All These Things I've Done (33 page)

Funny story: about ten days before the prom, Win asked me if I still wanted to go. ‘You’ve been under so much stress,’ he said, ‘and I know I like these things more than you. I’d definitely understand if you wanted to sit this one out.’

‘No,’ I said. ‘I want to go with you. I think it’s best for me not to wallow. To be out and about as much as possible.’ This was true, but what I failed to mention was that my brother’s very survival depended on me attending that dance. I had never anticipated a formal event so much in my whole life.

A week before the prom, I called Yuji Ono as scheduled. He had arranged for Leo’s transport as he’d said he would. ‘A car will take Leo to a boat that will take him to an island off the coast of Massachusetts. From there, I have arranged for a private plane to take him to Japan.’

‘And in Japan, what waits for him there?’ I hesitated to even ask.

‘I found a very suitable place for him. I think you will be pleased. It’s a Shingon Buddhist monastery in the foothills of Mount Koya. There is a lake with fish in it and many animals. I recall you telling me that your brother has a soft spot for animals. The monks who live there are a peaceful people. They eat fish, but no other meats. And even better, the language barrier will not be a problem for your brother nor will you have to worry about the discretion of the community – most of the monks who live there are under a vow of silence. It is not a harsh lifestyle, and I believe the monks will be very kind to your brother, Anya.’

I closed my eyes. I imagined Leo wearing a sun hat, fishing in a wooden
bekabune.
The sky and the water were so blue you could barely tell where one ended and the other began.

‘It sounds like paradise. How do you know about such a place?’ I asked.

‘A long time ago, I once thought I should like to stay there myself,’ was Yuji Ono’s reply.

After an endless week that included many secret discussions with both Scarlet and Leo, and my own private worries that Leo’s hiding place might be discovered, the night of the prom finally arrived. Win bought me a corsage with a single white orchid to wear on my wrist. The orchid was lovely but in combination with my black dress the effect was a bit funereal.

‘I didn’t want to get you roses,’ Win explained. ‘Too clichéd for someone like Anya Balanchine.’

‘Have a good time, you two!’ Natty called as she took our picture. She set down the camera. ‘I wish I was going.’

‘Here,’ Win said, setting his hat on Natty’s head. ‘Take care of my hat for me.’

We got to the dance at 8.30. I danced several dances with Win, then I excused myself to the ladies’ room on the third floor, where I was to meet up with Scarlet. Scarlet’s job had been to bring the tuxedo and get Leo dressed.

‘Is Leo in the tux?’ I asked her.

‘Yes,’ Leo answered for her, stepping out from one of the stalls. Leo looked so handsome and grown-up. I almost wished I’d brought my camera to take a picture for Natty, though the impossibility of this should be obvious.

‘Doesn’t he look handsome?’ Scarlet asked.

‘Yes.’ I kissed Leo on the cheek.

‘Are you sure I shouldn’t escort him to the car?’ Scarlet asked. She placed a black hat on Leo’s head so that his face was obscured. ‘Just in case someone out there recognizes you.’

We’d gone back and forth on this point several times and decided that since everyone knew Scarlet had gone to the prom with Gable Arsley, who was wheelchair-bound, it would be better for me to escort Leo to the car. Leo would probably be mistaken for Win, if anyone noticed us at all. ‘No, we’ll be fine. It’s only fifty feet to the car.’

‘Leo, are you ready?’

Leo offered me his arm and I hooked mine through it. ‘Goodbye, Scarlet,’ he called. ‘You look beautiful tonight. Don’t let Gable Arsley be mean to you.’

‘I won’t, Leo. I swear,’ Scarlet said.

We walked down the stairs, past administration, past the gymnasium, where the dance was being held, and past the ticket area. We were almost out the front doors of the school when I heard someone call my name. It was Dr Lau, one of the chaperones that night. I turned to go speak to her, silently praying that Leo would know enough not to follow me.

‘Good news, Anya! I’ve been looking for you everywhere. I wanted to tell you in person that I have just received word that your application to Teen Crime Scene Enrichment Summer has been accepted.’

‘Oh, wow, that’s great,’ I replied. ‘I . . . I’m feeling a little light-headed. Would you mind if we talked about this more later?’

‘Is something the matter, Anya?’ Dr Lau asked.

‘Everything’s fine,’ I replied. ‘I need a little fresh air. I’ll be back in five minutes.’ I pushed open the heavy double doors of the school and pulled Leo through them. We walked down the sidewalk. Three boys in tuxedos were tossing a football around. Girls in long dresses were sitting on the front steps of the school. Chai Pinter was among this group, but she didn’t see me. No paparazzi or reporters in sight, not that it would have mattered if there had been. Leo’s ride was leaving now. There was no time to delay.

As it was a special occasion, several kids had rented cars for the evening. At the end of a row of black limousines, I spotted Leo’s: a black Town Car with a green four-leaf-clover air freshener attached to the rear-view mirror.

We walked the rest of the way at an even pace. No one seemed to see us. Once we were standing by the passenger-side door, I gave Leo a quick peck on the cheek. ‘Have a good trip!’ I said. I thought it best if we avoided any sort of lengthy goodbyes. ‘Oh, hey, would you mind giving me back Daddy’s gun?’

‘Why?’ Leo asked.

‘You won’t be needing it where you’re going.’

Leo removed the gun from the waistband of his trousers, and I put it in my handbag.

‘I love you, Annie. Tell Natty I love her, too. I’m sorry for the trouble I caused you.’

‘Don’t be sorry, Leo. You’re my brother. I’d do anything for you.’

Leo got into the car. ‘Can I come home for Christmas?’

‘No, Leo, I don’t think so. But let’s see what happens, OK? Maybe I’ll be able to come visit you some day.’

‘And Natty?’

‘Sure, Natty, too,’ I lied.

I watched Leo’s car drive away, then I went back into the dance. Dr Lau wasn’t in the lobby any more, which was just as well. I wanted to go inside and dance with my boyfriend and relax for a bit. Now that I’d finally seen Leo off, the knot that I’d been holding in my stomach for these last couple of weeks had finally begun to untie itself. (It wouldn’t be completely untied until I heard from Yuji Ono.)

I found Win. He was talking to some of the boys he played music with. ‘Where were you for so long?’

‘I ran into Dr Lau on the way back from the bathroom,’ I said. ‘I got into that summer programme I applied to. She was talking my ear off about it.’

‘Congratulations!’ he said. ‘I’m so proud of you. How long is it again?’

‘Six weeks,’ I admitted.

‘Well, that isn’t so bad. I sure will miss you though,’ he said as he pulled me closer.

And then Win and I danced for several more songs. I had thought I didn’t like dancing, but maybe I hadn’t had the right partner up until then.

‘Last song,’ the bandleader called out. ‘Everyone on the dance floor.’

Across the dance floor, I could see Scarlet and Gable. I decided to go mend the fence with Scarlet officially. In front of Gable, I mean. ‘You’re my best friend,’ I said to Scarlet once I’d gotten up to them, ‘but I don’t control your life. And if you want to go to a dance with this imbecile, that’s your business, I suppose.’

Scarlet smiled at me. ‘Sure, Anya. Thanks. That means a lot to me.’

‘Hey!’ Gable said to Scarlet. ‘Aren’t you going to say I’m not an imbecile?’

Scarlet shook her head. ‘Well, sometimes you kind of are one, Gable.’

I walked back to Win. ‘Let’s go,’ I said to him.

We left the dance arm in arm. We didn’t have a car waiting for us, but were planning to take the bus as usual.

‘Nice night,’ Win said. ‘You can tell summer’s right around the corner.’

That’s when I heard the gunshot.

I reached my hand into my handbag for Daddy’s gun.

Another shot.

Win collapsed to the ground.

‘Oh God! Win!’

I took the gun out of my handbag. I cocked it, aimed it, and then I shot.

The gunman was about fifteen feet away and it was dark, but I was a good shot. Daddy had made sure of that. I shot to disable, not to kill. I landed one bullet in the person’s shoulder and a second in the kneecap.

I ran over to the gunman to kick his gun out of reach, then I went back to Win. Our classmates were gathering around him. ‘Someone call 911. Win Delacroix’s been shot.’ My voice was calm even though I was not.

I knelt down by Win’s side. He was passed out from the pain. Or perhaps he’d hit his head when he fell. The only wound I could see was on his thigh. It was bleeding a lot, so I took off my wrap and tied it around his leg like a tourniquet.

I ran back across the courtyard to the gunman, who was also lying on the pavement. He was wearing a ski mask. I ripped it off his face: it was Jacks. ‘Please don’t shoot me. I wasn’t trying to kill Leo, Annie. Honestly, I swear. I was only trying to hurt him so I could bring him back to Yuri and Mickey.’

‘So they could kill my brother and you’d be the big hero, huh? Well, you moron, that wasn’t even Leo. Leo’s not here. That was my boyfriend, Win.’

‘Annie, I’m sorry. It was an honest mistake,’ Jacks said.

‘Nothing you do is honest, Jacks.’ I wondered how Jacks had found out that Leo was at the school. Had he guessed? Or had Leo somehow been communicating with him? Or had a different person entirely been the informant? The only people that knew our plan were Yuji Ono and Scarlet and I highly doubted either one of them had told Jacks. I couldn’t think about this right now. And I couldn’t ask Jacks either, because if I asked him, it would be as good as admitting that we had managed to smuggle Leo out of the country tonight. ‘You do know who my boyfriend’s father is, don’t you?’ I asked Jacks.

‘The assistant DA,’ Jacks said as it slowly dawned on him just whose son he had mistakenly shot.

‘Good luck with that, cousin. All of our lives are about to become a living hell,’ I said.

A police car showed up. ‘What happened here?’ a cop demanded.

‘This man, Jakov “Jacks” Pirozhki, shot my boyfriend,’ I said. The cops put Jacks in handcuffs. I saw him wince as they pulled his arm.

‘So, who shot him?’ The cop was pointing to Jacks.

‘I did,’ I said, at which point I, too, was put in handcuffs.

And then an ambulance showed up to transport Win to the hospital. I was desperate to go with him, but I was restrained by the handcuffs, of course. I screamed to Scarlet that she should ride with him instead, and she did.

And then another ambulance came to take Jacks away.

Finally, a second police car came, and this one was just for me.

X I X.
i enact a fair trade

I
WAS QUESTIONED FOR FOUR HOURS
at the police station, but I told them nothing about Leo. All they knew was that a low-level mobster had shot my boyfriend and that I had shot back in self-defence. The only charges they could pin on me were relatively minor: possession of a concealed weapon and possession of a weapon with an expired permit. Not to mention, I had saved Charles Delacroix’s son’s life – so what if it had been me who had put the young man in jeopardy to begin with? From the police’s point of view, I was a hero. Or, at least, an antihero.

And so I was sent home under house arrest while the powers that be tried to figure out what to do with me. They did not send me to Liberty, as they were wary of sending me back there after the public relations fiasco of my last stay.

What else can I tell you? Oh yes, Leo. I had just begun my period of house arrest when word came from Yuji Ono that my brother had made it to Japan and was safely among the monks of Koya. At least it hadn’t all been for nothing, I suppose. On the phone, Yuji asked me if I needed anything further. I told him I didn’t. He had helped me enough.

And you’ll want to know about Win, of course. Charles Delacroix barred me from Win’s hospital room. Mr Delacroix also made sure that neither calls nor things I tried to send reached his son. Win’s father was nothing if not thorough, and I suppose this was something to admire about the man.

I read in the news that the bullet had gone through Win’s hip socket and that his leg was being held together with a series of metal rods and pins. He would recover, but Scarlet, who had visited him, reported that he was in a lot of discomfort. She also told me that his father had him monitored by around-the-clock security guards. ‘In theory,’ Scarlet said one day when she was over at the apartment, ‘it’s to make sure no one tries to get at Win, but the reality is Charles Delacroix wants to make sure Win doesn’t try to contact you.’

As usual, I could understand Charles Delacroix’s point of view. In less than a year, I had landed two boyfriends in the hospital. How could I be considered anything but a plague? If I had a son I loved, I would keep me away from him, too.

‘But,’ Scarlet said, ‘guess what?’

‘What?’

‘I have a note. He didn’t have much time to write it.’

Scarlet handed it to me. It was scribbled on a clean piece of gauze.