CROSS (A Gentry Boys Novella)(14)
“Con,” said Stone firmly but the light had already turned green and we were already off in a squeal of tires and speed.
Main Street wasn’t too long as main drags go but we had a nice stretch of straight road before we hit the next light. I heard Stone hiss out a curse but I had no plans to stop. Tony’s front bumper was right there in the corner of my eye and I’d be damned if I let him get ahead. Scattered pedestrians ogled from the sidewalk, a senior citizen in leather hung over his bike handlebars and silently watched behind sunglass-covered eyes.
All this occurred in mere speed-filled seconds that seemed like hours. Then the waning sun glinted off every metal surface in Emblem and conspired to blind me. When it cleared we were nearly at the next light and the intersection loomed ahead, no other cars in sight, totally empty except for a single black cat that stood its ground right there in the center of the road. He was ugly; hair raised, claws ready, a long-tailed rodent in his jaws. He made no move to jump to safety. The endless seconds were stretching longer and longer. Another one and he would be beneath the tires. I cut the wheel before I even understood what I was doing. Stone grabbed the dashboard and cursed wildly. We’d lurched beyond the retail segment of Main Street and jumped the crumbling curb into a field choked with wildflowers and tumbleweeds. The ground was a gritty powder that slid beneath the tires as I cut the wheel again, trying to stop the terrible momentum as my foot slammed down on the brakes.
The back tires spun in one direction and the front tires in a separate one. There weren’t any people or buildings or animals in front of us but my stomach dropped when I saw what did lay only a few unprotected feet away.
A wide network of canals runs through this part of state all the way up to the Phoenix valley. For much of the year they are dry or lined with shallow puddles. But during the summer storm season it’s not unusual to see several feet of water in there.
The Cadillac teetered over the concrete lip of the canal for half a terrible second before falling into the dirty water. We landed with a colossal thud that made a small tidal wave. Immediately the floor began taking in water that soaked our legs to the knee.
My brother and I locked eyes in that small space. We were in no danger, not really. The water wasn’t deep enough to drown in. But we were damn f*cked just the same.
Stone swallowed and the act seemed painful for him. “Let’s get out of here,” he said and started to climb out the window.
I sat there. I stared at the rising water and dimly wondered what had become of Tony Cortez. I thought about how less than fifteen minutes earlier I’d just been kidding around with my brother as we looked forward to yet another dull, incredible, boring, irreplaceable summer night.
“That pause between heartbeats can change everything. Everything.”
Who’d said that? Erin. Erin had said that. She’d said it in the middle of one of her quiet moods, a cold day in the season that passed for winter here. It was the anniversary of a terrible thing that had happened in her life, something she didn’t like to talk about. But I clearly remembered those words and I remembered that day and I remembered the way a sudden coarse wind had lifted the ends of her dark hair and slapped me in the face with it.
“Conway!”
Stone had already scrambled up the side of the canal. I could see his legs, could see him hunkering down, ready to crawl back down and drag me out of the car. I hauled myself out of the driver’s side window and Stone sighed with relief as he pulled me up to stand beside him.
“I was driving,” he told me, nodding.
I didn’t understand. My ears were ringing for some reason. I rubbed at my right ear irritably. “What?”
Then I saw the lights. The police car. The ringing had been a siren. We wouldn’t be needing an ambulance. We weren’t hurt. We were in a hell of a lot of trouble though.
Officer Driscoll, a silly sort of Keystone cop if ever there was one, was heading our way. I would have laughed out loud at the grim expression on his face if there’d been anything funny about any of this. Officer Driscoll, who went by the nickname Gaps, surveyed the scene, frowned when we waved away the paramedics, then arrested us. I could feel eyes from everywhere as we were escorted back to the police cruiser for the short ride back to Emblem’s jail.
Stone was stricken. All the tough guy armor was gone. The sorrow and regret on his face made him look young and old at the same time. Every bit of that sad remorse was fixed on me.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered. “I’m sorry, Con-man.”
I stared at him. Stone closed his eyes for a second and looked just about as miserable as I’d ever seen him. He wasn’t torn up about the fact that he was getting shoved in the back of a police car, although I doubt he was thrilled about it. What was killing him was the fact that I was right there with him. All the dumb crap we’d ever done hadn’t added up to nearly this much trouble and Stone was blaming himself for a bad idea. Yes, he was blaming himself for taking me along for the ride even though I’d been the one to start the engine.
“I’m sorry too,” I told him.
After all, we were both equal idiots and this was more my fault than it was his. For the first time a real sense of fear started pounding in my head. This was outside my box of life experience. I didn’t know what would happen from here. I had my doubts my mother would come running downtown to bring us home and I couldn’t think of anyone else who would be willing or able to post bail. Our hands were locked in cuffs behind our backs but I had the urge to reach for my brother in a way I hadn’t done since we were little and afraid of all the imaginary things that kids worry about.