The Last Stand of Daronwy (22 page)

“Who's doing this? You need to stop. You need to stop it right now.” The boys stood in a wide circle, hands shoved into the pockets of their jeans.

Everyone looked at the dirt where Jeremy had been stabbing it.

“He's right.” Loren said. “Who is doing this? Come on, fess up.”

No one spoke. Loren started calling people out. “Lee?”

“No, man, I haven't even been back here since… since Travis died. My mom won't let me back here anymore.”

“Johnny?”

Johnny held up his freckled hands. “No way, man. Why would anyone do this?”

“Marcus?”

He shook his head.

“Sy?”

Sy fixed his brother a sideways stare. “‘Course not.”

“Roland?”

“No, man. I'd make a trail, but I wouldn't do this. It's too much work, and there's no point,” Roland said.

Loren nodded toward the last boy, someone Jeremy had never seen before. “I know Cory's not, ‘cause he's my cousin and lives in Port Neches. So,” Loren fixed his eyes on Jeremy, “we aren't doing it.”

Jeremy stared up at him, planting his feet wide apart, ready to fight. “Well, who else comes back here but us?”

Loren thought a moment, then his eyes shone. “I don't know. But we're gonna find out. Each of us will take a day after school. Watch who comes in and leaves from here.”

“That's stupid. I told you my mom won't let me come back here anymore,” said Lee.

“You don't have to come back here to watch who comes out, dumb-butt. Jeremy, you watch tomorrow, I'll do Wednesday, Sy, you're Thursday, Roland, you're Friday.”

“We have a football game Friday, man.”

“Right.”

“I'll watch Friday,” said Marcus.

“All right. We'll all watch over the weekend and Lee, you'll take Monday. Y'all come tell me if you see anyone you don't know coming back here, okay?”

Nods went around the circle.

“Let's fill this in and go finish our game.”

Seven pairs of hands descended on the trench with sticks. In no time, the trench had disappeared and the trail looked as intact as it had always been. As they walked back to the field, Loren clapped Jeremy on the shoulder blade. Jeremy jumped, flinching. “Good job, little man. Do you want to play some football with us?”

Loren
asked
him to play? Jeremy blinked, but kept the grin off his face. “Sure.”

Chapter Twenty-Five

The tractor appeared Wednesday. Jeremy saw it from the bus and didn't even go inside to drop off his bag. He ran out to Twin Hills, Sy following. The giant hunk of blue metal was parked near the entrance to the bike trails, just off the street. Attached to the end of the beast was a giant mower on wheels the size of a lowboy trailer. The thing sat there resolute and cold, like a statue that smelled of fresh grease.

“What is it for?”

Jeremy pointed at a wide swath of undergrowth between two trees that had been reduced to sawdust. “That.”

Sy blinked. “What?” He looked from the small clear cut to Jeremy and back. “Are they going to cut it all down?”

“I don't know. Let's go check on the pond.”

They sprinted through the mostly-intact bike trails. “Wait!” Jeremy's arm shot out, catching Sy by the chest.

“Ugh,” Sy coughed. “What was that for?”

“Footprints!”

Large boot prints had stomped around their homemade dams on the half-filled-in trenches.

“There are two sets.” Simon pointed at them. “Look at the tread. It's different.” Simon put his hands on his hips. “Well, I don't see any new trenches.”

“No, but they certainly know that we're on to them now.”

“Yeah, but they don't know who we are.”

That was true, but not much consolation.

Returning to the bike trails, they passed the tractor again. “Let's go tell Loren.“

Jeremy followed Simon to his house. It was about the same size as Jeremy's, and the smell of roast beef hung in the air. Sy called to his mom, dropped his backpack, and went into the living room where Loren was in the middle of a game of
Space Invaders
. He glanced up at them. “Hey, Sy. Hey, Jeremy.”

“There's a tractor in Twin Hills and it's cutting down the trees near the bike trails,” Sy said.

Loren's head jerked back to them. “What?” A Space Invader sizzled Loren's ship. “Are you serious?”

“Yeah.”

“Impossible. I didn't see anything today.”

“Come look.”

Loren looked back at the game for a second, sighed, switched off the Atari, and went to find his shoes. When he had them, they led him out to the tractor. He cussed a little, then walked around it with his hands in his back pockets.

“Well,” he said at last, “I'm going to let it get a little darker before I take care of this.”

“What are you gonna do?” Jeremy whispered.

“What?”

“What are you gonna do?” Jeremy repeated, full volume.

Loren's eyes narrowed, looking at Jeremy like he was an idiot. “I'm going to make damn sure that this piece of shit tractor doesn't start tomorrow. That's what I'm gonna do.”

“What if they catch you?”

“Ain't nobody gonna catch me unless you tell them about it. You gonna tell somebody about it?”

“No.”

“Good. Did they dig any more trenches?”

“No,” said Sy.

A piercing
shooo-wheet
whistle cut through the cool air. “That's my dad. I gotta go,” said Jeremy.

“K, don't worry about this tractor. I'll take care of it.”

Whatever Loren did to the tractor worked. The giant blue beast did not move from its spot until Friday, when it disappeared. Jeremy's dreams were filled with the grim faces of the men that owned the tractor chasing him through Twin Hills, bent on catching him for what Loren had done. Saturday afternoon, Jeremy convinced Daniel to patrol through Twin Hills with him. A storm gathered its strength in the dark sky above them. The temperature dropped with each gust of wind, pushing the smell of burnt ozone before it.

Daniel followed Jeremy, hands in his pockets, shoulders hunched against the wind. “Can we play now?”

Jeremy shivered through his coat. “First we have to make sure they didn't start any new trenches. I'm glad they didn't bring that tractor back.”

The pond was undisturbed. “There aren't any trenches,” Daniel mumbled from inside his coat. The wind whistled through the trees. “Can we go now?”

“We need to check the back side of the pond. They may have dug a trench there because no one's looking back there.”

“Jeremy! They'd have to dig through the tar pit. Come on, it's cold.”

Big droplets of rain dappled the surface of the pond, disturbing the eternal competition of algae and rainbow oil slicks for space atop the black water. Jeremy looked up, letting the giant drops splash cold against his face. Water would help keep the pond full, and if it rained enough…

He smiled.

“It's starting to rain. We should go.”

“It's beautiful!” Jeremy extended his arms, spun about in place. The rain felt like icy needles.

“You're crazy, and there aren't any trenches. Let's go back to your house.”

“You don't understand. They won't be able to bring the tractor back if it's too muddy, it will get stuck. This is awesome!”

Daniel sighed, staring at Jeremy from the top of his eyes as the oversized drops exploded into the pond. Thunder exploded overhead, making both of them jump. Rain swept toward them in a gray curtain from the opposite side of the pond.

“Run!”

Chapter Twenty-Six

A week later, the blue tractor reappeared alongside a larger green one. Jeremy found Simon after school working with a shovel to fill in a trench three feet across and two feet deep. Water still leaked through the massive earthen bulwark that Sy was building. Jeremy went to the Trash Clearing and returned with a piece of a washing machine.

Jeremy tried hammering that into the ground behind the bulwark, and quickly succeeded in breaking his stick over the gnarled edge of the rusted metal panel.

“Here, let me help.” Simon hammered it in with the blade of his shovel. It stopped the flow of water.

“Thanks.” Jeremy pushed more dirt to strengthen the bulwark while Simon filled in the gaping maw of the trench.

“How do they make these things?”

“I don't know.”

“It doesn't look like those tractors have been back here. There aren't any tire tracks in the dirt.”

“Yeah.” Sy leaned on his shovel, glanced up at the sun. “It's getting dark. You should probably start on the other one.”

“Other one?” Jeremy sighed, shoulders hunching.

“Over there.”

It wasn't as wide as the first one, but it was deeper. “Ugh. How many are there?”

“Just these two today.”

Jeremy attacked the dirt with his stick, collapsing the sides of the trench and working to fill it in. He imagined that each bit of dirt he knocked free was one of the people doing this to Twin Hills; every single one of them. The stick cut into his hands, but he kept working. He heard his parents call. He heard Simon's parents call. Simon joined him and they stabbed at the dirt, collapsing the ditch on itself and jumping on it to tamp it down. Long shadows covered the trail when they had finished. “I gotta go,” said Jeremy.

“Wait!”

“What?”

“We should set a trap for them.”

“Huh?”

“Here.” Sy threw Jeremy a roll of fifteen pound fishing line and went to tie the other end across the narrow opening where the bike trails joined the Twin Hills trail that circled the pond.

“This is just going to catch us, Sy.”

“No, we'll tell everyone about it. We have to make these people realize they ain't gonna mess up Twin Hills anymore.”

Jeremy shrugged and pulled his end taut, tying it about six inches off the ground to a young bush. Jeremy's dad whistled again. “Hurry! I have to go!”

“Wait,” Sy breathed, tying his end.

Sy stashed his shovel behind Roland's house, and together they bolted across the empty lot and into their respective yards. Jeremy's dad stood in the driveway with his arms crossed. Sy safely disappeared into his own house while Jeremy withered under his father's glare. He said, “Where you been? I done called you twice.”

“Sorry, I didn't hear it.”

“Come on, supper's cold.”

Through dinner, Simon's phrase, “Just these two today,” rang in Jeremy's head. They needed more people. If they had more people, they could set more traps, fill in the trenches faster, and maybe find some way to prevent them from making the trenches in the first place. Daniel was an obvious choice. Would Mira help? It was doubtful, but he could ask her. What of the other boys, the football players? Lee couldn't be relied on. Marcus lived at the other end of the street, and Jeremy didn't see him much. Loren and Roland spent most of their time at football practice. Jeremy sighed, pushing green beans around his plate.

“What's wrong?”

He glanced up at his mom, who was already filling the dishwasher. “Somebody is destroying Twin Hills.”

“Who would do such a thing?”

Jeremy shrugged. “I don't know. I have to stop them. It's not right.” He stood and scraped the food into the trash. He wasn't hungry.

“Well, if it's their land… ”

“It's not! It's ours.”

She nodded, rinsing a green bowl and setting it into the open maw of the dishwasher. “Have you done your homework yet?”

Jeremy rolled his eyes. Why didn't they ever get it? “No, ma'am.” He set his empty plate next to the sink. They didn't understand what was important. School and homework were eight thousand ton lead chains on his legs. He would never be free of them. Twin Hills held the key to those shackles. Twin Hills could set him free. And someone was tearing it down. Why didn't anyone get it?

The gaggle of girls walked through the halls, changing shape like a giggling amoeba. Something was said that made Mira's chin tuck into her chest. Her eyes squinted, her arms crossed, and she dropped out of the amoeba, stationing herself against the wall. The girls didn't seem to notice and kept giggling on down the hall. Josh had not gotten to school yet, so this was Jeremy's one chance. Jeremy put down the book he was pretending to read and crossed the hall to her.

“Mira.”

She glanced up, as though startled out of her thoughts. Her lips broke into a smile. “Hey, Jeremy, what's up?”

In the light of that smile, the words in his mind ran into each other like a pile of bumper cars. “I… I… um.” He swallowed. “I haven't seen you at home much.”

“I've been doing a lot of dancing and gymnastics. I'm going to try out for cheerleading next year.”

“Awesome!” He glanced up and down the hall; still no sign of Josh. “I was wondering, have you seen the tractors in Twin Hills?”

She cocked her head. “There are tractors in Twin Hills?”

“Yeah, they're kind of hidden right now by the trees behind Roland's house, but they've been there since yesterday. I think someone is trying to cut down Twin Hills.”

“No way.”

“Yeah.”

“Why?”

“I don't know. But we have to stop them.”

“Who?”

Jeremy shrugged. “Me, Daniel, Sy, Loren, Roland, Marcus, even Lee.”

“No, who's cutting down Twin Hills?”

“I don't know. I just know we need more help. There's a lot to do.”

“What are you doing?”

“Well, they're trying to drain the pond in the middle of Twin Hills. They're digging these trenches to drain it, and we have to keep filling them in. Loren and Sy and I are also setting traps, and Loren did something to one of the tractors, but I think they fixed it.” He stopped, gulping air. “We just need you to help us fill in the ditches. There is so little time when we get home and we have to be in by dark and we don't know if we ever find them all.” He entwined his fingers together to try to stop babbling. “We just need everybody's help.”

“I can try, but I don't really get home until after dark these days, with dance and gymnastics. Maybe on Saturday, if you show me what's going on?”

“Okay—”

A paw clamped on Jeremy's shoulder and the hallway spun. His jaw erupted in pain and he staggered backwards, windmilling his arms. Someone screamed. Jeremy lost balance and crashed to the floor, when his eyes focused, he could see Josh storming toward him, fists clenched.

“I told you!” Josh said, “I told you to stay away from her!”

Jeremy's foot was tangled in someone's backpack strap. He scrambled to his feet as Josh grabbed his shoulders and slammed him into the wall. Jeremy saw Josh's fist and tried to throw his hands up, but Josh's knuckles crushed into his temple. Jeremy's head snapped back against the wall behind him, and the hallway blurred into strands of color. Shouts faded into a muffled roar like ocean waves. Pain split through his left side. His legs went mushy. Hands covering his head, he fell, curling on the floor.

Someone hauled him to his feet and marched him toward the principal's office. Halfway there, the hands on his shoulders steered him into the nurse's. The teacher and the nurse talked.

The nurse waved her hand in front of his face. “Jeremy, Jeremy pay attention, can you hear me?”

“Yes, ma'am.” He blinked up at her. The paper-covered doctor's office bed crackled beneath him when he moved. How did he get onto this bed?

“What were you doing?” she asked.

“Nothing. I was just talking to my friend Mira.”

“Uh-huh.”

She wiped away the blood from the cut under his eye. “I think you'll have a black eye. Are your teeth all right? Say ‘ahh.'”

“Ahh… I wasn't doing anything wrong, I promise.” Tears welled up at the corners of his eyes.

“I know you weren't, sweetie. This is going to sting a bit.”

She wiped hydrogen peroxide on the cut under his eye, and Jeremy cried out.

“Did he hit you anywhere else?”

“I think my shoulder, but it doesn't hurt nearly as bad.”

“Take off your shirt so I can see.” She looked over his arm, and his back where he'd landed on the backpacks. “Yeah, you'll have a couple of bruises, but you'll be all right. Do you feel nauseated—like you're going to throw up?”

Jeremy shook his head.

“Put your shirt back on. You can rest there until Principal Boudreaux sends for you, but don't go to sleep.”

Jeremy lay back on the paper-covered bed, hating the way it crackled beneath him, and shivered with sudden fear. “I don't have to get a shot, do I?”

The nurse stifled a laugh. “No, I think Josh has all his shots.”

Relieved, he stared out the top of the window into the infinite blue of the sky. Clear days were rare in October. He wondered what was happening in Twin Hills right now. Were the tractors running? Were they sitting idle? What would the principal say to him? More importantly, what would Mom and Dad say?

He wished he could fall up into that sky and come down in some better place, some place without school, some place without Josh. He didn't realize he had accidentally drifted to sleep until they woke him to take him to the office.

“Josh said that you hit him first,” said Principal Boudreaux.

“What? No, sir! I was talking to Mira and then he came up out of nowhere and hit me. And I fell down and then he came after me. I didn't do anything wrong.” Now the tears that had been in the corners of his eyes did fall, and he wanted to curl up and disappear to some other world. Maybe if he just closed his eyes tight, this entire life would disappear like some bad dream and he could wake up somewhere else.

Principal Boudreaux ran a hand through his brown hair. “I don't believe Josh. I think that you're telling the truth. I can let you go back to class, or I can call your parents and have them come get you. Josh will be gone for a couple of days, but when he comes back, you need to stay clear of him, do you understand me?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Do you want to go home?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Jeremy?”

“Yes, sir?”

“Next time, keep your hands up.”

Keep his hands up? What? “Yes, sir.”