Panic(75)

The end of August was the saddest time of the year in Carp. Maybe the saddest time everywhere.

Every year, no matter what the weather, the public pools were suddenly clogged with people, the parks carpeted in picnic blankets and beach towels, the road packed bumper-to-bumper with weekenders descending on Copake Lake. A shimmering veil of exhaust hung over the trees, intermingling with the smell of charcoal and smoke from hundreds of barbecues. It was the final, explosive demonstration of summer, the line in the sand, a desperate attempt to hold fall forever at bay.

But autumn nibbled the blue sky with its teeth, tore off chunks of the sun, smudged out that heavy veil of meat-smelling smoke. It was coming. It would not be held off much longer.

It would bring rain, and cold, and change.

But before that: the final challenge. The deadliest challenge.

Joust.





THURSDAY, AUGUST 25





dodge

THE DAY OF JOUST WAS WET AND COLD. DODGE dressed in his favorite jeans and a worn T-shirt, emerged sockless into the den, ate cereal from a mixing bowl, and watched a few reality TV shows with Dayna, making some jokes about the douche bags who would let their whole lives get filmed. She seemed relieved that he was acting normal.

But the whole time, his mind was several miles away, on a dark straightaway, on engines gunning and tires screeching and the smell of smoke.

He was worried. Worried the fire would start too early, when Dodge was driving the car. And worried that Ray wouldn’t go for the switch.

He was counting on that, had rehearsed a speech in his head. “I want to change cars,” he’d say, after Heather let him win the first round. “So I know it’s fair. So I know he didn’t go turbo on his engine, or screw with my brakes.”

How could Ray say no? If Dodge drove carefully, no more than forty miles per hour, the engine shouldn’t heat up too much, and the explosion wouldn’t get triggered. Heather had to let him win even if he was going at a crawl. Ray would never suspect.

And then Ray would get in the car, floor it, and the engine would start smoking and sparking and then . . .

Revenge.

If everything went according to plan. If, if, if. He hated that stupid word.

At three p.m. Bill Kelly came by to take Dayna to physical therapy. Dodge didn’t understand how Kelly had just wormed his way into their lives. Dayna was practically up his ass. Like they were suddenly all one big happy family unit, and Dodge was the only one who could remember: they weren’t family, would never be. It had always been Dodge and Dayna and no one else.

And now, he’d even lost her.

“You gonna be okay?” she asked. She was getting good with her chair, spinning herself around furniture, bumping up the place where the floor was slightly uneven. He hated that she’d had to get good at being crippled.

“Yeah, sure.” He deliberately didn’t look at her. “Just gonna watch some TV and stuff.”

“We’ll be back in a couple of hours,” she said. And then: “I think it’s really working, Dodge.”

“I’m happy for you,” he said. He was surprised to feel his throat getting tight. She was halfway out the door when he called her back. “Dayna,” he said. All for you.

She turned. “What?”

He managed to smile. “Love ya.”

“Don’t be a dick,” she said, and smiled back. Then she wheeled out of the house and closed the door behind her.





heather

WITH EVERY PASSING MINUTE, SHE WAS CLOSER TO THE END.

Heather should have felt a sense of relief, but instead she was gripped, all day, with dread. She told herself that all she had to do was lose. She’d have to trust that Dodge would keep his promise about the money.

He wasn’t playing for the money. She had always known that on some level. But she wished she’d really pushed him about what motivated him. Maybe that was making her jumpy: now, even at the very end of the game, she didn’t understand his end goal. It made her feel as though there were other games going on, secret rules and pacts and alliances, and she was just a pawn.

Around five o’clock, the storm passed, and the clouds started to shred apart. The air was thick with moisture and mosquitoes. The roads would be slick. But she reminded herself it wouldn’t matter. She could pretend to chicken out, or really chicken out, at the last second. Then Dodge and Ray could face off and she’d be done.

Still, the sick feeling—a weight in her stomach, an itch under her skin—wouldn’t leave her.

Joust had been moved. There had been no formal messages about it, no texts or emails. Bishop was lying low, just in case anyone was angry about the way the game had shaken out. Heather didn’t blame him. And presumably Vivian, too, was keeping her head down. For the first time in the history of the game, the final challenge would proceed with or without the judges.

But word had come back to Heather, as it always did in a town so small, with so little but talk to feed it. The cops were posted all around the runway where Joust traditionally occurred. So: a change in location. A spot not far from the gully and the old train tracks.

Heather wondered, with another pang, whether Nat would show up.

It was six o’clock when she left. Her hands were already shaking, and she worried that in another hour or so, she’d be too nervous to drive or she’d chicken out entirely. Anne had agreed to let Heather use the car for the night, and Heather hated herself for lying about why she needed it. But she told herself that this was it, the end—no more lies from here on out. And she would be extra careful, and pull the car off the road well before Dodge came anywhere close to her.