Rebel Island Page 0,44

the new girl. I suppose I should've been relieved that he was preoccupied and happy, but I knew it just meant he'd be in a foul mood tomorrow or the next day - whenever his romantic prospects fell apart, as they inevitably would.

Alex was too busy working to pay attention to me. The sky was turning purple and the guests were starting to cheer and call for the show. Behind us, the hotel at sunset looked like a perfect haunted house.

I didn't hear Mr. Eli come up behind us until he spoke. "Are you ready, Alex?"

It was the first time I'd ever seen Mr. Eli outside. He wore his maroon bathrobe as always. The cuffs of his pajama pants were neatly folded up to keep them out of the sand. His feet were bare, so pale they were almost luminous in the dusk. I wondered if the old man was a vampire, coming out only after dark, but I suspected that a real vampire wouldn't look so sickly and weak.

Alex brushed his hands on his pants and stood up. "Ready, sir. About ten minutes until full dark."

"Wonderful." Mr. Eli smiled. "Your mother would be proud, you know. She loved fireworks."

Alex looked down at the mortars. The aluminum foil had been peeled away. Shreds of it blew across the sand, glinting in the last light like pieces of metallic eggshell.

"You all better get clear, okay?" Alex said. "Show's gonna start."

I watched from the sand dunes. I suppose, compared to professional shows, Alex's display was pretty paltry, but I thought it was fabulous. Maybe that's because I'd watched him put the whole thing together. Maybe I was just amazed that something so loud, bright and colorful could come from a dour kid like Alex Huff. The fact that I didn't like Alex, that I feared him, in fact, made the show all the more fascinating.

The wind was warm blowing through the sea grass. Sand fleas started a seven-course meal on my legs, but I didn't want to move. The smoke was almost as interesting as the starbursts and fireballs. It made ghostly faces in the night sky, swiftly stretched by the breeze and blown to shreds.

"He gets better every year," a voice said at my shoulder.

I jumped in surprise. It was Mr. Eli, but he wasn't talking to me. He stood in the dunes with another man. Both of them were only shadowy silhouettes, the tops of their heads illuminated by bursts of fireworks.

"Know what he told me today?" the other man asked. It was Alex's father. His voice sounded deep and sad. "He said he wants to join the army."

Mr. Eli was silent as a triple burst of silver lit up the water over the boat dock.

"He wants to get away from here," Mr. Huff said. "I can't blame him. Nothing but bad memories."

"Do you really believe that?" Mr. Eli asked.

Alex's father sniffed. I couldn't see his face, but I could almost feel the grieving radiating from him, like the heat of a sun lamp.

"I don't know, sir. I don't mean to sound ungrateful."

"It's all right," Mr. Eli said. "Let him go, if he wants to. He's got his mother's spirit. Hard to tie that down."

"Yes." Mr. Huff's voice sounded ragged. "Suppose it is."

Down at the beach, I caught a glimpse of Garrett and his new potential girlfriend. Garrett's crooked smile lit up blue in a burst of copper chloride light. The girl was too pretty for him. I could tell just by looking, the way she held herself apart from him. She would never fall for him.

"Alex will come back," Mr. Eli said. "Mark my words; he appreciates this place more than he lets on. If I had a son...well, I wish I had someone as good as Alex to inherit this place. He has a good heart."

I wanted to tell Mr. Eli that he was wrong. People with good hearts didn't treat younger kids the way Alex treated me. But I bit my lip and said nothing.

"Suppose he got that from his mother, too," Mr. Huff said gruffly. "Sure didn't get a sense of forgiveness from me."

A series of fireballs shot in the air - yellow, green, red. They began to die and fall, only to explode into interlocking spheres, like the Venn diagrams we did in class. My English teacher's lessons, forcing me to think inside the curves: How are these things alike? Where do they overlap?

"Are you sure..." Mr. Eli began to say. "Do you think you