Divine_Scream (16 page)

The two hurried off, once again arguing the finer points of what he and Banch preferred. As the swinging double doors of the kitchen closed behind them, the woman said, “Did you see their faces? They have no interest in salad and—”

A second later the doors opened again and more people emerged bringing platters of fried foods and shell fish. Banch started on her gumbo and eyed the other plates, which became increasingly copious and had to be placed on an adjacent table: boudin, jambalaya, red beans and rice, crawfish Étouffée, and several different sugary sweet manifestations of the beignet.

“Can I just get a muffuletta sandwich?” Jared asked. That was what Kaitlin always ordered for him. He hadn’t tried anything else on the menu.

“Like a huge one?” someone asked in the crowd.

“No, normal size, please.”

“How about a beer? Red Stripe? Purple Haze? Black Voodoo?”

“Diet Dr. Pepper or Coke.”

When they were alone again, Banch asked him, “Why no beer? I recall you trying wine once, but never beer.”

He shrugged. “I need the right occasion for one.”

She smiled. “You are living on borrowed time, my love. I don’t see when there’s a better opportunity.”

He offered a small smile of his own.

“Sorry,” she said. “I shouldn’t have brought that up.”

“It’s okay. In some realities, I went out of this world a long time ago.”

Banch stared at him with delicate eyes. “I’m lucky to have met you. Until I end or time does, I’ll never forget you, Jared Kare.”

“Ditto.”

“Well,” said the banshee. “With that said, I’m getting Purple Haze when they come back.”

“Have yourself a ball.”

His phone hummed again and he slapped the rectangular bulge in his jean pocket. “Fine,” he sighed, and dipped his hand inside to retrieve it. He checked the screen.

Kaitlin.

He considered whether he should answer it, then relented.

“Hi, Kait.”

“Jared,” she said, sounding panicked. “Where are you?”

“Why? What’s the deal?”

“The deal? Aren’t you seeing this shit on the news? Those guys from earlier are terrorists or something. The reports say there might have been a bunch of chemical weapons used in the city. People were out there suffocating in the streets—they’re bringing in the National Guard right now. Are you crazy? You really haven’t heard about any of this? Where are you? It isn’t safe out there.”

“I’m just with Banch.”

“At the beach?”

“No, not yet, we—look Kaitlin, we’re fine. Really.”

“This is too weird. I’m gonna bite my fingers off at the knuckles. Tell me where you are so I can pick you guys up. Seriously.”

“I said we’re fine. Kaitlin, just, I’ll call you some other time.”

“Oh, what is this? Big man with a new girlfriend? I’m telling you there’s some crazy shit out there and if you care at all about Banch—”

“We’re FINE,” Jared said, so loudly Banch blinked and self-consciously took another sip of her soup.

“Here’s your muffuletta,” said a woman, and she proudly set down a plate with the biggest sandwich Jared had ever seen. “Thanks,” he whispered to her and cleared his throat. “Hey Kait, I’m sorry for raising my voice.”

But the call had ended. Kaitlin had hung up. Jared’s hand dropped to the table.

“She’s pretty mad?” asked Banch.

“Yeah, pretty.”

Banch reached over to the other table and grabbed a plate of blackened shrimp. “No doubt, you’re being a jerk.”

“Pardon?”

“She was just looking out for you. Try and have more patience when you talk to her.”

“What for?” He took his sandwich in hand with a sullen shrug. “I won’t be her problem for that much longer. Remember?”

Banch paused, shrimp halfway to her lips. “Yeah,” she replied. “I do indeed remember, Jared. But never forget, a best friend is the greatest kind of problem to ever have.”

When Jared was fifteen years old…

He met Kaitlin for the first time. It was in a state of crisis, which would from there prove an appropriate symbol of their relationship.

Jared followed a rigid schedule every day. He got up the same time every morning, showered, dressed, ate Wheat Chex, brushed his teeth with cinnamon toothpaste, and went to the bus stop for school. The stop was just two blocks down the street and there were no traffic lights, so he walked it with little trepidation. It was a straight shot and no big deal.

The morning he met Kaitlin, however, it wasn’t a straight shot. The night before his dad had some of his friends over to watch the Dodgers game. It ended up sucking—a boring pitcher’s duel—so the guys got restless, drank way too much, and started joking around. His dad’s friend Tom, who usually traded such TV parties for long nights at nudie clubs, brought in a Hustler magazine. The guys played drinking games, betting on whether they’d get little boobs, big ones, blond, brunette, red head, race, and so on. Jared’s mother ushered him into his parents’ bedroom to watch sitcoms.

The next morning he found more magazines near the couch. Tom must have brought in more later on that night and forgotten them when he left. Jared knew how to play this without attracting undue attention. He took one magazine, choosing a cover with the largest breasts, and then he hid the forbidden object in his school binder. He showed his mother where the rest of the magazines were, which promptly set off a fight with a hung-over version of his father, who hardly recalled where the magazines had come from in the first place.

On the short trip to the bus stop, Jared flipped through the pages, growing more excited and fascinated by the stark truth of the female form.

“Holy shit! Whaddya got there?” a kid yelled across the narrow street. Jared stuffed the Hustler away and acted casual. He’d seen this guy before: a total hybrid type student, a star football player and also a math genius. Obviously despite his stunning display of worth, he still possessed the same teenage mortal weakness as many.

“Bring it out man. I want to see that shit. Was that Penthouse?”

“It’s an art book,” said Jared, hurrying on.

“Of course it is. And I wanna Jackson Pollock all over that chick’s labia.”

“You’re gross.”

“And you’re stingy,” the guy pointed out.

“Leave me alone.”

“Nope. Too much at stake. When else today am I gonna see that shit? Calculus lab is all morning.”

“Sorry to hear that, but it belongs to my dad’s friend.”

“Which totally stopped you, right? Come on. I’m just gonna hound you all the way to school. You know that right?”

“Well…” Jared thought a moment. “I’m not going to school.”

“Oh really?”

Jared turned up the street. He’d walked this way with his mom before. He could cut over and walk back down to the bus stop from the other side and hopefully keep his distance from this spoiler of dreams.

“Come back man,” the guy called, throwing his arms up. “I’ll give you my lunch money to borrow it for just today.”

“Thanks, no.” Jared quickened his strides.

“You suck!”

Jared never recalled the kid’s full name. It might have been Matthew… something. Evidently he got in a car crash on a canyon road in his early twenties and couldn’t play football in college. He went on to be an engineer though and did well for himself. Jared learned this later from Kaitlin who had the interest to actually attend their high school reunion. He always wondered how things might have went that day if he’d just shown Matthew the Hustler and been done with it.

The walk up the street turned out to be longer than Jared expected. His thoughts wandered to the type of high school category he fell under—he was decent at whatever he applied himself at, which usually extended to computer programming and science, but he still wasn’t a genius in those disciplines. He loved movies but couldn’t hang with novels or lengthy historical accounts. Jared pretty much was a mediocre person on all fronts.

But I have this.
He unfolded his binder and got a gander at an Asian woman with an unruly undergrowth of pubic hair. He flipped the pages until he arrived at a photo of a woman with bigger breasts. He had no idea at the time that a certain banshee watched him and took notes about his preferences in anatomy.

Jared glanced at his watch. It was a quarter till and he wasn’t even to the main cross street. He broke into a jog. The road stretched and the distance became more apparent—he’d never thought of it before, but this was way, WAY out of the way: he ran faster but the bouncing landscape in his vision, the jumping trees, the quaking streets, all dancing to his quicksilver breaths, never opened up to the bus stop. And when it finally did, the bus resembled a bright yellow model down the road, in the distance. Gone.

He got to the corner and dropped his folder and his backpack fell off his shoulder. He screamed. He felt terror then like he’d not felt since that time he was five and walking to feed Fatso. He dropped to his knees and bit his fist. He knew he shouldn’t be carrying on. He knew he looked like a scared little wimp, an annoying crybaby, and maybe he shouldn’t even exist in such a hard world, but he couldn’t help being scared and wimpy, and he couldn’t help being that purveyor of “oh please, this shit again?” to his friends and loved ones. That’s who he’d become.

Slow footsteps dropped behind him and he looked over his shoulder. That was the first time he ever saw Kaitlin. He quickly stood and tried to look more formidable.

“Damn, missed the bus again,” she muttered with a telling smile.

She reminded him of Daphne from Scobby Doo, but a little heavier, which was a good thing, a really, really good thing to his breast-happy eyes, not to mention he’d always found Daphne very pretty for a cartoon. But even the presence of a real life girl his age could not stop the terror from rising inside him. Jared needed to just cry his eyes out. He looked to the road and he held back a scream. This wasn’t happening. He couldn’t miss school. Things had to happen the same as they always did or things might fall apart at home.

Kaitlin headed down the sidewalk, touching her violet comb barrette holding her red locks back. He accidently let out a shudder and she glanced back. “You okay guy?”

He nodded. Closed his eyes. Shook his head. “Supposed to be… on the way to school.”

“Aren’t we all?” Kaitlin pulled out a pack of gum from a side pocket in her backpack. “Want some? It’s grape.”

Jared said thanks and with a trembling hand took a piece. He just held it though—his mind went too fast to think of chewing something.

“You sure you’re okay?” Kaitlin asked. “You’re as white as a ghost. Not to be rude or anything.”

Jared tried to breathe normally. “Never… missed the bus… don’t know what I should do.”

Kaitlin chuckled. “How about head home? You got a key right?”

“My parents are still there. They’ll get mad and—” Jared’s muscles went limp. He dropped his binder. The Hustler spilled onto the ground.

A redhead on horseback aimed her naked, heart-shaped ass straight for Kaitlin.

“Yuck!” She kicked the magazine away from her. “Pervert.”

Jared went stiff as a board. “No—I found that on the way here, in a bush.”

“Bush is right.” Kaitlin rolled her eyes and started away.

Jared fell against a no-parking sign post and held his face, stick of grape gum still wedged between his fingers. He didn’t want to cry anymore—the pretty girl would hear him, so his body quaked instead. When he was able to get control, he lowered his hands.

Kaitlin was still there though, checking him out. “Panic attack?”

“No,” Jared snapped. “I’m totally okay.”

“You look totally un-okay to me.”

She retrieved the dirty magazine and handed it to him. Jared slowly hid it back in his binder.

“I lied,” he admitted. “It belongs to my dad’s friend. I swiped it this morning.”

Half her mouth lifted in a smile. “Curious, huh?”

He shrugged.

Her half-smile became a full one. “You’re cute, guy. Definitely not a pervert. What’s your name?”

“Jared.”

“Mine’s Kait—well, Kaitlin.”

“I’ve never seen you at school before.”

She grinned and gestured to the empty street. “Not many have.”

Jared coughed out a laugh. It surprised him he was capable with how on-edge he was.

“I’ve only been in the Hills for about a month now,” she said.

“Oh.”

“You really want to get to school, Jared?”

He nodded hopefully.

She blew a purple bubble and crackled it between her lips. “Cool. That was a good bubble.”

A faint warmth entered Jared’s core. He immediately trusted her, and had no idea why.

“Tell you what.” She pulled out a cell phone. “My friend Stacy’s grandpa is a nice man. He’ll give us a lift no problem. He only lives on the other side of the park.”

“I’m not supposed to go in cars with strangers.”

“He’s seventy-two years old, Jared.” Kaitlin scrolled through her phone contacts. “If you and I can’t take him, we deserve our fate.”

“So you’re coming to school now?” he asked.

“Yeah, why?”

“It seemed like you didn’t want to.”

“I didn’t have a reason to, but now I do.”

“What reason?”

Kaitlin held the phone to her ear. Then she pointed.

To him.

He was the reason.

And Jared would always remember that.

Kaitlin couldn’t help but grumble. It had taken her longer to get to La Habra than expected. Streets were barricaded and traffic accidents were numerous and grew scarier with each new one she saw. There wasn’t a single clue in her mind as to what to make of any of this, but it seemed like an invasion or some unseen disaster on the horizon. Jared had picked a fine time to fall in love again. Such huge events on the world scale and him in the mix? She doubted his stress load could handle it. And yet he’d seemed so damn sure of himself, and
snappy.
Where the hell did he get off? After all she’d done for him, this was the kind of treatment she deserved? He’d never been this way before. That Banch woman couldn’t be the cause—unless she was pulling the wool over their eyes. Kaitlin had been fooled by people before, but by all appearances that gray-eyed beauty was an absolute sweetheart.