ALLUSIVE AFTERSHOCK (14 page)

He probably could. He
had that way about him, but I kept that piece of information to myself. I didn’t
even tell Max about how Court prevented me from being thrown and trampled by
Big Blue, or how he’d just saved me during the quake when the school roof
toppled down on top of us. Max harbored some resentment against Courtland Reese
and I was curious to find out what happened between them.

“That’s no reason to
hate someone.”

“We just don’t get
along. Ever since we were kids, he’s made me feel uncomfortable. Back in fourth
grade, he and I had a fistfight. He was big for his age and flattened me with
one punch, gave me a black eye. I didn’t even get a good solid punch in.”

“So you hate him
because he’s stronger than you are?”

“No. And he’s not. Not
anymore.”

I did wonder about
that. Court was still larger than Max, not only in height but … well … jeez.
Court was solid muscle. I’d noticed that when I helped him get back onto the
board, but bringing that up right now was not the best idea. Anyhow, trying to
figure out who was stronger seemed ludicrous. “What did you fight about?”

“Hell, I don’t
remember. I think I said something about his mother being a half-breed. I didn’t
know until later that she had died in a car accident that same day.” He shook
his head.

“Why didn’t you
apologize when you found out?”

“I don’t know. One
thing led to another. That’s not all of it.”

“Why would you call her
a half-breed anyway? I didn’t realize you were so prejudiced.”

“Look, I don’t have a
racist bone in my body. He made me mad. We’d found that stupid mutt and ...”

“Shiloh?”

“Whatever. It wouldn’t
listen to a thing I told it to do. Anyway, he told me I didn’t know the first
thing about handling a dog so I decided I’d show him how I handled stupid
people who thought they knew everything.” Max chuckled. “We were kids. I guess
I showed him, right?” He glanced at me. “That was a joke,” he added when I
didn’t laugh. “Ever since, we haven’t gotten along. Anyway, Adela, why do you
care how I feel about Courtland Reese? Do you like him?”

Now I did laugh. It was
easier since I didn’t quite know how to answer that question. I didn’t dislike
Courtland. I’d resented him for a while because my dad considered him an expert
and preferred his advice to mine when it came to Big Blue. I didn’t think
anyone could handle him better than me—until that morning last week after the
first earthquake. Big Blue really scared me and for a second I thought I was
going to land flat on my face and the horse I loved beyond almost anything was
going to hurt me unintentionally. Courtland handled Big Blue so easily,
soothing and calming my horse’s nerves. Blue had never taken to anyone besides me
and my dad. I had to admit, I was jealous of Courtland’s gift, but was also in
awe of the way he took the reins and led Blue around without telling me to get
down. When I thought back, I realized he wanted me to stay on so Blue could get
used to me again. I thought he was being mean, but he was actually helping me.

“Adela?”

“What?” I glanced up at
the sound of Max saying my name, his voice soft now, gentle, I’d almost think …
caring.

“You do like him, don’t
you?”

I thought about that. “You
mean, ‘like’ like? As in crushing on him? No. Don’t be absurd.” My throat
tightened at the possibility that I did.

“Well, if you want to
like him, go ahead. It doesn’t matter in the least to me.”

So there it was. I
stopped walking for a couple of seconds to process what Max said. If Max hated
Court so much, why didn’t it bother him if I “liked” him? God. I suddenly
wanted my mom. I’d never really been able to talk to her about my feelings for
Max, but she knew I cared for him in a way other than just as a friend. But the
thought of not ever being able to talk to my mom again about this or anything
else was almost too much too bear at the moment and it was much easier to think
about Max and whether or not I liked Court.

“Come on, we’d better
hurry. It’s almost dark.” Max grabbed my arm and tugged me forward.

The wind picked up,
blowing hard against us, making me shiver. If it got any stronger, some of
those fires would spread. We picked up our pace and I struggled to keep up with
Max’s long strides, especially carrying a large first aid kit. Max carried the gallon
of water, which was probably lighter, but there was no way I thought he would
carry the kit, knowing it was for Courtland.

Then I had another
puzzling thought about Max. Did Max mean he didn’t care if I liked Courtland as
a friend or in a different way? I guess I wanted him to care a little more than
he did. The possibility of never finding my mom and dad or my brother and
sister made me remember that Max might be the closest thing to family I had
left and the thought of him not caring how I felt about another guy made it
worse.

The thought occurred to
me that it was entirely possible Max and Adela left me down in the cellar to die,
but at least I was out of the sun. I was certain that if Max had his way they
would have, but I didn’t think Adela had it in her. She struck me as someone with
a great amount of empathy and awareness of the attitudes and feelings of others,
even when she tried to hide her sensitivity. Adela wasn’t hung up on
unimportant idiotic things such as make-up and flirting with all the guys like
so many of the girls at school were.

She would come back. At
least, I hoped she would.

Even if she didn’t, I
would be okay, except for the broken heart I’d have to suffer. My burns would
eventually heal as long as they continued to get the cool moisture they needed.
At the moment every movement I made aggravated the little nerve endings at the
burns making the pain almost unbearable. The tips of my fingers actually stung
like the prickles of tiny needles stabbing me continuously and that royally
sucked.

They closed the door
when they left and the light from the single candle wasn’t much, but I didn’t
need to see anything. It would be safer and really, why did I need light? I
wasn’t going anywhere. Conserving what little supplies we had was the smart
thing to do. I had to give Max that much, even if he was an idiot most of the
time.

Finally, the door to
the cellar creaked open and a little light filtered in. By the small amount, I
guessed it was getting pretty late in the day, but still light enough to see as
I propped myself up on my arms to greet whoever was coming. As it turned out, I
didn’t need to see at all as Max’s loud, irritating voice bellowed down the
stairs. As annoying as it was, I was relieved to hear it.

“Adela, what you do
with your life is up to you,” Max said.

“You know, I think you’re
being a bit childish about the whole situation.”

They reached the bottom
of the stairs, stopped their jibber-jabbering, and stared at me.

“I thought you would be
sleeping,” Adela said.

“Not a chance. You guys
are loud enough to wake the dead.”

“Sorry. How are your
burns?” she asked.

“They sting.”

Ignoring me completely,
Max walked to the shelves and lit some candles. I laid my head back down and
closed my eyes.

My eyes shot open. I
wouldn’t say I was alarmed or even excited. Intrigued, would be more apropos,
by the light touch of skin against my good hand. Adela’s beautiful golden brown
eyes stared down at mine. She sat close to me, reaching over my chest to take a
peek at the burns on the back of my hand and fingers. Her hair brushed lightly
across my face. I inhaled the faint sweet scent of strawberries that managed to
seep though the mixture of smoke and dust and I wanted to reach out and run my
fingers through the soft dark curls, something I’d dreamed of doing most of my
life.

She lifted the edge of
one of the strips of sheet and looked at the burns on my leg. “Those burns
don’t seem as bad as the ones on your hand.” Her eyebrows lowered and her
little nose wrinkled. She caught me staring at her and appeared to force a
smile, I guess to hide the concern I figured she had when she studied my
charred skin, more proof of the sensitivity to others she possessed. We pulled
my shoe and sock off and she frowned. “I don’t think there is much we can do
for the swelling in your ankle. We don’t have any ice, but we went to Cooper
Murdock’s place up the hill. He gave us a first aid kit.” She bent down and
picked up a blue box. A large red cross graced the top. “It has a book in it
about what to do for burns and sprains. I’ll take a look and see what it says.”

“Adela, believe me, you’ve
already done exactly what that book is going to tell you. Is there any gauze in
that kit?”

“Yes.”

“Okay, take the gauze
and cut some strips the same way you did with the sheet. Soak them with water
and replace the sheet strips with the clean gauze. Is there a tube of
antibiotic ointment of some sort in there?”

“Um … yeah.” She held
up a small tube to show me.

“Good. You can spread
some of that on too.”

“Okay.” She sat down on
the floor and crossed her legs, positioning the kit in front of her. She pulled
out the roll of gauze, and using the little scissors that someone was smart
enough to put in the kit, cut out one small strip and held it up to me. “Is
this a good size?”

I nodded and closed my
eyes as stabbing needles shot through the nerve endings in my hand making me
grunt in agony.

Adela rose to her knees
and looked at me. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah. The pain is
really getting to me.”

Max made some sort of
squawking noise on the other side of the room and I figured he was doing
something to make fun of me. Max hadn’t changed much over the years, except
instead of being just an idiot, now he was an immature idiot.

“Maybe these new wet
strips will help.”

One by one, she removed
the old pieces of sheet from my hand and fingers. She squeezed some of the
ointment over the burns and I had to commend her gentleness. She never tried to
spread the stuff, just let it sit there, careful not to touch the blisters. When
Adela finished applying the antibiotic, she placed cool, clean strips of gauze
over the area. She did the same to the small burn on my leg. The moisture
helped alleviate some of the torture but without some heavy-duty pain meds, I
would continue to suffer. She also placed a cool piece on my swelling ankle. I
flinched at the cold but it felt good.

“Adela.” My voice
sounded hoarse. “How were Cooper and his family?”

“Cooper is okay, but …
he lost his wife and baby girl during the quake. She was only a few days old.”

“Oh, that’s … that’s
awful. I … well, I’m sorry to hear that. Cooper’s a good guy. Where is he now?”

“He stayed at his
place. Most of his house was still standing. The quake destroyed the back of
the house where his wife and baby were. She was giving the baby a bath.” Adela
glanced away, wiped at the tear on her cheek, and sniffled. “Cooper gave us
another gallon of water and said he wanted to stay there and bury his family,
then he’s going to head out and scout around for other survivors.

“Oh, and he had a radio
and we listened to it.”

With my eyes closed, I
listened to Adela’s sweet voice relay every detail she’d heard on the radio as
she placed more wet strips over my burns.

“Here, I found these in
the kit.” I opened my eyes. Adela held a small little white plastic container.
“They’re ibuprofen. Not much of a pain killer but they might help a little.”
She opened the container and jiggled two into my hand.

“You must be a goddess
sent from heaven. Give me two more,” I said before she put the cap back on. The
fact she was pleasantly surprised became evident by the way she cocked her head
as one side of her lips curved up. The goddess remark was probably a bit too
much, but somehow, I wanted her to know how I felt without scaring her off
toward Max.

“Two more? Is that
safe? My mom …” she closed her eyes for a split second and continued, “my
mother told me never to take more than two at a time.”

“Four’s okay for me. I’m
bigger than you are. I’m pretty sure I can handle two more.”

Her slightly curved
lips turned into a full smile as she dumped two more little red pills into my
palm and my heart caught in my throat at the sight of her luscious mouth.
Oh,
how I wanted to kiss it, sure that the experience would alleviate all my pain.

She placed the cap back
on the pill container and handed a cup of water to me. I struggled to sit up
and she put her arm around my back to help. I popped the pills in my mouth and
drank some water, watching her over the rim of the cup as I sipped. Our eyes
held.

“Adela, come over
here.” Max’s loud obnoxious voice brought me back to reality and Adela slowly
took her arm away from my back and headed over to Max.

“What is it?” she asked,
sounding a little annoyed with him and I smiled hoping she was. I laid my head
down and stared at the ceiling, listening to their conversation.

“I found this old
radio. My dad must have put it down here.”

“Does it work?”

Max shrugged and turned
the power switch to on but nothing happened.

“I think it needs
batteries.” He turned the radio over and flipped open the little compartment on
the back. The two little AA batteries inside were rusty and corroded. He took
them out and grimaced.

“Search around on the
shelves for some batteries. Try those little plastic drawers on the shelf. I’ll
clean off the contacts,” Max said.

“Here, try this.” I
handed him a pencil with an eraser and his beetle-brow suggested he thought I
was either crazy or from Mars. If his eyebrows got any closer together, they’d
look like one big strip of light brown hair across his forehead.