fingers. He never looked her way. His expression never changed, not when he was crouched at the plate, or when he lunged to catch a grounder, or even when his team won the game four to zero. Afterward he left so fast that she wasn’t able to catch up with him.
As kids arrived, blowing icy breaths on their way into the classroom, she started to wonder if Jessie would come to school today. Finally, as a teacher struck the brake drum that improvised as a school bell, he came jogging along the path, his book bag banging against his hip. He barely slowed when he saw her, bounding up the steps two at a time.
“Leave me alone,” he muttered in a low voice. “Don’t talk to me.”
Lucy put her hand on his arm as he tried to pass, and he flinched—but at least he stopped.
“Jessie...what happened?”
“It doesn’t matter. Just forget you ever saw me there. I’m serious. If you don’t—bad things will happen.”
“Bad things?” Lucy echoed.
“Just forget it, okay? Quit asking me!” Jessie wrenched his arm free, and Lucy saw that his eyes were puffy and rimmed with red. “You can’t help me.”
“Oh, Jessie—what did he do to you?”
He raked his hand through his hair and exhaled in frustration. His face was ashen and drawn; it looked like he hadn’t had much sleep. “Nothing, just... Nothing. He was helping me with my stance. He used to play semipro. That’s all it was, okay?”
Jessie had to know she would never believe the lie. They knew each other too well, had shared too many secrets. Lucy longed to touch him, to hold him and brush the hair from his brow the way she had a dozen times before, but his anger scared her.
“We have to tell someone,” she said urgently. “Mr. Hamaguchi, he’s on the community council, he can—”
“He can’t do anything,” Jessie snapped. “Forrest is friends with all of them—everyone who matters. He told me—”
He bit down on his words, staring off at the mountains, shaking his head.
“What? What did he tell you?”
“Only the truth. That no one would ever believe me over him. Look, Lucy, if you care about me at all, you have to let this drop. Just pretend you never saw anything and things can go back like they were before, okay?”
Lucy might have refused; she might have threatened to tell someone herself, promised she would stay by his side no matter what, but at that moment his teacher came outside and Jessie was gone, darting inside with the speed and agility of the baseball league champion he was, and Lucy walked slowly to her own classroom.
Lucy tried to talk to him one more time, at lunch. She approached their regular table with her tray, but Jessie got up and moved to another table. When she followed, he turned around and brandished his tray between them.
“I told you to leave me alone,” he muttered in a low voice. “Don’t talk to me. If you don’t leave me alone, I’ll... I’ll...”
Lucy was devastated, but she was also angry. All she wanted was to talk, to understand, and he kept pushing her away. “You’ll do what? How are you going to stop me?”
Jessie’s hand was at her throat before she could blink, their trays crashing to the ground. He circled her neck with his hand but he didn’t squeeze hard, mostly just shoving her into the table. Lucy’s shin banged painfully against the edge of the seat and she pushed his hand away, only to have him fall against her. He made a sound like an animal as they tumbled to the floor together. Lucy struggled underneath him as teachers came running and other students yelled and tried to pull him away, but in the end Jessie rolled off her himself, backing away from her on his hands and knees, an apology in his haunted eyes.
* * *
In their room that night, Lucy watched her mother rub scented cream into her hands from a little jar that had recently appeared on the dresser without explanation. Her outline was hidden under her shapeless nightgown, but even so, Lucy could see that Miyako had wilted and withered. Recently, it seemed as though her anxiety was starting to make her body sick in addition to her mind. She was more haggard than ever, and some nights she lay down for a nap the minute she came home from work.
Lucy had tried to stay silent about what had happened with Jessie, but the pain