Half In Love With Death (10 page)

“Okay.” I tried to ignore the nervous fluttering in my chest.

Tony was waiting for me after school the next day. He'd even bought a bottle of hair dye.

“I have a Spanish test tomorrow, so I can't stay too long,” I warned him as I settled myself on the seat.

“Don't worry, you won't fail your test.” As he put his arm on the seat behind me, I smelled his lime cologne.

A few minutes later we pulled up in front of his parents' ranch-style house. On the way to the small guesthouse in back, we passed a pool with blue-green water as still as Jell-O. I almost tripped on a beer bottle someone had left on the yellow and black Mexican tiles that bordered it. I wondered if it was from one of Tony's parties.

“Watch it, hon.” He cupped my elbow, his touch so soft it startled me.

I gulped. The windows of the guesthouse were painted black. I'd never been this close to it before. Jess preferred it when Tony took her to the movies or out to eat on Speedway. She said she wasn't content to hang out in his house, like the other girls who liked him. He understood that to win a girl like her, a girl who was a cut above, he couldn't treat her like them.

Tony flashed me a smile. “I like my privacy.”

The purple beaded curtain rattled as he pushed it aside and led me into a big room with a kitchen at one end. It was even hotter in there than outside, the ceiling fan doing little good. Two girls were seated on a velvet couch, watching a television with a silk scarf dangling from one of the rabbit ears. A rug patterned with brown, yellow, and black lay on the red tiled floor. A stick of incense burning in a small brass Buddha filled the air with the scent of spice. Magazines and papers were scattered everywhere, but it was a beautiful kind of mess, so different from my boring, neatly arranged house.

One of the girls smiled at me. I gasped. She had pure white hair.

Tony went over to the small kitchen at other end of the room and talked to a tall guy wearing jeans and cowboy boots standing by the fridge. I stood in front of the fireplace, admiring a framed black-and-white photo of the desert on the mantel. The sand was rippled like water, bare except for some silver driftwood that was as smooth as bone. Someone had written, “My witness is the empty sky” on a cloud.

Next to the photo was a bottle of Johnnie Walker Black, the same kind of scotch my uncle Fred gave Dad for Christmas every year. I picked it up gingerly. A cigarette butt was floating in the half inch of liquid at the bottom. My fingers trembled at the thought that maybe this was the same bottle Jess had stuffed in her purse before she climbed out the window.

“Want some?”

I almost dropped the bottle. Tony had crept up behind me.

“No.” I put it back down.

“Have a seat.” He pointed toward a maroon easy chair. “Moose and I are going out by the pool to talk business. You girls get to know each other.”

I looked up at the big guy from the kitchen standing next to him. His head practically touched the ceiling fan and he had wide-set, bulging eyes, and straight brown hair that fell below his ears. He looked like a giant with a friendly smile.

“Business?” I said after they went outside.

The girl with the white hair pushed away her shaggy bangs, revealing large, brown eyes. “He sells pot.”

My mouth fell open.

She smiled. “So, how do ya know Tony?”

I ran my finger around a cigarette burn on the arm of the chair. “I'm Caroline, Jess's sister.” I waited for the inevitable silence then pity.

“I'm Edie.” I caught my breath. So this was the girl Jess was so angry about. Her white hair was long and stringy, and she was skinny, no figure at all. She didn't seem any older than I was. Her face was pretty except for a slightly bent nose and a faint scar by her mouth. She said, “I used to see Jess around here sometimes.”

The other girl turned to me. Her hair was as long as Edie's but it was brown and curly. Silver earrings dangled from her ears. “You look like her, but different. You don't have the attitude.”

Edie shot her a glance. “Cool it, Lizzie. You're talking about her sister.”

“That's okay. I know what Jess is like.” I fidgeted with the buckle of the rawhide belt I'd worn with my favorite jean skirt.

There was a loud splash. Edie looked at Lizzie and then said, “They must be swimming.”

“Saints be praised.” Lizzie twirled a curl around her finger. I raised my eyebrows.

Edie turned to me. “No one has used the pool since that party when your sister disappeared.”

A cold finger touched my heart. “Why not?”

Edie frowned. “Tony told us not to use it even if it's like a thousand degrees out.” Her eyes shone as she added, “He has a thing about water. He respects its power 'cause he almost drowned. He died, you know, and then he came back to life.”

I nodded.

Lizzie rolled her eyes. “Like Lazarus.”

Edie folded her arms across her chest. “It's true.”

Lizzie frowned. “Along with UFOs and the Easter Bunny.” She glanced at me. “If you're smart, you won't believe a word she says. Tony's just superstitious and doesn't want anyone to swim in his precious pool . . . .” She paused. “Until Jess comes back.” She looked at me intently. “But something must have changed.”

I froze. Could he be swimming because we really were going to find her, because we were a team now? I leaned forward. “Did you see Jess the night she disappeared?”

Edie and Lizzie looked at each other. Edie said, “I was at that party in the desert.” She continued in a hushed voice, “Jess picked a fight with Tony there. She was real mad.” She glanced around. “I probably shouldn't say this, but she was mad 'cause of me. Tony gave me a ring. I'll show you if you want.”

I felt like the wind had been knocked out of me. Tony had said Edie meant nothing to him. “Okay.”

While she was off looking for the ring, Lizzie said, “Edie makes a big deal out of everything, but she's not the first girl Tony has given a ring to. He probably gave one to Jess, right?”

“Right,” I said, though I had no idea.

“I'm probably the only girl on the planet Tony hasn't given a ring to, and you, of course.”

“Of course.”

Though Tony had never given her one, Lizzie had a silver ring on every finger. She pushed her long hair from her face. “I'd smoked a couple of joints the night of that party, so everything is like in a haze, but I do remember how mad your sister was. I think she was pissed 'cause of Edie. She and Tony really went at it, those two.”

I hugged my knees, trying to stay calm.

Lizzie went on, “I couldn't believe the things coming out of your sister's mouth that night. She was talking so fast, no one could get a word in. It was like she was on something. I'd never seen her so nervous.”

“What was she talking about?” I chewed on a nail. Jess wasn't the nervous type, but she'd been upset about something before she left that night.

“She might have called Tony a lying bastard. But I don't remember much else.” She shrugged.

“Did you see her leave in a red car?” My throat was so dry I coughed.

“Red car?” Lizzie looked puzzled. “She might have left with Tony and some of his friends, but I didn't actually
see
her go anywhere. I was too busy seeing little green Martians and conversing with the flowers, if you know what I mean.”

I had no idea what she meant. I read about drugs, but I'd never known anyone who took them. If Jess had, she'd never told me. I leaned closer to Lizzie. “Debbie said she left with a blond guy in a red car.”

She sighed. “She could have. I was so stoned; I was kind of on another planet.” She smiled.

Edie walked in holding a small white velvet box. She opened it, revealing a gold ring with a glittering green stone in it. “It's real.” She beamed at me.

Lizzie smirked. “Real. What does that mean? Everything is real, isn't it?”

Edie rolled her eyes. “Lizzie, the philosopher.” She placed the ring on my palm. “It's a real emerald, my favorite.”

“Really?” It looked about as genuine as the bracelet from the Emerald City that Dad had given Mom, but I told her it was pretty.

“Real pretty glass,” Lizzie said.

Edie glared at her. “Tony saved up his money for months for this.” She put it back in the white box. “I don't dare wear it 'cause I'll lose it. I lose everything.” She smiled, showing small pointy incisors that looked like fangs.

She put the box on the messy coffee table where I was pretty sure it would get lost and said, “Jess was livid when she heard about my ring.” Lizzie looked up and smirked again. Edie said, “She
was
mad about it. She even threatened Tony.”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

She spoke in a voice barely above a whisper. “She said if he didn't dump me she was going to tell something about him he didn't want anyone to know.”

I stepped closer. Could this be the thing that Jess hadn't wanted to talk to me about?

Lizzie raised her eyebrows. “I don't remember Jess saying that.” She turned to me. “Edie's a liar. Pathological. She can't help herself.”

With her skinny arms and big eyes, she didn't look like a pathological anything. As she started to say something else, the door opened and Tony came in with Moose.

Tony's jeans were soaked and he'd taken his shirt off. Though I tried not to look, I couldn't take my eyes off his thickly muscled arms, pale and glistening, his dark nipples, the thin line of hair going down the middle of his stomach. Moose put a six-pack on the table, sat down between Edie and Lizzie, draped an arm around each one, and said, “How're my ladies today?”

Edie wriggled away. “You're wet.”

Moose wrapped his arms around her waist. “Why don't you come skinny-dipping with me, and then we'll both be wet.”

“Let me go.” She shook him off, and reached for a beer. “You want some?”

I told her no.

“You don't have to share mine. You can have your own.” She smiled, showing those incisors again.

Moose handed me one. Tony winked at me. “Caroline's too young to drink.”

“Caroline? Jess's little sister?” Moose looked startled.

Tony smiled. “I'm gonna dye her hair blonde.”

Moose shook his head. “Tony's a regular hairdresser.”

Tony leaned down and whispered in my ear, “Don't listen to anything Moose says. His brain is fried. He's taken too many artificial substances, if you catch my drift.” Edie giggled and Tony said, “Come on, I need your help. Take Caroline to the bathroom while I put on some dry clothes.”

She glanced at Lizzie. “You want to help, too?”

“God, no.” She said to Tony, “When you're done, can you give me a ride home?”

“Sure thing, sugarplum.” He grinned. “Jesus, everybody wants me today.”

Edie, pathological liar, I thought as I followed her into a small bathroom with yellow and white tiles and a round shag rug that probably used to be yellow.

“Tony's an expert at dyeing hair,” she said. “He likes his girls to look a certain way. He did mine.” She draped a towel on my shoulders. Her hair was white as snow, except for the dark roots at the part. With her wide brown eyes, she looked like a creature from a fairy tale. Though it was wrong, the thought of being one of “his girls” gave me a thrill.

Tony came in a moment later. He told me to sit down on the toilet, went over to the small window on the opposite wall, and stared out. I could see the dusty sole of one of his boots as he tapped his toe on the tile, the edge of his wallet sticking out from the curve of his back pocket. I was so close to him I could smell his sweat mixed with cologne. Soon I'd be a blonde. I knew it shouldn't scare me, but it did.

“Don't worry.” He pivoted around and put a bottle of hair dye down on the edge of the sink. “You don't have to go as extreme as Edie did.”

“I don't like to do nothing halfway.” She smiled.

I started to get up, wishing to go home, but Tony put his hand on my shoulder. “Edie is a Marilyn Monroe type, but I see you as more the Jane Asher type.” He ran his finger along my cheekbone. I shivered. It was so strange. Jess had said the same thing. I sat back down.

“Relax. I got you Ivory Chiffon, just like you asked for.” Tony put on some rubber gloves.

“Jane Asher isn't a blonde,” Edie said.

“But she'd look better as one.” Tony winked at me, and squirted the dye onto my hair and massaged it in. His touch was strong but soothing as he pressed his fingers into my scalp. The stuff smelled noxious. I squeezed my eyes shut. Some dye ran down my forehead and I started to wipe it away, but Tony said, “Don't move.”

When he was through, Edie wrapped my hair up in the towel. Tony stepped back and looked at me. “Now all you gotta do is wait,” he said. He pulled off the rubber gloves and dropped them in the sink.

“You still need that ride?” Tony said to Lizzie, when we were back in the living room. She nodded. He placed his hands on my shoulders. “I'll be back soon. Edie will keep you company.” He glanced at her. “You girls can clean this place up while we're gone.”

“You're going to be so pretty when your hair is done,” she said when they'd left.

“I hope so.”

“This place is such a mess.” She began clearing things off the coffee table, including some
Playboy
magazines, like the ones Dad kept under his bed. I picked up an overflowing ashtray and followed her to the kitchen area. She filled the sink up with soapy water and put in some egg-encrusted dishes from the counter.

“I'll wash. You dry,” she said. “Tony's mom usually does this for him, but I like to help.” I smiled. I'd heard the stories about how Tony's mom cleaned and sometimes made drinks for his parties.