Close Out (2 page)

“I think you and I should have a talk,” Kai said.

“I said everything I got to say to you,” Sam taunted.

“Then maybe you should shut up and listen,” Kai said. He felt the hands on his arms tighten again. Sam bristled.

“If you want to fight, just tell me when and where and I'll be there,” Kai said. “It's that simple, okay? But in the meantime, you have to stop calling me these dumb-ass names. This isn't kindergarten, dude. You have to grow up.”

It was so quiet you could hear the scratching of the small brown sparrows who snuck under the tables and pecked at crumbs. Sam's face was red. Kai could see the guy's pulse throb under the black barbwire tattoo around his neck.

“Well?” Kai said.

“Fuck you.” Sam turned away and headed toward another table.

The tension on the terrace slowly evaporated like an early-morning fog under the rays of a rising sun. People at other tables began to talk again. Kai's friends sat down. The sparrows hopped away and flew out of reach. Sam had gone, but Lucas remained standing near the
table. He kept looking at Everett as if he couldn't understand why one of his brahs was sitting with Kai and his friends.

Lucas held up the orange handout announcing the Northeast Championship. “What about this?”

“I don't know,” Kai said. “Just found out about it.”

“Yeah, yeah,” said Sam, who'd stopped between two tables a short distance away. “We've heard that one before. You gotta think about it. You always gotta think about everything. I never saw anyone who spent so much time thinking.”

“Maybe I'm setting an example for you, Sam,” Kai said. “You might want to try it one of these days.”

The people around them chuckled. Sam clenched his teeth in angry frustration and stomped away.

“This is as big as it gets around here,” Lucas said, gesturing to the handout. “You do well in the regional championship and you might qualify for the nationals. Then invitations start coming in. Florida, California, Hawaii. Just think, dude. This could be your ticket back home.”

“Could be,” Kai allowed.

“Bet
that's
something worth thinking about,” Lucas said. He turned to Everett and motioned to another picnic table where Sam and Derek were now sitting, eating their sandwiches and fries. “Come on, dude, we're sitting over there.”

Everett didn't budge. The lines between Lucas's eyes narrowed. Everett was one of his crew, and this was a serious breach. Kai caught Everett's eye and motioned that he'd understand if Everett decided to join his brahs. But Everett merely picked up a french fry and bit it in half. He looked up at Lucas. The gaze Lucas returned was hard, as if he was trying to stare the guy down. Everett didn't blink.

“Thanks, but I think I'll hang here today,” he said.

Lucas's forehead bunched ever so slightly. Then he turned toward the table where Derek and Sam were sitting. For a moment, no one at Kai's table said a word.

Kai flattened the orange handout on the table. “What do you guys think?”

“There's no bodyboard competition,” Booger said. “Otherwise I'd do it. What would I have to lose?”

“What about the long board competition?” Shauna asked Bean.

“Sure, why not?” Bean said.

Kai turned to Everett. “What about you?”

Everett shook his head. “There's no point for me. I've never been into hard turns and slash-and-bash. Everyone knows that's how the judges score. I wouldn't make it past the first heat. But you … Based on how you did at Fairport, you could be a real contender.”

“I just don't know if that's what I want to be,” Kai said.

“There's time to decide,” Bean said.

At the mention of time, Shauna checked her watch. “Break's almost over. I have to get back to work.”

“Me too.” Everett started to get up.

“Where do you work?” Kai asked.

“Blockbuster,” Everett said.

“Hey, that's where I'm headed,” Booger said. “I'll go with you.”

Suddenly the only ones left at the table were Bean and Kai.

“Guess it's time for us to go,” Kai said.

Bean leaned close and spoke in a low voice. “It's breaking the law, you know.”

“How's that?” Kai asked.

“I'm not exactly sure,” Bean said. “I just have a feeling. There's still time for you to change your mind about this.”

Kai slowly shook his head. “I already told you, Bean, this is something I have to do. But there's time for you to change
your
mind.”

“Do you want me to change my mind?” Bean asked.

“No.”

Bean sighed and heaved himself up from the bench. “Then come on, let's get it over with.”

T
he meeting place was the parking lot of a large, red barnlike club called 88s located on Seaside Drive about halfway between Sun Haven and Belle Harbor. The big white sign with black letters announced
LIVE MUSIC NIGHTLY
.

Bean pulled the hearse into the parking lot and shut off the engine. The sun was low in the western sky, but had not yet begun to turn the orange of sunset. There was probably an hour of light left. Except for a few cars, the club's parking lot was empty.

“He's not here,” Bean said, craning his neck and looking around.

“He'll come,” said Kai.

Bean slumped in his seat and leaned his head against the headrest. “You know, it's weird, Kai. I've lived in this town all my life and it's pretty much always been the same. The cool locals have always owned Screamers. The rest of us have been stuck with Sewers. Guys like Buzzy Frank have ruled this town, and Curtis has always been a thorn in their sides. Every summer Spazzy would come down and watch us, but no one ever talked to him. That's just the way things have always been. Nothing ever changed. Then you show up and everything changes.”

“For the better, I hope,” Kai said.

“I hope so too,” Bean said as a familiar-looking red Jeep pulled into the parking lot. “But at this particular moment I have serious doubts.”

The Jeep pulled next to the hearse. Goldilocks, the guy with the long bleached-blond dreadlocks, waved at them to join him.

“Here we go.” Kai reached for the door handle.

“Whoopee-do,” Bean grumbled.

They got out of the hearse and walked over to the Jeep.

“Get in,” Goldilocks said.

Bean reached for the back to climb in, but Kai got there first and gave him a look as if he wanted Bean to sit in the front. Bean frowned, but did it. Goldilocks pulled the Jeep out of the parking lot and got on Seaside Drive heading toward Belle Harbor. Kai felt the wind on his face as the Jeep cruised down the road.

“So you guys like to surf, huh?” Goldilocks asked over the wind noise.

“Yeah,” Kai answered. “How about you?”

“I do a little surfing, but I'm more of a collector and trader,” Goldilocks answered. He slowed the Jeep down and then made a left off Seaside Drive onto a narrower, paved road. The road formed a boundary between a forest of oak and pine to the right, and a wide field of grass on the left. Kai thought it must have been a sod farm. Goldilocks pulled the Jeep onto the shoulder of the road. Kai and Bean watched silently while he reached into a glove compartment and pulled out two blue bandannas.

“Around your eyes, dudes.” Goldilocks handed the bandannas to Bean and Kai.

“We going to your secret spot?” Kai asked.

“Just put them on,” Goldilocks said.

Kai and Bean pulled the bandannas over their eyes and tied them in the back. When the
Jeep lurched back onto the road, it caught Kai by surprise, and he quickly grabbed for a handhold and started to count silently.

After a while Kai felt the Jeep slow down and make a right turn. The ride became a lot bumpier and the Jeep lurched and rattled loudly. Kai was pretty sure they were on a dirt road. He started counting again, and stopped when they slowed and made a left. Then he started once again. This part of the ride was even bumpier, and with his eyes covered by the bandanna Kai began to feel woozy with each unexpected bounce and drop.

Finally the Jeep stopped.

“Okay, take 'em off,” Goldilocks said.

Kai pulled the bandanna off. They were deep in the woods. The spaces between the trees were thick with brush. It seemed to Kai that they were in a place where few people generally ventured. It was quiet. As dusk approached, the air was still and the sunlight was beginning to drain away.

Without a word Goldilocks started into the woods. Kai and Bean followed. At first Kai couldn't tell where they were headed, but then he saw a small green wooden shed with a sagging roof, nestled in the trees.

Goldilocks stopped and pulled some keys out of his pocket. The old wooden doors were held together with a locked latch, which he released, allowing the doors to swing open.

Except for the thin bars of light that seeped in through cracks and gaps in the walls, it was dark inside the shed. There was barely enough light for Kai to see that the dozen or so surfboards lying on their rails inside were almost certainly the same ones he'd first seen in Curtis's shed a few months before. He recognized the light blue Bruce Jones, the plain off-white Rusty, and the custom boards that appeared to have no markings whatsoever.

Kai stepped closer and carefully leaned one of the plain custom boards back so that he could see the stringer. There were the letters
TL
and #174. The board next to it was #239. So all these years Curtis had been collecting Teddy's boards. Somehow Kai wasn't surprised.

“What do you think?” Goldilocks said.

“These things are beautiful,” Kai said. “So you just collected them over the years?”

“Sort of, yeah,” Goldilocks said.

“Where's the good breaks around here?” Kai asked innocently.

“What do you mean, breaks?” Goldilocks asked.

Kai shot Bean a quick look. What kind of surfer didn't know what a break was?

“I meant, where do you surf around here?” Kai asked.

“Oh, you know, up and down the beach.”

Kai ran his fingers down the rail of the Bruce Jones board as if he was admiring it. “They got a surf shop in Belle Harbor?”

“Naw, most people go over to that place in Sun Haven,” Goldilocks said.

“Sun Haven Surf?” Kai pretended to act surprised.

“Yeah, that's it.”

Kai spoke to Bean. “You know who'd love to take a look at these boards? Buzzy.”

Goldilocks didn't react.

“You know Buzzy?” Kai asked him.

Goldilocks shook his head. Either the guy was a really good actor, or Kai's hunch that Buzzy Frank was somehow involved in the theft of Curtis's boards was going down the toilet fast. It was Bean who came to his rescue.

“Know who else would love to get his hands on these?” he said. “Big Dave McAllister.”

“The guy who runs the board room?” Kai
said, watching Goldilocks out of the corner of his eye.

“Yeah.”

This time Kai caught the flicker in Goldilocks's eye. If you weren't looking for it, you might not have noticed. But there was no missing the abrupt change in the guy's attitude.

“So look, what's the story here?” he asked, suddenly impatient. “Are we gonna make a deal? You gonna buy a board or what?”

“Know what I'd really like to do?” Kai said. “I'd really like to get Big Dave over here to see these things. He'd know what they were worth.”

“Hey, screw Big Dave, okay?” Goldilocks snarled. “You guys surf. You don't need him to know what a good board looks like. And he'd say the same thing.”

Kai pretended to be confused. “You know Big Dave?”

“Uh … No, never heard of him,” Goldilocks said. “So what's the deal? You want a board or not?”

“Do I want one?” Kai repeated. “Sure. But I don't know what they're worth, so how do I know what to pay?”

“How much money do you have?” Goldilocks asked.

“Man, these are nice boards,” Kai said. “I'm sure I don't have enough.”

“How much?” Goldilocks pressed.

Kai felt himself being backed into a corner. “I don't know.”

“You don't know how much money you have?”

“Well, I … I didn't really bring any,” Kai said.

Goldilocks turned to Bean. “You're the one with the money?”

“Forty or fifty bucks,” Bean answered.

“What the fuck?” Goldilocks sputtered. “You guys came here to look at these boards, but you didn't bring enough money to buy one? So why'd you come?”

Kai shot Bean a look, as if he desperately needed help with an answer.

“Hey, don't look at him,” Goldilocks said. “What's going on here? What do you guys want?”

“Boards,” Bean said in a quavering voice.

“For forty or fifty bucks?” Goldilocks said. “You knew that wasn't enough.”

“I … I was scared,” Bean said.

Goldilocks frowned. “Of what?”

“That you were gonna rip us off,” Bean said.

“Like how did we know this wasn't a scam?” Kai asked, following Bean's lead. “Maybe you were gonna take us all the way out here into the woods and rob us.”

Strangely, this admission helped calm Goldilocks down. “I gotcha. So I'd bring you out here, take your money and leave you.” He seemed to like the idea that Kai and Bean thought he was a badass dude. “So now what? We go back to your car, right? Because that's where you left the money?”

Kai and Bean glanced at each other. They both shook their heads.

“The money's not in the car?” Goldilocks asked, confused.

“What would have stopped you from taking us back to the car and robbing us there?” Kai asked.

Instead of answering, Goldilocks pulled the shed doors closed and relocked the latch. “Okay, let's go.”