Deep Betrayal Page 0,77

by, clanging and ringing with a hundred metal tassels sewn to her skirt.

“So cool,” I said under my breath.

“It’s a traditional Ojibwe jingle dress,” said a guy behind me. I turned to find Serious Boy lighting up a cigarette and leaning against a silver-bullet Airstream trailer. “They’re doing a dance demonstration over at the park.”

I gotta get me one of those, I thought.

“Forget it,” said Serious Boy, reading my expression. “You’d never be able to sneak up on anyone again.”

“I don’t sneak.”

“Puh-lease.” He blew a cloud of smoke in my face, and I waved it away. “You were made for sneaking. And why would you want a jingle dress when you look so good in band T-shirts?” He pointed at me with his pursed lips. “Where’d you score the Grateful Dead? That looks legit.”

He dropped his cigarette into the dirt and ground it out with the toe of his boot. I looked away and, in doing so, caught a glimpse of a wooden wind chime. A beautifully carved mermaid wearing an intricately braided crown of copper wire dangled from its center.

“That’s pretty,” I said.

“It’s one of my dad’s carvings. They’re very popular; he sells a ton of them.”

Serious Boy was the wood-carver’s son? He was one of Pavati’s boys?

“So,” I said, not really knowing how to start this 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