Deep Betrayal

conversation, but hoping I was right and he’d have the information I needed. “You’re from Cornucopia.”
    He narrowed his eyes as if to say, All right, I’ll play along . “Grew up here.”
    This was a good enough start. I wouldn’t have to look anywhere else for a while. “My friend and I are here doing a project for summer school.” I gestured at Calder, who was about twenty yards away now, picking through a table of wooden birdhouses.
    Serious Boy looked where I pointed, then choked on air. The choking morphed into laughter. “You are, are you?”
    “Yeah, do you have a problem with that?”
    He dropped his chin and shook his head, still laughing softly to himself. “If that’s what you want to call it, that’s fine with me.”
    “What else would I call it?”
    “I know how you operate. The question is, does he know what he’s dealing with?” He tipped his head in Calder’s direction and when I didn’t answer, he grunted and walked away.
    I grabbed his hand, and he snatched it back as if I’d burned him.
    “Careful,” he said. “You trying to kill me?”
    I mentally smacked my hand to my forehead. All the stares, all the weird behavior and innuendo. How could I have been so dense? Fine. If Serious Boy thought I was electric, if he thought I was a mermaid, I could play that trump card.
    He got in my face, slight grimace, slight smile. “Listen. I could smell you coming a mile away. I know what you are. I know what happened to that boy on the island. And I know what you’re doing here.”
    Well, that’s one of us . “You do? And what’s that?”
    “Are you Pavati’s sister?” he asked.
    “Depends.”
    “Is she coming back?”
    “I don’t know. Pavati doesn’t usually share her plans with me. You know how she can be.”
    He nodded just as a terrifying man with his hair spiked out like porcupine quills came walking quickly toward us through the maze of booths.
    Serious Boy looked at his watch and said, “That’s my dad. It’s time for my shift. Meet me at Big Mo’s. Noon. Tomorrow.”
    Then he ran up to his dad, who tapped aggressively at his watch and smacked him on the back of the head.
    The Coca-Cola clock over the jukebox at Big Mo’s read 12:21. My cup read pathetically empty. I’d slurped at the melted ice enough times that people were starting to turn and stare. I smiled apologetically and folded my napkin into a sailboat.
    Calder didn’t think his presence would help me get any information out of Serious Boy, and yet he was nervous about leaving me alone with him. “Pavati makes friends easily,” Calder had said. “But if Jack is any measure, she makes enemies just as well. Be careful.” Neither of us was clear on how things stood between her and the Cornucopia boys, but Pavati hadn’t given us any confidence that they were good. Now and then I’d look up to see Calder walk past the restaurant windows, casually leaning into the glass to check on me. I’d give him a small wave and check the clock.
    I shook my glass and the remaining bits of ice settled. I drew my fingers together and dug in the glass for the cherry when the door opened, and Serious Boy slid into the booth.
    “Listen,” he said, as if our conversation hadn’t had a twenty-four-hour interruption.
    Two other boys came in, one of whom I recognized from the camping trip on Manitou. They looked around the room, then marched toward us and slid in next to him. I feltconspicuous and awkward, alone on one side of the booth, facing the brewing threesome. This gang up inspired more stares from the families in the restaurant, and I glanced up at the windows, but there was no sign of Calder.
    “It’s taken me all year to get my head on straight,” Serious Boy said. “I’m not letting any more of your kind mess me up.” I got the impression he was saying what the other two boys wanted to hear, rather than what he really meant, because he was leaning so far across the table at me I had to pull back for a little personal space.
    “And we’re not going to let you,” said one of the other two.
    “My brothers,” Serious Boy said.
    “Maybe we could try again with names. I’m Lily.”
    “Daniel Catron,” Serious Boy said. “My friends call me Danny.”
    The brother I didn’t recognize coughed and said, “Guess that means you’ll be calling him Daniel.”
    Daniel punched his shoulder, saying, “My oldest brother, Christian, and Bernard, he’s the middle. They wouldn’t let me come alone.