Outcast (19 page)

“Everything okay, Frank?” called Father Peter.

“She just hit the thing damn square in the middle, is all!” he called back.

Uh…

“So you don’t know what you’re doing?” asked Lacy with a look.

“I don’t, I really don’t. Beginner’s luck, I swear,” I replied in a bit of a panic.

“Sure.” Lacy turned and started to walk away.

“Look, let me do it again,” I said to her and she stopped. I turned to Gabe. “Let me do it again.”

“Sure,” he said. “Frank, get out of the way, she’s doing it again.”

“Yes, sir!” Wild Frank scurried far to the side.

I raised the gun again and looked through the scope. I debated purposely missing the target, but I figured it wasn’t likely I could hit it twice in a row anyway.

I aimed.

I shot.

Wild Frank ran over to the target in that same frantic way. He looked. “Damn,” he called out, “she missed!”

I looked at Lacy and shrugged. “See?” She rolled her eyes.

“Wait!” We all turned to look back at Wild Frank. “Hot damn! Hot doggy damn!”

“What is it?” asked Curtis.

“She didn’t miss at all. Hot damn! Girl hit the exact same spot!”

“Not possible,” I said. “That’s not possible, Frank,” I yelled over to him.

Wild Frank ripped the plate off the tree and was rushing toward us, his hair flying out behind him. “Look,” he said panting when he finally reached us.

I looked, there was a hole in the middle, but it really didn’t look like I’d hit it again.

“Shit,” said Curtis and he looked at me with awe.

“What are you guys seeing?” I asked. Everyone had gathered around it now, even Father Peter.

“The hole,” said Gabe, “look close. It ain’t a perfect circle.”

“Doesn’t mean anything…” I said.

“That’s definitely two shots,” said Father Peter, and for some reason, because he said it, I finally believed them.

“Well…” I said. “It was just crazy luck.”

“I don’t think so,” said Daniel.

“Come on,” said Lacy. “Of course it was luck. She’s not some gun prodigy or anything.” Even though I knew she was saying it to hurt me, I was actually grateful for her support.

“Exactly,” I said.

“Only one way to see,” said Curtis. “Let’s put it back up, another tree, maybe another ten feet.” Gabe nodded in agreement and Curtis was off.

“This is stupid,” I said, feeling really uncomfortable now, the way everyone was staring at me.

“This is awesome!” said Wild Frank and wrapped a tight arm around my shoulder. “Our very own Calamity Jane!”

Well, he had the calamity part right, at any rate.

“’Kay, all set up,” called Curtis from within the brush. He ran to the side, a pretty far distance—didn’t blame him—and I raised up the gun again.

The plate seemed tiny now, and I had to squint a bit to focus.

Just aim and shoot.

I aimed.

I shot.

Curtis ran over to check out the target. He produced a distant yelp.

Damn.

“She did it again!” said Daniel interpreting his brother’s cry.

“No I didn’t,” I said.

It took a moment, but Curtis returned with the plate to show us all. This time there was no doubt that the third bullet had gone through almost the exact same spot as the first two. The hole kind of looked like a squished eight.

“This is amazing,” said Father Peter.

“Damn right!” said John.

“It’s not!” I wasn’t sure why I was insisting so hard that this wasn’t anything special. Probably because I knew it was and that freaked me out. What did it mean that I was so good at this, and without any practice or anything either? I hoped it was as simple as having good eyesight and a steady hand.

Fortunately, after the third shot everyone agreed it was time to move on. Curtis got a new plate and attached it to the original tree and Gabe got up to shoot. He managed to hit it in the top right corner second try, which he seemed pretty proud of, grinning at me broadly.

“Way to go!” I said, hoping it didn’t sound insincere, considering my newfound amazingness.

“Thanks.” He reloaded the rifle and passed it to Father Peter, who missed the first two tries but hit it on the third. The Alexander brothers each used their own rifles and were very good, all three hitting the plate first try each and all pretty close to the center.

Then it was Lacy’s turn, and I’d never seen her look so vulnerable. She didn’t even know how to hold the rifle, so Curtis stood behind her and showed her. The quick grin he offered his brothers made me think he didn’t mind helping her out so much. Even with his help, though, she was way off target. Curtis quickly reloaded the rifle for her try again, but after a couple more attempts she got so frustrated that she just shoved the gun back at him and stormed off down toward the dock.

“I’ll go,” said Curtis, passing the gun over to John, and following her.

“My turn,” announced Wild Frank and in one move pulled out his revolver, shooting it into the brush. “Damn, missed!” He aimed and shot again. This time he caught the tack holding the plate in place, and the plate flew off the tree. “Ha! Now that’s shootin’!” He gave me a big wink.

“Well, I guess we have a sense now about skill levels,” said Father Peter. “I think we’re in a pretty decent place. Aside from…” He glanced down toward the dock where Curtis was sitting with Lacy.

“Give her a chance,” I said quickly. “She’s really disciplined, been working really hard to win the pageant next month, and does well in school and is head cheerleader. If she puts her mind to it, she’ll do it.”

“As long as she puts her mind to it,” said Gabe.

“Look, let’s forget about her right now. We should make a plan, a schedule. I know you guys are done with college already,” I said to the remaining Alexander brothers, “and Father Peter and Frank don’t have to worry about school. But the rest of us still have to go.”

“Do we really?” asked Gabe.

“Yes, we do,” I replied looking at him hard. He sighed. “You’re two months away from graduating with a high school degree. Don’t even think about it, Gabe.”

“Fine, fine.”

“So we have to come up with a plan until the end of school, when we’ll have more time.”

“’Kay. How ’bout we do it while we have some lunch?” suggested Gabe.

“Oh…yeah, okay…” I looked at everyone. “Did anyone bring anything?”

There was some shaking of heads, but Gabe raised his hands. “It’s cool, cats, it’s cool. Etta Mae said she’d have something ready for us around now.”

We walked over to Etta Mae’s, everyone talking up a storm. It seemed like everybody was pretty excited about our plans, and I was thrilled that they all seemed to get on okay. Even Wild Frank had a loveable quality when he wasn’t firing weapons without warning.

Only Lacy seemed sad still, as she and Curtis brought up the rear of our group. I wished there was something I could say to make her feel better.

The same kids were playing on Etta Mae’s lawn, and that same girl with the yellow dress smiled brightly at me. Mr. Clayton was sitting in his chair ignoring us all as Etta Mae welcomed us into her home. Even though I’d been at her place half a dozen times by now, I was always struck how frozen in time it seemed. Nothing ever changed.

“Aunt Mae!” called out John and rushed into her open arms.

“There’s my strapping boys! All smarter and taller I see!” said Etta Mae squeezing John tight.

“Not taller, Aunt Mae,” said Daniel. “Not sure about smarter either.”

“I can tell just by holding y’all, you’re a damn sight smarter.” She pulled Daniel into the hug as well.

“If you say so,” said John with a laugh.

“Never thought I’d live to see the day when one of my kin went to college. Never even dared hope it would be three at the same time. Where’s my Curtis?”

“Here, Aunt Mae,” he said, climbing up the stairs holding Lacy’s hand. “Aunt Mae, this is Lacy Green.”

“Hi,” said Lacy quietly. I’d never seen her shy before.

“It’s lovely to meet you,” said Etta Mae with a soft smile. “Aren’t you just the prettiest thing.”

“Thanks,” replied Lacy, her eyes lowered.

“Frank Tinsley and Father Peter,” I said, introducing the last two.

“I know them both,” said Mae shaking each of their hands. “Father Peter, I tell you what, with everything being as it is, you’re a good man and that’s enough.”

“Uh, thank you,” replied Father Peter.

“This is Mr. Clayton,” said Etta Mae, making a quick gesture of introduction. As usual, Mr. Clayton didn’t pay any attention to any of us. “And now come inside! Y’all must be famished!”

We all passed through into the small front room. I was last, and as I did so, I saw Mr. Clayton look at me, and then back again. He always seemed to pay special attention to me whenever I visited, which wasn’t saying much. It was little more than a glance, but it always left me feeling unsettled.

Lunch, as usual, was amazing, as lunch always was at Etta Mae’s, and the conversation was lively and full of laughter. Even Lacy opened up and seemed happier, and it was pretty clear that Curtis really interested her. Once we were done eating, it was time to coordinate schedules. For now it seemed weekends were best. Lacy had cheerleading practice after school three nights a week and was working with a coach for the beauty pageant the other two nights. The weekend would be fine for now anyway, giving me and Gabe a chance to do our school work, and the Alexander brothers time to find summer jobs. Once school was over we could meet up more regularly, of course, and work around whatever job schedule the Alexander brothers might have at that point.

With times planned out, we then figured out a training plan. Focus first on aim, and everyone agreed I’d help out with that. They agreed on that before I could say anything. Like maybe that I had no idea how I managed to hit the target so well and that I wasn’t exactly sure I could therefore show anyone else how to do it. Still I said yes. What else was I supposed to do? Once we’d perfected that, then we’d learn how to shoot something in flight.

Lacy proved very useful then, saying she’d seen her dad at the club over in New Adamstead do some skeet shooting.

“I could probably see if I could borrow one of the throwers, but how we’d get it here I don’t know.”

“We’ve got a truck,” said Curtis instantly. Lacy smiled and nodded. “It’s okay if I show up at the club, though, right?”

Lacy bit her bottom lip. “Yes. Well…yes.”

“It isn’t officially off-limits is it?” asked Daniel.

“Not officially,” replied Lacy, her face turning red.

“That’s good enough for us. Hell, it’d be good enough even if it was,” said John, and it was settled.

As far as I could see, we had a pretty good plan. I was surprised really. It’d seemed earlier like it’d be almost impossible, but everything appeared to be coming together perfectly. Even Wild Frank wasn’t so wild. Once you got to know him.

“I think this actually might work,” I said to Gabe later that night back at home over dessert, as Mother was doing the dishes in the kitchen.

“I know,” he replied shaking his head. “Still a nutty group. Neat about Curtis and Lacy, though.”

“Yeah, I think there’s something happening there.”

“Yeah.”

“Is it wrong that I’m kind of finding all of this fun?” I asked Gabe leaning in toward him so Mother wouldn’t hear.

“Not at all.”

“Just, it’s a pretty serious thing, what we’re trying to do…”

“Riley,” said Gabe leaning in too, “it ain’t about the right thing to feel or the wrong thing. You feel how you feel. This all might be leading to something serious, but if you have fun on the way, that ain’t wrong or nothing. It’s like with Chris. Or my ma. Sometimes you miss them and it hurts, sometimes you miss them and you remember the good stuff. Sometimes you don’t miss them at all. You feel how you feel in the moment. But you never forget.”

“You sing ’em to remember,” I said automatically.

“You don’t need to. When it’s deep inside, it’s safe. You sing ’em,
because
you remember.”

I smiled. “That’s kind of deep, Gabe.”

“Oh, I’m all kinds of deep.”

We laughed. Because that’s how we were feeling in the moment.

The next couple months were insane. First there was the training. That would have been enough, thank you very much, without everything else besides. It turned out I actually was a pretty good teacher with the aiming thing. I guess to me it just seemed obvious. Keep both eyes open, aim, and shoot. It was about getting out of your head. You had to stop looking at yourself from the outside and just be in the moment. I hadn’t realized how most of them had trouble just focusing on the target in front of them. I guess I should have realized it, considering how much was going on in my mind usually. But for some reason, with this, I could just be empty and present. Explaining and teaching that to everyone was tricky, but it was a cool challenge.

At first I’d let Curtis show Lacy what to do, but after a while it just seemed like he was more of a distraction than a help, so I wound up taking over. She didn’t seem so keen about that idea, but then when she hit her first target, thanks to my instruction, she got over her resentment pretty fast. After that, like I’d predicted, Lacy was a quick study. She’d put her mind to it that she was going to be just as good as the rest of us, and her learning curve was really steep. I wound up working with her more than anyone else. She was so insistent we practice as often as possible. And when she hit three targets in a row, she’d actually hugged me. We pulled apart and sort of just stared at each other after it’d happened.

“You know what, Lacy?” I finally said.

“What?”

“How about, while we’re doing all this stuff, we just get over our opinions of one another and decide we like each other.”

Lacy thought about it for a minute. “Well, I’ve always liked you okay, Riley. I invited you over to eat with us in the caf remember. It’s you who doesn’t like me.”

“What are you talking about? You were the one with all the little snide comments about my clothes and stuff—not telling me about the pool party and making me wear one of your swimsuits that were way too small for me.”

“Yeah, but that doesn’t mean I don’t like you, just that…well, I felt you thought y’all were better than me so I had to bring you down. You know.”

“Seriously?”

“And you were the one to stop eating with us. That was kind of mean.”

“I didn’t think you’d care. But it had nothing to do with you. It was Amber. I don’t think I like her very much.”

“Oh my god, she’s so annoying. And I hate how much she worships Pastor Warren.”

“Exactly.”

We stopped talking for a second. You could hear the guys on the opposite end of the lawn laughing about something.

“So,” she said.

“So.”

“So what, you want to be friends?”

“Would make things easier,” I said. “I’ve got a lot on my mind, without having to deal with stupid girl issues.”

“Okay, sure. Yeah. Let’s be friends. But only here,” she added as an afterthought.

“Don’t worry, Lacy,” I said. “In public we can still dislike each other. I mean, I’ve got my own image to maintain.”

Lacy laughed, and I felt a huge weight off my shoulders.

And that was how we actually started to like each other. I didn’t go so far as to attend her pageant. It would have been strange with all her friends around. But she did show me her talent routine, and I helped her practice answering questions. She even showed me how to walk, but I just felt stupid. Curtis did go, however, and reported back all the strangeness that was such an event. Not strange, though, was that she won the competition. Evidently that was a huger deal than I’d thought, because the mayor and Pastor Warren organized a special presentation of the key to the city on the steps of the town hall, and she had her picture taken with both of them for the local paper. She had to go to Baton Rouge for a parade, which was a little frustrating as it was over the weekend, and she’d already missed so much practice recently. But when she got back, she doubled her efforts.

Her biggest effort, and most helpful contribution, had been her and the Alexander brothers fetching the clay pigeon throwing machine from the club. They told us the story, how everyone had stared as they drove up in the old pickup truck. Lacy had had it all arranged ahead of time, the guys just had to go out back to get it. But the four of them walking through the club had been a serious disturbance. John had described it as a blanket of silence falling on everything. With broad smiles they’d nodded at the patrons in the restaurant, who, as he said, “Were frozen mid-bite, their forks just hovering over their plates, bits of food falling off.” Lacy had loved every moment. Especially the look of sheer horror when she and Curtis passed by, his arm draped over her shoulder. It looked like Lacy was turning into quite the little rebel.

Of course, we were still going to school during all of this. Helping Gabe study for the SATs, even though he claimed he wasn’t interested in going to college, actually was really helpful for my PSAT scores. I’d been working extra hard to make up for my poor showing the year before, and I was really proud of the results. Top of my class, or nearly, in every subject, even gym since I’d found this new confidence thanks to my shooting skills. In fact, I discovered I was pretty good at sports if I just applied that same kind of centered focus I used when I was aiming at target practice. Even in the wrestling unit that Hannah had dominated since middle school, I actually managed to score the highest marks.

“You’re a fighting machine!” Gabe had said afterward.

“There’s no stopping me.”

Then there was Gabe’s graduation, which probably was the most emotional event for us. Well, at least me and Gabe. I think junior prom, which I did not attend, was the highlight of Lacy’s year—yes, she was crowned prom queen and took Curtis as her date. Don’t know which was more impressive to the kids that night—her win or the university man on her arm.

But Gabe’s graduation was extra special. He’d never thought he’d ever be in such a ceremony. Considering he’d dropped out, it was pretty obvious that he’d never thought he’d actually get a diploma. Still, here he was now, standing at the edge of the small stage in his cap and gown, waiting for his name to be called. He looked so cute—not hot cute, but adorable cute—nervously playing with the edge of his robe, staring straight ahead at Principal Johnson. By this time, Gabe was a fixture in the school as if he’d been through all the grades with us. When his name was called, no one seemed to notice that his only family was me and my parents. Everyone was too busy cheering for him, the girls especially. When Mrs. Johnson handed him his diploma, I saw him look out into the crowd, searching for something. Then he caught my eye and waved the diploma in the air, “Hey, sweetheart, how do you like them apples!” I waved and whooped in return.

Afterward we went to Le Chevre, the only real sit-down restaurant in town, with my parents to celebrate. Gabe kept the cap and robe on the entire time. On the way home, he offered to give me a ride on his bike, but I wasn’t quite ready for that yet. He never stopped offering, but I just wasn’t brave enough. So we went home separately and met on the front porch on the bench, my parents inside watching some TV.

“Had a good day?” I asked.

“Absolutely ace,” he replied.

“That a good thing?”

“The best.”

We sat in silence for a while, staring out into the dark of the front yard, down the driveway.

“Hey,” he said suddenly, turning to face me, “it’s been a while since you mentioned seeing that weird white ghost thing. Has it been around at all?”

Instantly my heart was in my throat. “Why’re you asking?”

“Just staring into the dark made me remember. Can’t believe I forgot.”

I sighed. He had no idea what a loaded question that was. The fact was I was actually feeling a bit resentful toward the strange ghost thingy these days. Since the conversation about the Thralls, it had appeared only once more outside my window a week later. But it had vanished the second I’d come downstairs to speak with it. After that, well, I hadn’t seen it since, and now it had been close to four months since it had told me about the “obvious question”. Since then it had decided it wasn’t in the mood to chat with me. Sure I’d been a bit focused on other things lately, leading an army and training and stuff. But still, every once in a while, lying in bed at night planning the next day’s practice session, suddenly the ghost thingy would pop into my mind. I wondered why it didn’t want to have a conversation with me anymore. I wondered what the answer to the “obvious question” was. I felt…well, it was stupid, but I felt a bit like it had deserted me. I also wondered if I’d…well, if I’d done something wrong.

“Haven’t seen it in months,” I answered. It was the truth. Gabe didn’t need to know that I was disappointed in that fact.

“That thing ain’t right, sweetheart.”

I wondered if Gabe was interested now in knowing what I knew about him and his once upon a time being a Thrall, slave-thing. Should I tell him? Even though he’d already said he didn’t want to know? I didn’t know the answer to that question, so instead I said, “I know. But I can’t do anything about it either. No sense freaking out about it.”

“Yeah. I suppose.”

He didn’t seem happy with leaving it at that, though. Tell him, I thought. Tell him.

“But it’s sweet of you to care,” I said softly.

“’Course I care,” he said, and then his focus changed, like he was thinking his way through a tough problem.

“Is everything alright?”

“Riley,” he said carefully, “I’d like to ask you on a date.”

And then all my concern about the ghost thingy went right out the window. Replaced with: Oh no.

“Now, before you say no,” he added quickly, “let me say some stuff. First off, I get the Chris problem, and I’m not asking you to forget about him. I just want you to try going on a date with me. If it’s too much, that’s cool, we don’t have to do it again. Second, I know I’ve dated a lot of girls, and I know you know I think it’s fun but that’s all. And they were pretty okay with just fun too. But I don’t want to have fun with you. I mean, I do,” he said and grinned. “But this ain’t just a little fun thing I thought just now, I mean. I’ve been thinking about this a long time. And, sweetheart, you know you caught my eye the very first day we met.”

Oh no.

“So I think we should go on a date. My treat. Been starting to make decent cash at the garage, and I’ve upped my hours now that summer’s starting, and I figure I’ll have enough soon for a nice dinner for two. And that’s what I think.”

He had no idea how fast my heart was racing, how badly I just wanted to shout yes and at the same time absolutely had to say no. All he could see was stubborn Riley staring back at him indignantly. He had no idea how this date idea terrified me way more than the strange ghostly figure that stood sometimes outside my bedroom window. More than the idea of leading a small army at the Taking just two months away.

Riley Carver doesn’t date. She doesn’t get asked on dates, but if she ever did get asked she would most certainly say no.

Why? Why would she say no?

Because I really really like him, and if we go on this date he’ll realize what a huge mistake he made, and not only will he never want to date me again, but it will ruin our friendship.

“Uh…Riley?”

“Yes.”

“You look weird.”

“No, I mean, yes, yes I’ll go on a date with you.”

Gabe smiled. “Awesome.”