Slide - Kyle Beachy [87]
“What do you want?”
“The big ones are your car and ten thousand dollars. Few other trifling items for posterity”
“The car's not in my name, and I don't have anything even close to ten thousand dollars.”
“Should start work on a list of people who might.”
Stuart and Marianne were momentarily put on display by the quick orange bloom of his lighter. My friend would not look at me. It occurred to me the darkness around us might have been less about mosquitoes and more about shielding me from the memories of this place, to render what was familiar foreign. I wasn't sure whether this was something he did to make this easier on me or something he did so I wouldn't feel compelled to stay very long.
“But it's still the pool house, isn't it?” I said, and reached down to remove my shoes and socks. I walked to the pool's edge and lifted off my shirt before falling into the black water. I let myself sink naturally, then maneuvered myself deeper until I reached the cement floor, where I searched blindly for Audrey's starfish, canvassing the pool's deep end with waving hands. My lungs began to ache. It was not here. Of course not. But how many legs did it have by now? Three still? Were there three when it came in the box? Did she have the other two? Had she kept one and given one to Carmel? I kicked to the surface and gasped for air.
Out of the pool, I stood dripping at the table. I held my shoes in one hand and my shirt in the other. Stuart's face was invisible, Marianne's slightly reddened behind burning cigarette, and Edsel's a dark mingling of hair and evil intent. It was as if he had split me open and shined a flashlight inside, then extricated that core of human sin we all spent lives working to contain.
“You and your filthy ogre shit. Your victorious filth and what have you got. You dick. You ogre dick piss shit cock suck. What's it all now? You fuck. You fucking fuck. Ass fuck you in the fucking mouth you shit.”
Marianne stood from the table and laid a long finger onto Stuart's shoulder. Together they stepped into the pool house without a word, while Edsel remained seated, comfortable in his certainty that nothing I did could ever cause him harm. Such dedication to personal ascent, such drive. Such dedication to himself, dominating. Amazing to think we were technically the same species. So terribly big.
It took an hour to retrace my route home. It would be several more before the sun came up, but I had no interest in opening the door and climbing those familiar stairs. I stood in the driveway looking at my car. Zoe's Jetta was missing, out for Friday night rampage of teen carelessness, throwing herself around like some rubber ball. Maybe parked somewhere with Jeff. Luke.
I drove to the Rocket Slide. I parked facing the playground and reclined my seat, breathed deeply until the grinding sound had subsided enough that I could fall asleep.
I woke to the screams of children. I sat and listened to their yelps, marveling at their agendaless play They circled in the gravel and scaled the structure, hollering at no set interval into the morning air.
Both of my elbows were covered in mosquito bites.
It was Saturday, a normal workday for the men and women who tended to the city's network of roads. They were likely out there already, wearing their orange vests and hats and collecting their generous hourly wage. What I lacked today in invoices and a map, I could make up for with the duties of a surrogate big brother. I unreclined my seat, turned the key to bring the car to life, and checked the clock. Yes. It was indeed a fine time to visit Ian.
I found him sitting on the concrete steps with a piece of paper held in both hands in front of him.
“Yesterday I was out here reading this book we're all supposed to read for school and a van pulled up and this man got out.”
“Did you