize! The UN
Security Council votes to send troops to Wynter King's aid! The
President goes into hiding! Film at ten!"
The basement party room erupted in laughter. Huntly jerked a thumb over
his shoulder at them. "Ignore the ignorant ignoramus ignorable savages."
She nodded and grinned. "Go for it!"
He did. She flashed back to last New Year's Eve, when she had gone
someplace else while kissing him and had masturbated him. He had been
practicing! She thought he'd improved when she kissed him at his
birthday party, but this was... this was... this was a lot like Jimmy
kissing her. But he was also one of her best friends. She loved her
closest friends, and it was natural that they should love her in return.
So, that made sense and allowed her to kiss back in kind.
When they finally separated, he looked at her with dreamy eyes and
squeezed one of her hands between his. "One of us needs to have a
birthday at least once a week," he whispered. "Wynter, I am truly
honored and privileged, and I swear to you that I will give you my own
personal protection as fiercely as Jimmy or Kenny. Word of honor."
She couldn't imagine what she'd need his protection for. But, she also
hadn't expected the protection she'd provided at Fishhook Cove. Huntly
was planning ahead for unexpected emergencies, the way she did. "Sis is
right," she said. "I can't have too many friends, and I'm glad you're
one of them."
"Me, too."
"HEY!" yelled Kenny, who couldn't hear what they were saying. "Stop
trying to convince her that you're better than a starving leech sucking
blood from a hematoma! It's my turn!"
Huntly straightened. "Congratulations, Boy Blunder! You've just
guaranteed yourself second place. From the bottom. Would you like to
step up and achieve the bottom position with the Doc?"
Only then did she realize that Huntly hadn't used any nicknames in his
pledge. He must have been REALLY serious! Is he worried about the other
DeRamirez brother? But that one wouldn't be mad at me... Her lights came
on. The first one wasn't really and truly mad at Suzie, but he seriously
wounded her, anyway. Huntly must be saying he'd jump in front of the
spear if it were aimed at me. But any of us would do that for him, too. Huh.
"All right, Kenny," Katie said, "you're up."
"If the dolt isn't, he will be before he's done," Sister Suzie said with
a sweet but sarcastic smile, causing Kenny to give her a leer and adjust
his fly's zipper.
Naturally it was Kenny's turn to be heckled from the audience. "Good
thing the Doc is sitting down, or Boy Blunder would need a step ladder
to reach her lips."
"I hope he coated his lips with No Doz so she'll stay awake until the
end," said Timmy Gagnon.
"I hope for Wynter's sake that he didn't," replied Brin Kwan.
"Let's hope he stops when she starts snoring!" cried Sister Suzie.
Kenny indicated his hecklers with a twitch of his head. "Remember the
advice about the ignorant savages."
Wynter giggled and puckered. This time, Kenny was serious about kissing.
No fights with Suzie, no stomach cramps, no distractions. And, she was
amazed to discover, no tongue, either. Kenny was being a gentleman,
maybe because Suzie was watching, but maybe this was Real Kenny at work.
Despite his holding back, he packed an amazing amount of feeling into
his kiss!
"Thank you," he said when he pulled back.
"Thank you, Kenny. I sure am glad you're my friend."
He nodded. "So am I. Let's have a quiet, boring year until your next
birthday."
She hugged him. "You've convinced me."
As he returned to his seat, Katie said, "Well, only one name's left. He
sure has waited a long time for his turn. Normally the girls have to
wait for him. Not me, though. At my birthday party, he's gonna be first
on my list! Jimmy!"
When he stopped in front of her and gave her his grin and nod, she
whispered, "Maybe you'd better tie my hands behind my back."
"Hailey has talked you into kinky stuff?" he whispered back, sounding
surprised.
"Nope. I'm liable to forget where I am and rip your clothes off."
Jimmy shrugged. "Several of these girls have been in the hot tub with us
anyway, and the boys have seen me in PE. Most won't see anything new."
~ ~ ~
When the recorded music ended, Cinnamon kissed Timmy Gagnon and wobbled
off the dance floor for a seat next to Sister Wynter, who looked as
wilted as her columbine corsage. Sis sat slumped in her chair with her
legs stretched out in front of her, feet sideways, and her arms down at
her sides, mouth breathing. She looked like an abandoned blonde rag doll
in another doll's party dress.
"I'm beat," the little redhead said, slumping into an adjoining chair.
Sister Wynter nodded slightly, like she didn't have the energy to nod
harder. "Me, too."
Cinnamon grinned slyly and leaned toward her first Sister as the next
song began. "Are you going to have enough energy for Jimmy tonight? Or
will you just lie there and let him do all the work?"
Sis sighed and looked at Jimmy. "Right now, I feel like letting him do
all the work, but that wouldn't be fair to him." Jimmy was doing a fast
dance with Trish that made Cinnamon want to take a nap just from
watching the energy he was still expending.
"Not since you named him second best kisser, no," the little redhead
agreed. "He deserves a break. Tell you what. Since you said Huntly was
the best kisser, I'll trade you tonight because it's your birthday."
"Huntly was the best kisser. He's really improved since last year.
You've been an excellent teacher."
"He says it's Sis Cuz's doing."
Wynter took a deep breath and let it out, then switched back to nasal
breathing. "Maybe it was both of you. You should keep him."
She tried nasal breathing, too. She could manage it, but she was still
panting like Ghost after a run. "I plan to. But I'm still willing to
trade him for Jimmy tonight."
Speaking of Cuz, she appeared then, holding a half handful of pecans in
their shells. "Hey!" she complained. "I can't find any of the nutbusters."
"We're sitting on ours, Cuz," Cinnamon said as straight faced as she
could manage while short of air. "We don't know whose bed you left yours
in."
Sister Wynter giggled and pointed. "Huntly had one when the dance
started. I think he was trying to show Shamisa a magic trick with it."
Cuz looked. "Hey! Like, thanks!" She wandered off toward shithead.
Cinnamon scratched a tickle on her pointed chin. "We're lucky those are
the only nuts she's interested in at the moment. Which reminds me of my
offer."
Wynter's head rolled around on her neck so that she could eye her
sister. "Sis! I told you, Jimmy is perfect for me. I don't want anyone
else."
She felt her smile push up her round cheeks. "I'm just trying to help."
Sis went into Lecture Voice. "You're simply trying to help yourself,
Miss Brees!"
"Well, that, too." She shrugged. "You can't blame a girl for trying,
especially if she's trying for Jimmy. So, if you ever change your mind,
you have my permission. You know that."
"Well, you still have my permission to try for Jimmy," Sis said, taking
one hand in hers, "But expect him to say 'No'."
&& end of L2: ?But expect him to say ?No?.?
"He always does," she muttered, causing Sis to giggle at her irritated
tone. Then she had an idea. "Hey! I'll throw in Daddy and Cuz!"
The worry look appeared immediately. "Does Huntly know about... you
know... yet?"
"No. You'd have to do them separately. But you could share Cuz with both."
Wynter slowly shook her head, dragging her ponytail across the backs of
her shoulders. "How do I find the strength to turn you down, Sis?" she
asked, dryly.
"Too bad Brinkly didn't come. I'd love to see her reaction to Chad's
participating in the kissing contest."
"But if she's in Denver getting treated for her condition, that
definitely takes priority."
"Yeah. Hey, that was a nice alpaca sweater she sent you. Goes good with
your hair and eyes, and it's perfect for this weather."
"Jimmy liked it. He said he couldn't wait to take it off me."
Cinnamon giggled. "New topic. I spoke to Finnegan's dad. Now that our
bands are both in the party business and the Wizards have a name, it's
time we incorporate for protection. Mister Burke will do the
incorporation for us. I took the liberty of telling him to make you the
president and Jimmy the secretary/treasurer of the Wizards. You can have
a vote later and change it, if you want to. Of course, for legal reasons
our parents will have major positions..."
"Yeah, I would think so." She was silent for a few heartbeats. "I guess
if we're incorporated, we'll need to pay royalties whenever we perform."
"Actually, the way those greedy ASCAP bastards work, you owe royalties
any time you perform. Even for charity events like at Otter Park or
school assemblies."
"WHAT? Then we owe all those back..."
She stopped Sis with a tired wave of her hand. "Relax. We don't owe
anything. Mister Burke has been paying them for us every time we
perform. I send him a list of what we play every month, he sends me a bill."
"But... Sis, I owe for..."
"It's covered. Think of it as another birthday present. Or as an I Love
My Sister present. And don't worry about it."
"But, Sis, it's not fair that you..."
She stopped her with a fingertip to Sis's lips. "You're right, Sis. You
and Jimmy are made for each other. You're both driven by what you think
is right for someone else, to the total exclusion of what's right for
yourselves." She sighed and realized she sounded like Cuz complaining
about never getting to have any fun when she said, "I'll never get to
fuck him."
~ ~ ~
Since the Wizards' Christmas Eve performance was across the street from
the Kings' house, it seemed logical for the Breeses to choose that night
to deliver presents to Richard, Angie, and Wynter while delivering the
drummer and guitarist.
Richard felt decidedly uneasy as the green eyes of the first one through
the door narrowed, pushed up by her round cold reddened cheeked smile,
as she looked up from hugging Dragon and said, "Oooh! Mistletoe!" He
still remembered last year's kiss from her under the mistletoe.
Cinnamon's attention suddenly shifted to Wynter. "Oh! Sis, LaMarcus may
get here after we start playing," she explained. "He's helping his Mom
with something for her church."
"Hey!" said the second one in as she scratched Dragon's ears while
looking up. "Like, this looks like somebody so forgot to ruin it this
time! Good, because I would so hate to miss out on my first mistletoe
opportunity here. I hear it's a treat."
Richard felt his ears warm with embarrassment. "Yeah. Angie insisted on
carrying it in before I got out of the truck." He wondered if he had
time to remove and "lose" the large sprig before... No, probably not.
"Well," Hailey said in a decidedly seductive voice that caused Jimmy to
chuckle, "like, good for Mom."
The third one through the door looked at the mistletoe, then smiled at
Richard, her dark eyes flashing. "My first daughter says I'm in for a
treat if you haven't destroyed the mistletoe. Don't disappoint me." She
stabbed a finger into his chest and said in a threatening voice, "I hate
it when men disappoint me."
The fourth one through the door handed a stack of packages to Wynter and
Jimmy and knelt to give Dragon a big hug. "Don't worry, Mister K," he
said. "This and an ear scratch are all Dragon gets. With you and Jimbo
over there, I'll just shake hands, mistletoe or not. Unless you want
your ears scratched, too."
The last one through the door closed it behind him after handing Richard
a stack of packages, saying, "What Huntly said goes for me." Then he
turned and, hands moving in a flash, began scratching Richard behind the
ears.
Richard jerked his head away. "Jesus, Mitch!"
He shrugged. "Sorry. Ghost says I'm not a very good ear scratcher, but
Rosie says I'm a damned good kisser. Though you'll have to take her word
for it. I am not giving you a personal demonstration. Not even if you
bribe me with spiked eggnog."
Richard carried the packages into the living room to place beneath the
tree. Wynter took them and said he and Jimmy should help the guests with
their coats and gear. "Good. The eggnog is on the breakfast nook table.
The spikes for the adults are sitting beside the bowl."
After everyone was clustered in the kitchen and "adequately nogged,"
as his father in law often said, Huntly announced that the band members
had forty minutes before they had to begin the "long and arduous trek
through the icy and snow covered wastelands to a haven of warmth and
shelter across the frozen street." Richard had a sudden vision of both
Henry Wolfe and Angie with Huntly Sheridan's face and wondered if the
families were related a few generations back.
Meanwhile, Huntly was announcing it was "Ladies first" and had dragged
Angie to a spot between the foot of the stairs and the closet, below the
mistletoe. "Now," he said, "since many of you are getting along in
years," he did a pass with his hands and conjured a bottle of Geritol,
which he tossed to Richard, "you may have forgotten what to do when you
have a beautiful and charming lady under the mistletoe, so I will
re-teach you the dos and don'ts of mistletoe etiquette. THIS is a
DON'T!" he said, waving an admonishing finger.
He reached behind Angie's ear and produced a small tube of green paper.
He unrolled it and held it at arm's length in both hands to show
everyone it was a twenty dollar bill. "Ulysses S. Grant," he said,
pointing at the face on the front. Then her turned to Angie and said in
a comic seductive voice, "Hey, baby, how's about we have us a good time
on some horizontal furniture?"
While Angie laughed, Huntly pointed at Richard and Mitch with the bill.
"Got that? It's a no no! THIS is how you do it."
He pocketed the twenty and turned to Angie, bowing at the waist. "Excuse
me, Ma'am, but I couldn't help noticing that you are under a large sprig
of undestroyed mistletoe, one free of truck tire tracks. Might I have
the privilege and the honor of partaking of those luscious delectable
lips beside which the pale berries of the mistletoe fade into nonexistence?"
Angie had to wait until she stopped laughing. "Certainly, gentle sir,"
she said, wrapping him with her arms. Richard watched as her hand went
from relaxed to a spider like creature pulling Huntly toward her.
When they peeled apart, Angie was wide eyed and gaping as Huntly
conjured the twenty and said, "You do NOT finish with this!"
He turned to Angie. "Thanks for the treat, baby!" he said as he appeared
to tuck the twenty into her blouse. Then he turned back to Richard and
Mitch. "Got that? You finish THIS way."
He took Angie's hand in his and bowed, brushing the back of her hand
with his lips. "Thank you, Ma'am. I shall cherish this moment for the
rest of eternity and beyond."
As he straightened and released her hand, Angie said in an awed voice,
"No wonder Wynter named you the best kisser."
Huntly blew on his fingernails and polished them on his shirt. "Ma'am,
I'm am so deeply sorrowed that you were unable to save the best for
last, but somebody had to set the example for the heathens, lest you
have a totally miserable experience save for me."
"My God!" mumbled Richard. "They are related."
Wynter must have heard him because she burst into a fit of giggles.
Jimmy seemed less hesitant than last year, but his kiss was far briefer
than Huntly's, like he was kissing his mother. Mitch, however, seemed to
take advantage of the rare opportunity. Maybe Cinnamon inherited
something from her father... "What?"
"I said it's your turn, for piss sake," Angie repeated. "What's the
matter? You dreaming of Rosita? Or maybe Hailey?"
The latter turned a ten thousand watt leer on him.
"Uh, NO!" Get moving before Hailey gets ideas! Of course, Hailey always
had ideas.
Naturally his favorite ham faked a swoon when he'd finished. "Why, Sir!"
she exclaimed as he helped her to a sitting position in a breakfast nook
chair. "That was breathtaking! Utterly fantastic!" She waited until he
took a bow to add, "Almost as good as Huntly's!"
Rosita was next. When he was done, Richard understood one of the things
Mitch saw in her. Besides the extra two point whatever cubic centimeters
in each tit and whatever was behind that neatly trimmed black bush he'd
admired in the hot tub. Her dark eyes sparked afterward. "Angie is a
lucky woman," she purred.
He accepted it as the compliment it was as Huntly stepped up to the
plate and puckered. His Future Mother in Law got the same kiss that
Angie had received.
Jimmy seemed a little more active with Rosita. A little, but not much.
Wynter was next under the mistletoe. It was a father daughterly kiss
followed by a special nose and lips kiss for him. Mitch's kiss was warm
but heartfelt, if also father daughterly. Mostly. Jimmy appeared to top
his performance at the birthday party and do better than Huntly. Or
maybe Huntly had just held back in front of her parents. But then with
Angie, Huntly had...
He was getting a headache trying to sort it out. As he shook his head,
he noticed who was now standing under the mistletoe.
"WHITNEY GWYNETH, BEHAVE!" was the stern, loud warning from Cinnamon.
She did behave with Mitch, but the warning started to wear off with him.
He'd never had a tongue do that in his mouth before. Hailey broke away
as Cinnamon cleared her throat, leaving him stunned. With Huntly, her
feet left the floor as she wrapped her legs around him, staggering him
back until she received another warning growl from her cousin.
He'd expected Jimmy to approach hesitantly, but he marched up to Hailey,
bent slightly until their lips were on par, and gave her a chicken peck
that left her wide eyed in disappointment and disbelief. "I, like, never
get to have any fun!"
Finally it was Cinnamon's time. He couldn't decide if he was looking
toward it with dread or anticipation. Stupid question. She lifted her
arms. "Let's do it at your level again, please."
He lifted her, half worried about what might happen in front of Mitch,
even though Mitch had said she would kiss him that way only under the
mistletoe and always under mistletoe, and he hadn't been upset with last
year's kiss. She banished the thoughts with a simple whisper: "It's been
a long year." And then she pulled his face to hers and started, her
tongue slowly worming its way into his mouth, then inviting his into
hers. Angie will kill me, he thought as he obliged. She pushed his
tongue out, fighting it with her own as her lips massaged circles on his.
She finally drew her head back, then shot it forward again for the first
of three quick lip to lip kisses. "Thanks, Dad," she said as he returned
her feet to the floor.
"Shit!" Hailey muttered as she said again, "I, like, never get to have
any fun!"
Mitch was next in line, receiving a kiss from his daughter that was as
chaste as Wynter's had been. No hints about their secret relationship.
He heard her whisper to Jimmy, "I love you," and his whispered, "I love
you, too, Future Sister in Law." He had the impression that Jimmy
received the same kiss he did before the same triple breakaway pecks. He
was amazed that Jimmy hadn't turned scarlet. The boy had changed since
last New Year's Eve. He hoped for Wynter's sake that it was a good
change. But Wynter was beaming at him like there was nobody else in her
life. He guessed that was his answer. She was growing up.
The day was coming when Wynter would move out and the house would be
just his and Angie's. He considered that, completely missing Huntly and
Cinnamon. He didn't come back from someplace else until he heard Wynter
ordering everyone to dress for the trek across the street.
Time had moved that quickly. How quickly would it be until he and Angie
kissed her goodbye forever. Well, not "forever" forever, but... forever?
~ ~ ~
The New Year's Eve party at Wynter's was the same as the year before,
except with the addition of Sister Hailey and her date, Mark Williams,
who had just broken up with Lizzie Ames. Wynter's parents were again
spending the night at the big party at the Bighorn Hotel and Restaurant.
Sister Suzie's parents had taken her with them to Denver for some vague
reason that seemed a little suspicious to Wynter, though she wouldn't be
there anyway. Kenny's family was entertaining Doctor Marcus's family as
usual on New Year's Eve.
This year they had enough sense to play strip monopoly in the living
room, a warmer part of the house than the family room by Dragon's door.
Mark won with surprising ease, causing everyone to speculate whether he
was better than Brin Kwan at the game. Afterward, they adjourned to the
sauna and hot tub with lemonade and assorted fruit juices to relax
before retiring upstairs for more intimate fun, with Wynter and Jimmy in
her room and the others taking the guest room. Wynter and Jimmy declined
Huntly's invitation to join the "guest room group grope." So did Dragon,
who assumed his guard position just inside Wynter's door.
Dragon had to move when Wynter hastily, but neatly, drew a "Do Not
Disturb!" sign and taped it on the hall side of her door. "That should
keep them out," she said as she threw herself onto the bed and onto Jimmy.
~ ~ ~
Jimmy was close, but he would either hold back until after Wynter
finished or he would die trying.
Panting heavily, Wynter was close to her second orgasm, her heels
rhythmically moving up and down Jimmy's rapidly moving butt and legs,
when the knock on the door arrived. She growled a phrase Jimmy had never
heard her say before. He wasn't sure what it meant, but he was pretty
darned certain that the only thing medical about it was that it had
originated with Kenny. He rolled off and they pulled up the covers.
"Come in!" Wynter thundered before shaking her head and angrily
whispering, "Can't even read a fucking sign." The latter caused Jimmy to
forget he was low on oxygen and eye her with complete, unabashed, and
total surprise.
Cinnamon, Hailey, Mark, and Huntly entered, marching single file and in
step. At the side of the bed, Huntly said, "Squad, HALT!" All stopped.
"Lef', HACE!" They faced left with reasonable precision and stood at
attention. "Present, SPEECH!"
Cinnamon took a half step forward and stopped, still at attention, eyes
facing forward. "Now hear this! After considering all the past
interruptions of your intimate times together, we, the remaining
occupants of this domicile, wish to inform you that on this holiday
occasion you have no reason to worry that we, or anyone else, will, for
the remainder of this year, interrupt, disrupt, intrude, intervene,
interfere, or otherwise cause a halt to, your getting it on, making the
beast with two backs, diving for pearls, consuming the corn dog, packing
the fudge, slipping the pickle into the hamburger bun, wanking the
wiener, fertilizing the delta, parting the flappers on the seafood
snapper, fisting the fuzz muffin, humping the camel toe, primin' the
hymen, tugging the tubesteak, doing it up doggie, putting the pink
pencil in the dick sharpener, frosting the cupcakes, executing the
filthy Sanchez, barking at the ape, harpooning the walrus wallet, riding
cowgirl, baptizing the Methodist missionary, unmasking Darth Vader,
gargling goo, licking the lap flounder, giving the one eyed field mouse
with the purple turtleneck sweater a hot buttered nookie, cleaving Ward
Cleaver's son, enrolling in water sports, loading the gorilla into the
washing machine, cha chaing with the chi chis, turning Moses's staff
back into a snake, parting the beef curtains, or introducing Junior to
the Twins! Happy humping. That is all!"
She took a half step back.
"Lef', HACE!"
At Huntly's command they again turned with reasonable precision.
"Forward, HARCH!" As they marched out in step, Huntly counted a
sing song cadence: "Hump, that, cheap, WHORE! Hump, that, cheap, WHORE!"
As he exited the room, Huntly ordered, "Lef', HACE!" and then "Right,
HACE!" to take them into the guest room. All except Cinnamon.
Instead of turning left, the little redhead stopped and executed a sharp
about face. She reached into her goodie box, produced a quarter, and
flipped it on the bed, saying, "I trust you remember what to do?" Then
she closed the door.
When they got their laughter mostly under control, Wynter brushed tears
from her eyes and asked, "Did you understand all of those terms?"
"No," Jimmy admitted, his laughter dying at the admission of his ignorance.
Wynter's died, too. She looked at him with a glum face. "Maybe they're
right. Maybe we do lead too sheltered lives."
"After what you said when they knocked on the door?"
She shrugged one shoulder and looked apologetic. "Actually, I heard
Kenny say it once, but I don't have any clue to what it means."
"Well, do you want to join them?"
"No, but..." She sighed. "Not this time. I sure do have a lot to learn
before medical school."
Shortly before midnight the six removed all deposited or dripping or
smeared semen and other bodily fluids and padded downstairs, naked
except for a hand towel around Hailey's neck and Jimmy's arrowhead on
its thong around his neck, to Wynter's kitchen for the Mountain Time
Zone replay of the dropping of the ball on television. Sis One opened a
small bottle of expensive champagne and poured two fingers--two of her
small fingers--into flutes for each while Jimmy turned on the television
in the family room. Then everyone else joined him, and they watched the
final minute of the countdown.
When the ball hit bottom they toasted the new year with a sip, and then
Huntly proposed a toast of his own. "May the new year be free of the
'adventures' that plagued us in 2004. Ladies and gentlemen, to a quiet
year!"
"A quiet year," they repeated and finished their small taste of champagne.
"Now!" Huntly said with a mischievous grin as Sis recorked the champagne
and put it in the fridge for her adopted parents. "Let's see if that
mistletoe still works."
THE END
Copyright Russell Hoisington 2009
************************************************************
Sadly, he who was known to us as "Russell Hoisington"
died a short time after this story was finished. If the writing
seems uneven, or inferior to the earlier stories in the series,
that'd be due to his being in major pain and doped up to
relieve that pain. We who knew him were lucky. All of us
who enjoy his writing are lucky that he left it for us.
************************************************************
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continue to receive, a great amount of support from the people
here at ASSTR (The Alt Sex Stories Text Repository). ASSTR's
major service is the archiving of our stories to make them
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--
Russell Hoisington
State of Confusion
--
Pursuant to the Berne Convention, this work is copyright with all rights
reserved by its author unless explicitly indicated.
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