Fall With Me

drizzled over ice cream. I can’t remember the last time I talked to my brother, yet every time I hear his voice, I can’t help but think: This time will be different. This time he’ll decide he actually likes me.
              “Cam,” I say. “It’s Griffin.”
    Silence.
    “Your brother,” I add. Snaggletooth is watching me closely.
    “Are you sure we got the right guy?” I hear Bandana whisper loudly. “No one in his family seems to know him.”
    “Griffin,” Cam says finally. “Carl said you might be calling.”
    “Oh, did he? Then maybe he filled you in on my . . . situation.”
    “And which situation would that be? Tripping on acid in Tokyo? Losing your passport in Belize? Getting thrown into a Mexican jail? Would you like me to go on? I could go on.”
    “Actually—”
    “This is nothing you haven’t heard before, Griffin, so I’m not really sure why I’m bothering to repeat myself, but some of uswork for a living. Some of us go out into the world and try to make something of ourselves, instead of thinking life is a twenty-four hour party. Whatever situation you’ve gotten yourself into this time, I highly doubt I’d be able to help you out.”
    “You’re not even a little curious?”
              “Would you like me to be honest?”
    “Of course.”
    “No, I’m really not. This might come as something of a shock, but I’m not trying to live vicariously through you.”
    “Man, and to think I bought that fluorescent pink mankini with you in mind—”
    “Griffin, shut up. Seriously, shut the fu—”
    “I’ve been kidnapped. I’m out on a boat in the middle of the ocean with these two guys who say they’re going to kill me if Dad doesn’t make some confession and pay seven million dollars.”
    “You’re so full of shit—what?”
    A gust of wind blows just then, almost drowning out the last part of what he said. But I hear it—something in his voice changes. Instead of silky smooth, his voice almost breaks, like liquid being poured over ice. It’s a rare tone for him, one he only uses when he’s very interested or excited about something, and in the twenty-four years I’ve known him, he’s never used it with me.
    “What did you just say?” he says. “They want what ?”
              “Money! And a confession. They say Dad has—”
    My back is to him, so I don’t see Snaggletooth come up next to me until it’s too late. He snatches the phone from me and shoves it back into his pocket.
    “That call is clearly going nowhere,” he growls.
    I stare at him. “But . . . but it was! He actually sounded interested , you asshole! I was getting somewhere! Let me call him back.”
    “That’s enough!” Snaggletooth snaps. “Like I said before—we don’t care whether we kill you or get the confession and money. Hell, maybe we’ll kill you AFTER we get them. How about that? How does that sound?”
              Maybe it was just my imagination. Cam has never given a shit about me, even when we were kids, so it’s probably just some pathetic delusion that he seemed to actually care, brought on by the drugs and lack of sleep and food. The sun beams down on me. There is not a cloud in the sky. It could be any day, any nice day where you’re going out to do something fun, maybe with someone you like, someone who likes you back. A day when you don’t have to spend any money, or try to impress anyone. I can’t recall the last time I had a day like that, and suddenly, I feel very tired. Blame the sun, blame the salt air, blame the fact that I haven’t eaten anything in at least a day. I look at Snaggletooth, still fingering the knife blade.
    “That sounds great,” I tell him.
     

Chapter 4: Jill
     
    Karen is twenty, with frizzy red hair and the type of pale skin that burns, never tans. She’s wearing khaki shorts and already has her Sea Horse Ranch t-shirt on, even though the campers won’t be here until tomorrow.
    “Show me everything,” she says, as we walk down to the barn. “Bill and Lorrie said how you’re like the horse whisperer or something. Did you read that book? The Horse Whisperer ?”
    I look at her. “No,” I say.
    “Oh. Well, it’s really good. So is the movie, actually. We should watch it some night. It’s one of those movies I never mind seeing whenever it’s on.”
    “I really don’t like watching movies.”
    “You don’t?”
              “I mean, once in a