Skipping a Beat (2 page)

Two

MICHAEL AND I PROBABLY wouldn’t ever have fallen in love if it hadn’t been for a violent man who’d just been released from prison, a little girl in a wheelchair, and the fact that Michael was constantly—almost savagely—hungry.

As a teenager, Michael could wolf down a gallon of ice cream like a pre-dinner hors d’oeuvre, and his slim-cut Lee jeans
still
bagged around his waist. I know a lot of women in D.C. who’d trade their summer homes for a chance to revel in that spectacular metabolism.

I’d always known who Michael was, of course. In the small town in West Virginia where we both grew up, it was impossible for anyone to be a stranger. By the way, my husband and I aren’t first cousins, and we’ve both got full sets of teeth. I’ve heard all the West Virginia jokes by now, but I still toss back my head and laugh harder than anyone else at them. If I don’t, people think I’m grumpy
and
a hick, even if I’m draped from head to toe in Chanel and I’ve just had my eyebrows professionally shaped. Which I now do, every three weeks, even though I can’t believe I’m spending as much to bully a few hairs into submission as my mother used to for an entire year’s worth of perms and trims at Brenda’s Cut and Curl.

We were Mike and Julie back then—by now we’ve upgraded our names along with everything else about us—and although our paths crossed almost daily, we never really spoke until that spring afternoon. I was sixteen years old, and I was walking along the railroad tracks to my after-school job as a babysitter for sweet Becky Hendrickson, who’d been paralyzed from the waist down in a car accident a few years earlier. It was warm and sunny, the kind of afternoon that arrives like a surprise gift after winter’s dark shadows and icy toes. I walked quickly, swinging a plastic bag in my right hand, hoping the two half gallons of strawberry and chocolate wouldn’t melt before I reached Becky. That eleven-year-old kid liked ice cream more than anyone I’d ever met.

“What’s the rush, sweetheart?”

The man seemed to materialize from out of nowhere, like a ghost. One minute I was looking down at the parallel wooden tracks stretching in front of me; the next, I was staring at a pair of scuffed yellow work boots planted in my path. I raised my eyes to see the man’s face.

I was wrong; there was a stranger in my little town, after all.

He appeared to be in his early twenties. His long-sleeved shirt was hiked up to reveal strong-looking biceps, and his blond hair was cut so short I could see the white of his scalp shining through. Some girls might’ve found him good-looking, might’ve even mistaken the coldness in his face for strength, if they’d met him in the safety of a crowded party or bar.

“School out already?” the man asked, slinging his thumb through a belt loop on his jeans.

“Um-hmm.” I nodded, but I didn’t move. Instinctively, I knew that if I tried to go around him, he’d strike as quickly as a snake.

“Seems a little early for school to get out,” he said, winking. “Sure you’re not cutting class?”

Our voices were having one conversation; our eyes and bodies, entirely another. Adrenaline rushed my veins while I considered and discarded plans:
Don’t run; he’ll catch you. Don’t scream; he’ll attack. Don’t fight; you can’t win
. Something about the way his eyes appraised me told me he knew what I was thinking. And he was enjoying watching my escape options dwindle.

“I’m not cutting,” I said. My senses snapped into high gear. A few feet away, a small animal rustled through the bushes and tall grass that lined the tracks. The plastic bag in my hand slowly stopped swinging, like a pendulum winding down. I fought the urge to look around to see if anyone was coming; I couldn’t turn my back on this man for an instant.

“See, back when I went to Wilson, I could’ve sworn we got out at two-thirty,” the man said. He slid his thumb out of his belt loop and moved a step closer to me. It took everything I had not to match his movement with a step back.

“It’s almost three now,” I said, forcing the words out through my throat, which had gone tight and dry. That scar on the man’s right temple, combined with something about his voice—which was oddly high-pitched—suddenly revealed his identity. Jerry Knowles, the older brother of my classmate John, who had the same cartoon-character voice. Jerry had spent the last four years in state prison for stealing a car and fighting with the police officers who arrested him. It took a nightstick to the temple to finally subdue Jerry, who was getting the best of the two cops. At least that’s what the kids in school always said.

“So you’re not skipping school,” he said, his voice teasing. Another step closer. “I didn’t think you looked like a bad girl.”

“I—I need to go to work,” I said. My heart pounded so hard it felt like it would explode through the front of my chest.

Another slow, deliberate step.

He was so close now; I could see his scar was starfish-shaped and slightly raised, like he hadn’t gotten stitches to pull the broken skin together into a straight line.

“They’re waiting for me,” I whispered desperately. “They’ll come looking for me.”

That’s when he took one last step. He reached out a finger to stroke my cheek. I couldn’t move, couldn’t talk, couldn’t even breathe. His finger felt hot and rough against my skin. It moved lower, to trace my collarbone.

“Funny, you don’t look like a high school girl either,” he said as his finger dipped into my cleavage. Jerry was done toying with me. Now he’d reveal the real reason why he’d stopped me. My body’s adrenaline took charge, screaming that I had to escape,
now
. I twisted around to run, but Jerry caught me from behind before I’d gone five yards.

“Someone’s in a hurry,” he said and then laughed, crushing my upper arms between his big hands as his body rubbed up against mine. His breath felt hot against my cheek and smelled sour. My legs went limp with terror.

“Let’s take a little walk,” Jerry said. Somehow that high, squeaky voice was more frightening than a shout. He forced me off the path, into a cluster of bushes.

“Get down,” Jerry said, pushing me roughly to the ground. He leaned over me, in a push-up position, trapping me between his forearms. It was so quiet that Jerry’s ragged exhales exploded in my ears. I was vaguely aware of a rock bruising my shoulder blade, but the pain didn’t even register.

“Lift up your shirt,” Jerry ordered me.

Should I obey or defy him? Which would be worse?

Do what he says
, instinct warned me.
Don’t make him angry
.

I hiked up my blouse, but only a few inches. My hand froze and I couldn’t lift it any higher. Why did it have to be so warm today? I wondered desperately. Why did I have to be wearing this thin shirt instead of a bulky sweater and coat?

“Please,” I whispered.

“Please what?” Jerry asked.

“Please don’t,” I begged.

Jerry leaned closer to me. His flat eyes bore into mine. “Lift up your fucking shirt,” he said, spraying flecks of spit on my checks with each
f
.

Then I heard something—the crunch of a twig under some-one’s shoe.

“Get off her!”

I registered a blur from the left as a guy leapt onto Jerry’s back and punched him in the head. Jerry released me and spun around, shaking the guy off.

“Run, Julie!”

It was Mike Dunhill, the skinny boy in my class whose hand always shot up before the teachers finished asking questions.

I jumped up and started to run, to get help, but a sickening sound made me turn around. Mike was already on the ground, and Jerry was kicking him. Jerry must’ve weighed twice as much as Mike, and he was in a fury. Mike was going to get hurt, bad, unless I did something now. I didn’t even remember that I was still holding the bag of ice cream until I reached into it and sent a half gallon of Breyers strawberry sailing toward Jerry’s head.

If the ice cream had been frozen, it probably wouldn’t have stopped Jerry. He was obviously a man who could take a hit. But that unseasonably warm day turned out to be a gift in more ways than one. The lid flew off, and the softened pink ice cream spattered across Jerry’s face and eyes. He stood there, temporarily blinded, his foot raised for another kick. That was all the opening Mike needed. He uncoiled and grabbed Jerry’s ankle, yanking him off-balance. As Jerry tumbled backward, Mike sprang up, as if he hadn’t been hurt at all, and shot out the side of his hand to clip Jerry in the throat, hard.

“Run!” Mike shouted again, and this time, I obeyed. Together, we sprinted another fifty yards down the track, cut left onto the dirt path leading to Becky’s neighborhood, and wove through the streets for a quarter mile, until we’d reached her little single-story brick house. I jabbed her doorbell over and over again, stealing glances behind me, certain Jerry would appear from out of nowhere again.

“Hang on! Geez!”

The door opened agonizingly slowly. Mike and I burst inside, breathing hard.

“What’s wrong?” Becky’s mother asked while I slammed the door shut and double-locked it.

“It’s okay,” Mike said. He bent over and put his hands on his knees as he sucked in great gulps of air. “He didn’t follow us … I checked.”

“Who?” Becky’s mother asked, looking back and forth from Mike to me. “Are you guys playing a game?”

Tears flooded my eyes as I remembered Jerry’s cold smile, and his lazy, insistent finger tracing a hot trail across my skin. Suddenly my stomach lurched and I almost gagged.

Then Mike saved me for a second time.

“All the books I’ve read about self-defense,” he said, grinning at me, “and not one of them mentioned the dreaded ice-cream counterattack. Do you have to be a black belt for that?”

We stared at each other for a second, then started laughing. Mike clutched his ribs and tears ran down my cheeks as we both leaned against the wall, unable to talk.

“Guess you had to be there.” Becky’s mother shrugged, walking away. That made us laugh even harder, howling and bending over and gasping for breath. And when we finally stopped laughing, I reached into the bag and pulled out the half-melted carton of chocolate ice cream that I’d somehow held on to the entire time.

“Are you hungry?” I asked Mike.

A slow grin spread across his face. “Starving.”

I pretended to be fine, and even though I was so jittery my skin felt electric, I must’ve done a pretty good job, because I convinced Becky’s mom it was okay for her to go to her afternoon shift at the pharmacy. The sheriff was on his way to take my statement, and Mike offered to stick around, in case he could answer any questions. But I sensed the real reason why Mike hadn’t left was that he knew I was terrified Jerry would somehow spring out from behind the shower curtain the moment I was alone.

I was looking out the window while Becky chattered on about the new Nancy Drew mystery she’d checked out of the library, and I didn’t see Mike take our ice-cream bowls to the kitchen. When he suddenly clattered them into the sink, I spun around, my heart nearly convulsing in panic.

“Sorry,” he said, even before he looked at my white face. I nodded and swallowed hard.

“So here’s the thing.” He leaned back against the kitchen counter and casually folded his arms. “All those mysteries Nancy stumbles across? She’s like, what, seventeen? Don’t you guys think it’s a little suspicious that she’s already solved a hundred crimes? Shouldn’t somebody be investigating
Nancy?’”

I forced a smile, even though my lips felt cold and stiff. “Are you accusing Nancy of exaggerating? Careful; she’s Becky’s hero, and she used to be mine, too.”

Mike raised his hands so his palms were facing me. “I’m just saying
someone
seems to need a little more attention than the average seventeen-year-old. Sure, Daddy bought her a snappy little roadster, but apparently he doesn’t care that she’s dropped out of school.”

I nudged him with my shoulder and managed a smile. A bit later, when Becky was drinking a glass of water and accidentally spilled a few drops onto the table, I watched as Mike reached over, casually wiped it up with his sleeve, and winked at her without missing a beat in his blistering imitation of our chemistry teacher, who seemed to hate not only teenagers but also chemistry and small towns (it probably wasn’t the best idea to give a lone white male with anger issues free access to combustible elements, but it’s not like we had a lot of teachers to pick and choose from).

Up until then, everything I knew about Mike came from the whispering I’d overheard.
The mother just up and left
, Brenda had told a customer through the bobby pins she held in one corner of her mouth while she fashioned an upsweep.
Course, I might, too, if I was married to that S.O.B. But can you imagine leaving your childr
—Then Brenda had caught sight of my wide eyes and quickly begun talking about the new yellow Lab puppy she’d just adopted.

It was the blessing and the curse of a small town; most people knew you, but everyone thought they knew all about you. Yet I hadn’t understood the first thing about Mike.

Later that day, as he walked me home from Becky’s, he acted nonchalant, but his eyes swept from side to side more vigilantly than any Secret Service agent’s. A few times he even spun around to look behind us. No one would ever sneak up on me with him around, I realized, and for what seemed to be the first time in a long, long while, I breathed deeply and felt my hands uncurl out of fists at my sides.

“Becky was in a car accident, right?” Mike asked as we turned the corner onto my street. It was dusk by now, but the day still held on to some of its earlier warmth, and a few yellow crocuses bloomed like little spots of hope in the yards we passed. “I remember hearing about it.”

“Yeah,” I said. “Her mom was driving, and it was icy out, and they skidded into a tree. She wasn’t speeding or anything. It was just one of those awful things.”

We reached my house, and Mike walked me up our concrete front steps. Most of the homes in our town were small but tidy, with neat yards and bright flower bed borders and trimmed hedges. Mine used to be, too, but now the gutters were still clogged with fall leaves and a shutter had come loose and was leaning there lopsidedly, like a party guest trying to hide the fact that he’d had a few too many martinis.