Accidental Evil (11 page)

Lily waited upstairs while the conversation took place in the kitchen. Apparently, the subject had been too heavy to take place on the phone. It was raining and the wind was blowing. Drops inched their way down her screen, moving from square to square. She rolled her chair over and shut the window against the damp wind. There were spots where the perfect grid of her screen was disturbed. Some of the holes were bigger than others. She imagined intrepid bugs, worming their way through the holes and stretching them out. The idea was chilling.

Her eyes wandered down to the driveway. Trina’s car was parked halfway down, like she hadn’t wanted to commit to pulling all the way up to the house. There was movement behind the windshield and Lily realized that Trina’s cousin was waiting in there.

While she watched, the man leaned forward and looked up at the house. For some reason, when Lily had pictured Trina’s cousin, he was a harmless boy. The man in the car didn’t match her imagination. The man down there, studying the house through the rainy windshield, looked mature and powerful. For the first time, Lily wondered where the man would sleep. They wouldn’t put him in Elizabeth’s room, would they? They wouldn’t have Lily and that man sleeping alone together on the second floor while Trina slept down in the master bedroom, would they?

Suddenly, the idea of going to Spain with her parents didn’t seem quite so onerous. Maybe it was a good idea.

“Lily!” her mom called from downstairs.

She got up and walked to the stairs while her heart still balanced in between. She didn’t know what to hope for. She descended like a defendant awaiting the pronouncement of the jury. Her parents were sitting with Trina in the kitchen.

“I was thinking,” Lily said.

Her mom put her hand up to silence her.
 

“We’ve thought about this carefully,” her mother said, “and we think it will be okay for you to stay here with Trina and Gerard.”

Lily brought her hands together in front of her chest. Trina was looking down at the table. Lily wanted to object—to say she had changed her mind—but she thought that the change might just break Trina’s heart. It would be too cruel to put her through all this careful consideration and then yank the opportunity away.

“You’ll have to check in with us every day and Trina is to have absolute authority.”

Lily nodded. Her father was smiling. He never cared what they did as long as everyone agreed. He would have been perfectly amenable if Lily had stayed alone in the house and eaten cat food for dinner as long as everyone agreed.

“They’re going to stay with us this weekend so we can work out all the details and your father and I will leave on Monday. Gerard will stay on the day bed in the study and Trina will have your sister’s room.”

Lily nodded. At least there was some planning behind the decision. Trina would be close to Lily and Gerard would be on the lower level. That was something. Still, it felt like she couldn’t take a deep breath. Spain was more and more attractive as this plan solidified before her eyes.

She had to say something.

“If it’s too much trouble…” Lily started.

“It’s okay,” her mother said, interrupting. “We’ve decided that it’s okay.”

Lily nodded. That was it. She was cornered. The whole thing was her idea and now the reality of it was burning a hole in her stomach. Trina wouldn’t meet her eyes. Lily couldn’t help but think that Trina knew it was a bad idea too.
 

“Can I be excused?” Lily said. “I have to go do chores.”

Her mother nodded. “Be home for dinner.”

Lily pulled back from the doorway.

“Say thank you,” her mother called.

“Thanks,” Lily yelled. She ran through the kitchen and grabbed her raincoat on the way.

[ Trick ]

Her shorts were soaked by the time she got to the center of town. The back wheel of her bike sent up a spray from underneath. She dropped her bike on the lawn of Dawn’s and ran up to the window.

When it slid to the side, Ricky was the one looking out at her.

“What do you want?” he asked in a fake voice.
 

She tried to see past him, but the booth was dark inside. “Is Sarah in there? I have to talk to her.”

“Come around to the side. She’ll be right back,” Ricky said.

There was a torrent of water coming off the side of the building. Lily ducked under it as Ricky held open the door.

“You’re soaked!”

She shook the water from her jacket and started to peel it off. The inside of the booth was warm and dry. Heat practically baked off the coils on the freezer. Still, Lily shivered. Ricky went to a back cabinet and pulled out a stack of old towels.
 

“Here—dry yourself off,” he said, fluffing out a bright pink towel.

She thanked him and dabbed it at her face. The towel was soft and smelled of potpourri. Ricky shook out her jacket and hung it on a hook next to his. He handed her another towel for her hair and then a third for her legs. She wrapped them around herself and then took a seat on the stool when he offered.

“We have
no
business today, so Sarah went with Joey up to the distributor for something. They were supposed to be back ten minutes ago,” Ricky said.

“Oh,” Lily said.
 

“What’s going on?”

Lily looked through the little order window towards the lake. The rain made the surface dance and boil. She wondered what it would be like to be a fish down in the lake. She wondered if rain confused them.

“Lily?” Ricky asked.

“Oh. Nothing, I guess. I think I made a mistake is all. Do you know Trina Prescott?”

Ricky nodded. “Sure. She lives up towards Christy’s, right?”

“Yeah,” Lily said. She never told anyone that Trina was their housekeeper. It was too embarrassing. All the kids already thought she was From Away. She didn’t need yet another reason for them to alienate her. Elizabeth had gone away to private school as soon as the kids had really started to tease her about her family being rich. Lily had stubbornly wanted to stay with her friends. Elizabeth was probably the smart one. She was off visiting the world while Lily was still struggling with other people’s idea of her life.
 

“Lily? What about her?”

“Oh,” Lily realized that her mind had wandered. Ricky probably thought she was crazy. “She’s coming to live with me while my parents are going away. I wanted to stay so I could go to my horse events, but now I’m not so sure.”

“Don’t you have people around?” Ricky asked.

Everyone else had “people.” They all had extended families that ran deep and who lived no more than a few minutes away. That was the real thing that made Lily’s family “From Away.” They didn’t have any people within a hundred miles.

Lily didn’t say all that. She simply said, “No.”

“Well then Trina sounds good, right?”

“It’s not her,” Lily said.

Understanding dawned over Ricky’s face. He could be oblivious at times, but other times he seemed to have real insight.
 

“The Dingus,” Ricky said.

Lily smiled, despite her preoccupation.

Ricky smiled back.

“You’ll be fine,” he said.

Lily frowned again. It would be nice if just once someone would take her seriously.
 

“Hey,” Ricky said, “you want to see the trick I’m going to do for my grand finale?”

“Sure,” Lily said. The last time she had watched Ricky do magic, it had been embarrassing for everyone. He had done his act in front of an assembly at school and some of the older boys had heckled him the entire time. The worst part was their teacher—he did nothing to shut down the shouts. Ricky had looked like he wanted to cry by the end. But that had been a couple of years before. She hoped he had improved.

“Excellent,” Ricky said. “I don’t have a stage or anything here.” He looked around and dragged a milk crate out from under the sink. “You have to imagine that I’m up on the stage in front of the gazebo and I have footlights, okay?”

“Sure,” she said. The towels had grown damp from soaking up the rain, but they were warm. She
 
pulled at the one wrapped around her shoulders to make it tight.
 

Ricky climbed up on the milk crate.

“They’re not really going to be footlights. I’m going to use a mirror to reflect the sun. Oh, wait,” he said. He jumped down and went back to the bottom shelf of one of the racks. He pulled out a lamp with a heavy base and a hooded bulb that was on the end of a snake-like arm. He set it on the floor and plugged it in. When he turned it on, it lit up the milk crate and the wall behind. Ricky climbed back up into the spotlight. He looked much more grand with the light glowing from underneath.

“Better?” he asked.

“Much,” she said.

His nose cast a spooky shadow on his face. Lily hugged the towel tighter around herself as he prepared to start.

He spoke with a deep, dramatic tone completely unlike his normal voice. Lily’s eyes grew wide as he spoke.
 

“In ancient Babylon, the city of Mesopotamia was the home of the world’s greatest wizard, Abil-Ili.”
 

Ricky raised his arms and his voice.
 

“With a wave of his hand, he could strike a man dead.”

Ricky whispered something that was lost behind the sound of distant thunder rolling across the lake.

“When enemies would come for Abil-Ili, he would rise to his feet and declare himself protected by
God
. But it wasn’t God who protected Abil-Ili, it was the demons on the wind. Through my study, I too have mastered those demons. I say, ‘Carry me, demons of the Eastern Wind. Carry me away from my foes and deliver me from their attacks.’”

As Ricky bellowed these dramatic lines, he seemed to grow taller and taller. His lips moved and it seemed like he was chanting some mantra, or trying to convince himself of something. Lily’s eye was pulled down as Ricky kicked with one foot. He shoved the milk crate to the side but stayed suspended in mid air. Lit from below, his smile was that of a mad man taking his revenge on an indifferent world.

“Ricky!” she gasped

The thunder boomed, this time even closer.

“Carry me!” Ricky shouted. “And set me down beyond the mountains in the North. Your reward will be an immortal vessel.” When he whispered again, his feet began to drift down again, once more making contact with the floor. The lightning flashed in the window this time, adding even more drama to the performance.

Ricky threw up his hands when he was once again standing. “Tada!”
 

He bent down and switched the lamp off.

“Of course I can’t expect the thunder and lightning to help out my performance on Saturday. It’s supposed to be a nice sunny day. I have more of a platform to kick over though. I think it will add to the drama, you know?”

Lily just sat there with the towel pulled tight around her neck.
 

“Lily? What did you think?”

“Ricky, that was the creepiest thing in the whole world. How did you levitate?”

He smiled and exhaled a quick laugh. “It’s just a trick. It just looks like I’m levitating because of the lights. That’s why I needed to be lit from below. It’s a trick.”

She shook her head. “You were going to do it without the light. Do it again. This time don’t use the light, but do it again exactly the same.”

Ricky shook his head. “I don’t want to ruin it for you.”

“
Please
ruin it for me. I don’t want to have that in my head, Ricky.” All she wanted was to have a nice, normal day. She wanted no more puzzling mysteries or unknown futures.
 

“You can see it again on the Fourth, okay?”

“No, Ricky, I’m serious.”

The door banged inward and Lily jumped. A hooded figure ran in and slammed the door shut again. Sarah shucked off her dripping coat, pulling it over her head. When she shook her hair, water flew every direction. Lily lifted the towel in front of her eyes.

“What are you guys doing?” Sarah asked.

“Show Sarah the trick, Ricky,” Lily said.

“I can’t. Besides, she’s already seen it.”

“Really?” Lily asked.

Sarah glanced down at the floor and saw the crate. “What, the ancient Babylonia thing? Yeah, I saw that. Ricky fell off the milk crate at the end. No offense, Ricky, but it needs work.”

“Not the way I just saw it,” Lily said. “It was perfect.”

Ricky looked down at the floor, blushing. His reaction made Lily feel a little better. Maybe it was just a trick.

“I still want to know how it’s done,” she said. “I promise I won’t tell anyone.”

“He never tells his tricks,” Sarah said. She took the towel that was draped over Lily’s legs and started to dry her own hair. Lily let the other towel drop from her shoulders. “He’s a total snot about his tricks.”

“I
can’t
tell,” Ricky said. “The tricks lose their power to entertain if other people know how they’re done. It affects the performance or something.”

“Whatever,” Sarah said. “Someone must have shown it to you.”

There was a lull while Ricky seemed to be trying to come up with a response. Lily jumped in and changed the subject. “Can I talk to you in private?” she asked Sarah. Her friend nodded.

[ Friend ]

They closed the door of the stock closet. The twin of the snake-neck lamp gave them illumination. Both girls wore towels around their necks. They were the wet-hair club, convening for their first secret meeting. Outside the door, Ricky had the radio on so he wouldn’t overhear what they were saying.

Sarah looked at Lily while she got ready to spill her secret.

“Can I stay at your house for a few weeks?” Lily asked.

Sarah was shaking her head before she even opened her mouth to speak. “That’s a terrible idea. If anything, I should be coming to stay with you. Shari is over all the time and when Dad comes home he’s either yelling at me or feeling her up. It’s a horror show at my house.”

Lily dropped her head and tried to hold back the tears. They were totally irrational—she knew that—but they were coming anyway.

Sarah reached out and took her hand. At times, Sarah was like a best friend. But most of the time, Sarah felt like the older sister that Elizabeth should have been. Lily looked up and wondered how life would be if Sarah liked her more.