Still Waters (11 page)

Hannah raised her eyebrows at Colin. “What was that?”

“I have no idea.” Colin shook his head. “Maybe he was struck by my incredible good looks.” He drummed his fingers on the sticky tabletop.

Hannah looked around. The woman with the brown ponytail had let the cigarette between her fingers burn down to a stub. The man at the counter had returned to his soup and was slowly scraping his bowl. The soft
scree
of the metal spoon on the porcelain raised the hair on Hannah’s arms. She resisted the urge to cover her ears. Instead, she leaned across the table and picked up Colin’s hand, entwining her fingers with his.

“So, what do you want to do today?” she asked.

“Do you even need to ask?” He waggled his eyebrows suggestively and under the table, she felt his foot press her leg.

“Oh my God, you’re terrible. I can’t believe you’re playing footsie with me here in this nice, wholesome place.” She extended her own foot and rested it in his lap and then sat upright fast, banging her knee on the underside of the table as Mike appeared with their food.

“Here you go.” The counterman’s cheerful tones rang above them as he set the plates down. Colin was choking back laughter, and Hannah shot him a dirty look while trying to simultaneously smile at Mike.

“Thanks,” Colin said pleasantly, and picked up his fork.

Mike remained standing at the side of their table though, wiping his hands on his apron. He wet his lips. “Sorry about my reaction a few minutes ago. It’s just that you are the spitting
image of a boy who used to come with his family a few summers back.”

Colin’s mouth was already full of omelet. He swallowed. “My family did used to come up here, but not since I was a kid. About ten years ago.”

“Oh? I must be remembering wrong. Getting old, you know.” Mike picked up Hannah’s empty water glass. “Not too many people up here the last few years, that’s for sure. Not since the chemical plant closed.” He waggled Hannah’s glass. “More water, dear?”

She shook her head, and he hurried away on his short, round legs.

After their surprisingly tasty breakfast, Colin shoved a ten under his plate, and they rose, nodding to Mike at the counter.

They had just reached the car, the empty town stretching all around them, when Colin smacked his forehead with his palm. “Damn it! Groceries!”

Hannah stopped short. “Oh my God. I can’t believe we were right there and forgot to buy anything.”

Colin unlocked the passenger door. “Just wait here, I’ll run back.”

A few minutes later, he appeared at the truck window and stuffed a paper bag in behind the seats.

“What’d you get?” Hannah sat up and peered into the bag as he started the engine.

“The usual—some bread, peanut butter, that sort of thing.” He accelerated out of the parking space and down the empty street.

“Good-bye, creepy town!” Hannah shouted behind her as they roared off. She turned around and settled in her seat just as her cell rang.

“Oh my God, what if that’s Mom again?” she gasped, digging in her pocket.

Colin glanced over. “I can’t believe there’s service out here.”

“Just my luck,” Hannah muttered. She pried the phone out of her jeans and glanced at the screen. “Laurie.” She sighed with relief. She flicked open the phone.

“Hey, I was so scared you were my mom,” she said.

“Well, your mom is standing right here next to me,” her friend’s dry voice said on the other end.

Hannah’s heart briefly stopped until she heard Laurie snort with laughter.

“You almost gave me a stroke,” she shouted into the phone. Colin put a hand over one ear.

“I needed a little levity in my day.”

Hannah could hear shuffling, as if Laurie were moving things aside. “Yeah, how’s the chemistry library going?” She switched the phone to her other ear and stared out the window. They were passing the big house with the falling-off clapboards. The windows still looked like staring eyes.

“I’m sitting here in the hallway, looking at about five hundred boxes.”

Hannah winced. “I thought you were going to have help for that job.”

“I did. You,” Laurie said pointedly.

Hannah winced. “I’m really sorry about that. It was just this crazy thing. I didn’t think about it, for like the first time in my life.” She glanced over at Colin who was tapping out a rhythm on the steering wheel. He nodded encouragingly. “Did you get someone else to help?” Hannah went on.

She heard Laurie sigh. “Yeah, don’t worry. My cousin wanted to crash with us for a few days, so my dad’s making him help. I’m just being a bitch because you’re on vacation with your boyfriend and I’m moving a thousand copies of the
Journal of the Annals of the American Chemistry Society
. You know I’d do the same thing as you if I could.”

“I know,” Hannah mumbled.

“So how’s it going anyway?” Laurie went on. She was puffing a little. “How is it being with Colin all this time? Is it great? Is it weird? Did you tell him you love him yet?”

“It’s … great,” Hannah said, glancing at Colin. “More great than weird. And … no on the other thing. But things are going really, really well.”

Laurie squealed a little, and Hannah grinned.

“That’s so awesome,” Laurie said. “Is the house nice?”

Hannah licked her lips. “The house is … different. It takes a little getting used to. Oh, and there’s no electricity. I’m shocked there’s cell reception out this far—it’s pretty spotty.”

“Yeah, I was sure I wasn’t going to get you.” There was the sound of male voices in the background. Laurie said something indistinguishable to them and came back. “Look, the mover guys need me. Don’t worry about your mom—I’ve got your back if she calls.”

“Thank you, thank you,” Hannah told her. “You’re the best friend ever. Next time I escape anywhere, you’re coming with me.”

“Damn straight.” Laurie hung up.

Hannah clicked the phone closed in her fist and glanced over at Colin. A little silence filled the cab of the truck. Colin continued tapping his fingers on the wheel.

“So … you told Laurie it was going great.” He glanced at her, a little smile playing around the corners of his mouth.

“Well, I told her that because it’s true.” She reached over and squeezed his knee. “Even if things are kind of strange around here, it’s still amazing being away with you.”

Colin didn’t answer. Instead he leaned way over, and keeping one eye on the road, kissed Hannah quickly on the neck. A shiver tingled down her spine. “Drive a little faster, would you?” she murmured.

Scree!
The ancient bolt pulled back with a screech, flaking bits of rust onto the overgrown grass. Hannah peered over Colin’s shoulder into the blackness of the shed. A strong odor of damp wood and mold wafted out at them.

“Maybe you shouldn’t go in.” Hannah backed away. “What if there are bats?”

He rolled his eyes at her. “The door was bolted. How’re the bats going to get in?” He stepped over the threshold.

Hannah clutched his sleeve “It’s totally black in there,” she said. Suddenly she stopped. “Wait!” She clapped her hand to her pocket. “I can’t believe I didn’t remember this last night.” She dug in her jeans and pulled out a tiny flashlight at the end of her keychain.

Colin took the little purple object and turned it over a few times in his palm. “Thanks,” he said dryly. He shone the weak beam into the darkness, illuminating a stack of metal buckets and a pitchfork standing near the front.

It was on the ride home from town that Hannah had gotten the idea they should check out the old shed. Now though, as she scratched one of the many mosquito bites dotting her ankles, she thought maybe this hadn’t been such a great idea. “Colin, let’s just go for a walk—” she started to say but her words were cut off when Colin shook her hand off his arm and plunged into the shed.

“Colin!” she called into the blackness. “What’s in there?”

“Damn, it’s dark in here,” he yelled back. “This light isn’t worth shit.” Something metallic crashed over. “I think that was a bike.” Another crash. “Two bikes.”

He reappeared, cobwebs hanging from his hair, wheeling two rusty old bicycles. On one shoulder, a terrified spider perched after surviving the destruction of his home.

“Spider.” Hannah pointed. Colin brushed it away and wrestled the bikes over the threshold and onto the grass.

“Jesus, these are ancient.” The bikes were the upright kind, like something from the fifties. One rusty green and the other brown. The brown one also had a rotting wicker basket hanging limply from the front. As Hannah stood there, the basket suddenly broke from whatever tenuous strap had been holding it for the last sixty years or so and tumbled to the ground at her feet.

Colin and Hannah both looked at it, then at each other. “Hey, at least the tires have air,” Hannah said. “Let’s go for a bike ride.”

Colin shrugged. “It’s about time we took some pictures, right?”

“Whoa.” Hannah tried to steady the handlebars as her bike hit another rut, almost jolting her out of the seat. Her Pentax bounced on the strap slung diagonally across her chest. The front wheel wobbled. They’d turned off the road soon after leaving Pine House and for the last half hour had been bumping along on this overgrown footpath.

All around them, the piney woods clustered close. The only sounds were the constant rustling of the wind in the treetops, which kept making her think there was a waterfall somewhere nearby, and the occasional chirp of a cricket hidden in the thick carpet of pine needles that covered the forest floor. The woods stretched back and back, as far as Hannah could see. She shivered a little and pedaled faster toward Colin, who had dismounted from his bike up ahead and was replacing the rusty chain that had just fallen off for the fourth time. He grinned at her and stood up, wiping his greasy fingers on the back of his jeans. “My bike likes to test me,” he said, throwing his leg over the seat again.

“Good thing you were a bike mechanic in another life.” Hannah slowed and then followed as he took off once more, turning onto another path branching off to the right. This one was smooth with no ruts or weeds growing up the middle. It twisted and turned, winding through the forest like something out of a fairy tale. Hannah half expected to see Little Red Riding Hood appear, humming to herself and holding her basket for Grandma. The path turned sharply to the right and then left again. They dismounted at a small creek, almost dry, lifted their bikes over, and pedaled on. Numerous smaller paths branched off the larger
path. Hannah began to feel disoriented. The woods looked the same—straight pine trunks, little spiny bushes everywhere, brown pine needles.

“Um, Colin?” Hannah called out. “Are we going to be able to find our way back? There’s no markers or anything.”

Her boyfriend’s gray T-shirted back had already disappeared around the first bend. Hannah pedaled a little faster. “Colin!” she called again. The path was so twisty that she couldn’t see more than a few feet of it at a time. He had to be just up there. “Colin!” she yelled louder. There was no answer.

A touch of anxiety made her stand up on her pedals, pumping harder, when suddenly, the front of her wheel slew sharply to the right. She felt herself toppling forward over the handlebars and that helpless, falling feeling—knowing you’re going to hit the ground and that there’s nothing you can do about it. The bike clattered to the ground at the same moment that her face hit the dirt, skidding a few inches. A sharp pain shot through her cheek and then everything came to a stop.

Hannah lay still a moment, smelling the musty old leaf smell on the ground, then pushed herself upright with her arms just as Colin pedaled back toward her. He threw his bike to the ground and knelt down beside her. “Han, are you okay?”

She sat up shakily. He looked at her face. “You have a huge scrape on your cheek.” He reached out and touched it gently with the very tips of his fingers. “What happened?”

She lightly touched the abrasion that ran diagonally almost to her ear. “I don’t know.” Her voice still sounded a little trembly.
“I just slipped.” She felt like crying, actually, but that would be ridiculous, crying over falling down and a scrape, like she was five.

“It’s okay.” Colin leaned in toward her. He gently kissed the scrape, his fingers massaging the back of her neck at the same time. “Hey, is your camera okay?”

She’d forgotten about it. They both looked around and found it lying forlornly on the ground a few feet away, like a little animal with its feet in the air. Hannah hoisted herself to her feet and went over to retrieve it. A smear of dirt on the case was the only sign of damage. She slung it over her neck and shoulder again and grabbed her bike, pulling it upright. Her face stung but she ignored the pain. “Okay, let’s get going.”

“Okay.” Colin grinned at her and threw his leg over his bike too. Then he stopped suddenly. “Hey, look at that.”

“What?” Hannah turned, following his pointing finger.

There, behind several layers of branches, was a small clearing of overgrown grass. The sunlight shone stronger through the trees and there was something else—a flash of something large, like a structure.