Winter Counts(16)

She looked defeated, and I instantly regretted my words. “Yeah, he’s not a good guy,” she said. “I left as soon as I found that out. Someday I’ll tell you about it. That’s why I want to help. I know where he stays in Denver, and I’m pretty sure I know who he gets the drugs from. It’s a street gang, the Aztec Kingz.” She looked off into the distance. “You have to believe me, if I’d known he was bringing heroin here, I would have told you. Someone. I never heard anything about that, I promise you.”

I considered what she’d said. “Why don’t you just give me the address, tell me what you know, and I’ll go down there on my own?”

“No. If you want the details, you have to let me come with you. I can use my vacation days.” Her face was an angry, steely mask, and she looked me straight in the eyes. “Look, I’ve got some things to say to him. This is something I need to do.”

Having Marie come with me to Denver was out of the question. Rick Crow was a bad dude, and it sounded like he’d hooked up with some even worse people in Colorado. It would be completely wrong to bring her into this.

I looked at Marie, her long black hair, the swell of her blouse, and her dark-brown eyes.

“Okay, we leave in three days.”





8


When I got back to the hospital room, the nurse told me that Nathan had been sitting up and talking a bit. A wave of relief shot through my body. When he saw me walk in, his face trembled and he started to cry a little.

“I’m sorry, Uncle.” His lips contorted as he tried to contain his emotions. “I messed up.”

We’d never been the hugging type, but I moved to the side of his bed and held him. Now he really started to weep, and stuck his head on my shoulder. His breath stuttered and jerked.

“It’s okay, buddy, it’s all right,” I said, and we stayed like that for a while. Finally I moved back and took a look at him. His eyes were sunken and dark, and his skin was ashy. But he was alive.

“How you feeling?”

“Not so good. I feel weird, like I’m a zombie or something. Like I’m watching stuff happen, but nothing’s real. And my head really hurts.”

“You want some water?”

“No, I’m okay. They gave me a little. Said I can have food later, but I’m not hungry.”

He still had an IV hooked up to his arm, but the other machines were gone. “They told me you’re probably gonna get out soon.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, you’re going to stay with Auntie Audrey for a bit,” I said. “She’ll look after you.”

“What? Out in the country?”

“It’ll be fine. You can rest up, get your strength back. She used to work at the hospital, you know, she’s good at that.”

“How long will I be there?” He slumped back into the bed.

“Depends how you’re feeling. I got to go out of town, but I’ll call and check in. You need anything, you can call Tommy.”

“Where’re you going?”

“Denver.”

He didn’t say anything. It was time to ask the hard question.

“Nathan, I know you’re still sick, but I got to know something. So, what happened?”

He looked puzzled. “Uh, I guess I overdosed.”

“No, I mean, why did you take that stuff? The drugs.”

He sat up and focused his attention on the IV line in his arm, as if the answer to my question was there. “I guess I screwed up.”

“Come on, you can tell me. The truth, okay? Have you done this stuff before?”

“No. This was the first time, I promise.” He looked away and stared at the wall.

“All right. So why’d you do it?”

“Well, school has sucked so bad this year—”

“Sucked? What’s going on?”

Now he turned to me with a resentful expression. “You don’t know what it’s like there. Most of the kids are freakin’ shitty; they make fun of me sometimes. You know, ’cause my mom is dead or I’m not Indian enough or whatever. I barely have any friends. I just been like, really stressed out, feeling like crap all the time.”

Yeah, I did know what it was like at the school, and I remembered pretty well what it was like to be harassed and bullied. But my heart cracked when I realized he’d been going through it too. Alone.

“Why didn’t you come talk to me? You know, let me help out.”

A pause. “Uh, you’re not exactly a person people talk to. Like, have a heart-to-heart or whatever. I mean, I need someone’s ass kicked, you’re the guy.”

This hurt.

“You don’t want to talk with me, that’s cool,” I said. “But you got issues, you can go to a school counselor or someone.”

He smirked, looked at me like I was the stupidest person alive. “Yeah, okay.”

I decided to try a different tack. “Don’t you hang out with Jimmy, talk to him? He’s your bud, right?”

“Ah, not so much anymore. He’s, like, starting to get all sporty, playing b-ball, hangin’ with those dudes. I’m more into rap, hip-hop, cool stuff.”

I knew when I’d hit a dead end. “All right. But you got to tell me one thing.” I looked him in the eyes. “Where’d you get the drugs?”