Girl Fights Back (Go No Sen) (Emily Kane Adventures) (17 page)

As they were passing through
Covington, Wayne persuaded her to swing by an ice cream stand for a snack. He
got a big cone with sprinkles. She got a fruit sorbet. They parked in the
library lot by the river and sat down on a bench. From that vantage they could
see past some empty fields across the river to the mountains in the distance.
Wayne was very fond of rivers and lakes. He didn’t want to get wet. He just
liked being near large bodies of moving water, and sometimes speculated that
the evaporation cleared his sinuses. Emily thought it was because he had a
liquid soul, flexible and soft, no hard edges, but still capable of great
forcefulness.

“Tell me the truth, Emily,” he
began in a serious tone. “Do you really know what you’re gonna do next year?”

“Wayne, I’m not even sure about
next week.” She spoke truthfully, even more than Wayne could possibly realize
at the moment.

“Me neither,” he confessed. “But
you seem so together, like you’ve got everything under control.”

“I know I’m going to college, but I
don’t know much more than that. I may even end up taking a year off first. The
one thing I know is that I can’t stand still.”

She was speaking as candidly as she
thought she could. Wayne’s anxieties about college were almost a perfect mirror
image of hers, she thought. She had to keep moving to create a safe future for
herself, while Wayne only wanted to stay safe at home. Going away to college
clearly terrified him. She was afraid of staying put too long, of letting her
pursuers catch up to her. But she had to stay put, to finish high school, in
order to move on. The irony of her predicament reminded her of those Chinese
finger traps: if you try to pull your fingers out they grab on tighter. The
only way out involves pushing your fingers further into them.

“I think I want to wait a little
bit, too,” Wayne said with relief. “My mom keeps pushing me to do the
applications. But I’ve got no idea how to choose. And how the hell is any
school gonna want me?”

“Come on, Wayne. Don’t be
ridiculous,” said Emily. “Lots of schools’ll want you. It’s not about who you
are right now. Just tell ‘em who you
want
to be. That’s what they want to know.”

“I don’t know what I want, Em,” he
replied. It would be hard not to see how much distress he was in.

“Don’t worry, big guy, it’ll come
to you,” she said with a little laugh. “There’s still plenty of time to figure
it out.”

She looked him in the eye as she
spoke. Wayne had never looked so directly at her before. Of course, he had long
been dazzled by her, was perhaps almost afraid of her. What he saw now, at the
bottom of her black eyes, was a deep reservoir of human sympathy. He also saw
something darker that he recognized from the dojo. It gave him a bit of a
shiver, but in the end only confirmed the sympathy he felt. It had a remarkable
calming effect on him.

“Thanks, Em,” Wayne said with a
deep smile.

At times, he had indulged the fancy
that he had a crush on her, until now. She was beautiful, exciting, cool. How
could he not be infatuated? But what he saw in her eyes was deeper than that.
He didn’t quite know how to articulate it, but on some level he understood that
a crush was a ridiculous misapprehension of what Emily had come to mean to him.
Friend was the closest word he had for what she really was. He thought that she
may well be the most important friend he would ever have. But that meant a
confession was in order.

“Those guys at the game assumed
we’re a couple. I didn’t set ‘em straight, Em. I’m really sorry. That was just
stupid... and unfair to you.” His voice quaked slightly as he uttered the last
few words. She could see how upset he was.

“Yeah, I noticed that,” she
replied. Wayne cringed a little. “I don’t mind that stuff. That’s what friends
are for,” she said with laugh. Wayne was relieved. She looked him in the eye
again and smiled.

When they got to Wayne’s house that
afternoon, his mom was watching from the porch, waiting for them to return. She
peered down into the truck. Wayne turned to Emily and said “She’s gonna want to
meet you. I hope you don’t mind.”

Emily got out of the truck and
walked over to the porch. Wayne followed, “Mom, this is my friend, Emily,” he
called from behind her.

“Hi,” Emily chipped in. “It’s good
to meet you.” Mrs. Turley said nothing for a brief moment. She seemed stunned.
For the last few weeks, all she’d heard from her son was “Emily this” and
“Emily that.” She new he was infatuated, but she had no idea the girl would
turn out to be so beautiful. Her mind went all fuzzy for a moment. Wayne
gestured to her to speak and she recovered herself.

“It is so good finally to meet you,
Emily,” she blurted out. “I’ve heard so much about you. Would you like to come
in for some tea?”

Emily chatted with Mrs. Turley for
about an hour. It was almost too much for Wayne to bear. The prospect of his
mother saying something to embarrass him harrowed his soul. His discomfort
tickled Emily. But as it turned out, his mom was too busy gushing over Emily to
remember any embarrassing stories about her son.

After Emily left, Wayne finally sat
down with his mom and told her of his anxieties about college. “I don’t know
what I want to do, Mom. How can I even fill out an application?” She knew he
was anxious, but she also knew he needed to get away from home.

“Honey, you can figure that out
once you’re there. You don’t need to have your whole life planned out in order
to go. Just think of it as an adventure.”

“That’s sort of what Emily told
me.” Mrs. Turley smiled.

“You should see more of that girl,”
she said with a tear in her eye.

“Mom,” he replied in mock
exasperation, “I already see her practically everyday in school and at the
dojo. She’s like my best friend.” A realization suddenly dawned on her.

“You mean
she’s
the girl
from the dojo you guys are all afraid of?! But she’s so sweet... and pretty.”
Wayne grinned.

“Yeah, She’s
that
girl.”

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Chapter 14:
Back to the Woods Again

Wendy’s parents ran a bed and
breakfast on the north end of town. It was a large civil war era house with
several bedrooms and a rather large dining room. They had added a new wing on
the north side of the building which included three small studio apartments.
These tended to be rented by the week all year round. A small swimming pool
dominated the upper terrace in back next to a hot tub large enough to
accommodate eight or nine people. The parents lived in a small suite behind the
front desk. The children had bedrooms in the basement on either side of a large
rec room that led out into the back yard.

Wendy and her brother had cleaning
and front desk duties during the off-season, when there weren’t many guests.
During the high season, the family usually took on a couple of extra staff to
handle the business. Just now, the only guests were staying in the studios.
These were long term rentals. The rest of the house was empty. Even though it
provided her family with a comfortable life, Wendy disliked living there
intensely, and resented having to contribute to the upkeep of the house. Her
family moved here from Baltimore when she was in seventh grade. She was forced
to leave behind all her childhood friends. She still harbored a grudge about
it. Her parents watched uncomprehendingly as she gradually became more reserved
and withdrawn, and began to dress more exotically with each year.

Emily pulled down the circular
drive to the front porch on the dirt bike just before ten. She was wearing
black jeans over western style boots, a deep red t-shirt and a brown leather
jacket. She tossed a second helmet to Wendy, sitting on the bottom step. Her
jaw dropped. It really hadn’t occurred to her that this was the sort of ride
Emily had in mind. She thought “What the hell,” pulled the helmet on, and
climbed on the back of the bike. They sped down the drive, spitting gravel behind
them.

An hour’s ride brought them as far
as Potts Creek, where Emily turned east up a dirt road that connected to a
network of logging trails through the forest. It was a thrilling ride up and
down hills, in and out of valleys, bending around some sharp turns and over
some large bumps. On a few occasions they were actually airborne. Wendy
screamed most of the way. After another hour, they came out on a ridgeline
overlooking a high meadow. Emily cut the engine and leaned the bike up against
a tree. They sat on a fallen log and took in the scenery. From their position
on the ridge they saw a lower ridge, some tilled fields and clear pasturage on
the other side, and a much higher ridge about two miles away. It was a pastoral
scene of exquisite beauty.

Wendy had driven past scenery like
this loads of times over the last few years. But somehow today felt different.
No doubt, the thrill of the ride contributed to her giddy mood, but also the
company. She started laughing out loud after a few minutes. Emily looked at
her, puzzled and amused. She saw the ecstatic joy dancing on Wendy’s face and
couldn’t suppress a giggle of her own. Before long the two of them were
laughing together. It was intoxicating.

“Emily, I had no idea,” Wendy
gushed after a few moments. “Do you do this often?”

“My dad and I used to camp in the
mountains all the time,” she said after a moment.

“I meant the bike. Did you do
that
with your dad?”

“It used to be
his
bike,” she laughed, though a sad thought lingered in the back
of her mind. Talking about him now reminded her of the magnitude of what she
had lost. But there was no other way to retrieve any of her happy memories.

“You are nothing like what I
expected,” Wendy said with a laugh.

“You were expecting something?”
Emily teased.

“You seem like such a loner. Ya
know, on the outside looking in,” Wendy mused. “But you’re not an outsider at
all.”

“Whaddya mean?”

“I don’t think you’re looking
in
,” said Wendy, very pleased with
herself.

Emily laughed, because she was
right, sort of. She had been a loner all her life, had lost herself in her own
private pursuits, in martial arts, in school work, in her love for her dad. She
only realized how lonely she had been all those years when she began to allow
people to get close to her. She had friends now. It was painful to think of
life without them. But Wendy has friends, she thought. Why does she think of
herself as an outsider?

“I’ve got better things to do than
worry about being in or out,” Emily said provocatively. “I’ve got more friends
now than I’ve ever had before, and I like it. I guess I’m just Miss
Popularity.”

“Yeah, right,” Wendy snorted. “Why
do I get the feeling all these new friends don’t really know you at all.”

Emily was surprised at how
perceptive Wendy could be, and yet still not really understand her. But perhaps
it was better that way. She wasn’t sure she could let a friend get to know her
any better than that.

“What about
your
friends, ya know, the guys in black? Do they know the
real
you?” Emily teased.

“I suppose not,” she conceded. “But
at least they’re not phonies, like everyone else.” There was some genuine anger
and frustration behind Wendy’s voice as she spoke. Emily turned to face her,
looked her in the eyes.

“I don’t know
what you mean by phonies, Wendy. I’m pretty sure I’m a phony, ya know,
pretending to be what I’m not. But I don’t need a uniform. All the black
clothes, the death stuff, the makeup, isn’t that kinda phony?”

Wendy didn’t
like to hear this from her new friend, even though she knew it was true. She
had felt it herself for some time now. The goths were phonies like everyone
else. For Wendy, it started as a rebellion against her parents. She was angry
at them for moving out here, for making her leave her friends behind. An added
bonus is that it made her parents think she wasn’t quite presentable to the
guests. It got her out of doing any of the public duties of the bed and
breakfast. But she wasn’t comfortable with how quickly Emily had turned the
tables on her, telling her a cutting truth about herself. That was supposed to
be her prerogative, not Emily’s. She was just supposed to be her exciting new
friend. But when she looked into her new friend’s eyes, she saw something
darker than any goth has ever imagined. It was dark, but it was not made of
anger or frustration. She was fascinated. She thought Emily was a deliciously
dangerous sort of friend.

On the way back home they stopped
for gas on the outskirts of Covington. Wendy went inside to use the facilities
while Emily filled the tank on the bike. Wendy prowled about the store for a
moment looking for a bottle of iced tea when she noticed a dusty white SUV
pulled up on the other side of the pumps from Emily. There seemed to be a
heated conversation going on between a guy and his girlfriend about Emily. She
was paying no attention. Finally the girl yelled “I’m telling you, that’s the
bitch from the other night!” Two other guys piled out of the back of the SUV.
They were quite a bit larger than the driver. One was big and athletic looking,
like he might be on the football team. The second guy was a little shorter and
on the husky side, but still huge. Wendy began to grow concerned. But she
couldn’t seem to get herself to go outside.

The driver sauntered over to Emily.
He was clearly menacing her. Out of nowhere he had a knife in his hand and
seemed to be threatening her with it. Emily hardly moved. Was she frozen in
fear, too? Finally Wendy unglued her feet from the floor and ran to the door
just as the driver was about to hurt her friend. “Look out, Emily,” she was
about to yell. But before the words were even fully formed in her mouth, she
saw Emily move her hands quickly towards the driver’s elbow and shoulder. He
winced in pain as she took control of his arm, spun him around and stuck him in
the ass with his own knife. He squealed in pain as she kicked him to the
ground. Wendy gasped. It was only a flesh wound, it seemed, not much blood. But
it must have stung like hell. The girl ran over to him shrieking as the husky
guy reached for Emily.