Death Whispers (Death Series, Book 1) (17 page)

“Have you been 'traumatized'?” Jade asked with
a trace of sarcasm.

“
Yeah...
really,
really
bad. And I'm gonna need a lot of sympathy and attention.” I looked
down at her with a perfectly straight face.

She looked up at me, her face breaking into a full
grin. “Good luck with that.”

John
started howling,slapping his knee. “Yeah, that was priceless, you
traumatized, yeah right!”

I
was miffed. I mean, what if I
had,
ya
know
,
been traumatized?

My face stiffened. That made John howl louder and
traitor that she was, Jade joined in. And where-the-hell was the
unspoken girlfriend-boyfriend code of honor? As if things couldn't
get any funnier, Jonesy walked up.

“What's so funny?”

John and Jade were in the throes of laughter, at
my expense, I thought moodily. I turned to Jonesy and said, “They
don't think I've suffered a trauma.”

“
What...
you
?
Hell, no! You're the man, you don't need sympathy for anything.”
Jonesy looked around for support but John and Jade were busy busting
a gut.

“What's with them?” Jonesy jerked his thumb at
the offending duo.

“I don't know,” I huffed. They quieted
themselves down to a couple of random hiccups, then looked at each
other and another hysterical bubble of laughter escaped.

Jonesy looked perplexed.

“You
had to be here, I guess,” I said... or not, narrowing my eyes and
giving them the look they deserved.

Jade and John finally managed to quit laughing.
While we walked away, I filled Jonesy in on the whole
cop-showing-up-at-the-school thing.

Jonesy said, “That's easy for him to say. It's
not his ass during school catching crap all the time.”

He had a point. Maybe Garcia was okay, but I
wasn't trusting anyone right now. I told them and we agreed that
Garcia was just another thing to worry about.

Enough with the gloom, I shook it off with an
effort, it was Friday! Time for Jade to meet The Parents.

“You guys want to come and hang at the house?”
I asked.

Jade hesitated for a second, “I guess I have to
meet your parents sometime, huh?”

“They're great! Ali makes the best food,” Jade
looked at him like a bug, but typical Jonesy he kept talking,
unawares, “...and Kyle is pretty cool.”

John watched the interplay, having whipped out his
pulse and gotten hold of one of his parents. “I can.”

The rest of us joined in a silent pulse parade of
contacting respective parents and Aunt Andrea.

Everybody could.

I wondered how Jonesy had managed to get his pulse
back early?

“It's not mine,” he said by way of
explanation.

Just then Alex walked up to our small group with
palm extended. Jonesy turned and gave the pulse to Alex, who ran his
thumb over it, blanking it.

“I borrowed Alex's pulse for ten minutes.”

“Couldn't live without it?” I asked.

“Dude! It's been diabolical without it; pure
torture!”

Jade rolled her eyes.

John
came over to Alex, who was where I was a couple of months ago, short
.
He looked
like
a sixth grader masquerading as eighth and asked how he managed that.

“I did a delayed ID protocol.”

John was enthralled. We'd never get away once
John started talking tech with another tech-freak.

“How?” John asked.

“
See
here,” Alex pulled out his pulse and after a quick thumb-pass, he
thought
:
settings
:
then;
timer/ID,
“...
after that, there's only three different timed settings to choose
from.”

Bor-ing
, I thought.

John
was nodding, obviously
feeling
it.

“John,” I said, breaking up the tech-fest.

John
looked over,
let's
go
,
I mouthed.

He turned back to Alex. “I want to know more but
I gotta book.”

Alex gave John a mock salute and we headed to my
house. Geeks, I thought, not without admiration.

I walked with my hand entwined with Jade's and
noticed Jonesy was keeping an unusual silence.

Just when I thought he had to be sick or something
he said, “Heard it's gonna rain this weekend.”

John
stopped and looked at him. He threw his hands up in the air at a
perfect sky. He looked at Jonesy again. “From this to rain
?

“Yeah, man. My mom is totally into NOAA, she
keeps up on the weather. She says, and he swung his butt around,
making airquotes, “... that a 'system' is moving in.”

John was nodding. “That means the barometric
pressure should be dropping soon, giving rise to storms.”

Wow, that sounded creepily adult like. I told him
and he smiled.

“It'll just make things more dumb for
Sunday,”John said.

Duh, Pacific Northwest, it's an obligation to rain
here.

“Oh, I don't know, maybe Carson's gonna have to
stick his head further in that pipe. Too bad it can't work in a
toilet.” Jonesy contemplated the logistics of making some kind of
toilet episode happen with the jackass twins. Finally, he waved that
thread of conjecture away and got back on topic. “Doesn't matter.
He will still get his, rain or shine,” Jonesy said with finality.

Nothing derailed Jonesy.

Jade had been quiet, she didn't just talk to hear
herself. We started walking again, a light breeze bringing fresh
smells, somewhere between warm earth and floral. Jade would like our
deck with the lilac bushes in bloom. The Js wouldn't care as long as
mom was the food-bearer and Fridays meant pizza.

We turned off the main road, making a left into my
neighborhood. We passed the swampy stand of trees where the bench
stood, my house was last in a row of about eight. I could just make
out the arches. A false street lay on the north side, where a fence
stretched right behind our backyard, running the entire length of our
neighborhood. We walked through the atrium.

Jade paused, looking around. I forgot, she'd never
seen our house. I looked around, taking it in from her perspective. A
Japanese Maple spread its delicate canopy over the pebbled cement
walkway, umbrella-like, its shady green leaves translucent with fiery
red veining. All around, flower beds burst with shade loving plants,
ferns, Hostas and Astilbe.

Jade
looked over at me, her face alight. The Js looked like they would
sleep as they stood there, but God love 'em, they were waiting it
out. Now that was true friendship.

“What is this?” she asked, gently running her
hand over an Astilbe that sat like a purple feather on top of its
delicate leaves.

“An Astilbe,” I answered.

The
Js made kissy faces at me behind Jade's back. Jonesy made the knife
to the wrist motion, This meant morgue, he had explained at one
point, whereas horizontal meant hospital. What a dumb ass.
Not
helpful.

Mom saved everyone from the flower worship
situation by opening the door. “This must be Jade.”

“Hi Mrs. Hart.” Jade smiled back.

“Oh no, please don't, I look around for Kyle's
mom when someone calls me that. Just Ali, nice to meet you.”

“You too.”

Mom was pretty good at avoiding awkward turtle
moments. “Hey guys, I made banana bread today.”

The Js looked at her as if she were an angel. They
raced into the house, shoving each other out of the way as they went.
Mom and Jade rolled their eyes, laughing.

I
cut up four pieces for each of us. It never occurred to me that Jade
wouldn't like banana bread and I slathered butter over hers and mine.
Jade looked at the slab and didn't seem sure what to do with all of
it. It looked about the right size.

Mom saw the whole thing and stepped in. “Here,”
she took the small, fish-shaped plate, cutting the bread in half,
“this may be a little more manageable.”

How do girls stay alive? A mystery for another
day.

Mom said, “You guys go get your crumbs all over
the place outside, eh?”

“Good idea, Mom,” I said with a tone.

“Do you have a tone, Caleb?”

How
do parents always hear a tone?

“No, we're pretty neat, is all.”

Mom looked at me as if us being neat was an
impossibility. I grabbed the gallon of milk from the fridge and told
John to get some cups. Like a good minion, he went straight over to
the dishwasher he knew the drill, but Mom stopped him. “Those are
still hot, just get some cups out of the cabinet.” Switching gears,
he snagged four cups from the cabinet.

We sat on our deck which was bordered by a
built-in bench. Jade pulled a lilac branch close to her, its flowers
so deep a violet they looked bruised, smelling its powdery sweetness.
The Js were inhaling their banana bread but Jade was taking little
bites of hers. Her awe at our small patch of garden told me that she
didn't have anything like it.

Jonesy was licking the crumbs off his fingers when
I realized what I'd missed! I told everyone to hold on a sec, running
inside to get a napkin, but Mom had one in her hand.

I
winked. “No youngheimer's for you Mom.”

She frowned.

Alzheimer's was that freakish disease old farts
got that caused their brains to turn to mush or was that mad cow? I
don't know, I liked to use the non-politically correct terms to get
Mom worked up. I could see her steaming in the kitchen, thinking
about all the old people I had made fun of.

Jade
smiled, taking the napkin and using it to wipe her mouth and hands.
John wiped his hands on his jeans which was what I normally
did.
Jade saved me from these dire choices by handing me the
other
napkin. I looked back at Mom, pretty sly.

A movie would be great. My pulse said
four-forty-nine, pretty close to supper.

“Mom,” I bellowed.

Mom cracked the window open. “Caleb, I loathe
yelling, as you well know, come in here or next to the window.”

I sighed, getting up and closing the distance.
“Can everybody stay for supper and watch a movie on pulsevision?”

Before
she could respond I asked, “Wait, what's for supper?” Not all my
friends were gonna like some fish thing.

“What day is this?” Mom asked
matter-of-factly.

“Ah... Friday.”

Oh... duh. “Pizza,” I said, answering my own
question.

Jonesy, always a good one for hearing anything
food-related shouted, “Pizza!” double-fisting his excitement in
the air.

Mom
looked over at him then back at me, that's settled
.
I
told
everyone
to pulse the world and see if it was cool. Once again, everyone
jerked out their pulses and after a few silent minutes of
thoughts,
the pulses were tucked away for the night.

****

The movie was righteous with zombies chasing
everyone around (the irony was not lost on me, the Js giving me sly
looks), the heroes saved the world and fell in love. Jade liked the
love story and the rest of us guys were diggin' on the gore. The
parents allowed four Pay-for-Pulse movies per month. It wasn't too
expensive. It was a little like the Netflix fad that mailed
(unbelievable) people movies and video games back around when I was
born. It all seems like a lot of work to me.

Mom made two pizzas and all that was left were a
couple of crusts. Jade had one slice and we feasted on the rest,
re-feasting once a few well-concealed burps made additional room.
She'd set out a ginormous bowl of popcorn and we all got special,
bottled root beer. A perfect night.

Dad popped his head inside the door right in the
middle of The Quintessential Zombie Moment where it gets an arm torn
off and uses it to beat the tar out of an enemy. Impervious to pain,
zombies!

He shook his head, backing out.

The
parents weren't big zombie fans.

Finally, the night had to end. All of us were
rubbing our eyes and trying not to show how tired we were. The Js
took off together and Jade and I stood at the door. I didn't like her
walking home by herself but didn't know if she liked being
independent and would be pissed and stuff?

I asked anyway, “Do you want me to walk you
home?”

“Nah, you don't have to.”

Well... okay, huh.

“Is
it okay? Or do you really not want me to?”

“It's okay,” she said with a small grin.

Ah-huh, so she dug it. Girl-speak was sorta hard
to figure out, definitely a learned skill.

The parents told me to take my pulse. I held it
up, its metallic black exterior glinting under the porch light.

Jade's neighborhood was a fifteen minute walk one
way to the East Hill area. Most of the houses were seventy-five years
old, built in the 1950s. They were in various states of disrepair.
Looking around, it was a little depressing. There were crappy looking
junipers on the edge of decaying lawns, outlawed now unless they were
grandfathered.