The Lost Causes of Bleak Creek(23)

“Now, can you tell me what this sign says?” The woman walked back up to the front of the room and gestured to the wall behind her, which was mostly bare—not even a chalkboard—except for a portrait of Mr. Whitewood just like the one in Alicia’s dorm room and a large white piece of paper with one word painted in red letters.

“Follow,” Alicia said quietly.

“I can’t hear you,” the helper said.

“Follow!” Alicia shouted, finally accessing some of her rage.

“That’s right, Candidatus. Follow. If you stick to this simple advice, you will do just fine here. If you don’t…Well, I wouldn’t advise that.”

Alicia nodded again, though she no longer felt like crying. Igniting her anger had been helpful. It simmered in her chest, reminding her who she was. She thought again of Rex and Leif, and she suddenly knew where they’d stand on all this: They’d be terrified. Rex might be a little better at hiding it, but neither of them would stand up to the helper.

In the triumvirate, confrontation had always been Alicia’s thing. Unlike Rex and Leif, she actually loved a good fight, mostly because it helped her deal with feeling stuck between the two worlds that her parents represented, two worlds that remained remarkably separated in Bleak Creek. Screw trying to fit in. She’d decided years ago that the easiest way to counteract ostracism was to stand out as much as possible. It still hurt to never feel completely at home, but at least she’d become pretty damn good at sticking up for herself.

So, no, Alicia decided: She wasn’t going to Follow, and she wasn’t going to wait for her best friends to rescue her, either. She was no Princess Peach, trapped in a castle hoping that two plumbers were coming to save her.

She was going to save herself.

“Are we clear?” the helper asked.

“Crystal,” Alicia said, her lips turning to the slightest smile.





6


BIG GARY’S KIDNEY stones weren’t as vomit-inducing as Janine had been expecting. In fact, if she hadn’t already known what she was staring at, she might have mistaken it for a jar of pebbles, something she would’ve kept on the shelf in her bedroom during her “collecting pointless things” phase.

“Now, don’t forget this side,” Big Gary said, turning the jar so Janine and her camcorder could capture every cubic inch of kidney stone. While the colossal man wore a nearly constant broad smile, his eyes betrayed the baseline level of skepticism he reserved for anyone from outside of Harland County.

“Great,” Janine said, her eye pressed to the lens, zero emotion in her voice. “Really great.” They were standing in the back of Li’l Dino’s Pizza ’n’ Subs, Donna behind them, already immersed in the process of washing dishes.

Big Gary had a habit of filling any gaps in conversation with a series of gentle but guttural noises, almost like he was tasting something he liked. The volume and frequency of these sounds increased as Janine racked focus across the jar. As she stood there, pointing her camcorder at a grown man’s rock collection, birthed from his own urethra, listening to him say mmm-mmmm over and over again, she couldn’t ignore the voice in her head screaming, This is why you went to grad school? This is why you’re thousands of dollars in debt? So you could do this?

“I been waitin’ so long for someone to film these,” Big Gary said, staring at the jar with pride. Resisting the urge to say, “Seriously?” Janine zoomed out to capture Big Gary and his booger-green Li’l Dino’s polo shirt in all its glory. She couldn’t imagine any color looking worse on camera.

“That’s why I keep ’em displayed on the counter out there. This jar”—Big Gary held it as close to the camera lens as possible, filling up the frame with a blurred nothingness—“is a symbol of all the pain I went through. Shows how tough I am. You know that expression Look at the stones on that one?”

Big Gary paused, as if he was waiting for Janine to answer.

“That’s actually the bumper sticker on my car,” she said, calculating that Big Gary wouldn’t detect her sarcasm.

“Well, then, all right!” Big Gary said. “So you know what I’m gettin’ at: Look at the stones on this one! My stones!”

Janine couldn’t help but smile, though not for the reasons Big Gary thought. She turned to see if Donna was smiling too, but nope: She was sliding a rack of glasses into the industrial dishwasher and pushing it closed, initiating a loud splashing and humming.

“So tell me,” Big Gary said, speaking louder to compete with the running dishwasher, “is this gonna be, like, in the movie theaters and whatnot?”

“Definitely,” Janine said, doing her best to wipe the smile off her face as she lowered the camera.

“Wow,” Big Gary said, nodding excitedly and releasing a barrage of mmms. “That’s—”

“Mr. Gary!” A panicked teen boy held the door to the kitchen open, his acne-riddled face resembling the generic pizza pictures scattered throughout the restaurant.

“Can’t you see I’m busy, Tommy?” Big Gary said.

“Is she from the news?” Tommy asked. “Are we gonna be on the news?”

“No, it ain’t the news. This lady’s makin’ a movie about me,” Gary said, turning to Janine and smiling. “What is it, Tommy?”