The Summer I Died: A Thriller (9 page)

The next thing I saw was a golf club slicing the air and bodies flying this way and that.
Whoosh!
I ducked a swing that would have made a hole-in-one in my cheek and came up to find Tooth in front of me. His face was awash in blood and his bridge had been punched out.

“
Let’s get the fuck outta here!
”
I yelled.

“
Holdth on, I woft my tees.
”

We bent down as skinheads careened around us, bleeding and moaning. Cheers went up from the other patrons, whose expectations had been generously fulfilled. I found his bridge under a barstool, covered in a
glob of ichor that reminded me of a stewed tomato. I th
rust it in his hand and nearly
retched as he shoved it in his mouth. He yanked me up and we bolted out the front door and sped away.

And that was how my last trip to O’Conner’s had ended.

As I looked at the encroaching grayness crawling toward us over the mountains, I passed the joint back to Tooth and thought, no, I’m not particularly interested in going to O’Conner’s tonight. I told this to Tooth.

“
You’re afraid those skinhead jerkoffs will be there,
”
he said.
“
Man, when are you gonna get a backbone?
”

“
I have a backbone, and it’s straight and in one piece. I kind of like it that way.
”

“
You kind of make me sick sometimes.
”

I wasn’t expecting that. But then again, he was drunk and he was unpredictable when drunk. I didn’t take his bait though; if he wanted to give me shit about not wanting to fight he could work it into the conversation on his own.

Man, he was pissing me off.

“
You never take any chances,
”
he continued.
“
How long are you gonna stay in this hick town, doing nothing but reading comic books? When was the last time you got laid?
”

“
I get laid.
”

“
No, you don’t. Shit, you must pull your dick as often as I take a drink.
”

“
I’d have my dick in my hand right now if that were the case.
”

“
Man
, don’t you feel suffocated here?
”

“
The university isn’t like that, there’s opportunity, cool people. You’d know that if you came to visit.
”

“
There’s no point. All college girls want to do is talk about how they’re going to be lawyers and doctors. None of them want to rape me like a bitch in heat, like the Internet says.
”

“
It’s not like that. Mostly they’re all hippies, listen to reggae music, hang out and let their leg hair grow. And they’re so sheltered, like they all grew up in communes. These girls came in my dorm room one night while I was watching
Evil Dead
and they asked what it was. Can you believe that? They’d never seen
Evil Dead
. I just laughed.
”

“
You elitist jackass. You should have fucked them.
”

“
Who said I didn’t?
”
I replied, annoyed at his lack of faith in me. Though the truth was they had walked into my room by mistake and asked the one question and left. I didn’t know too many girls, at least ones I could relate to. There was one girl living in a room down the hall who was very cute, small nose, short brown hair, had a picture of Ew
an M
cGregor on her door in his Obi Wan Kenobi costume. I liked her, and we’d talked briefly, but I learned she had a boyfriend and
not
a
very nice one at that. She left soon after anyway. Tooth was right
—
I pulled my dick a lot.

“
Fuck, I need to get laid,
”
he said.
“
It’s been over two weeks.
”

“
Who did you get with?
”
I asked.

He took another pull on the joint and handed it to me. His eyes were red and clouded, and I doubted he could drive anymore, which meant I had better start sobering up or we’d be camping in the mountains like a couple of cro-mags.

“
Michelle
Murphy.
”

“
Bullshit,
”
I yelled. I handed the joint back to him and blew smoke in his face.
Michelle
Murphy had been every boy’s dream back in high school, the kind of girl
you would have given all your paper route money for, the kind of girl you jerked off to on a nightly basis. She was also the kind that made a big deal about her faith and her virginity, which made her all the more desirable.

“
Yup. I was at O’Conner’s and she came in with some dude. I hadn’t seen her since high school so I asked what she’d been up to. I don’t remember what she said but her breath could have sterilized the bottom of my shoe. That girl can drink. She starts rubbing on me and telling me she always thought I was a cool guy, which is horseshit, but I didn’t care. Anyway, she grabs my dick and says to follow her home. I said, ‘Who’s this yahoo?’ pointing to the guy she was with. She said, ‘Boston, meet New Hampshire.’ Then she leaned in real close, put her lips on my ear and said, ‘He was round one, you’re round two.’ So I went home with her and damn, that little girl is all grown up I tell you. I thought it was a little weird how the guy sat in the corner and watched, but hey, it didn’t affect my performance none.
”

I pitched a rock into the abyss of trees and stood up.
“
You’re a fucking liar,
”
I said.
“
I’m starving, let
’
s go to Bobtail and grab a burger.
”

“
I’m not lying.
”

“
Yeah, right.
”

“
You think what you want, all I know is the devil’s gonna high five me when we meet. Aw, fuck it, a burger sounds good.
”

We walked back down the path, which was now so thick with mosquitoes it was like walking through a stinging fog. Tooth put the gun back in the car.

And that was when we heard the scream.

CHAPTER 9

It was a woman. It was desperate. And it came from all around. We stopped moving and scanned the treetops like a couple of dogs sniffing out a trashcan. It sounded as if it came from everywhere at once, and even shifting our focus about we still couldn’t place the location. Then it stopped, the echo died away and all was silent again. Tentatively, the cicadas took up their
buzzing
once more; the ancient tree limbs went back to creaking like haunted house doors. A few mosquitoes tried to nest in my ear and I batted them away.

“
Okay
then,
”
Tooth said, and started to get in the car.

The scream came again, its urgency plain as day, and I knew somebody was hurt or at least needed some big time assistance. The hairs on my forearms stood on end, something that hadn’t happened to me in a while.

“
What the fuck is that?
”
Tooth asked. A sudden fear wrinkled into his brow.

“
I don’t know,
”
I replied, my heart beginning to race.
“
Sounds like it’s coming from over there but I can’t be sure. Wait, did you hear that?
”

But before he could answer, the scream came again, and this time there was an unmistakable plea for help.
But it was all run together so it sounded like
“
helpmepleasehelpme!
”
Then it stopped and we stood still, not knowing what to do, Tooth with his hand on the car door, me looking into the woods, my stoned brain
replaying scenes from slasher films. The forest was on mute, every creature
si
lent in the face of the unknown
.

“
Sounds like she’s hurt,
”
Tooth said.

“
Probably hiking through the forest and fell or something,
”
I offered,
“
whoever she is. You don’t think there are any bears or anything in there?
”

“
Wolves maybe, but I don’t think they’re brave enough to attack a person.
”

“
What if she’s trapped under a rock or something?
”

“
I suppose they’d attack her if that were the case.
”

“
That’s not what I meant. I mean maybe she needs help.
Maybe her leg’s broken or something.
”

Tooth’s mocking stare told me how dumb my last statement was so I shut up. He cocked his head to listen for any further noises but there were none. He shuffled his foot in the dirt and took out his keys, jingled them in his hand like he was using them to think. He put them back in his pocket and looked at me but I already knew what he was going to say.

“
Let’s go look.
”

Son of a bitch. I should have walked away, should have taken the keys and driven us right out of there. But I didn’t. Instead, here we were, in the middle of frigging nowhere, surrounded by nothing but woods, with someone screaming for help, and we were about to go investigate. Every bad horror movie I’d ever seen rushed back to me.

“
I don’t think that’s a good idea. I’ve seen this movie before,
”
I told Tooth.
“
We’ll walk in there and the psycho with the ax will split my head in half.
”

“
Movies aren’t real. She is. We can’t just leave her if she needs help.
”

Tooth was right, what else could we do? It was a half-hour ride to Bobtail, and even farther the other way. By
the time we reached anyone who could help, whoever was screaming might be dead.

There was also another reason
—
aside from playing
Good
Samaritan
—
that
I felt compelled to find this person
:
simple curiosity. Somebody screaming from the woods could only turn out interesting. Perhaps a camper who’d fallen off a cliff, maybe a hiker who’d twisted their ankle, or maybe even someone fending off a wolf, though I hoped it wasn’t the latter.

I was apprehensive and mesmerized all at once. Or to put it another way, I was just stoned.

When I saw Tooth take the gun and reload it I felt a little better.

“
C’mon,
”
he said, and started walking into the trees.

I ran around the car and got beside him, followed him like a puppy following its mother. We ducked under some low branches and stopped short a little ways in.

“
Which way?
”
Tooth asked.

“
Not sure. Thought it came from over there,
”
I said, pointing off to my left. The woods went on forever. Tooth broke some branches blocking our way and began blazing a trail in the direction I’d suggested. We went another hundred feet before Tooth stopped abruptly and I walked right into him. He turned around, gun pointing directly at my belly.

“
I must be high,
”
he said, and stormed past me back the way we’d come. Utterly confused, I ran after him, snapping twigs and running through a spider web that had me wiping my face like I was on fire. When I emerged from the trees I found Tooth reaching into the car. He pulled out a cell phone.

Man
, we really were stoned.

He made a face as if he was the village idiot and started dialing. Three numbers could only mean 9-1-1.
With the phone to his ear, he waited for a minute then said,
“
Shit,
”
and stared pacing back and forth. The trees crossing over us formed a big tunnel and offered little in the way of clear reception so Tooth walked all the way down to the main road. I watched him shrink into a dot, spinning around in an effort to connect to a satellite. Ironically, I prayed someone would drive by and see him holding the gun and report it, if not stop and ask if we needed help.

While he spun and swore, I leaned against the car, wondering if our mystery woman was okay, who she was and would she be hot and, please God, naked.

After a few three-sixties, Tooth came back up and slammed his palm on the trunk.
“
There’s no reception here,
”
he said.